James Harden is a superstar

[CKRT]

I feel like 26-5 is pretty arbitrary though. I understand the thought process behind it, just feels silly.

i think this is a good point so I instead did the same search with 25-5. It's STILL only LeBron, Jordan, Bird, and Harden.

Then I did it for 24-5. One new guy did it once: Wilt.

Then I did it for 23-5. Two new guys come in who did it once: Magic & Kareem.

I'm getting more awestruck by the game.

Good work! I always have underlying suspicions that people who do weird number cut offs are trying to hide the fact that there are lesser players who have done it before, as raven pointed out. Nice to know it's not true in this case.

[Doctor MJ]

Having said that, I don't know how much you can claim Harden as a peer with those players on the basis of the numbers alone.

The best that can (at this stage) be said of Harden's season is that he's laid the foundation for a pretty impressive career if he can maintain this pace.

Agreed completely. The thing is Harden's stature in the league is so far down from there. I mean as of last month, there were still people debating Harden vs O.J. Mayo. As a result I feel like it's almost impossible to overstate how good Harden is, though of course, if you start saying he's as good as Larry Bird, yes, that's an overstatement.

[SideshowBob]

Houston's ORTG with Harden on the floor will be over 110 after tonight's game, and over 109 overall for the season, which is close to +4.0 League Average. Considering how quickly he was asked to adapt to this new cast and to adapt to a new and larger offensive role, the chemistry the team as a whole is still building, the so-so spacing, talent level, experience level, I think it's VERY impressive that Houston's already this far along offensively with Harden being the clear primary catalyst.

A comparison would be the Thunder (obviously not perfect) in their breakout year of 2010, who managed an ORTG of 108.3, against a League Average of 107.6, (though to be fair, their outside shooting was putrid), though they were stronger defensively.

I knew he'd thrive BIG TIME in this role, but still, color me impressed. He's going to have a very strong argument for MVP in my mind if he keeps this up.

[Wall34]

Well i was wrong i didn't he'd be this good as a number 1 option this soon i am a fan of his game though so these are one of those moments where i am a little glad to be wrong. Dude looks like a top 5 MVP candidate and a top 10 player in the league (borderline top 5)

I was so wrong when Dallas let Nash walk i didn't think he'd be that great either gee it's happening all over again

[therealbig3]

My top 5 players this year:

1. LeBron
2. Durant/Paul
4. Kobe
5. Harden

I think Kobe is getting underrated because of LA's crap season...him, and more recently Nash, are the only reasons why they're even competing in these games, because outside of Kobe, Howard, and Nash, nobody really contributes, and Howard himself has been significantly worse than usual due to a combination of poor defensive effort/IQ, poor FT shooting, and poor coaching. In fact, the two dunces for head coaches that the Lakers have had this season have been a big reason why they've sucked as well. Kobe has been their lone bright spot.

[orangeparka]

Harden really proved me wrong this year.

His team does average a ton of points, but what he's done is pretty impressive nonetheless.

[ardee]

My top 5 players this year:

1. LeBron
2. Durant/Paul
4. Kobe
5. Harden

I think Kobe is getting underrated because of LA's crap season...him, and more recently Nash, are the only reasons why they're even competing in these games, because outside of Kobe, Howard, and Nash, nobody really contributes, and Howard himself has been significantly worse than usual due to a combination of poor defensive effort/IQ, poor FT shooting, and poor coaching. In fact, the two dunces for head coaches that the Lakers have had this season have been a big reason why they've sucked as well. Kobe has been their lone bright spot.

That's a great list. Would be interested to hear whom you give the edge between KD and Paul though

[Krodis]

Harden would be averaging over 27 points a game if he didn't play the one game with the flu where he didn't play in the second half and struggled in the first.

[Krodis]

Harden broke the Rockets' franchise record for consecutive 25+ point games with 14, although it was a pretty pathetic offensive game for the Rockets. It was their 4th game in 6 days and the back end of a back to back, and they have ANOTHER back to back coming up. In fact, they have five consecutive back to backs. Pretty harsh stretch coming up.

[NinjaSheppard]

It was a rough game in general as the refs swallowed their whistles and it was hard to get to the line. That could prove to be an issue though with Harden because he tries to initiate so much contact that when the refs swallow whistles it can create a problem.

[tsherkin]

It was a rough game in general as the refs swallowed their whistles and it was hard to get to the line. That could prove to be an issue though with Harden because he tries to initiate so much contact that when the refs swallow whistles it can create a problem.

Well, he did end up shooting 9/18 on the game.

He was, however, ABOMINABLE in the fourth quarter.

Harden had two turnovers, two missed layups and split the only two FTAs he drew. Final line, 3 points on 1/4 shooting, 1/2 FT, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and he committed a foul that sent Jason Smith to the line, where he split a pair of FTs. In a 9-point game, that could have swung things pretty well.

It does tell you that he was 8/14 before that point, though; he played I think 41 minutes. He's been logging some significant minutes this year and that's going to catch up to a guy eventually, mostly at the end of games. Tonight certainly wasn't a tour-de-force for Harden in the 4Q, and he only played like 8.5 minutes instead of the whole thing.

[Krodis]

The rest of the team wasn't any better in the fourth, which probably didn't help. He was the only Rocket to score in double figures last night, and everyone who shot a decent volume besides Harden had ghastly percentages.

[LarsV8]

Last night was a weird game. The refs completely swallowed their whistles and was very non typical.

[Krodis]

It felt like more than half of the fouls were loose ball fouls and offensive fouls. There was a distinct lack of defensive fouls called on both ends.

[tsherkin]

The rest of the team wasn't any better in the fourth, which probably didn't help. He was the only Rocket to score in double figures last night, and everyone who shot a decent volume besides Harden had ghastly percentages.

That, I notice. Not a great overall performance as a team and odd ref'g.

[Krodis]

They've been getting Lin more involved over the past month or so, which is good when Lin is playing well, but he's put up some stinkers where all they seem to accomplish is take the ball out of Harden's hands more than necessary. Hard to argue with the overall results, and with Harden's stats, but sometimes the Rockets go through stretches where he doesn't even touch the ball for possessions at a time. (To be fair, it isn't only Lin, Douglas and Delfino can be guilty of this as well). Although, honestly, Harden might just end up totally exhausted if he was handling the ball every possession with the type of drives he tends to make.

[CBA]

Wow, the Rockets have a crazy January. The secondary guys are going to have to take more of a load or Harden's going to be done by the end of the month.

[fatal9]

If Harden wasn't getting fouled going to the bucket he'd have a an assload more layups. Not sure I get the FT arguments about him.

The thing is he relies too much on FTs. In playoffs, when he wouldn't get calls so easily and when smart teams would trap him badly (as Heat and Thunder showed multiple times) that would be big issue. And he's .507 eFG% player. Which still is very good for a guard, but obviously not as impressive as .600 TS% and IMO his true value as a scorer is better described by eFG, because after all only playoffs matter.

This is an important point.

Historically, guys who relied on initiating contact for "soft fouls" to create an absurd FTA/FGA ratio (over .5) and had holes in their shot making ability have a tough time scoring consistently in the playoffs. Harden could be headed down the same road as of right now, though he is a young player who has the skillset to greatly improve his shot making ability over time. He's going to get calls no matter what, he has long arms, amazing at getting in the lane and drawing contact, but those calls don't come as predictably in the playoffs. Rockets are also basically playing a D'Antoni type system, super fast pace (faster than '05 Suns), lot of possessions where the defense isn't set, lot of leak out and open court scoring opportunities, lot of open space in the offense with a premium on shooting/spacing and that fits really well with Harden's game, so I'd be careful of his raw stats and have the big picture in mind.

As of right now, I can see him being very inconsistent in the playoffs, might even get outright exposed if he runs into the wrong matchup. To be clear, I'm not questioning Harden as a star, I have him as a top 5 player so far (but the superstar crop after the top 3 is very unimpressive this year), and he still has lot of room for improvment. He deserves a lot of praise for what he's doing, he's shown himself to be a star first option on a playoff team, but we shouldn't overlook what are some pretty obvious concerns with his game, especially now since he's starting to get that superstar status.

Interested to see him play against the Celtics tonight. Games against these type of slower tempo, smart defensive teams are what will reveal to me if Harden is improving on that front. Dude can kill like 75% of the league no problem, but I want to see more consistency against the top tier. This is mainly a concern with his scoring though, he is good/smart at moving the ball and running the offense to have decent games while not necessarily scoring well (an important superstar trait).

[Doctor MJ]

Historically, guys who relied on initiating contact for "soft fouls" to create an absurd FTA/FGA ratio (over .5) and had holes in their shot making ability have a tough time scoring consistently in the playoffs.

Could you expound on this a little more with some examples? Thanks.

[Doctor MJ]

Historically, guys who relied on initiating contact for "soft fouls" to create an absurd FTA/FGA ratio (over .5) and had holes in their shot making ability have a tough time scoring consistently in the playoffs.

Could you expound on this a little more with some examples? Thanks.