James Harden 20-21 Thread

[TroubleS0me]

37.7 PPG so far

[Amare_1_Knicks]

Harden amasses these unreal stat lines and season averages in almost effortless fashion.

[Firebird1]

Very cool.

[Pelly24]

Harden's free throw rate is just so so valuable. There are people who are better shooters, but his ability to get 10 or 11 free throws every single night gives him a very high scoring floor. And when his shot isn't falling, he can just crank up his drives and get to the line more. It's basically impossible for him to score less than 25 ppg for a month.

[feyki]

If NBA have a delegate, it would be Harden(for todays NBA).

[NBAHardWood]

early stats on the beard this year.. huge change from previous years

Harden is averaging just 7.2 ISO possessions per game, down from 14.1 possessions last year, and 16.4 possessions the year before that...it is just slightly ahead of the 6.8 ISO possessions he averaged in 16-17

Hardens usage rate is just 30.4% despite having a monster 125 offensive rating...his usage rate ranged between 34.2 and 40.5% during the MDA era

-19.2% of his two’s have been assisted so far, his highest percentage since the 13-14 season
-22.7% of his threes are being assisted, his highest percentage since the 17-18 season and significantly higher than the past 2 years

currently averaging a career high 11.3 assists a game...he’s making sure Christian Wood gets his touches and shot attempts...he’s not marginalizing John Wall and letting him get his shots...he’s giving Boogie touches...he looks for the role players like Tucker in the corner or Nwaba and Tate when they’re cutting or running in transition so that they feel involved

only averaging 4 turnovers a game to go along with those 11.3 assists

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I have no idea if this change by Harden is gonna continue throughout the season, but do you guys think harden playing like this gives him a better chance to win a title. I mean harden could probably average 40 if he wanted if he went for it, but i really think he is listening to stephen silas and wants to give him a chance

[JordansBulls]

Where does he fit so the team is better? Maybe Chicago or NYK

[TroubleS0me]

Watch on YouTube

[TroubleS0me]

bump Harden on the Nets

[eminence]

I'm intrigued to see if the recent rough patch of play was all effort, or if he really is a bit out of shape too (though that ties back to effort).

The Nets seem like an awkward construction as of right now, DeAndre the only real big and nobody interested in playing D.

[NBAHardWood]

other than the 9 turnovers. excellent debut. Slowly but surely playing his way into shape

[Jordan Syndrome]

other than the 9 turnovers. excellent debut. Slowly but surely playing his way into shape

Its quite incredible with how good this guy is. Completely out of shape physically and is able to come in to a new team and dominate in a way few others have offensively in NBA history.

As much grief or disgust the guy gets for his antics or style of play, he is one of the most prolific players we have ever seen in NBA History.

[GSP]

other than the 9 turnovers. excellent debut. Slowly but surely playing his way into shape

Its quite incredible with how good this guy is. Completely out of shape physically and is able to come in to a new team and dominate in a way few others have offensively in NBA history.

As much grief or disgust the guy gets for his antics or style of play, he is one of the most prolific players we have ever seen in NBA History.

I dont think hes as out of shape as those fat suit/layered photos led us to believe

He was asked about his shape/conditioning in his Nets debut conference and he laughed it off

[img]

Read on Twitter

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I think he wore extra layering on purpose TBH

[dcstanley]

other than the 9 turnovers. excellent debut. Slowly but surely playing his way into shape

Its quite incredible with how good this guy is. Completely out of shape physically and is able to come in to a new team and dominate in a way few others have offensively in NBA history.

As much grief or disgust the guy gets for his antics or style of play, he is one of the most prolific players we have ever seen in NBA History.

The man is truly remarkable to watch. You'll be hard pressed to find many players in league history with his regular season impact. And while Harden is not completely blameless for his postseason foibles, it is funny seeing players that aren't his caliber like Dame Lillard escape the scrutiny that Harden often faces. Harden was excellent in his series against the Lakers last year despite facing an insane amount of defensive attention and people just chalk that loss up to Harden not being a postseason performer.

[therealbig3]

I think Harden is going to kind of relish the role he had back in OKC, where yes he can score a lot when asked to, but he gets to be more of a pure PG that runs the offense and gets everyone easy shots. I know he was racking up assists like crazy in Houston too, but to me, that was more of a function of simply dominating the basketball the majority of the time...that's not necessarily what he did in OKC playing next to Durant and Westbrook. Now he can go back to doing more of that, but a superhuman version of it lol.

[StepBackCrack]

Harden to me is a basketball genius. Extremely high BB IQ and skill. Has a counter for many defensive sets and can read the game extremely well. He is really underappreciated imo. He is one of the greatest floor generals I have ever seen AND while being one of the greatest scorers ever (in the MJ/KD tier). Last night he made it look so easy playing for a new team for the first time. Not many players can do that. Plus it seems he already has perfect chemistry with KD which is so incredible. He figured out quickly the perfect balance between when to shoot/pass/dribble in his new team from the very first game. Just so incredible. He was so fun to watch out there with KD and playmaking for others.

[Dupp]

dude lost 50 pounds and turned back into an mvp

[Slava]

I was surprised to read that his 14 assists on debut were a Nets franchise record, I would have thought Jason Kidd, Deron Williams or Vince Carter would have had more.

[Litano]

I was surprised to read that his 14 assists on debut were a Nets franchise record, I would have thought Jason Kidd, Deron Williams or Vince Carter would have had more.

I'm pretty sure it's just a Brooklyn Nets record. Kevin Porter had a game on February 24, 1978 against the Houston Rockets where he threw 29 assists, but he was playing for the New Jersey nets at the time.

[Litano]

Update: many of the outlets are now clarifying that the stat is most assists during a player's debut for the Nets, which I suppose makes more sense.