How many assists will James Harden average this year?

Some of those passes were amazing. A couple of the cross passes though needs to go away. It's pretty easy for a well-schemed defense to bait him into those.

 

His assist per 36 could go up from last year, and his assist per game stay the same. Not to say his per game won't increase, just don't know why voters assume he'll play 38mins.

I'm more interested in his minutes getting down to 36 than his assists being 10.

 

10.5 Ast/g
2.57 A/TO
4 TOV/g
861 Assist
335 TOs

#1 in Assist per Game
#1 in Total assists

Top 5 in TOV per game & TOV/g

Russell Westbrook last year
Showtime Lakers Magic
Steve Nash
90-91 Michael Adams

Really though, if James averages 23+pts, with 10+ assists and still does what he does with rebounding, steals, and get his defense back to average....he'll be uncomparable, unparallel to
anyone we've seen before. Really the only 1 player 1 year would be 1987 Championship Showtime Lakers Magic Johnson.

 

Everything will amplify. Scoring, Assisting, and Rebounding. He's got the ball in his hands more. And sadly, when he's out, the questions and concerns about who's going to create and who can score remain legitimate. This could make him a better passer so I would fully expect the turnovers to go down over time as he learns the position and offense. Don't think he will continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again if he's doing it every night. This should strengthen his going right and left as well. But ultimately, we'll draft a PG, and that will be that, but I think it makes him a better player.

 

hmmm....Or we draft other positions, because of his PG play. Two ways to look at it. Don't you hate it when ppl point out a completely opposite POV based upon a point you just made. The contrarian. But I do think the opposite here is worth discussing, without just me being a contrarian for contrarian's sake.

Just like we did in free agency and failed to get Bazemore and Horford: I'd still be picking BPA with priority at SF and C. I wouldn't be against a PG, just not the highest priority with Harden paired with a 3 and D PG. Plus, PG is a pretty easy position to trade for.

 

Harden will only get better in this new position as he learns the offense more.

My Prediction:
30ppg
12apg
7rpg
38mpg
4tovs

2016-2017 MVP

 

Never thought that Harden has a court vision. One-on-One, finally, believe me.

 

Yeah his per-36 and per-100 posseions assists can go up. Though Harden getting 11 a game means, (1) He's basically just a passing point guard with lessened scoring (doubtful) (2) he has to keep playing a CRAPLOAD of minutes.

Doesn't seem like a good approach to keep riding him that way. And it for SURE will take away even MORE from his DEFENSE. I'd still like another actual point guard or playmaker to share the facilitating role with Harden instead of the one man gang approach.

 

Yeah, and I'd still like a real starting center like Horford and a platooning wing like Bazemore.

It's a matter of priorities. As long as we have a 3 and D PG, and Harden can actually pull off this hybrid role, I'm fine focusing upgrades and backups at the SF and C position, and PF if DMo doesn't sign. (I meantion Center position for drafting prospects, not a trade this year. Recall, Nene only signed for 1 year.)

So, we can continue saying PG is our weakest position of the 5 starters, but is it really?

 

It does seem to be a lot less frequent for guys to avg. 10+ assists. I think the last guy to get even 11 was Rondo a few years ago.

I mean harden was 6th in the league last year and he only avg 7.5.

But I must say if Westbrook could avg 10 a game last year with one of the worst shooting teams in the league outside of KD I def don't see why harden can't.

TBH had Dwight committed to running more pick and roll harden prob would have hit 9a last year.

My guess is he does settle in at around 9.5-10.5a per game which is fantastic.

I want to see if he can keep those TOs at no more than 4.

I Know many of us want to see him get back into the 3s myself included but the way he plays and the amount of time he has the ball, if he can keep it right at 4 and avg 10a we can't complain. Besides at least one of his TOs a game is dead ball TO due to him attacking the basket and drawing an offensive foul.

I'm thinking he avg 28/10/6 with 2 stls. I also think we'll see him shoot his best percentage yet since arriving in Houston he's just going to have so much more space to get easy buckets off drives and also not have to force so may threes. My guess is 46/39/88 splits.

If he can pull that off and keep his TOs at 4 or less the rockets will win 50 games and he will finally get that MVP award he wasn't so bad. I don't think even the biggest Harden detractors could justify not voting for him.

 

Harden has brilliant court vision.not sure what you are talking about.

 

If D-mo signs he will avg 13 assists
If no D-mo he will avg 5 assists

not serious

 

9.8 APG

 

He will be in the top 3 in assist this season.

 

With the way the offense will be run this season Harden will feast in producing 11 to 12 dimes a night easily.

 

Of course his assist number should go up, he finally have some legit shooters to pass to. He also have big men who don't mind running the PnR. Plus both Nene and Anderson can hit the midrange jumper out of the PnR.

 

Could it be because people shoot threes more? Lower percentage shots?

 

Well count me as excited for the season then. Because Harden will be having numbers that have not been seen in the league since Oscar Robertson in the 1960's.

 

I disagree on the means to Harden getting 11+/game.

He just dished 15 dimes and that video tweet above shows at least 9 other wide open shots that would have likely gone in had our players been in mid-season form.

With the increased pace and minutes of Harden ball-in-hand....

We could see something special this season