Since he's been propped up as a talking head I don't like Lowe as much as the next guy but Harden's Game 7 was hard to watch. Maybe we've been conditioned to watch franchise players "impose their will" on a critical game--an elimination game no less--and, as the franchise player, Harden was expected to do the same thing. But maybe he was playing within the game/system that has worked for Houston before (e.g. penetrate, move the ball, and find the open man for 3) as Covington, Tucker and House hit some pretty big shots. For what it's worth I exported the game log for Harden's playoff career and looked at only possible playoff elimination or series clinching games. Number of games: 34 FG%: 42.6% 3PT%: 33.8% FT%: 83.6% RPG: 5.4 APG: 5.6 ToPG: 4.2 PPG: 23 Looking at only his games in a Rockets uniform: Number of games: 24 FGA per game: 19.5 FGM per game: 7.9 FG%: 40.5% 3PTA per game: 9 3PTM per game: 3 3PT%: 33% FTA per game: 9.2 FTM per game: 7.875 FT%: 85.6% RPG: 5.5 APG: 6.2 ToPG: 5.2 PPG: 27 Cumulative +/- from the 24 games: -41 Biggest clunkers: Game 5 vs GSW in 2015 1st Round -33 Game 6 vs Spurs in 2017 2nd Round -39 Game 6 vs GSW in 2018 WCF -29 Best performances: Game 5 vs LA Clippers in 2015 2nd Round +21 Game 5 vs Minnesota in 2018 1st Round +18 Game 7 vs LA Clippers in 2015 2nd Round +13
Why not include them? Just because you're up 3-1 doesn't mean the pressure lessens. But in those series clinching games where the Rockets were up 3-1: Number of games: 4 FGA per game: 22.6 FGM per game: 8 FG%: 35.3% 3ptA per game: 10 3ptM per game: 3 3PT%: 30% FTA per game: 7.2 FTM per game: 6 FT%: 83.3% RPG: 5 APG: 6.8 ToPG: 4.4 PPG: 26 Cumulative +/-: +50 Games: 2015 1st Round Dallas Game 5 2017 1st Round OKC Game 5 2018 1st Round Minnesota Game 5 2018 2nd Round Utah Game 5 2019 1st Round Utah Game 5
In games STRICTLY where the series ends: Number of games: 14 FGA per game: 20.3 FGM per game: 7.7 FG%: 37.9% 3PTA per game: 9.3 3PTM per game: 3 3PT%: 32.2% FTA per game: 9.6 FTM per game: 8 FT%: 83.3% RPG: 5.3 APG: 6.6 ToPG: 5.5 PPG: 26 Cumulative +/-: -45 W/L: 7-7
these are horrible stats. turning it around for 1 playoff run that results in a ring is literally all he needs to do to make it not matter - see Kobe, Dirk, Joe Flacco lol
A lot of people have made this point before, so I just want to throw out some info that may make it more clear why this is the case. The answer is because Harden is not, and never has been, a good midrange shooter. I posted these numbers in another thread about this same subject, here is James Harden field goal percentage from the midrange throughout his career- 12-13: 34% 13-14: 41% 14:15: 37% 15:16: 41% 16:17: 41% 17:18: 39% 18-19: 42% 19-20: 50% (only 0.3 per game, not a great sample) So the answer to this question is that he's just not very good at it. The same goes for his post ups, I don't have the numbers on that right now but I've looked them up before and I know that they're not great. They're okay, but not great. Now, it's obviously more complicated than "don't run any plays unless it's your best play". If you take this logic to the extreme, every player would only be allowed to take their most efficient shot, but that's obviously not right. So there is some value in variety, I'm sure you've heard the cliche of "keeping the defense honest" a million times. So how inefficient of a shot are you willing to take? When is it worth it, and when is it not? Sometimes you take this less efficient shot, but by adding that to your game, it will increase the efficiency of your other shots, because you are harder to defend, or in a better rhythm, or whatever. But again, this is a very very complicated question. It's a fact that Harden is not very good at these shots. It's a fact that they are "less efficient", in a vacuum, than the shots he likes to take, which are stepback 3s in isolation, or drives that lead to layups/free throws/assists. So this is the reason they (some combination of Harden/Morey/MDA) decided that he should cut them out of his game. It's the same reason they mostly got rid of his pnr. It was less efficient than his isolation, so that's why they got rid of it. For @Furious Jam, the floater was also a casualty of this decision, because the floater was part of the pnr with a dunker. The rim protector has to pull back and guard the lob, which essentially turns the floater into an open shot. Unfortunately, no dunker pnr means no floaters. Anyway I don't really know the answer here and I don't feel strongly either way. It's frustrating to watch Harden shoot so poorly from 3 every playoffs. His most efficient playoffs since he's been in Houston was that first WCF year where he shot a lot of midrange. I'm just trying to shed some light on why this decision was made, and maybe bust some myths about Harden being a great midrange shooter. He's never been on the same level as people like CP3, Curry, Durant, or Kawhi.
He worked on his step back game, he can work on it from other spots. Kawhi wasn't a good shooter until he worked on it and was. Whether its an organizational thing or personal thing, Harden ends up limiting himself with his shot selection.
Kobe's numbers in Playoff Game 7s: Number of games: 6 FGA per game: 19.7 FGM per game: 9 FG%: 45.6% 3PTA per game:4 3PTM per game: 1 3PT%: 25% FTA per game: 7.2 FTM per game: 83.3% RPG: 5.1 APG: 4.6 ToPG: 2.6 PPG: 25
I wanna say that I disagree here. We stopped using pick and rolls because teams would just trap off it a lot of the times. Initially they just started switching the picks as well. We ran a lot of pick and roll before Paul got here, then teams would just start switching the picks. And we just naturally ran more isolation. I remember Lowe on another pod saying teams were just fed up defending the Harden and Capela pick adn roll so they just started trapping and switching more or fighting harder through screens etc. Morey is even on record as saying Capela was just brining doubles right to Harden so that's why these use isolation more. Harden is very good at Isolation but teams dont want him running a pick and roll because honestly I think that's more efficient for us.
I think it's safe to say he worked very hard on his midrange game back when he shot them a lot, though. I mean you could be right, maybe if he worked even harder on it today he could get better at it, and maybe enter that elite tier of midrange shooters, but I don't think that's very likely.. It was a major part of his game in OKC and a major part when he first got to Houston, and knowing how hard of a worker Harden is, I think we can assume that he was working very hard at it back then, when he was at 40% shooter.
Not every time, but sometimes to switch it up I think we could benefit from that. Harden playing off the ball occasionally wouldn't be a bad thing, and the Westbrook hate is out of control.
Those stats are surprising, but I feel like when he sets his mind to it he has a pretty good mid-range jumper. He did that against GSW in game two of the '15 WCF and was really successful.
I'm basing my statement off something I heard either Morey or Dantoni say in some kind of interview or podcast, it's not something I made up, but I don't remember where I got it from. What you're saying makes sense though, so I probably just misinterpreted it regarding the doubles/trapping/etc.
These numbers look bad, but it's worth to break it down into more details. Harden's 13-14 playoff performance was particularly bad, if we exclude that and only counts from 14-15 where he first became an MVP caliber player in the regular season, it's 32 of 73 (43.8%) shooting, which is actually better than his playoff average across the same span (42.3%). The 3p shooting is still horrendous, 8 out of 37 (21.6%), which is why I always believe that he shouldn't have given up the mid range shooting completely. He wasn't a good mid-range shooter but was capable, and he hasn't shown that his step back 3, as lethal as it has been in the regular season, can be very effective in the playoffs, especially in the clutch time when the defense are most tight. The most recent two season's number are even better, 18 of 34 (52.9%) shooting, and 5 of 15 from three. I think we can all agree that Harden gets better every season, so I don't think it's fair to judge his clutch performance in the playoffs based on numbers that are 7 years old when he wasn't the same player. Harden shoots a lot of free throws, his TS% in playoff clutch time since 14-15 season is 59.3%, I would say in terms of scoring efficiency, it's not bad, and he is getting better each year.
