Blazing the Trail: Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway, the floor giant

Sept 23 2022 8:37PM UTC

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Welcome to Basketball News' 10-part mini-series, Blazing the Trail, where Mat Issa breaks down the most revolutionary players of the 1990s and 2000s. Throughout this series, we'll examine how these players changed basketball and pioneered their respective skills.

In this eighth installment, Mat goes in-depth on the dual threat nature of Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway. He explains what made Hardaway different from the point guards that came before him with insights from former teammates Nick Anderson and Danny Schayes, and former coach Richie Adubato.

On June 30, 1993, the Orlando Magic traded first overall draft pick Chris Webber in exchange for three future first-round picks and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway.

That night, Nick Anderson heard his phone ring.

“I’ll never forget. When that trade was made, I got a call from my dad… he said, 'Man, y’all just got a hell of a player in Penny Hardaway,'” Anderson recalled to Basketball News.

In hindsight, Anderson’s father was right on the money. Hardaway was an astounding player. And no, it wasn't only because of his size. He was something more than that.

Hardaway was a precursor of what was to come, and a trailblazer for what became known as the modern lead guard.

What Made Hardaway Special

While not his only revolutionary component, his size did afford him plenty of amenities. Hardaway measured in at 6-foot-7, and he used his elevated vantage point to pick apart opponents in ways his shorter contemporaries couldn’t.

“At 6-foot-7 ½, 6-foot-8, he could see over most of the guys that went against him at the point guard [position],” Anderson said.

Study these clips below:

In the first play, Hardaway easily surveys the arena despite his opponent’s aggressive ball-screen coverage. In the second sequence, Gary Payton (who still stood at a respectable 6-foot-4) is blinded by the double-team and, ultimately, fails to recognize the lurking defender wandering in the shadows.

Hardaway’s passing was a combination of these enhanced sight lines and his creativity as a distributor. In a 1997 regular-season game against Minnesota, he tricked the defense into believing he was looking to score not once, not twice, but three times — only to rifle the ball to an open teammate at the last minute.

Speaking of scoring, Hardaway’s arsenal of moves was as superfluous as they come.

"He could score inside and out, he could shoot the three, he could post-up, you could isolate him anywhere, he could run the pick and roll, and he could lead the fastbreak,” said Richie Adubato, one of Hardaway's head coaches in Orlando (1996-97).

Hardaway could get buckets in every way imaginable. On-ball, off-ball, in transition, coming off screens, with two defenders breathing down his neck — it didn’t matter. He just cooked.

His scoring versatility bared resemblance to Shaquille O’Neal’s other co-star teammate, Kobe Bryant. The only meaningful difference in their bucket-hunting was that Hardaway was much more efficient with his methods. In 1995-96, his Relative True Shooting percentage was over six points above league average. Bryant’s, on the other hand, never surpassed four points above average at any point in his career.

“I know Kobe was Kobe,” Anderson declared. “But if Penny Hardaway never got hurt, people would be talking about [him] in the same breath.”

It's this combination of playmaking and scoring that earns him that moniker of "The Floor Giant." It's not his physical stature, but his statistical impact that looms large over the court. During his peak season in 1995-96, Hardway placed in the 92nd percentile in scoring volume and the 96th percentile in playmaking (per Backpicks.com).

To understand why these numbers are significant, let’s compare those numbers to the five most famous point guards of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s: Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, John Stockton, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash.

Hardaway's Scoring and Creation vs. Other All-Time Great Point Guards

Visual Created by Daniel BratuliÄ‡

The lone Hall-of-Fame guard who matches his blend of scoring and playmaking is Magic (bookmark that for later). The other four legends authored all-time playmaking seasons, but fell short in the scoring department. The reason behind that was the political landscape of the point guard position at the time.

“The guards were directing the offense for the most part, and they would always go to the lead scorers,” Adubato explained. “If it was a post scorer, then [the point guard] would always be looking for him... down inside.

“[There was] not a lot of individual stuff. They ran set plays all the time, and the set plays were usually governed by the point guard.”

Nash himself alluded to these norms during his appearance on the “Book of Basketball 2.0” podcast: I grew up playing the game where people told you, as a point guard, you go 5-for-7, 7-for-10 and get all your teammates involved, loving the game and feeling empowered. That’s the way I approached the game.”

Hardaway, though, was a deviation from the old school. He figured out a way to counterbalance his teammates' touches with that of his own, and in the process, he quarterbacked a top-three offense in the league every season he shared with O’Neal in Orlando.

“[Hardaway] was a transformational player,” former Magic teammate Danny Schayes told Basketball News. “A guy who brought a new element to the game.”

On-Court Production

In basketball, we have what are known as floor-raisers and ceiling-raisers. In a vacuum, floor-raisers are players with skill sets who lend themselves to dragging poor teams into respectability (e.g., Russell Westbrook in OKC post-Kevin Durant), and ceiling-raisers are the ones who can help already-good teams ascend to even greater heights (e.g., Stephen Curry in Golden State).

Hardaway possessed both these features.

In 1992-93, before Hardaway arrived in Orlando, the Magic finished 41-41. Thanks to his synergy with O’Neal, Hardaway immediately raised the ceiling of this unit, pushing them from 41 wins to 50, 57 and 60 in the following three seasons.

The Hardaway-O’Neal tandem was a lethal one, and during their brief time together, they clinched two Eastern Conference Finals appearances and an NBA Finals berth in 1995. However, in 1995-96, when "The Diesel" was temporarily out of commission due to injury, Hardaway leaned on his floor-raising powers to keep the team afloat.

In the 1995-96 season, O’Neal missed 28 games, and during that stretch, the Magic still managed to put together a 20-8 record (71.4%), roughly the same winning percentage Orlando operated at when Shaq was healthy at 40-14 (74.1%).

In O’Neal’s absence, Hardaway went on a tear, averaging 25.5 points and 6.4 assists per game on a 62.5% True Shooting clip — an effort that ultimately helped vault Penny to third in MVP voting that season.

(Note: On the Blazing the Trail podcast, Tyler Britton of the Hoop Venue YouTube Channel and I broke down where Hardaway ranked in the league that season, and we ultimately landed on him falling somewhere in the 4-to-7 range).

Visual Provided by Sports Aptitude

This same phenomenon played out the following season when the Magic lost their second-best scorer, Rony Seikaly, in the middle of their first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, leaving Hardaway to pick up the remaining pieces.

Adubato, Orlando's head coach at the time, remembers it like it was yesterday.

“We were down 2-0, and I called [Hardaway] into the office,” Adubato recalled. “No ingenious move; I just said, ‘I am gonna put in two plays that the Pistons run for Grant Hill… two plays that I know you’ll be able to run with your athleticism.’ In the next two games, [Hardaway] scored 42 and 41 [points]."

“When [Seikaly] got hurt, we ended up switching our style,” said Schayes, who ended up starting in place of the injured Seikaly. “We went away from our offensive balance to everything through [Hardaway], and he was able to [take] over the series. That goes to show you how much he always had in reserve.”

Along with masterful Game 3 and Game 4 performances, Hardaway capped the Miami series with a scintillating Game 5, finishing the three-game run with an average of 38.7 points per contest on 64.2% True Shooting.

All of this further illustrates the dual-threat nature of his attack. When he had the personnel, Hardaway could co-pilot the ship next to his low-post-centric co-stars. And when needed to, he could ramp his already impressive scoring numbers to historic levels.

Weaving the Thread

Much like Shane Battier from Volume III of this series, Hardaway was mesmerized by the grandeur of the skyscraping Magic Johnson. “Magic was number one,” Hardaway said on the All the Smoke podcast.

Ironically, Hardaway’s fuse of gargantuan height and resplendent facilitating ability often garnered his comparison to the Lakers’ legend.

“You know he was pegged as the next Magic Johnson [because of] the way he passed the ball,” Anderson added.

It makes sense when you think about it. Going back to our chart from earlier, Johnson is the only other guard to be in the 90/90 club (90th percentile in scoring and playmaking volume). Magic accomplished this feat nearly a decade prior, in 1986-87, when he placed in the 92nd and 100th percentile in scoring and playmaking volume, respectively (per Backpicks.com).

Hardaway's Scoring and Creation vs. Other All-Time Great Point Guards

Visual Created by Daniel BratuliÄ‡

So why didn’t we just spotlight Magic Johnson instead?

One word: Spacing.

To understand, watch these two plays, and as you do so, take note of the stark contrast in where their teammates are stationed on the court:

Even in 1991, the Los Angeles Lakers deployed archaic spacing methods. In each of Johnson’s first 12 seasons dawning the purple and gold, his team only attempted more than 10 threes per game once (they averaged 10.3 attempts per contest in the 1989-90 campaign).

Hardaway was a more modern version of the super-sized guard archetype. As Adubato noted, those Magic teams prioritized spacing shooters out on the perimeter to enable Hardaway and O’Neal room to operate in the post. From 1994 to 1997, Orlando hoisted over 19 three-point attempts per game. (Note: This total is partially influenced by the shortening of the three-point line). Orlando's half-court alignments were far more similar to the ones we are accustomed to seeing in today’s space-ball era.

And while media pundits of the time likened Hardaway to Johnson, his former teammate Schayes always felt that Hardaway was more athletic than his predecessor, and that a better comparison would be Oscar Robertson.

“[Hardaway] was much more athletic than Magic was,” Schayes explained. “If you want to compare him to anybody, it might be [Robertson].”

Of course, Robertson was the godfather of the towering floor general. At 6-foot-5, "Big O" possessed a combination of size, speed and strength that overwhelmed his less-gifted adversaries, and, as a result, helped him champion the first triple-double season averaged in NBA history in 1961-62.

Ironically, Robertson was also a founding father of this 90/90 club we’ve established, owning a whopping six seasons that fit these guidelines (per Backpicks.com).

Regardless of which connection you favor, Hardaway’s blend of size, passing and athleticism – coupled with forward-thinking and tactical decision-making – made him the perfect liaison to connect the players of this model from the past to those of the present.

Impact on Today’s Game

Recently on his show, The Two Cents Podcast, Hardaway chatted with fellow Magic icon Tracy McGrady. During their conversation, McGrady confessed that he tried to emulate every finite detail of Hardaway’s game, even down to his jersey number.

This admission is relevant to us because certified scoring cyclone Kevin Durant is on the record saying he mimed McGrady's style in his own training. And when you watch their combination of footwork, ball skills and ability to gain separation through elevation on his jumper, you see remnants of primetime Hardaway.

(In that second clip, we get Hardaway's depiction of Hakeem Olajuwon's "Dream Shake.")

If you ask Hardaway about potential descendants occupying today’s NBA landscape, he points to Ben Simmons because of their shared affinity for ripping and running the open floor.

“I think in transition... Ben Simmons, how he pushes the tempo... as a big guard,” Hardaway mentioned on the All the Smoke podcast.

But as we’ve established, Hardaway’s major contribution to the field was his ability to function as a dual-threat quarterback. With that in mind, looking at this past NBA season's 90/90 club, the member whose physical dimensions most resemble Hardaway’s is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

When asked about the modern-day comparison to SGA, Anderson was quick to offer his stamp of approval.

“I like that,” Anderson quickly replied. “I like his size... yeah, I agree with that.”

Last season, Gilgeous-Alexander finished in the 92nd percentile in scoring volume and 91st percentile in playmaking volume (per Backpicks.com).

More than that, he lapped the field in drives per game – averaging nearly two more drives per game than the second-place finisher, Luka Doncic (per NBA.com). He managed this feat by leveraging his massive stride length to elongate himself past defenders in a manner eerily similar to the way Hardaway once did in the mid-1990s.

Today, the league is littered with lead guards qualified to join the illustrious 90/90 club. Players like Doncic, Trae Young and Ja Morant (among others) can all call that venue home.

And although they are all different in their own ways, they all have Hardaway to thank for his giant impact on the game today.