Not Always Flashy, But Masterful
- Mar 8, 2019
- 7 min read
Not Always Exciting, but Masterful
James Harden has been subject to a lot of controversy the past few seasons, wherever you see a Harden article or highlight, the public seem to litter it with “all he does is shoot free throws,” or “He is only good because he is a volume shooter,” or “Harden is soft and gets every call.”
Yes, Harden draws a lot of fouls and takes a lot of shots, but if you take the time to watch Harden play in the Houston Rockets system and look further into the stats then it becomes pretty clear that what James Harden is doing is truly masterful.
Let’s have a look just on the surface - this season Harden averages 36.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game, on 43.9% shooting and 36.3% from three, while on defence he is tallying 2.2 steals and 0.8 blocks. Let’s start here. As it sits now, Harden has the 8th highest scoring average for a season in NBA history and five of the seasons that scored better than him are Wilt Chamberlain. If Harden manages to increase his average by only one more point, which at this point is looking very likely, he will then have the equal 5th best scoring season in NBA history, with only three of Wilt Chamberlain’s seasons and Elgin Baylor’s 38.3 season ahead of him, keep in mind, Elgin Baylor only played 48 games the season he averaged 38.3.
So, at the surface, Harden sits 1st in scoring, 8.1 points ahead of Paul George who is 2nd, 8th in assists and 4th among guards in rebounds, (including Luka Doncic who plays a lot at the forward position). At the same time, a man that has been harshly criticised for not playing defence in his career is 1st in pass deflections and 2nd in steals. Without delving too deep, that in itself is worthy of the MVP conversation, Harden is putting up numbers that we haven’t seen in a long time and that should be appreciated.
But, as anyone who has seen a James Harden post on the internet would know, the thing most people seem to care about is how much he gets fouled and “flops.” The fact of the matter is, most players flop, some are just better at it than others. While a lot of people argue that it shouldn’t be a part of the game, for certain types of players it needs to be.
Here is why:
For players that are strong
, big-bodied and athletic, flopping is necessary, it isn’t pretty, nor is it entertaining to watch, unless it’s a particularly bad flop, but players are out here to win, not look good. If a player like Lebron or Harden is hit the same way as a smaller player like Steph Curry or Kyrie Irving, with the same force, the contact is going to be more noticeable on the small player. So, despite being with the same contact and force, that still impacts the shot, a player like LeBron or Harden is less likely to get the call just because it doesn’t look like much has hit them.
Harden is one of few players with said body type that consistently drives to the hoop and controls the ball. Again, it isn’t flashy, it isn’t always fun to watch, but Harden is a competitor and he wants to win.
That being said, Harden does more than flop to draw fouls, he is masterful in baiting defenders into fouling and he does it quite brilliantly. People are quick to judge when they look at a stat sheet and see he took 12-13 free throws, but without watching the game you aren’t seeing how he does it. Harden is constantly baiting the opposition to go for the ball. With such a large wingspan he can hold the ball out in front of his defender, making them think they have a chance to steal the ball, but as soon as he sees the defender reach he moves to a shooting motion and by that point, even if the defender tries to pull out, it’s too late – they’ve crossed Harden’s arms on the shot. Of course, this can backfire, sometimes the ball is stripped, and it contributes to Harden’s high turnover numbers.
Harden plays similarly when performing his euro-step on the way to the basket. His arms are constantly reaching out, not only taking up more room, but baiting the defender into thinking he can block or steal the ball. At first glance the calls really do seem weak, but after watching enough film, you can see that Harden is baiting the defenders into fouling, taking away their discipline. Harden also drives to the basket more than any other player in the league, except for perhaps Giannis, but Giannis, although bigger, doesn’t go to the basket with the same tactics that Harden does.
Finally, Harden has been fouled on more threes this season than anyone else in the league, not only because he takes more, but because players don’t know how to guard him. It has been some time since the league has seen a dominant left-hand shooter like Harden is, which makes guarding him unnatural for defenders, especially when he is coming off a screen on the left-hand side of the court. Coming off the left side, Harden’s shooting hand is so close to the screen that if a defender tries to reach over the screen, their arm is already over Harden’s shooting hand, drawing the foul. Harden has the ability to get up a three without needing much room at all and he takes advantage of this and catches defenders off-guard. He doesn’t necessarily try to draw contact, but he does get his shots up quickly, before the defender realises, they’ve made a mistake.
It’s again similar with his signature step-back three, Harden doesn’t necessarily cover much ground, which works in his advantage. With a smaller step-back, and the ability to get a shot off over the defender, Harden gives the defenders the belief that they can block the shot, causing them to lunge for a block attempt, and ultimately landing in Harden’s shooting space, drawing the foul.
Drawing fouls always has and always will be part of the game, that is why they have fouls in the first place, but just because a player draws lots of them, doesn’t mean they are boring to watch. Like mentioned before, Harden is a big-bodied player, making him strong but he still remains agile, outside of Westbrook there aren’t a lot of guards with the same type of body. That is why these two make shots that other guards don’t when going to the rim. Both Harden and Westbrook are able to get off shots that other guards can’t, which again is unnatural for the person defending them. For example, a defender guarding Chris Paul is able to get a hand up and stop him shooting over the top while bodying him away from the rim. Whereas if a player tries to do this with Harden, he is strong enough to go through them if they extend to block the shot, and he is big enough to shoot over them if they stay down. Both Westbrook and Harden have this kind of ability, Harden just plays it better because, as mentioned he holds the ball outwards and is longer than Russ.
Inefficiency is supposedly a big flaw in Harden’s game, but when watching the Rockets play, you can see why shooting percentage isn’t a huge concern for Harden. Firstly, Harden still shoots at 37.5% from deep, which is pretty respectable. Harden has only shot better than that from deep once in his career, which was in 2011-2012 when he was taking 4.7 threes a game, 8.6 fewer than he is this season. Harden is also shooting a similar percentage he did in his rookie season when he took 3.3 per game and when he was taking 6.9 in 2014-2015.
Harden also has the highest usage percentage in the league at 39, almost 7 above Joel Embiid at 2nd. The only player to have a true shooting percentage of over 60% with a usage rate of over 35 is James Harden, who did it last season and is doing so again this year, but better this year at 62.2% true shooting. But if that isn’t enough to satisfy the efficiency critics, he’s scoring better than Kobe Bryant did as well.
Harden is attempting 24.7 shots per game and putting up 36.7 points. In Kobe Bryant’s 35 points per game season, he took 27 shots each game. What we are seeing is James Harden, score more, on fewer shots, while averaging 7.5 assists, 3 more than Kobe Bryant did in his highest scoring season.
Despite this, percentages don’t really matter to the Rockets or Harden because of the game plan of Mike D’Antoni. His system is built for a volume shooter and Harden is the perfect fit for this role, in fact he might be the only player in the league right now who could pull it off.
For a more in-depth view of the stats and reasoning behind Harden’s shooting, have a read of the following article:
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/1/3/18166695/james-harden-3-pointer-archetype
A further beauty of D’Antoni’s coaching is that the plays for Harden and Chris Paul are largely the same, but Paul takes the passing option rather than the shooting option. This means that Harden’s volume shooting doesn’t necessarily affect what the other players on his team have to do.
Harden is a ridiculous scorer, whether you count free throws or not, nobody can guard Hardens step-back three, only Harden makes Harden miss and it is that simple. If all free throw points were removed from scoring averages, Harden would still be leading the league, similarly, if all three pointers were only worth 2, Harden would still be leading the league. On the surface it might look like Harden is only stuffing stats, but when you delve further into the statistics and way Harden plays the game, there are very few arguments against what he is doing this year.
Yet despite relying so heavily on one player and the injuries to the team the Rockets are still a contender at 39-25, sitting 3rd in the Western Conference. In a 38-game span Harden carried the Rockets from 14th at 11-14 to 3rd, averaging 40.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1 block and 2.2 steals per game. That’s MVP type stuff right there.
Harden is breaking boundaries with his play this season and there is no other player in the league that carries such a heavy offensive workload. He has also improved defensively, taking away yet another angle for the critics. Basketball is a constantly changing game, especially in this age, and Harden is playing a new way, his way, and he is proving that in the right system, it can be very effective.
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