[FiveThirtyEight] Will James Harden’s Hot Streak Burn Him Out?

It WILL burn him out a bit .

The real question is if he can recover by the playoffs . Hopefully the lightening of the load (expected when Paul , Gordon , and others come back ) is enough to give him a break where he can heal his body up

 

Who knows if it will burn him out or how much he can keep this up.

This is *necessity* right now. It is what it is.

James "Atlas" Harden.

 

even with CP and Gordon back, he still does the heavy loading but Harden is a dog and he's gonna go out there regardless. Hopefully we do get more boring blowouts to bring his minutes down a bit though

 

thinly-disguised MDA is being called out by FiveThirtyEight thread

 

He is human so the wear and tear takes a toll although he is much tougher than the average NBA caliber human. I am more worried on the toll it will take on him emotionally. Over the last month we have been watching a historical effort put together by Harden while all those around him seem to be carried off on stretchers at least once a week He can only sustain carrying the load and the pressure he puts on himself for so long and it starts to get to him. That is why as brilliant as he is he has momentary lapses where he goes 1-16 from the 3 point line. Lets just hope enough of the wounded get healthy to help him carry the load and take the pressure off him come playoff time. And some strategic rest along the way would be good for him as well.

 

We are enjoying the results now but yes.
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Spoiler

 

Seems like most guys in the media PRAY every night that it does
They all want it so much

Rocket River

 

I doubt it, especially him being young and in shape. I mean soccer players run around for 45 min without a break, and then another 45 without a break. James is playing half that including rests on the bench and numerous timeouts.

 

exactly. it's not like he's logging tall timbers out there amirite @heypartner

 

He will definitely burn out. I look at T-Mac during the 22-game winning streak. T-Mac played hard every single game, then Yao went out and he had to go even harder.

Not that T-Mac and Harden are the same, they don't even play the same style but when the pressure is on and you are the singular offensive source of the team, no way he can continue this consistently for another month.

 

you are on a ROLL lately. nice one!

 

do you mind if I share this one? this is too good not to share

 

I don't know if 25 step back threes is going to be all that more taxing that 15 step back threes, its the drives that are really taxing.

 

When Paul and Gordon are back, Harden needs to get "injured" for a couple games every 2-3 weeks.

 

Regular season is husky harden's fat camp

 

Sure, I don't care.

 

Not sure you can compare basketball and soccer. I think soccer is more like football; when the ball is on the other side of the field (side B) in soccer, the personnel on side A can essentially take a breather until the ball comes back to their side. In football, obviously when the offense has the ball, the defense on the same team can take a breather.

Even if you switch everything on defense in basketball (i.e no running into screens), it's still tiring. In addition to defense, Harden has to think, run, dribble, shoot and pass, all while dealing with the fact that his play is literally the difference between winning and losing the game.

Not saying he's not physically / mentally up to the task or anything like that, but he's human, after all.

 

A soccer player runs 7 to 9.5 miles a match, and a wide receiver or cornerback runs about 1.25 miles. A basketball player runs about 2.55 miles. Believe it or not soccer players do think, kick, leap, dive, and defend as well as just run. I think James will be fine with his minutes since he isn't prone to knee problems and hamstring issues like CP3. He's a healthy young athlete.