James Harden is a superstar

[Raaccoonn]

Meh... Harden is small and his handles aren't that good.

Not buying him being a Super-Star despite his stellar game to start his Rocket career.
It was against the Pistons after all.

Look forward to watching what he does against teams with good defenses.

[AussieBuck]

Harden's standing reach is 1 inch shorter than Tyler Zeller's.

[JordansBulls]

Harden With and Without Durant and Westbrook, per36

2011

Code: Select all

With Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
78   1351    11.3    8.9      3.3     3.9     2.5     .486   .546

Without Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
81   838     24.6    15.1     9.5     4.7     3.6     .547   .638

Code: Select all

With Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
82   1159    10.4    7.6      3.2     3.8     2.2     .508   .577

Without Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
82   1030    23.2    15.3     8.4     4.6     3.6     .530   .611

2012

Code: Select all

With Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   1420    14.9    9.6      4.7     4.7     3.6     .570   .638

Without Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   526     31.2    17.2     12.5    4.7     6.0     .607   .687

Code: Select all

With Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   1231    13.7    8.9      4.4     4.5     3.7     .571   .632

Without Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   715     29.0    16.3     11.1    4.9     5.2     .600   .684

This guy is going to be a stud for the Rockets. I wonder if he will be better than Mcgrady was for the Rockets.

[ardee]

Harden With and Without Durant and Westbrook, per36

2011

Code: Select all

With Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
78   1351    11.3    8.9      3.3     3.9     2.5     .486   .546

Without Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
81   838     24.6    15.1     9.5     4.7     3.6     .547   .638

Code: Select all

With Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
82   1159    10.4    7.6      3.2     3.8     2.2     .508   .577

Without Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
82   1030    23.2    15.3     8.4     4.6     3.6     .530   .611

2012

Code: Select all

With Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   1420    14.9    9.6      4.7     4.7     3.6     .570   .638

Without Durant

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   526     31.2    17.2     12.5    4.7     6.0     .607   .687

Code: Select all

With Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   1231    13.7    8.9      4.4     4.5     3.7     .571   .632

Without Westbrook

GP   MIN     PTS     FGA      FTA     TRB     AST     eFG%    TS%
62   715     29.0    16.3     11.1    4.9     5.2     .600   .684

This guy is going to be a stud for the Rockets. I wonder if he will be better than Mcgrady was for the Rockets.

Early to say but I think he might end up as the third best player in Rockets history after Hakeem and Moses.

[Keshavarzi]

Meh... Harden is small and his handles aren't that good.
.

Not sure if srs.....since when is 6'5+ and 220-230lbs considered small?

[sanitylaker]

Some guys overreacting so much over a game against the Pistons.

Call me agains when he does it against Chicago, Boston or Miami

[Rapcity_11]

His penetration ability looks insane here. Good early call by bastillion - I think Harden will turn out to be a superstar

Looks like he already is one, thanks for the vid.

His skill-set combined with outstanding decision making is just such dangerous combo. The way he reads the PnR especially is a thing of beauty. Even look at 2:50 when the Pistons over-commit on the PnR and he makes the simple pass over to Parsons who has a clear lane. Just fundamentally sound ball. Same kinda thing at 4:05 when he finds Lin the corner.

The funny thing is he showed nothing different in that game from what he did with OKC, he just had the ball run through him more.

All the guys claiming he was nothing special will be eating a lot of crow soon enough.

[JustCame]

I love Harden's game. He's gonna be a top 10 all-time SG when he retires.

[reignfire]

A great Harden stat: on 2pt FG attempts, he averages 2.08 PPS(points per shot). That is by far the most in the L. He gets to the line so much that he actually averages more than 2 points per 2-point shot attempt. He leads this category by a wide margin.

[SideshowBob]

Penetration looked excellent, even without elite spacing. As usual we saw a proclivity for crisp and seasoned decision making while handling on the PnR. Continued to run and play within the offense to close the game out instead of playing hero-ball despite shooting Houston back into the game. Showed signs of a developing mid-range game, which is going to be handy once the league's defenses adjust to him being a more prolific scorer. Looked solid defensively as well. Was recovering well on shooters, did a nice job staying in front of his man, was active in transition.

All good things from Harden last night. He continues to impress (and bast's prediction continues to gain traction).

[pancakes3]

I'd be leery of expecting him to shoot 73% FG at the rim all year. He has shot 47, 61 and 70 percent there on 2.5 to 3.4 attempts per game over the past three years, so he'll do very well for himself, but that's quite high. He's also not going to be taking 10 3PA/g either, he'll take at most half of that.

Remember, he went 10/15 under the arc tonight; that's just flat-out not going to happen on a regular basis.

He'll do well for himself because he's a smart player who can hit the three and is a good free throw shooter with a knack for getting to the line, but I would be leery of calling his shot chart "legit." 11 attempts at the rim isn't something you're going to see every night, especially when he was taking basically 4 FGA36 at the rim this past season.

I don't think Dr. P meant legit as in easily duplicated but rather that the distribution of shots isn't flukey. It's not like he just heated up from downtown and bombed a few 3's to get to his 37pts. Take away a bucket at the rim here and a jumper there, a free throw here, a 3 pointer there, and it's still within the realm of reason that Harden is fully capable of averaging in the high 20's on 55+ TS%'s - at least moreso than the aforementioned Beasley.

Basically, it's an encouraging sign that the shot distribution wasn't solely predicated on one aberration but rather the confluence of many things.

[Dr Positivity]

Yep. It's a much better sign for Harden that he had a game where he was unstoppable creating shots at the rim, than Beasley or Jennings who during their "star" games just got blazing hot shooting the ball

[tsherkin]

it's still within the realm of reason that Harden is fully capable of averaging in the high 20's on 55+ TS%'s - at least moreso than the aforementioned Beasley.

That seems just fine, I don't disagree with that.

Basically, it's an encouraging sign that the shot distribution wasn't solely predicated on one aberration but rather the confluence of many things.

Mmm... But 11 FGA at the rim is still ~ triple the usual rate, and that's as flukey as getting hot from downtown, as I mentioned. Those are 60-70% shots, and he's not regularly going to shoot 67% FG under the arc as he did in this game.

I don't want to Negative Nellie too hard; it was a great and encouraging performance from Harden, just don't infer too much from it about the season ahead, is all.


Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk

[the_fool]

We have to wait until this season is over

[ahonui06]

Only one game and against a terrible to mediocre Pistons team. Harden needs to become an efficient 20+ PPG player over a season and lead the Rockets to the postseason before being considered a superstar.

[KG_And1]

This "one game" talk is absolute nonsense.

People really using this as an argument? Seriously?

[thizznation]

I know we wanna all let loose with our harden takes but can we at least wait a week or two before we make our hasty, premature decisions!

[phx#7]

This "one game" talk is absolute nonsense.

People really using this as an argument? Seriously?

It's replaced the "he needs 2 star players" argument quite nicely.

I don't think Harden is a superstar right now(though I think it's possible for him to develop into one) because I don't think he can be the best player on a legit contender, but I think he can be the 2nd best player on a contender pretty easily.

[Vindicater]

This "one game" talk is absolute nonsense.

People really using this as an argument? Seriously?

Well it is one game?

Or do you think Tony Delk could have been a superstar?

[EArl]

Not Yet.