Every James Harden Midrange Jumper From The Start Of The 14-15 Season To Now

Some nights I stay up thinking how UNSTOPPABLE that mid range spin step back would be at this point in his career had he not abandoned it.

 

Is this every attempted midrange or every made midrange?

 

i miss the old long 2 pointers mergady used to shoot with a foot on the 3pt line

 

The dude had some of the worst efficiency markers as a shooter, but the level of difficulty on those shots you mention... damn lol. He had to be one of the most efficient at that spot with a defender in his face, as he had to rise like 5 feet just to get the shot off hah.

 

Show it to Morey. Mixing this up with 3's is important.

 

Someone make a vid of the 65% of them he misses

 

harden should be taking 5 of these a night.

 

Why?

 

Harden abandoning a strength of his is something I will never forgive Morey and MDA for. Have never seen anything like it before either. Also Harden himself, how can you allow yourself to be limited in such a way??!!

 

D’Antoni was a cancer

 

Bring in Sam Cassell as HC and let James get back to this.

 

I had to look this up. According to the NBA's stats, only 5 players attempted that many mid-range shots per game during the regular season. The top 2 in terms of FG% in that range were DeMar DeRozan at 45.9% and Lamarcus Aldridge at 44.9%. Carmelo's over there jacking 5/game at 39.9%. lol. Westbrook wasn't much better jacking up 5.2/game at 40.7%.

 

yes percentage on these is not great but it makes him harder to guard because it adds unpredictability and surprise to his game AND it makes it easier for him to tune up his aiming mechanism (making easier shots first, seeing the ball going through the net, makes harder shots easier) thus raising his 3pt % indirectly making cold stretches from 3 less frequent or avoiding it altogether!

 

Wow, that's some real wild hypothesizing.
"I'm not hitting 3's tonight, so that means I'm going to absolutely be hitting 2's at a higher clip than the pathetic 40-45% that most people shoot them at on an average day". It'll never be a situation where he just ain't hittin' shots that night, though.

BTW, looking through NBA stats, it seems Harden has always been around a 40% mid-range shooter (pretty consistently) when he takes more than 1-2 per game. Correct me if I have that wrong. Where do we get the idea he is an elite mid-range shooter? Honestly asking because I thought he was elite-level, too. By "elite-level", I'm thinking Durant or Paul-level where they're hitting them 48-50%+ most years. When I think of great modern mid-range guys, those 2 come to mind.

 

That was Lin's favorite shot too. Except he missed them.

 

No wonder his body broke down. Only Kobe rivaled T-Mac for unnecessarily acrobatic jump shot attempts.

 

Surprised Morey hasn't reached out to Clutch to lock this thread yet.

 

Mid range or step back 2 does nothing to mitigate the double teams that Harden has regularly faced these past 2 seasons.

Mid range is one of the least efficient shots for a reason. Is it any wonder that by minimizing this shot, Harden not only became more efficient but has led NBA in scoring past 3 consecutive seasons?