[SI] James Harden's improved sleight of hand fueling the undefeated Rockets

Not the first time Morey's played this card, either. Pairing Kevin Martin with Yao Ming was meant to have this exact same effect, only with TWO good free throw shooters. It would have been a perfect pairing if they had ever actually shared the floor for any real amount of time.

 

Right. Harden definitely has theatrics as soon he gets that contact, but the difference is that he's actually been fouled, and the arms going up in the air is clearly to make a point that he was in the act of shooting. As the commentating team has described and shown replay after replay to back it up, he purposely puts that ball out there in front of him and gets slapped every time. They're clear fouls. It'd be a major risk for someone who couldn't hold on to the ball, and he's had it slapped away more than a few times when a defender does get all ball.

Now, it may not be the prettiest method, and it's had its drawbacks against good inside defenders. I'm greatly enthused this year about how much he's been spreading the ball around the court, so we're not totally reliant on his getting fouled on every drive to win games. Still, this isn't the despicable flopping Miami seems to have built a good chunk of its team around, nor is it the absurdly-allowed Kevin Durant "swing your arms into the other guy's and get a foul call every time" crap. Harden's improved D, ball movement, and team leadership is going to quash any of this flopping criticism pretty quickly this year, I think.

 

It looked like Lebron James returned to play against Miami the other night. Thank God he's a Rocket.

 

1. Why do you use all time leader to do your comparison? These guys all had long careers. You need to use per game numbers.

2. You also need to consider how much they shoot compare to their FT numbers. FTA/FGA

So here are the numbers (FTA per game; FGA per game; FTA/FGA):

Karl Malone 8.9; 17.8; 0.50
Moses Malone 8.3; 14.5; 0.57
Kobe Bryant 7.6; 19.6; 0.39
Michael Jordan 8.2; 22.9; 0.36
Oscar Robertson 8.8; 18.9; 0.47
Harden (career) 6.6; 12.0; 0.55
Harden (Rockets) 9.8; 16.8; 0.58

The only guy who is anywhere close to Harden's FTA/FGA is Moses Malone. Moses was a center who grabbed tons of offensive rebounds and got fouled.

The point is, Harden is by far "living at the line" compared to all those great scorers in terms of where his points come from.

 

Great point about Moses, Easy. Moses and Harden have something in common. Moses was strong as hell and could get hammered getting those offensive boards and hang on to the ball, getting the foul and scoring, more often than not. James is very strong as well, hangs on to the ball, and will score if he can. He doesn't simply go for the flop and foul, like Kevin Martin.

I'm a bit shocked at how he's raised his game. If the coaching staff can keep his minutes down compared to the last couple of seasons, and he stays healthy, we may see this kind of production all year. I sure as hell hope so. If he manages it, then when his shot's falling, he's going give us 30+, in my humble opinion. When it's not, particularly, he'll get his 25. The nice thing about Harden is that he usually finds his shot in the 4th, regardless.

 

Harden's game folds like a house of cards in the playoffs.