The Official James Harden Thread

[pelican piranha]

25 ppg 5 rebs 7 assts

[rmfc]

BEAST (literally and and figuratively)!

[Q00]

I see his scoring going down. Last year he was pretty much counted on to carry the load, and was able to put up big numbers because he had free reign to shoot whenever he wanted. This year he's going to have to share that load with Howard. Like all good teams that have multiple scorers, their individual numbers go down.

I'm not going to compare Harden/Howard to Kobe/Shaq, but look at how Kobe's scoring went up dramatically after Shaq left, just as an example of what I'm talking about. Kobe would never have had that 35 ppg season if Shaq was still there, and Harden probably doesn't have his 24 ppg season last year if Howard is there. So I'm guessing he won't have that high of an avg this year now that Howard is there. Probably more like they both avg 20-22 ppg.

[pelican piranha]

Last year was also Harden's first year playing starter minutes and he will be improved this season I'm sure. Howard will make it easier for him to attack and to get open looks. 25 ppg is what I fully expect.

[CCM721]

Lol @ page 33.

[Q00]

Last year was also Harden's first year playing starter minutes and he will be improved this season I'm sure. Howard will make it easier for him to attack and to get open looks. 25 ppg is what I fully expect.

Yes Howard will get him better shots, but in turn he's going to have to share some of his shots with Howard. So less shots but better looks, which usually adds up to lower ppg but higher FG%. Which would be better for the Rockets success as a team. If he can score 21 on 47% FG, that's going to make the Rockets better than if he scores 25 on 43% again. So I think their team offense will be better, but maybe his individual scoring goes down. If you are a Rockets fan, that's what you want to happen though, as it will result in more wins. If you are just drafting Harden for your fantasy team... maybe not so much lol.

[pelican piranha]

I don't see his FGA's dropping very drastically. He'll still get to the FT line 48 times a game, so that should make up for it.