Should Harden take a mid-range jumper if left open or dared to?

Warriors have no such rim protector as Rudy Gobert. No worries, it was the last game he faced this kind of a defense this year. In the summer he would work on his floater..

 

I don’t think he needs to against GSW but bringing back his step back mid range around the paint will help bring the big man closer and open his 3 point shot and the lob. He can pickup his spot just like CP3. I think he should stick with floater/lob against GSW unless for some reason they find a counter.

 

I disagree the defender was not always that close to him, you guys are seeing something that's not there.

 

I feel like Harden can just take it to the hole without Gobert and Favors, no need for that floater to be honest.

 

yes, and he should post up too.

DD

 

Throughout the game the Rockets play the math game (the long play) and try to take the best shot possible within their system.

Within the concept, I am ok with Harden taking a mid range shot if:
1) Harden's shooting is struggling and he needs to get a *rhythm*
2) It is late in the game, and ANY SCORE that is open is a good shot where baskets are premium.

 

Lou Williams looked pretty good against the Warriors in game 5 with the help of that mid-range jumper.

 

Try to guard Lou William from behind and let him drive in. He will make those mid range jumpers with ease. Harden can do that too.

 

Harden should take the Chris Paul Approach, hit a few mid rangers here and there. I think it will keep him from slumping as much Hit a close one regain confidence.

Analytics are great but I think rockets forget about the mid range as a good solution to grab some easy points and keeps the defense off guard. How many times have we seen Paul and Green hit some crucial quick mid rangers to give us a boost.

 

Green? 86% of all his shot were at the rim or from 3.

Harden was at about 6% of his shots taken from midrange

Gerald was about 7.5% of his shots taken from midrange.

Paul is the only guy, and for very good reason, to take a healthy chunk of midrange.

 

You are underestimating Draymond and somewhat Looney, Bogut, and Durant. Although, none of them are Gobert level of defense, each of them play a different type of defense that is effective in other ways.

Draymond is very quick and can guard both Capela and Harden’s drive to rim. Looney has a great wingspan with height that can disrupt Harden at the rim, not as well as Gobert. Bogut is a smart defender that can get to positions for a charge and sell the flop against Harden drive. In addition to Durant being a good help shot blocker, going towards the rim or lobbing to Capela gets more complicated. The floater opens up the game for Harden in the paint against good defensive playoffs teams; and it’s a shot that can’t be blocked easily from the back or sides or front. Harden should be able to increase his FG% on floaters against the above defenders. Another reason to use the floater in the playoffs is that the refs don’t call fouls on Harden drives like the regular season, even contact at the rim so those layups are more difficult to make. The fouls on floaters are typically after the shot and doesn’t effect percentages as contact layups, even though Harden is good at making those than most.

 

What's easy about those points?

 

cp3? plenty because he's had that in his bag his entire career.

Green? hardly ever tbh

 

Your logical post is way to logical for this emotion-driven thread. Just feed into the NARRATIVE!

 

yes, he should be able to score in every possible way! no reason why Paul is allowed to take them and not James. he needs to add that and a post up to his repertoire next year.

 

The coverage invites Chef Harden to choose from a menu of options less appetizing than what he typically cooks up. He can try to shake his defender for a pull-up midrange jumper, which would be anathema to the analytical precepts that have shaped his game and Houston’s world-beating offense. He can drive through a thicket of arms and into the paint, where he’ll have to finish over a retreating rim protector. Or he can try to pick out the proper pass to a teammate—either a big man lurking for a dump-off or a lob, or a shooter stationed beyond the arc—who, if those aforementioned help defenders have done their job, won’t be open for long. (And even if they are, the defense has gotten the ball out of Harden’s hands, often a win in its own right.)

Gregg Popovich first broke it out in the 2017 Western Conference semifinals, eventually flustering Harden into a nearly inexplicable collapse in a six-game loss. Mike Budenholzer, a Pop disciple, took the coverage to another level earlier this season. The Milwaukee Bucks coach had Eric Bledsoe and Malcolm Brogdon aggressively overplay Harden’s left hand to direct him to his weaker right, to the point where they were often standing perpendicular to Harden’s left hip and shoulder, in hopes of keeping the Beard from uncorking his game-changing step-back 3-point jumper. It worked, more or less: With the Bucks guards steering Harden right and contesting his shots from behind, the mammoth Brook Lopez lying in wait in the restricted area, and help-defense havoc-wreaker Giannis Antetokounmpo zoning up on the weak side to take away cross-court passes to shooters, Harden shot just 39.3 percent from the floor and 28 percent from 3-point range against Milwaukee and committed 13 turnovers to cancel out his 13 assists over two games—both losses.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/...-james-harden-golden-state-warriors-utah-jazz

 

There actually is a reason, and the reason is that he's not good at them, and Paul is.

 

again, chicken or the egg. Harden is not good at mid J precisely because he never practices it and never takes them during games. There is no reason to think that a player who mastered one of the most difficult shots in the game - stepback three - can't be at least decent at mid J with enough time and effort put into it.

 

Again, why wasn't he good at it back when he took 200-300 for four seasons in a row? You don't think he practiced it back then? It used to be a huge part of his game, I think there's a reason he decided to remove it.

 

There has to be a way for Harden to exploit this.