[NY Daily News] The NBA Just Began Its War Against James Harden

That was painful to read.

 

The NBA started it's war on Harden over 3 years ago, before he put together 3 straight MVP seasons as part of the greatest tear in history.

The math by the way on this is obviously bad, but the conclusion - Harden is the worst ever - is the real message, that's why literally as soon as it went up the NBA shitpost bros over at Deadspin like Chris Thompson began genuflecting to it.

But this doesn't happen because Draymond Green isn't good enough at basketball to ever do this, or ever come close to carrying the usage burden of Harden. If you tried to let Draymond Green create his own shot/assist on every play, you would hands-down have the single worst offense in NBA history. He's a 26% field goal shooter off of Isolation plays averaging 0.66 points per play. That is the 16th percentile. He's not a good three point shooter. Why is he even being used as an example? When did the Warriors do this? Like, they have never done this, teams have tried to make them do it, they actively try to avoid doing it - but it's the reason why the rule needs to be changed?

Harden shoots a lot of free throws because he handles the ball a lot because he is very good at doing offensive basketball things at a different level than every human being in the history of the planet especially Draymond Green.

In other words, the game is not fundamentally broken because the thing the you cite as evidence of it being broken does not/has not ever happened because it does not work.

But sure, this will fix that.

 

Game On

 

If JEHj we’re doing his MVPesque thing in New Yawk Sitty the tenor of this writer’s inciteful er insightful writing might just be a wee different. Perhaps, eh?!!

 

This guy should also write for The NY Times. They love unsubstantiated journalism that caters to people that can’t do their own research. It’s a perfect match.

 

Agree with all of this. I didn’t think about the hack a Shaq crap coming back but it’s definitely likely if they implement that. Can’t do it in the last 2 minutes of a quarter still though.

 

If Harden was playing for the Knicks and winning like he does here then he would be in the GOAT conversation, and that’s no exaggeration

 

That's not f*cking basketball. Adding a 4-point line would be more bearable & less gimmicky.

As long as hell is hot & chick fil a is closed on sundays, one free throw is worth one damn point.

 

This is just stupid. The NBA is trying to fix something that isn't broken, and they're doing so by penalizing the victim. What I suspect they're really trying to do is to make more room for commercials.

 

What a dumbass idea... now all of the good 3 point shooters will be fouled intentionally???? The analytics will target all the top end 3 point shooters if this makes it to the league..

it would be more unwatchable -- imagine down 3 with seconds left - yea you're about to get hammered for 1 free throw.....

 

Actually this rule will really hurt players that are poor free throw shooters such as Giannis and LeBron James, Gobert and Westbrook.

Other than not giving players as long a rest period, it will have minimal impact on players like James Harden.

The guys that shoot 75% and under will have to deal with it. Giannis is below 70% and Westbrook as well.

 

I thought so too at first. But it appears you get one free throw that's worth three points.

Instead, I guess defenders will let people shoot threes instead of getting anywhere near fouling. (Chance of 3-pt shot = 30 something %, chance of 3-point free throw = around 75%.)

 

Put Harden in a Warriors jersey and he would be a God and they would argue he is arguably the GOAT.

Put Draymond on the Rockets and the media would try to destroy him every time he touched the ball.

Just remember 1 thing everyone, the more you talk about the NBA and it's "drama", the more money the NBA makes. They love you hating them as much as they want you to love them. Clicks = $

 

"Players will take one free throw attempt regardless of how many points are on the line. That means a player fouled in the act of shooting a three will shoot one shot for three points, and a player completing an and-1 will shoot one shot for one point."

 

This will hurt bad free throw shooters way more than Harden.

It would make hack strategies much more useful because players shoot worse on their first free throw

 

It has to bother Harden how much people create fake narratives about him. Those narratives are now taken as fact so we have meta-narratives about them now, like this one.

Ginobili was doing most of the things Harden does 15 years prior (and I felt like one of the only fans hating it), and other players (Kevin Martin, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry) have done most of it too.

I watch a lot of all 4 big four sports and I haven't seen a player villainized this much without off-court drama.

 

So, people are not going to want to foul three-point shooters. That will help Harden. He will get no four-point plays, but he will get a lot more less-defended threes. Since he gets no-calls even when he is fouled, de-motivating foulers will be extra good for Harden.

 

If it's time they are concerned about they could stop having the officials walk all the way across the court to the table to use hand gestures to tell who the foul was on. Get a mic and tell them from the court and keep things moving. Add all that time up and i'm sure that gives you a good amount of minutes saved.

 

Bahahaha, ok.....I'm sure Harden would love the idea of getting 3 free points from one shot from the stripe instead of three shots. In fact, he's so good offensively he will embrace it and find a way to draw even more fouls. If it ends up making defenders foul him less on the perimeter...even better.

It's always a sign you are dominating when the league changes the rules because of you. Like when they lowered the pitching mound because of Bob Gibson. Keep being a bulldog Harden, eff them haters.

 

This was my first thought.