James Harden's putting up numbers we haven't seen since Michael Jordan https://sports.yahoo.com/news/james...vent-seen-since-michael-jordan-044319180.html Through seven games, Harden is averaging 31.6 points, 12.7 assists and 7.1 rebounds per game. Nobody’s ever averaged 31-12-7 for a full season before; if you drop it down to 30-10-5, Oscar Robertson joins the party, and that’s it, which ought to give you a sense of the kind of all-time run Harden’s on to start the campaign. He’s also doing all of that while shooting 50 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3-point range on 8.7 attempts a night, and 84.9 percent from the foul line on 10.4 attempts per game, which flouts most generally accepted rules of usage. Typically, the more plays a player uses, the less efficient a producer of offense he becomes. Harden, though, is using 33.7 percent of the Rockets’ possessions — which would be a career-high, and is the sixth-highest mark in the NBA thus far — while posting a ludicrous True Shooting percentage (which takes into account a player’s 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) of 66.4 percent. Basically, through seven games, James Harden is having Stephen Curry’s 2015-16 shooting season (albeit with fewer 3-point tries and more free-throw attempts per game) while also leading the league in assists. That’s how out of his mind “The Beard” is right now. ----------------------------------------------------------------- holy cow
Quick, who have more rebounds per game so far, Harden or Marc Gasol? Spoiler "Harden (7.1 to 7.0) and he's in the top 50 in all major categories statistically other than blocks."
i bet yall espn wont say ****. "harden had his 20th 30/15 game, the most in a single season was magic at just 6 :sniffs: flopper" BUT WOW LOOK AT CURRY GO WITH TWO WHOLE ASSISTS! THATS AMAZING! i love that guys c*ck game
The reason we don't have another top 50 player is........James Harden. Like I have said many, many times, Harden is a top 3 player in the Association as far as I'm concerned. His biggest Achilles is not his defense nor his turnovers. And they are awful. Rather its the reason for his turnovers and his bad D. His Achilles that will prevent us from winning a championship is his selfishness. He's unwilling to accommodate other superstar players. After this season do you really think Paul George is going to be interested in coming here and being a spot up shooter? No, he's not. He's a superstar. He wants the ball too. Just like Dwight wanted the ball. James isn't willing to share the ball. And that will doom us to also-rans UNLESS he changes. Assists are not an indicator of a players willingness to share the ball. Sharing the ball means you allow for other creators/playmakers. James doesn't do that at present. Every other legit playmaker we've had on this team since he's been here we let go to accommodate James. So he's going to put up gargantuan numbers in this system because he's the only playmaker/creator we have. UNLESS James finally sees this about himself and becomes willing to accept another playmaker/creator that uses possessions and moves him off the ball at times then we are doomed to also-ran status. We're simply too one-dimensional and too easy to foil for good teams like the Spurs/Warriors who share the basketball and who know how to neutralize James defensively, water down his offensive efficiency, and turn him over repeatedly.
Durant and Westbrook, two very non ball dominant and non superstar players, did not mind Harden being the primary ball handler in crunch time when they were on the same team.
Westbrook is very ball dominant just like James and he's going to have the same problems getting great players around him as James does. Everybody knows when Westbrook is on the floor the basketball is going to him every time. Everything starts and ends with him. The Thunder have better role players than we do but they have the exact same problem. Too one dimensional. The young Thunder team with a young Durant, Westbrook, and Harden is long gone. Those guys were NBA infants. Harden came off the bench and was just earning his way into the rotation. They had established a system incorporating all of them with James and Westbrook sharing playmaking duties and running the plays Brooks wanted to run. But that's gone. And even when they were together Westbrook didn't like being moved off the ball himself. Don't you remember all that? Now Westbrook and Harden have their own teams. They're the man on their respective teams. And both men's selfish Achilles has manifested big time. Neither player is going to win a championship UNLESS they CHANGE THEIR GAME AND ATTITUDE. They'll both put up insane numbers during the season but then they'll get chopped down come playoff time because they are whirlpools that eventually suck the whole team under in each teams attempts to keep them happy by feeding them. Great players but not great enough to win a championship without a change of mindset that allows their teams to vary the attack with other playmaker/creators.
In retrospect, it now seems so so obvious that James should have been bringing the ball up the court. How often did we waste time on the shot clock getting the ball to James when he had guys draped all over him the last few years? This probably is actually less taxing on his body to bring the ball up court since he doesn't have to fight through so many bodies to get the ball. Now with him bringing it up he's making so many awesome outlet passes when the defense slacks and getting a lot of easy points, as well as just turning on the jets and scoring himself while the defense is not settled. D'antoni and James were made for each other.
I'm interested in seeing if Harden can catch these guys. Spoiler: Basketball Pictures of Players Single Game Single Season
Understandable but I see It differently. Paul George is not better than harden but he is a very good player. Paul George is also at his best every year at the very start of seasons and fades big time after about 20 games because the load is to much. If anything he would greatly benefit from coming over here playing with Harden and letting him run the show. He would still get to run the offense for the 15 min a game harden sits and him getting open threes with the ability to attack on close outs and either score or make plays for others. Imo that's the way Paul George should play. If he doesn't want to then well he's never going to win a championship. I agree the good teams can neutralize harden in the playoffs to an extent because we're over reliant on him but adding a player of Paul George caliber would eliminate that problem. You can't key in on harden and leave PG13 open or Ryan Anderson open or Eric Gordon open. Those guys are all 40%+ on open threes. And you can't compare Westbrook to harden. Harden doesn't shoot the ball 25x a game and play out of control. If Harden was Durants teammate last year over Russ OKC would not only have made the finals but he'd also still be in a OKC jersey. Harden can actually shoot the ball. He's a much better player than Russ.
The way the defense collapses on him, it's not inconceivable that he could have several 20+ assist nights this season. He should be hitting Nene or Capela every time they roll to the basket the way some defenses leave the lane wide open.
The problem is Nene has missed a lot of easy layups off either the wrap around or the pocket passes from Harden this season. Even Anderson and Capella have missed a lot of bunny shots. around the rim.
To get that award the Rockets are going to have to go undefeated for the week. Wins count. Its a tough field.