The James Harden Thread (2019-20)

[thekdog34]

Best offensive player in the league and it's not really close.

Still, he needs a strong playoff run to shake off the critics.

Westbrook will need to improve on his shooting too.

He was shooting 29.8% from 3 and averaging 5.8 turnovers before tonight's game

[TheGOATRises007]

Best offensive player in the league and it's not really close.

Still, he needs a strong playoff run to shake off the critics.

Westbrook will need to improve on his shooting too.

He was shooting 29.8% from 3 and averaging 5.8 turnovers before tonight's game

His turnover economy isn't great, but his TS was still above league average despite the poor 3pt shooting.

He is unstoppable if he gets going.

[Dr Spaceman]

Absolutely horrendous performance from him tonight. Didn't even try to go for 50 when he still had 17 seconds to launch one, **** scrub.

Also, why is this thread dead?? He's had early struggles but he's been lighting it up still!

The thread is dead because more than half the responses here are negative. There’s no point bumping it when after every good game you’re met with 3-4 “I don’t care until I see it in the playoffs” “man his defense is horrendous” “I hate watching him dribble so much” “he only deserves half of his free throws” “he turns the hall over too much” “I think he’s addicted to codeine”. It’s just tiring to be a fan of his.

[SideshowBob]

The headline reads "Harden erupts", but he only scored 8.8 above his average. Hardly an eruption.

[Krodis]

Absolutely horrendous performance from him tonight. Didn't even try to go for 50 when he still had 17 seconds to launch one, **** scrub.

Also, why is this thread dead?? He's had early struggles but he's been lighting it up still!

The thread is dead because more than half the responses here are negative. There’s no point bumping it when after every good game you’re met with 3-4 “I don’t care until I see it in the playoffs” “man his defense is horrendous” “I hate watching him dribble so much” “he only deserves half of his free throws” “he turns the hall over too much” “I think he’s addicted to codeine”. It’s just tiring to be a fan of his.

Basically this. Can't really post without it becoming an argument.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[thekdog34]

Best offensive player in the league and it's not really close.

Still, he needs a strong playoff run to shake off the critics.

Westbrook will need to improve on his shooting too.

He was shooting 29.8% from 3 and averaging 5.8 turnovers before tonight's game

His turnover economy isn't great, but his TS was still above league average despite the poor 3pt shooting.

He is unstoppable if he gets going.

Well until the playoffs. Spamming step back 3s and free throws has never worked for him

[K_chile22]

He was shooting 29.8% from 3 and averaging 5.8 turnovers before tonight's game

His turnover economy isn't great, but his TS was still above league average despite the poor 3pt shooting.

He is unstoppable if he gets going.

Well until the playoffs. Spamming step back 3s and free throws has never worked for him

Seeing 2/3 of the last posts followed by this is almost reads as satire

[thekdog34]

His turnover economy isn't great, but his TS was still above league average despite the poor 3pt shooting.

He is unstoppable if he gets going.

Well until the playoffs. Spamming step back 3s and free throws has never worked for him

Seeing 2/3 of the last posts followed by this is almost reads as satire

Yeah, I'd rather evaluate his game than complain about the perception of others. It doesn't make the his flaws invalid or disappear just because people mention them too much.

Why are the harden critics wrong? His ts% the last 4 playoffs has been .555, .583, .548 and .567. that's supposed to be his main strength and that's not even good.

A couple of early regular season games doesn't really mean he's changed particularly since it's the same style that hasn't worked

[Bergmaniac]

Why are the harden critics wrong? His ts% the last 4 playoffs has been .555, .583, .548 and .567. that's supposed to be his main strength and that's not even good.

This ts% is around the league average or slightly above it, which for a really high volume scorer in the playoffs is quite good, especially considering that he's often faced some of the best defenses in the league.

[poopdamoop]

Harden is surreal to watch now. Nothing he's doing feels unsustainable over the season, and a slight uptick in his percentages on this volume means he's averaging over 40ppg. I think it's a valid concern that his game isn't made for the playoffs though - it's physically taxing to do what he does against a set defense over and over again.

[thekdog34]

Why are the harden critics wrong? His ts% the last 4 playoffs has been .555, .583, .548 and .567. that's supposed to be his main strength and that's not even good.

This ts% is around the league average or slightly above it, which for a really high volume scorer in the playoffs is quite good, especially considering that he's often faced some of the best defenses in the league.

Quite good compared to who? Curry's ts% has been .603, .659, .590 and .620. LeBron has been .487, .585, .649, .619, and kawhi .571,.597, .672, .619.

Dropping to leave average or below consistently is just being average especially when he doesn't add defense and turns it over more

[thekdog34]

Harden is surreal to watch now. Nothing he's doing feels unsustainable over the season, and a slight uptick in his percentages on this volume means he's averaging over 40ppg. I think it's a valid concern that his game isn't made for the playoffs though - it's physically taxing to do what he does against a set defense over and over again.

He has help, he just doesn't want to use it, hence the fallout with CP3. It's frustrating but maybe he'll sustain it in the playoffs this year

[Homer38]

TS% of Harden is helped by his free throw .... You can not relied too much in the free throw in the playoffs, which has always been the problem of Harden .... No way he will have 15-16 free throw per game in the playoffs like Harden has right now, unless the referee starts making the same call in the playoffs as they do in regular season.

[thekdog34]

TS% of Harden is helped by his free throw .... You can not relied too much in the free throw in the playoffs, which has always been the problem of Harden .... No way he will have 15-16 free throw per game in the playoffs like Harden has right now, unless the referee starts making the same call in the playoffs as they do in regular season.

Pretty much. And he's still shooting well at the rim but he's lowered his share of shots there. So far he's shooting 57% of his shots from 3 at 32%

[therealbig3]

I think it's fair to say that Harden still needs that definitive playoff performance to back up what we've seen him do in the RS, but I also agree that harping on it every time he has a great RS game is lame. We can enjoy his greatness during the RS, and at the same time reserve final judgment until he demonstrates that he's the same kind of offensive machine in the playoffs.

Yeah, I personally don't like watching him play, but I can't deny that he's wickedly effective. He's able to lead elite offenses basically by himself (some of it is team strategy, since they are sacrificing some defense in order to do it). The Rockets have been an elite offense, and that's with Harden struggling. Imagine once he gets going.

He's averaging close to 40ppg...again. Dude's a machine.

[Krodis]

His turnover economy isn't great, but his TS was still above league average despite the poor 3pt shooting.

He is unstoppable if he gets going.

Well until the playoffs. Spamming step back 3s and free throws has never worked for him

Seeing 2/3 of the last posts followed by this is almost reads as satire

Well we weren't lying.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Homer38]

TS% of Harden is helped by his free throw .... You can not relied too much in the free throw in the playoffs, which has always been the problem of Harden .... No way he will have 15-16 free throw per game in the playoffs like Harden has right now, unless the referee starts making the same call in the playoffs as they do in regular season.

Pretty much. And he's still shooting well at the rim but he's lowered his share of shots there. So far he's shooting 57% of his shots from 3 at 32%

He tries way too many 3 points, especially in games that his 3 points do not work .... He needs to try other things instead of missing at least 14 three points, but that's the style of the rockets who lives or dies by the 3 points (best example is the game 7 in 2018 vs Warriors when Houston missed a ridiculous 27 three points in a row!)

[thekdog34]

I think it's fair to say that Harden still needs that definitive playoff performance to back up what we've seen him do in the RS, but I also agree that harping on it every time he has a great RS game is lame. We can enjoy his greatness during the RS, and at the same time reserve final judgment until he demonstrates that he's the same kind of offensive machine in the playoffs.

Yeah, I personally don't like watching him play, but I can't deny that he's wickedly effective. He's able to lead elite offenses basically by himself (some of it is team strategy, since they are sacrificing some defense in order to do it). The Rockets have been an elite offense, and that's with Harden struggling. Imagine once he gets going.

He's averaging close to 40ppg...again. Dude's a machine.

The offense is still good when he sits. Having cp3 and Westbrook plus a pretty good supporting cast and offensive coach means he's really not doing it by himself to me

[K_chile22]

I think it's fair to say that Harden still needs that definitive playoff performance to back up what we've seen him do in the RS, but I also agree that harping on it every time he has a great RS game is lame. We can enjoy his greatness during the RS, and at the same time reserve final judgment until he demonstrates that he's the same kind of offensive machine in the playoffs.

Yeah, I personally don't like watching him play, but I can't deny that he's wickedly effective. He's able to lead elite offenses basically by himself (some of it is team strategy, since they are sacrificing some defense in order to do it). The Rockets have been an elite offense, and that's with Harden struggling. Imagine once he gets going.

He's averaging close to 40ppg...again. Dude's a machine.

The offense is still good when he sits. Having cp3 and Westbrook plus a pretty good supporting cast and offensive coach means he's really not doing it by himself to me

They had an above average (in terms of %tile of lineups using CTG) offense once in the past three seasons with Harden off, not including this season for sample size reasons

[thekdog34]

I think it's fair to say that Harden still needs that definitive playoff performance to back up what we've seen him do in the RS, but I also agree that harping on it every time he has a great RS game is lame. We can enjoy his greatness during the RS, and at the same time reserve final judgment until he demonstrates that he's the same kind of offensive machine in the playoffs.

Yeah, I personally don't like watching him play, but I can't deny that he's wickedly effective. He's able to lead elite offenses basically by himself (some of it is team strategy, since they are sacrificing some defense in order to do it). The Rockets have been an elite offense, and that's with Harden struggling. Imagine once he gets going.

He's averaging close to 40ppg...again. Dude's a machine.

The offense is still good when he sits. Having cp3 and Westbrook plus a pretty good supporting cast and offensive coach means he's really not doing it by himself to me

They had an above average (in terms of %tile of lineups using CTG) offense once in the past three seasons with Harden off, not including this season for sample size reasons

That's right. I should have said that overall they are still decent. His on/off numbers don't show the team falls apart without him. He's had good supporting casts, especially the two years with Chris Paul