[The Athletic] ‘Another tool in his Swiss Army Knife’

Probably saw something that bothered him this season and now he will try to find counters to that in the offseason

 

His catch and shoot 3s could use some improvement.

I don't have the raw numbers but I'm sure it's a 10% drop from his step back or off the dribble 3 point attempt.

 

If he gets a low post game. . . .. they will literally ban him from the league

Rocket River

 

It's like he's practically got to open up every series with a 40+ point statement game! Oh wait...

 

I think we saw it in the final move he pulled on Derozan against SAS, and we might see it more these playoffs...a post game! Harden is a true generational talent. It’ll be fascinating to see what he adds each offseason the rest of his career.

 

Do his “Man Down” ankle-breaker threes when he stares at the dead man, licks his lips and twirls the ball for 3 seconds count as Catch and Shoots, because he’s like 80% on those.

 

I remember Rafer Alston trying to do that shot and making like 10 % of them...

 

While everyone is talking about his floater now, he has actually been working on a variation.

The running off-the-window- floater from the left side of the floor to avoid the weak side help/shot block after they funnel him to the side.

I have seen him successfully try this a couple of times over the last month or so which I hadnt seen before.

This shot will be INCREDIBLY useful for him if he can perfect it off of the right side of the glass for times when they force him to his right. This shot will always be available to him.

 

10% on a good night.

The guy was a professional bricker.

 

Harden’s offensive game has evolved quite a bit since that Spurs playoff series, but he’ll tell you it’s not even at the level he wants it to be. And that’s scary. “I have a long way to go,” Harden said before whisking away into the night with the playoffs only weeks away. “But it feels good now.”

GOAT, how can you not love his determination to get better

 

Harden is one of few players that would still be dope in the 90s. All the other so called superstars would be average role players. Dude is a beast and OKC could have had westbrick Durant and Harden.

 

I couldn't say it any better. Brilliant take.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26437561/ten-things-like-end-season-spectacular

2. James Harden's floater -- and the threat of it

Welp, there are officially no holes in Harden's offensive game:

http://media.video-cdn.espn.com/gifs/mp4/NBA_Rockets_v_Hornets_2_27_2019_2gif.mp4

Harden is shooting 46 percent from floater range, by far the best mark of his career, per Cleaning The Glass. He has also taken many more of them; the NBA has logged Harden attempting 213 floaters this season, up from 91 last season.

By making the step-back 3-pointer efficient, Harden has essentially broken basketball. There is no way to guard him, beyond having an army of quick, tall and smart players who can bother that shot without fouling, or falling too far behind on drives. (The Warriors might be the only team with enough such players.)

Teams have settled on the Bucks/Spurs strategy of climbing atop Harden's left shoulder and inviting him to drive almost all the way to the rim. No player -- not even Stephen Curry, who revolutionized basketball before Harden revolutionized it again -- has ever been given such open runways into the most profitable territory on the floor. The hope, of course, is to stop Harden before he is in layup range, barricade the lob to Capela, and coax a floater.

This is how the Spurs contained Harden in the 2017 Western Conference semifinals, a humiliation that has proven an inflection point for Harden's development. If teams were going to guard him this way, Harden needed a reliable floater -- even if he would always strive for something better.

Defenses respect it now, and Harden is leveraging that respect into kickout passes:

http://media.video-cdn.espn.com/gifs/mp4/NBA_Kings_v_Rockets_3_30_2019_2gif.mp4

Harden looks like he's gathering the ball for a teardrop. The defenders seem to expect it; they almost freeze in anticipation. In that moment, Harden shifts the ball in his hand, and whips it to Daniel House.

Harden's style can grow tiresome. But watching how each opponent crafts its own Harden-specific strategy, and how Harden methodically dissects it, is one of the NBA's great theater pieces -- a night-to-night chess match that gets juicier in the playoffs.