No this man is not flopping to get the fts. Question is, can anyone stay in front of harden? Harden is so good now that noone can stay in front of him and he could go to the basket at will drawing fouls. U figured teams are smart enough to put a guy in front of him and to *stay in front of him* Alot of haters calling out harden for flopping but 99% of his calls are within the basket. Why cant they just keep him out of the paint? HARDEN HAS MADE BASKETBALL TOO EASY FOR HIM.
Harden got a lot of free throws in college...Harden averaged over 6 fta off the bench while leading the entire league in 4th quarter free throws his last season in OKC Harden has always been a master of drawing contact...haters should accept reality
Personally I think Harden will get even more FTs this year because Houston now has two of the most fearless guys in the league at attacking the rim - the odds of Harden getting fouled while in the penalty are just higher now that both him AND Westbrook are putting themselves in a position where the odds of getting contact are higher. People see the tic tac perimeter foul and make assumptions about how Harden gets his points but they don't see the other obvious fouls that he takes to get himself and his teammates in the penalty in the first place. Lots of guys can get to the paint at will, but most guys aren't strong enough to do it AND finish with a foul AND stay healthy after repeatedly colliding with guys bigger than them.
Harden has averaged 30 points a game in the playoffs the last 3 seasons. James Harden has averaged 9 free throw attempts per game in the playoffs the last three years.... He averaged 10.4 a game in the regular season in that same period of time. The free throw issue is widely overblown. The biggest difference between the playoffs and the regular season the last three seasons has been his three point percentage has been down in a limited sample size. Last year in the playoffs he shot 35% from 3 which is close to his regular season averages. The Rockets don't need to worry about James Harden come playoff time, they need to worry about the players around him.
Um have you ever defended anyone with elite handles and wiggle? Now try to defend them with your hands behind your back. It’s not simple as “stay in front of him” Lol!! The NBA ditching hand checking neutered defenders. What you have with Harden is the perfect storm, he’s a lefty with elite handles, footwork, size, wiggle and IQ. I’ll say it again for the folks in the back. In all my years of watching, coaching, playing and watching game tape (I’ll watch a game sometimes 3x) I’ve never seen defenses do the crap they do to stop James. At times it’s comical. Is he perfect? No, but he is as another poster put it perfectly “An entire offense”
One interesting Harden playoff stat I heard Zach Lowe mention on a pod recently is how little crunch time Harden has actually played in the last few years - I believe he said 6 minutes TOTAL last year where the game was within a few possessions either way.. He really has only been involved in blow outs the last several years - it's an interesting commentary on why Houston has been a worrisome playoff team for many years, yet somehow they are always seemingly a few good quarters away from the finals. I'm not sure why consistency is so hard to come by in the playoffs with this team but it is true that we seem to only have A game and F game in the playoffs - very little in between.
People who say harden "flops" can't even give a foul by foul breakdown on his free throw attempts. Which fouls called on harden are "flops"? How can you "flop" when someone legitimately has contact with your arm/elbow while you're shooting that is backed by replay? How can you "flop" when you drive as much as he does while enticing defenders to reach that is also backed by replay?
Wilt shot 17 free throws a game. "Wilt was the greatest scorer ever" Harden is averaging 15 per game this season (so far) "Damn flopper" __________________ Jordan/ Kobe/ Lebron/ (many others) shot over 10 per game as they lead the league in scoring in a season "Unstoppable scoring machines - the only way to slow them down is to foul them" Harden shoots over 10 per game in seasons that he leads the league in scoring "Damn flopper - I'd like to see him lead the league in scoring without shooting free throws" (which he WOULD have done last season anyway... lol) ____________________ Giannis shoots 9.5 FTs per game last season in scoring 27ppg "Give dat man Da MvP" Harden shoots 11 FTs per game in scoring over 36ppg (the most since MJ, and at better TS% by far, and with more team wins) "Damn flopper - can't be considered MVP because of all the free throws, and because his team didn't win 50" (spoiler: they DID win more than 50...) _____________________ Giannis shoots 11FTs per game this season, increases his ppg to 29.7 "Unstoppable scoring machine now - the world championship break made him even harder to guard, all they can do is grab hold of him and foul him" Harden shoots 15 FTs per game this season, averaging the highest PPG in HISTORY for a guard (or for anyone not named Wilt) "Damn flopper - can't be considered as an achievement because of the FTs. DID I MENTION DEM LAKKERSSZ?" _____________________ sigh.
People get annoyed because he gets fouled on the three point attempts so often. So don't get annoyed at Harden - get annoyed at the imbeciles who keep fouling him. Also, get annoyed at the refs who don't call it enough - Harden should be an NBA champion apart from a stupid rig-job where he got massively hacked on at least 4 three point attempts... If the refs just called the morons who reached and undercut his space, then the morons would stop doing it. Harden would hit more 3s and shoot less FTs. He'd still be unstoppable, it just wouldn't be as much at the line. Of course, he's still be at the line 10 times per game because of the morons reaching on him as he drives the lane...
I believe I heard him say that he had a high school coach that would challenge him to draw 10 a game or something like that. This drawing of fouls started a long time ago. It's not new. That's for sure. I didn't know about his college FTs. He got 7.2 FTs per game in college at Arizona State.
1) Giannis and other players of his ilk earn their FTs through valiant play. Virtuous earning of FTs! 2) Harden does not earn his FTs. He cheats and is a Villain! Villainous FTs! That is what I have learned from NBA Social Media and the Media at large. So, it is not just the *concept* of getting large amounts of FTs that bother people. They just don't like *Harden* that gets them. Even though he drives the paint more than anyone.
Most guards try to avoid contact in the lane, except maybe at the end of a close game. I've never seen a guard who so consistently and fearless goes right at defenders and forces them to foul or GTFO of the way.
Mostly true, except his PER does drop a full 5 points every postseason, including last year. Perhaps fatigue is a factor. His teammates can go ahead and make a shot though and stop getting injured. Gordon is allergic to the playoffs, Ariza deteriorated, Dwight and Paul got hurt, and House sucked so bad he got benched.
lol why are you telling this to CF? ppl here already constantly defend his foul-drawing. You need be spouting this on social media and reddit.
Agreed! And one player that has improved their game in that same capacity is Paul George. He is getting to the FT line more because he is doing more of what Harden is doing.
The foul issue is annoying to defend. People see the handpicked replays of the soft fouls that get called. No talks about the fouls that Harden doesn't get which is constant. Ref's try not to call for Harden and do not give him the benefit of the doubt. This issue tends to bleed over to the other players as well unfortunately. In the game against the Clippers they gave the Rockets a tech for someone jumping into Kawhi landing spot. Harden regulatory gets this called and I can't recall a time they gave the team a tech for it.
I believe it was Jeff Van Gundy in the Clippers game this week who mentioned that refs by far study Harden more than any other player in the league - the idea that Harden somehow gets away with something or manages to consistently trick the refs is absurd because of the intense scrutiny he is under because the league reviews footage on him and asks refs to scrutinize it many times a year.
It’s either a hush hush league wide mandated conspiracy to officiate Harden differently than everyone else..... OR No one has really figured out how to properly guard a linebacker with speed and some of the best handles the game has ever seen without fouling.
