Great Analysis regarding Harden's so called Flopping

Read this article from Vantage Sports where the writer went and looked at all of Harden's fouls and what she found was validating to Rockets fans who actually watch our games oppose to general fans who just listens to the national narrative. Why can't ESPN or TNT etc do the same thing? Karl Rove said something years back that's very true....."If you say something long enough and loud enough, it will eventually become true" Harden hasn't been flagged with a fine in two years lol but he's a flopper and chris paul is a competitor? GTFOH! Enjoy!

http://www.vantagesports.com/story/...ng-fouls-drawn-mean-james-harden-is-a-flopper

(view the actual link for videos and charts)



The NBA and the Internet have their own versions of urban myths. These are things that become “true” in the sense that they are told and retold in the online world to the point of being “common knowledge” even if they’re not actually true. Arguably the most incontrovertible “truth” of this season is that James Harden is a flopper. But is he?

No, really? I actually asked. Harden does get to the stripe an awful lot, and that’s often used as “proof” of his alleged flopping. I hear the argument a lot: “He snaps his head back and flails his arm every time he drives to the basket.” Such a statement will get greeted with chuckles, retweets, and teary-laughing emoticons.

Of course, no one would argue that he’s actually flopping on every drive. So it got me to wondering: How often does he flop? And how do you define a flop, anyway? Is there an objective way to even define it?

Because Vantage annotates every shooting foul drawn, it made it easy to go through and see just how often he really does flop. I reviewed 120 (one-third plus 10) of Harden’s drawn shooting fouls, enough to get a significant sample of how often he really flops—or at least does the things that are identified as doing so. Is this really " James Harden?


The first thing I looked for is “arm flails,” which apparently means that Harden splays his arms about after getting fouled, overexaggerating the severity of the foul.

I noticed that this tended to happen when his arms got hacked as he dribbled, and that caused him to lose the ball. His arms seemed to “flail” in the same direction as the ball trajectory, almost as though to indicate that he’s not really flailing his arms but trying to keep the ball.

But not everyone is in the business of trying to explain away the flopping tendencies of the Beard. If the arms went out, the tally went up in the self-selected mental spreadsheet.

HEAD SNAPS

Another major complaint about Harden is that he snaps his head back when he goes to the rim. The argument suggests that he’s feigning contact when it’s not there.

There are times when his head goes back, but he’s also charging the rim hard. I noticed that most of the time this happens, he’s actually keeping his eye on the basket as he comes up and under it. I imagine this is what people are seeing when they call it snapping his head back.

While I disagree that this is a flop, I gave detractors the benefit of the doubt. If his head went back, I counted it, even if he got hit in the head.

BAITS

Next, we have what I’m calling “baits,” which refers to when Harden baits a defender into a foul by pulling him out of defensive position and then going into him to draw a blocking foul.

It’s important here to understand what constitutes a block and what’s a charge. The rules state, “If an offensive player causes contact with a defensive player who has established a legal position, an offensive foul shall be called and no points may be scored.”

And that clause, “who has established a legal position” is very critical here. If an offensive player causes contact with a player who has not established a legal guarding position, it’s a blocking foul. Often, people will protest Harden’s baits because he initiated the contact, but that doesn’t matter.

If a shooter pump fakes a defender off is feet, then jumps into him, it’s a defensive foul, period.

Consider this quote:

Many times you will encounter situations in a game when you have already picked up your dribble and your defensive man is standing right in front of you preventing you from getting off a shot or passing the ball. It is just for cases like this that you need to have some dead-ball moves in your repertoire. Naturally, you can use these moves away from the basket, but they are most effective when you make them not far from the hoop, either in or close to the lane.

To make the shot fake and jump shot move, start with a one-count stop. Bring the ball up toward your head to give the defensive man the impression that you are going to take a jump shot. He will lunge toward you at this moment. As he moves in, crouch down with your legs to gather your strength and then go up for the jump shot just as your defensive man moves into you. Go up strong and bump him a little with your shoulder or forearm to keep him from blocking your shot. Often your man will foul you and you can get a three-point play out of the move.

That’s not James Harden speaking. It’s Adrian Dantley. So this baiting is neither flopping nor new. But haters gonna hate, so I called them all baits.

ACTUAL FLOPS

Finally, I looked at whether there was actually sufficient contact to warrant the physical response. This was more in the lines of what the flopping rules actually stipulate.

“Flopping” will be defined as any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player. The primary factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would reasonably be expected given the force or direction of the contact

I recorded every instance where there was a foul called without sufficient contact, whether there was corresponding flop activity or not. This, of course, leaves out the possibility of it just being a bad call by the refs fault.

I purposely went against any type of pro-Harden bias here. For example, the above clip I ruled a " but most would not consider that one. For the record, the NBA has not found Harden guilty of flopping since November 2013. While he did get knocked twice in one week, he's been clean (officially) since then.

THE RESULTS
(view the actual link for videos and charts)
Percentage of shooting Fouls with Flop Activity | Create infographics

These are the percentages of the time, at most, he commits each alleged flop activity while drawing a shooting foul. Now, bear in mind that sometimes more than one of these alleged activities can occur in a play. Also, remember that these are all the most liberal definitions of the flopping categories.

Of the 330 shooting fouls drawn by Harden, an estimated 245 of them had no flop-related activity whatsoever. This certainly belies the notion that the bulk of Harden's free throws are coming from flops.
Harden Fouled Shot Attempts | Create infographics

Finally, remember that's only what happens when he's drawing fouls. The vast majority of his field-goal attempts don't actually draw fouls at all.

In fact, when you work out the details over the full season, only 85 fouls drawn, a smidge over one per game has "

SO WHY THE REPUTATION?

How did Harden get such a reputation if it doesn't match the reality? I think there are a number of reasons.

1. He was one of the first players fined for flopping, but since his two violations in November 2013, he's been clean. That doesn't mean the repuation went away.

2. Harden doesn't avoid contact. Vantage's " shot is one where the shooter alters his release angle because of the shot defense. Harden took only 37 altered shots all season. Compare that to the league leader in altered shot attempts: Russell Westbrook with 108. These two are also the top 2 in the league in fouled shot attempts, but Harden had 71 more fouled shot attempts than Westbrook did.

3. Harden isn't particularly good at making fouled shot attempts. On the season, his " (i.e., percentage of all fouled shot attempts where a field goal was made) is 14.8 percent. This ranks 154th out of the 186 players who had more than 50 fouled shot attempts (note that traditional box score stats don't consider a missed fouled shot attempt to be a " at all). The grain of salt to take this with is that Harden's degree of difficulty is much greater on fouled shot attempts than the And-1% leaders, who are mostly bigs drawing fouls under the hoop.

4. He has a striking lankiness to him and a big bushy beard. When he loses the ball after getting hacked, his long arms chasing the ball just look floppy. When he tilts his head back to keep his eye on the the basket, the long beard angles out and accentuates his movement. It's the almost comical aesthetics more than the reality. It sticks in people's heads.

5. He draws a lot of fouls, and he beats teams doing it. So when fans watch him beat their teams by getting to the line, there's a tendency to want to explain it away.

6. Confirmation bias is more powerful than people realize. That one time per game where there's something remotely " the predisposed viewer feels that it's been happening all game.

The next time you're watching the Rockets play, watch every drive, and ask yourself, was that a flop? You'll find yourself saying a lot more no's than yes's. While Harden definitely isn't one to avoid contact, he also isn't nearly the flopper his reputation suggests.

 

awesome...2 minute video with all the questionable flops from HIS CAREER.
Now do one of Chris Pauls, Lebron's, Durants.....F'ck it, ALL the players. You can make a youtube video for any player on any claim. It's just a tired narrative and the public relies on ESPN for all thier info. Look at the link... be objective.

 

I agree completely and thanks, I didn't know the comment had origins, but it resonated with me when I heard him (Rove) say it. It's very true with people, all you have to do is say something long and loud and truth grows on the pile of **** lol Half of these so called NBA experts probably watched 9-10 Rocket games all year, but are paid to analyze Harden and our team when the truth isn't hard to find; just have to dig through the **** lol Thanks again

 

ESPN, TNT and other large networks could debunk this myth but choose to chase the same narrative. It's lazy and it's suspect.....you tell me that with all of ESPN's resources they couldn't find someone to look at all of Hardens 300+ fouls to determine if the freethrows were valid?? BS

 

Thanks DFW, I left the office and didn't have time to dive back into it