I think the truth is in the middle. Harden could certainly utilize more options on offense than he does now, because he actually has some decent mid-range (not three) stepback jumpers and post-game for a guard due to his size and strength. But all of it is gone now, and it seems a lot of it has to do with Harden trying to execute the Moreyball principle to a T, which actually wound up hurting his effectiveness as a scorer. But that doesn't mean Harden is as gifted a scorer as Durant, Curry, or LeBron without the free-throws; I think Harden falls a tier below that if we take away all the ref-baiting.
i watched some clips from his first season with the Rockets and the 2015 season, he seemed to be way more athletic , fast and creative on the offensive end All i see now is a slow , though very smart pg, who relies on getting fouled and shooting 3's which unfortunately are not falling anymore
does it have to do with the Morey phiolsophy? in 2015 he was destroying the Warriors with his mid range step backs moves, really don't understand what happened this year
what's even more scary is that smat defenses have figured out how to defend him without fouling, and managed to not let him shoot 3's, so what remains from his offense?? midrange! and unfortunately he is nowhere near the athleticism of Westbrook or Lebron nor he has the ability to score around the rim with different moves to counter the defense if he does not develop better options offensively, i see him declining way faster than we think
Fat Boy put him in the number cruncher and alas... Along with new found fame, money, success, control of the franchise...
this is akin to the week-by-week team power rankings. Right now Harden has slipped down to 9 or 10. He may work his way back into the top 5, but he's not there right now.
he's not built for the post season. I said this like 3 yrs ago. Que some nub still coming up with out of context stats.
Probably and I think it also has to do with where the game is going these days, if you remember the allstar game from this year, it was just a 3pt brickfest. I think if Harden wants to take his game to an even more efficient level he needs to mix in more midrange, I am not talking deep shots, I am talking around foul line distance, cause he is pretty deadly from there.It will keep defenders guessing a little more. Cause now defenders especially big guys know Harden will either drive it or take a step back three.
Well I did a quick search Game 1 :20 points 14 assists and only 5 free throws Game 2: 13 points 7 boards 10 assists on 6 free throws Game 3: 43 points 5 assists 2 boards on 11 free throws Game 4: 28 points 12 assists 5 boards on 6 free throws Game 5: 33 10 boards 10 assists on 8 free throws Game 6 : 10 points 7 assists on 6 free throws. funnily enough the OP assessment is wrong. Hardens majority of points came from the floor and despite the game 2 and 6 poor outputs and Harden not getting his usual free throw attempts he did pretty damn good on offense.
"He will work hard and get better" is a fun thing to say, but we aren't working from a small sample size. Want to bring up Kobe, Lebron, and Dirk? Ok. At the point of Lebron's "defer game" he had already lead a group of nobodys to the finals. Kobe already had multiple championships. I challenge you to find me a game where Dirk didn't work his ass off. (or at fail to put up a shot in the first quarter of a big game.)
Checked basketball reference and sadly it's definitely far from elite, actually sub-par for a high-volume scorer/1st option. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01/shooting/2017 http://www.basketball-reference.com...ain_seconds=0&time_remain_comp=le&order_by=fg
Of course the OPs assessment is wrong, because the whole premise of this thread is stupid. Look, let's get one thing out of the way. Harden is not LeBron, but we're sitting here all pissed acting like the last 2 games of the season is indicative of the season as a whole. Harden ran out of gas, period. We could all see this coming the last month of the season through all of the injuries. When you're asked to do everything on the floor it will wear on you over the long haul. Look at Harden in the first game vs. the Lakers vs in the playoffs. It's not exactly night and day, but you can tell the difference. At the end of the day we just need a legit #2 option to take the offensive pressure off of Harden and even if he's playing the point, he needs to take some more time off the ball imo. Harden has a lot of flaws to his game but you can win with him. My biggest issue with him is that in the clutch he doesn't always make the right decision. Finally, this whole thing about free throws. He needs to stop trying to find new ways to bait the refs, especially considering he can score and get fouled without it. Some nights he does hunt for fouls, which is frustrating because it's unnecessary. Even if he only got 80% of the fouls he gets now, I feel he'd be more effective overall if he focused more on making the shot than drawing the contact. He also needs better shot selection - no more pull up 3s and isoball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.
You're a genius. Putting your hands up on defense? Why haven't the other 29 NBA teams friend guarding Harden this way? Next level armchair coaching.
Do you have any evidence to suggest that James is getting worse? Statistically, he has improved every single season he has been on the Rockets other than 14-15. Maybe you are just extremely biased? It seems that you relate athleticism to finishing from the 3-9 feet area, even though they have no relationship? (The best player from this range is Nicola Jokic)
It doesn't matter if it's Harden's problem or the NBA's problem. I've said it in the past. Depending a main part of your game on the officiating is not a good idea. Lots of Harden fans jumped on me saying that it was a legit move to get foul. Whether they are legit fouls or not is not the point. The point is that it depends on the refs, not on your own ability to score against the defense. Harden doesn't get a lot of fans outside of his own team's fanbase because people generally don't like a player drawing lots of fouls. These casual critics are mostly wrong about Harden' "flopping" or the fouls not being legit. But I don't blame them for not liking it. I bet most Rockets fans wouldn't like it if it was done by a non-Rocket player.
