Going into the season we heard about how he would be adding a 1 legged 3 point shot to his arsenal. In practice, this move seemed a bit gimmicky and he agreed that it wasn't necessary. However, I've noticed that he's added a couple wrinkles into his outside game. The first is the step back pump fake. We saw him use this last week against Landry Shamet, who was expecting the step back. He was correct for the first portion, then James pretended like he was going to shoot, as the defender flew by no problem. Then he hit the shot with ease. I think this is a great counter to defenders waiting on his step back so now that opposing teams can't just chill on D and then contest when James does his shtick. The other counter move I've seen more recently is the quick shot 3-pointer. He pretends like he's going into his patented through the legs crossover back and forth maneuver. But instead of starting the 12 second dance choreography, he just quickly rises up for an open 3, catching the defense off guard. I think this is a great play to keep defenders honest so they don't get to fall into a comfort zone when defending Harden. To me, this shows that he is a very very smart player (like we didn't already know) that is constantly evolving and countering other players counters to his own strategies. I really like to see him keep improving and adjust as teams spend countless hours on film trying to find a way to stop him.
For real, dude is a gym rat and one of the smartest players in the league. All great players evolve, we still may not have seen Hardens final form
And to think this guy gets ripped to shreds by supposed Rockets fans at the first goawdamned sign that he's having an off nite. An "off night" that still leads to 28-30 points and defense/rebounding/assisting. These haters want to blow it up and trade harden, fire mda YET have zero plan for preventing the subsequent 10 years of irrelevance that is awaiting. We were nothing immediately preceding the Harden acquisition.
Harden's home/road splits on 3-point shooting are a little worrisome. Hope its not a depth perception issue.
Guilty as charged (except for the trade him part !) I do sometimes get quickly frustrated and often wend up looking stupid in the process, part of being a long time invested fan I suppose. Trying to work on that ! I generally only get bent when he isn’t putting an effort into the defensive end, because I know if he’s having an off Offensive night he can affect the game defensively immensely, just seems like nights he off on Onhe tends to be lazy on D. That’s my only real complaint with him ... it’s fairly rare that happens but it does happen every once in a while. He is a once in transcendent player though, no one in their right mind could argue that !
Since the Miami fiasco, Harden is shooting 40% overall (23 games), and 43.5% on the road (13 games). I hesitate to say that I've seen a difference this year in his stroke on 3s, because streaks happen. But it really does look like he's gone to a new level on his mechanics, since the bad start.
The other thing that's amazing is in the GSW series, Harden had a better eFG% and TS% than Durant, and way better on 2s (54.2% to 46.5%). But since Durant shot 44% on 3s, on 45 less attempts, he was considered more efficient. And he was rarely double teamed.
Stats don't matter to the media as much when you **** the bed in critical moments. That's why everyone is always riding Harden hard. His bad games and bad moments in the playoffs just look insanely bad. I don't understand why, but they just do. It doesn't help that it feels like Harden gives up. Just ask my boy @DreamShook
Giving up vs. team w/5 All Stars is what entire NBA did. Harden and Rockets never gave up, instead put fear of God into that same team. Good guys do not always win especially when odds so great.
Well we all know why, every other superstar has had another superstar or all star level player(s) to take the pressure off. The one year CP3 was balling we were one game away. The narrative is always looked in W/L but there’s more to that.
What's weird to me is that Harden's 3 point shot is very consistent over the years. I wonder why he hasn't broken 40%
I understand that, but I'm talking about in game emotions. You know how everybody was riding Westbrook's jock a few years ago? Even though he was chucking away, he was playing with such emotion that the media didn't shred him to pieces for not winning. Harden, he has an obvious demeanor where his body language is terrible when things aren't going his way. It's why he is looked down on and why the media will not even bother looking at his badass playoff games because they key in on the Ginobili block, on being part of the 0-27 strategy, the 13 turnovers close out game, losing to the Spurs despite being down Parker/Leonard, sitting on the bench during the epic Clipper comeback, etc. It's just reality. It sucks. I don't think it's fair, so he needs to win a championship to shut up everybody.
