I love James even if he doesn't always give 100%. I personally believe he will mature and lead this squad to at least a WCF next season. Things he needs to improve on this offseason: Right hand layups, Jump shots and Defense. I believe he is going to work out with Bruce Bowen in the offseason. Hopefully he realizes that he needs to bring it on the defensive side too because he is our Biggest Xfactor.Just like Westbrook to OKC. James has become my favorite player and has improved on a couple of things since his arrival in Houston. A) His Euro-Step B) His midrange game C) His signature stepback (which he will only improve on) D) His passing People need to cut him a break. He really gets a **** load of hate, ESPECIALLY from Rockets fans. and yes to a point he does deserve it. But guys, come on, He is still a Houston Rocket and our Franchise player. I mean Curry didnt exactly kill it in the first round either but no ome talks about him or his defense. On the other hand, people make compilations of Harden's bad defensive plays and the Hate he gets on Reddit, RealGM and here is seriously getting out of hand.
His mid-range game has improved tremendously. 2012-13: 3-10 feet: 29% 10-16 feet: 31.4% 16-3 pt: 32.1% 13-14: 3-10 feet: 38.6% 10-16 feet: 43.5% 16-3 pt: 42.7%
His FG% went up quite a bit between the last two years. Also, his assists per game and FT% went up a little. Meanwhile, his turnovers did actually decrease a bit. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01.html
Improvement between 2013 and 2014? FG% 2013 : .438 2014: .456 AST 2013 : .5.8 2014: 6.1 The biggest area of improvement was that Harden became the best clutch player in the league last season. Here's his clutch stats: Last 5 Min <= 5pts 2013 FG% : 39.7% 2014 FG% : 50% 2013 3FG% : 31.3% 2014 3FG% : 50% 2013 PTS : 2.6 2014 PTS : 3.1 2013 +/- : -0.5 2014 +/- : 2.0 Last 3 Min <= 5pts 2013 FG% : 30.8% 2014 FG% : 54.5% 2013 3FG% : 33.3% 2014 3FG% : 45.5% 2013 PTS : 0.8 2014 PTS : 2.6 2013 +/- : -1.5 2014 +/- : 1.5 Last 1 Min <= 5pts 2013 FG% : 22.7% 2014 FG% : 52.9% 2013 3FG% : 12.50% 2014 3FG% : 50% 2013 PTS : 0.8 2014 PTS : 1.8 2013 +/- : -1.5 2014 +/- : 0.3 Last 30 sec <= 3pts 2013 FG% : 27.3% 2014 FG% : 66.7% 2013 3FG% : 25% 2014 3FG% : 60% 2013 PTS : 0.6 2014 PTS : 1.5 2013 +/- : -1.10 2014 +/- : 0.3 Last 10 sec <= 3pts 2013 FG% : 40.0% 2014 FG% : 57.10% 2013 3FG% : 50% 2014 3FG% : 50% 2013 PTS : 0.5 2014 PTS : 1.3 2013 +/- : -0.40 2014 +/- : 0.4 He performed at a ridiculously high level in clutch situations last season. Those are huge jumps in performance in the clutch. We won a good number of games because he was so good in those situations. We went from silly debates about who should be our closer to having the #1 clutch player in the league.
Is Harden that much better a facilitator? Last season he assisted on 25.9% of his teammates' FGs. This season, 27.3%. Seems the improvement is not all that great. He's also still holding the ball for too long and turning the ball over too often. Looking at his numbers between the two years. Not all that much different overall. He's shot much better on mid-to-long distance 2 point shots, but gets to the rim and the FT line less than he did last season while taking more midrange Js and 3 pointers (perhaps as a result of having less shooting at the PF position this year clogging up the lane). Yes, he's gotten better as a midrange shooter. But taking more Js and getting to the basket less offset a decent portion of the gain. Meanwhile, his defense is terrible as ever-- and that's the most glaring thing that one would think he should be working on that would make a difference to the team. We don't need him to go from subpar to All-World like Lebron James did on the defensive end, but it is past time that he becomes at least adequate. Really, I hope he improves significantly. It's important for the team that he improves. But let's not take youth and talent as a guarantee for future improvement. We've gone through this before-- in the very recent past, too: Tracy McGrady was about this age when he became Rocket and he never really improved before injuries claimed him. In fact, McGrady probably peaked at age 23 when he averaged 32 ppg and led a group of not so great teammates to 42 wins.
1. Speaking of "clutch": Where was he when the team really needed him in the playoffs? Situations don't get much more "clutch" than a series of ridiculously close playoff games. For all the "clutch" regular season scoring that he did, he didn't rise to the real occasion. 2. One could argue that six games is a small sample size, and there is some truth to it. But the same goes with "clutch" minutes in the regular season-- small sample size, plenty of fluctuation in FG%, etc., from year to year for many players.
I was particularly impressed that he improved offensively even as he adjusted to having a big post player in the paint for really the first time in his career. Good to see him out in the community at the children's hospital as well. Good on you, James. MOAR, please. EDIT: Carl, is it really so ridiculous to have just one positive thread about the guy? I guess it must be.
You wanna see improvement? Those stats can tell. You can keep telling us how bad Harden has played in the playoff series. That just won't make those improvement disappear. Haters still hate.
No, he shot the ball terribly in the entire Portland series, but you are judging a player by 4 games we lost in one two week period? That's pretty lame. Are you also going to judge Chris Paul the same way since he's been really bad in the clutch in this year's playoffs? How about Durant? He's not shooting the ball well in the playoffs either. Is that ok since they still might win the series? Do you now think that Joe Johnson is the best player in the league since he killed it in the clutch this playoffs? So Harden's FG% and Assists went up but not enough for you? Really, what's your expectation? Do you expect him to come out and average 10 assists per game? He's already the best assisting 2 guard in the league, how much is he going to improve? Did Durant improve this year? He won MVP so he must have, but in your mind what did he improve? What were the big measurables that made him MVP? We heard the same things about Lebron and Dirk when they failed in the playoffs. No so much any more. You think that Harden holds the ball too long? Have you ever actually looked at the amount of time that he possesses that ball? Harden possesses the ball 12.27% of every minute that he plays. Do you also think that Wall(21.31%), Conley (21.66%), Paul (20.11%), Lillard (19.17%), Lowry(18.68%), Curry (18.26%), Westbrook (20.32%), Dragic (17.8%), Parker (18.83%), Bledsoe (17.58%) and Lebron (12.89%) are all also holding the ball too long? Not only do all of those players (who are primary ball handlers for their team) possess the ball for a higher percentage of each minute played but many of them are possessing the ball 50% more than Harden. I understand the popular perception that gets thrown around but many of the things that are getting posted here since the playoffs ended are simply untrue. I've seen Harden called a "chucker" yet he takes less shots and is much more efficient than most any other elite scorer. I've seen him called a ball hog yet he passes the ball more than any other SG in the league. I've seen statements that he let Matthews and Batum go off against in the playoffs yet they both shot under their regulare season FG% and 3FG%. Lots of claims that he has to dominate the ball yet he possesses the ball less than most any other team's primary facilitator. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any middle ground with many of the folks here. We're either the best team in the league or we suck. Ditto for any player that you can name.
He's accumulated and deposited some extra triglycerides around his abdominal area. Great source of reserve fuel if he goes on a fast!
Carl gtfo this thread. This is a POSITIVE Harden thread. If you have nothing positive to say as you clearly do not then go to one of the other negative Harden threads. No need to polute this thread away from its intended discussion.
