In the fall of 1995, Penny Hardaway was entering into his 3rd NBA season having already made the All NBA First Team and establishing himself as a premier 2 way guard next to star big man Shaquille O'Neal, with the pair just coming off an NBA Finals berth. The duo seemed poised to be title contenders again in the East as the top dogs in the conference (they had just beat Chicago with a freshly returned Michael Jordan in the 1995 playoffs). However, Shaq suffered a fairly major thumb injury during a preseason exhibition game against Miami that would end up keeping him out of the lineup for the first 22 games of the season, leaving Penny Hardaway to go through a good chunk of the season with his fellow starters being Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Horace Grant, and Jon Koncak. In Shaq's absence, Penny would lead Orlando to a roaring 17-5 start (63 win pace over a full 82 game season).

Penny's stats:

26.4 PPG

5.3 RPG

6.8 APG

2.0 SPG

0.9 BPG

62.2 TS%

Penny's best games:

42-8-8 with 5 steals on 70.5 TS% in a triple OT win against New Jersey

36-4-5-4-2 on 82 TS% in a 6 point win over Chicago, handing them one of their 10 losses all season!!!

38 pts on 75.5 TS% in a 9 point win against the Clippers

This is really meant to be a Penny Hardaway appreciation post just because if it weren't for those darn knees, he would have 100% gone down as one of the best guards of all time, especially when he was doing things like this in just his 3rd NBA season. He had it all too: a smooth jumper from the mid-range and from 3, a really polished post game that he could use to punish opposing guards, a natural passing gift, and versatile, "swiss army knife" type defense. Where do you think he'd rank among the best guards to ever do it if he was never plagued by knee problems?