Is James Harden's crazy efficiency the result of natural bball IQ

I'm going to theorize and guess Harden knows a lot about help defense.

As the shot clock winds down, help defenders have more and more incentives to move closer to the ball handler, since forcing a pass out usually leads to a shot clock violation.

When Harden holds the ball, he is actively waiting for the help defender to slide closer and closer, when the defender has moved a considerable distance he passes to the open man for the shot, and that is usually near the end of the shot clock.

This might be a stretch of an explanation, but Harden is definitely very very good at managing the shot clocks.

 

The average bball iq in the Wnba is probably higher than in the nba where we have a bunch of Javale Mcgee type players lmao.

 

Harden's footwork (i.e. eurostep) is just amazing. He's has very deft footwork. It sometimes seems he just hop/skipping out there. I believe footwork was something that differentiated Hakeem from other big men. Some guys just play at a higher level than other guys. He's one of them.

Unfortunately for Jlin, Harden's artistry sometimes makes Lin's play in comparison look rough and raw. But that's why people love Jlin, the underdog fighting to stay relevant.

 

His bball IQ is definitely high. But I think it goes beyond that. He knows his body and maximizes what it's capable of. He's definitely strong, but not necessarily all that quick. However he's super at the change of pace etc.

It's crazy because the other team has to know that euro-step giant two steps is coming, but they still can't stop it most of the time. That's because Harden knows when to use it, and when to mix it up with other parts of his game. It's a total combo of general bball IQ but also knowing exactly what he's capable of, and playing to those strengths. He's really an amazing player to watch.

 

Javale McGhee is easily a top 50 talent at the center position in the league right now. That being said Hakeem had the athleticism of a jaguar for his position but the basketball iq of a miniature Buddha (so wise). It takes both superior athleticism and iq to be a special. And harden has that special quality.

 

This comment either flew under the radar or no one opted to take the bait.

 

It could be well be the result of his unnatural IQ, he does look alienish with that beard, you know.

 

That guy with the beard who plays for the Rockets is "KINDA" good...

 

I am with the others. Harden now a couple of games where he scored in the lower 20's and I felt he was struggling. He is among the best playing the game at this time. We are very lucky to be watching this stuff. I take him for granted.

He said early in the year that he had been watching and learning and felt he was ready to take on this role. He learned well. That is a great BBall IQ.

 

It's not actually that complex, the only way to keep up with him is to run with your side to him, you can't run backwards at the same speed, and so he always turns towards the direction your back is facing, the euro step almost always comes after he forces them to face right.

 

But the defenders should know that it's coming, and not set themselves up for it, but he manages to do it time and time again. I get that you can't run backwards at the speed he's running forward, so it seems like defenders would beat him to the spot so they don't have to run beside him. For a pro NBA player it seems like they should be able to do it, but Harden pulls it off every time.

The fact that he can do that and get the defenders to put themselves in a vulnerable position so that he can pull off the move is pretty impressive.

 

A good high school team of guys should be able to beat most WNBA teams. Your pick-up team must suck.

Women's team play far better team ball and far better fundamentals. That's not Basketball IQ.

Basketball IQ is the ability to see the future on the court. 2-5 seconds ahead. It's recognizing the way things are set up and being able to anticipate and understand that doing x will lead to y. But it happens almost without thinking, it's instinctive from having truly learned and been in many situations.

Harden does have a "knack" for what's going on. So does Jeremy Lin. They both have high IQ and it's part of what makes them so dangerous at such a young age. Neither one is super athletic. Neither won will ever win a dunk contest or wow you with explosiveness.

The ultimate test of basketball IQ is how adoptable and quickly a player is. And from where you have seen Harden start to where he is now - he's far more devastating. It's not that he is only more efficient. it's that he does understand where to get his teammates the ball and when to pass it versus force up a shot. He knows when he needs to step up. He has a great "feel" for the game. He's got that Larry Birdness sneakiness developing.

This backcourt is going to be very fun to watch, and this is just the beginning. We are all in for a nice treat for many years to come.

 

I am going to assume you guys were just a bunch of cats in a gym.

If anyone has a rehearsed plan, they will murder any 5 dudes on the court.

 

Hey, I do that in NBA2k as well. It's the only way to get your 3-pt shooters to consistently shoot rather than drive or pass.

Maybe Harden has been playing too many sports video games, or maybe there is more truth to the simulation than I thought?

 

For an individual defender, it's basically unstoppable, because the rules give priority to the guy with the ball, you need to be at the spot before him, stationary, and even if it should be a charge, unless you're basically a rock, the refs will call a block.

As a team, the best defense seems to be simply trying to slow him down, to allow time for a defender to come from behind, I've seen Ibaka do it (in fact OKC do it a lot to a lot of people), Sanders also did it to him in the last cpl minutes of our loss.

 

Harden is ranked 1st among all SGs in efficiency, 4th among all players.

He's shooting 17.3 shots for 26.2 ppg
Ellis is shooting 17.4 shots for 18.5 ppg
Wade is shooting 16.1 shots for 21.5 ppg
Kobe is shooting 20.7 shots for 27.3 ppg

 

Harden is a unique player. He is not a jaw dropping athlete like McGrady, but he is a very good athlete with excellent body control and a very difficult to guard skill set. He is as strong as a bull and only gathers steam going to the basket.

 

Harden is already near a prime Ginobili with lower BBIQ and worse defense but much better athleticism/strength.

Manu at his peak put up 19.5 points on 13 shots/4.5 assists/4.8 rebounds in only 31 minutes per game while shooting higher % than Harden in both FG and 3-point. If he played 38 minutes as a starter like Harden he probably would have had similar if not better production, thing is Manu was always injury prone and not built to play heavy minutes.

If Harden is up there with peak Manu at only 23, pretty scary to think what his ceiling can be. He just needs to really work on his D.

 

Yeah, that play is called the "deek and roll"