I just posted a monthly breakdown a few posts up. February is right after his death and the IG being deleted. February was one of his and the teams best months of the season.
I don't believe Harden is declining because that implies he's not going to get better than his recent performance. More likely, he's just going through a rough patch mentally and physically. If rest or load management will help get him back to his early season levels, then it's on him and MDA to work that out. My guess is that he wants to continue to prove himself and play hero ball even when he doesn't have it. I don't think MDA has much control over his minutes or how he's used.
Elite players do not have stretches like this. Obviously still a great player, but you can't call him a Top 15 guy right now.
But that’s the thing it hasn’t been a 26 game bad stretch. It’s been a 12 game worst you will ever see stretch. Then an 11 game back to normal stretch then now another 4 game awful stretch. February was 32 a game on 64+ TS% Lumping all those games together makes the January and March games seem better than they actually were and makes February look like it was just as terrible as the rest. There’s something going on here. January was possibly his worst month ever. February was another stellar month. March has now begun and it’s started worse than January.
Consistency is what makes you a top player. 2-3 off games? Sure, that happens. Not 10+. And there should never be any "worst you will ever see" type stretches where he's shooting sub-30%. The elite players simply don't do that more than once or twice in a while, and that's what Harden is accustomed to. Nobody is saying Harden's lost his peak abilities or anything. He's still capable, obviously, but right now, he has lost that consistent dominance that Giannis/LeBron/Davis/etc. put forth, which is the level Harden is supposed to be at.
I agree with that. I’m more speaking to this idea that once the calendar hit 2020 the decline of James Harden started and it’s been all bad since that day and that it’s time to cut bait and not expect him to be great again. I have no idea what’s actually happening but I really do believe the most logical assumption was some sort of injury that he refused to sit for in January. Not an excuse. He and the team would have had to make that decision. But it just makes more sense than an all of a sudden skill/athletic decline that won’t ever return.
Physically he doesn't look right out there. Now that he has hit 30 I hope he starts to shed some weight as he gets older.
