Patrick Beverley appeared on social media star Neon’s stream recently where he took a bit of a shot at Paul George. When Neon called George a great player, Beverley suggested that was too strong a word to describe the Philadelphia 76ers star.
Neon: “Paul George is cool but he’s only averaging 16 a game right now, though.
Patrick Beverley: “Yeah, he’s struggling.”
Neon: “Yeah, man. But he’s great, though. Unguardable.”
Beverley: “Great is a strong word.”
Neon: “Okay.”
Beverley: “He’s good.”
Neon: “He’s above mid right now.”
Beverley: “Yeah.”
Neon: “My favorite player is James Harden.”
Beverley: “He’s great.”
Neon: “Paul George is cool but he’s only averaging 16 PPG right now… But he’s great… Unguardable.”
Pat Bev: “Great is a strong word.”
Neon: “My favorite player’s James Harden.”
Pat: “He’s great.”
(h/t @clipfullyloaded)pic.twitter.com/O4vZvYLgIF
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 23, 2024
Paul George’s name was originally brought up because Beverley revealed he was playing in his shoes and the topic of George continued. So, it’s not like he doesn’t have any respect for his former Los Angeles Clippers teammate, but he does not consider him to be a great player. A lot of people might agree with him too.
George is someone who is somewhere between good and great. He has impressive career averages of 20.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game. He has also made nine All-Star teams, six All-NBA teams, and four All-Defensive teams, so it would be unfair to call him just a good player.
At the same time, George has come up short repeatedly in the postseason in his career. You can’t be called a great player when you have failed as often as he has in the playoffs.
Of course, the same logic could apply to Harden as well with his long history of postseason failures. He has, however, accomplished more than George, by winning an MVP and three scoring titles, which gives him a stronger case to be called a great player.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Beverley has spoken far more glowingly about Harden than George. During an episode of the Pat Bev Podcast with Rone, the guard was asked who gave him the best passes as a shooter and stated that Harden was the best while George was the worst.
“James Harden, not even close,” Beverley said. “But Paul George is the worst. The basketball, they have lines on them right, usually guys like to line the ball up, they like to put you know how you’re taught. Put fingertip on black on the line and you just release it.
“With James Harden, you never had to fix the laces,” Beverley added. “They came already fixed… But with Paul George, he throw that motherf**ker, you don’t know fast it is. It looks slow, but you catch it fast, and it’s spinning the other way, so you got to catch it with a guy closing out on you. You gotta fix it, fix it again, then shoot it.”
George himself would admit that Harden is a far better passer than him. The latter has led the league in assists twice in his career and is one of the finest playmakers of his generation. George wouldn’t have taken much offense to this comment but he might be a bit upset about Beverley making it clear he doesn’t consider him a great player.
Patrick Beverley Named Russell Westbrook As The Hardest Player To Guard
Beverley made quite a few interesting comments on Neon’s stream. At one point, he was asked about who was the hardest player for him to guard, and went with Russell Westbrook.
“So, Russ was hard,” Beverley said. “… He was hard to guard because he’s a very intelligent basketball player, he don’t get a lot of credit for that. So Russ knows what type of weaknesses that the other defender has. If you’re too small, he’s gonna post you. If you’re too tall, he’s gonna use his quickness.”
You’d have expected Stephen Curry to be the answer here with all their battles but Beverley found Westbrook even harder to guard. There is no denying that he was a nightmare to deal with for defenders at his best. Westbrook was too fast and too strong for most of them and appears to have given Beverley some sleepless nights too.
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