Take A Penny Day 2024 is on Friday, August 2, 2024: Was Penny Hardaway overrated back in the day

Friday, August 2, 2024 is Take A Penny Day 2024. The Penny Principle - One Particular Harbour The Penny Principal Day 30

I've always liked Penny but he was no Jordan- didn't have the scoring ability or defense to rival Jordan; he was a very good passer though- best suited as a second option (which he was incidentally under Shaq) since he wasn't a prolific scorer and didn't get to the free throw line all that much ( about 5.5 times a game in the years he was healthy- compare that to Jordan consistently getting to the line 9+ times).

Looking at true shooting % (which combines free throws, threes, and regular field goals in a more accurate statistic), Penny was pretty efficient, but not as efficient as Jordan- mainly because he was a worse free throw shooter and three point shooter.

As for Penny compared to Magic- his playing style was definitely more like Magic, but he wasn't as good a passer, didn't push the pace like Magic or make his teammates better to the same degree Magic did, and didn't create the same matchup problems for the other team that Magic routinely created (because Penny was 2 inches shorter, and a lot lighter in terms of weight).

So, I wouldn't call Penny overrated- he had some terrific playoff runs/statistics, but he should never be compared to Jordan or Magic, two players who were clearly way beyond him.

As for Penny vs. Wade- that's interesting.

Let's compare Penny's best season (when he was fully healthy) in the 95-96 season to Wade's best season- the 05-06 season.

Incidentally, both players were the same ages when they have their best seasons: 24 years old.

So, here goes:

They both played the same amount of minutes (Penny about 37 min, Wade 38 min).

Wade was the better scorer- he averaged 27 points while Penny averaged 22 points; Penny was more efficient than Wade though (he had a TS% of 0.605 compared to Wade's 0.577)- but at the same time, Penny had the benefit of playing with a Shaq that was much better and therefore drew more defensive attention-

In other words, Penny was the 2nd option on his team while Wade was the 1st option (which meant more defensive focus from other teams on Wade).

In terms of passing, both players were roughly equal at their best- Wade had a minimally higher assist % and a little lower turnover %: nothing large enough to make a conclusion.

However, the advantage goes to Wade- he had a usage rate (the amount of plays a team runs for a player while they are on the floor per 100 possessions) of 33 while Penny had a usage rate of 25- this basically means that though Wade had the ball in his hands for a significantly greater amount of time, the two players were still roughly even in terms of turnovers- thus Wade was more efficient with the ball in his hands.

What made Wade so much more compelling as a first option on a team was his ability to get to the free throw line- he got the line about 11 times a game and made 9 of them (78%).

Penny on the other hand got to the line about 7 times a game and made 5.5 of them a game (77% from the free throw line).

So, despite their similar free throw percentages, Wade's ability to attack the hoop and essentially get his team "free" points cannot be underestimated- when his offense is struggling he can just relentlessly attack the hoop and get the the free throw line- something Penny could also do but to a far lesser degree (he made about 4 less free throws than Wade a game).

To add, Wade was also a better rebounder (higher rebound % and more rebounds per game)

Defensively, they are pretty similar- Penny was slightly better at stealing the ball, Wade's the better shot blocker.

Man to man, neither were spectacular- they both preferred gambling for steals in the passing lanes, and they were both good help defenders- rotating to help a teammate with his man, reading the other team's offense, etc.

So, yeah that statistics show that Wade was a better scorer, passer, rebounder, and comparable defender when comparing his best season to Penny's best season.

Overall as I'd said, Penny's a great #2 option on a team- good scorer, very good passer, but he's nowhere near Jordan or Magic, and his best season wasn't close to Wade's best season either.

So, anyone saying that Penny is a "better version of Wade" is definitely wrong.

Double penny a day Challenge questions?

Looks like you double the total for the following day.

Day 6: 0.32

Day 7: 0.64

Day 8: 1.28

Day 9: 2:56

Day 10: 5.12

Day 11: 10.24

And so on ... and YES, by Day 29 you would be looking at a LOT of pennies!

math penny question 1 penny on first day 2 pennies on second?

On day 1 you gave me 1 penny, day 2 you gave me 2 pennies (I'd have 1+2=3 pennies), on day 3 you gave me 4 pennies (I'd have 1+2+4=7 pennies). If we continue the pattern, we can see that there is a function that can represent this. This function is 2^x - 1 where x is the number of days gone by. (You can find this out by noticing that the pennies are increasing at an exponential rate)

..x....