darkse1d wrote:What the hell happened to him? He went from top 10 superstar to Eddy Curry in a span of 3-4 months. We can't use the out of shape/injury excuse anymore cause it's one month into the season. He should have gotten his rhythm back by now.
He used to be so agile despite looking out of shape and had a really good first step. Now he looks so slow. His 3-pt shots are short and if he's not getting to the free throw line, his numbers look ugly.
15 games into the season, he's shooting 43% from the field. And he just dribbles dribbles dribbles till the shot clock gets under 5 and passes it or does a step back 3. We clown on westbrick for his poor shooting, but Harden has been equally worse. And he is playing next to KD, so he's not even getting double teamed or having the defense focus on him. In fact, teams are just ignoring him all together.
He looks like a shell of himself and for a guy that didn't rely on athleticism that much, he looks so slow out there.
This actually can happen to some guys when they reach their 30's and don't come into the season in the best shape. For a lot of guys if it last a whole season, they will bounce back the next season if they are not lazy.
That said, overall movement and quickness wise, I agree, but to the bolded, his shooting has not been bad, certainly not anything like Westbrook when it comes to efficiency.
Westbrook:
42.7% FG / 47.2% 2PT / 29.2% 3PT / 68.5% FT / 46.3% eFG / 49.8% TS
Harden:
42.8% FG / 47.4% 2PT / 38.9% 3PT / 86.2% FT / 53.4% eFG / 60.3% TS"Harden has been equally worse" doesn't really make sense here unless you just mean FG%, but Harden taking 7.5/13.9 FGA (54%) from 3PT while Westbrook takes 4.3/17.3 FGA (25%) means that directly comparing their FG% doesn't make that much sense anyways. Harden is shooting 10% higher from 3PT range, his highest mark since his 3rd season back when he was a 3rd option, his eFG% is at his career mark, he's >85% from the line, and his TS% is right around his career mark.
His last 5 games:
22.0 ppg / 48.5 FG% / 37.1% 3PT / 84.6% FT / 66. TS%His actual results are nowhere as bad as your perception. I can get the discussion about him still looking slower, etc, but the results don't support you saying his 3PT's are short and he's shooting equally as bad as Westbrook, or that he's necessarily inefficient in any way. He's been 55% TS or higher in 10/15 games and 50% eFG or higher in 10/15 games. He's had a TS% of 56.8% or higher in 4 of the last 5 games and 5 of the last 6.
