Through 2 games James Harden is shooting only 23.8% from the field and an abysmal 11.5%
from the three.
It’s just 2 games, and we’re not gonna act like he’s gonna shoot like that for
the rest of the season, but it has brought up the major problem coaches, analysts and
others have had with James Harden’s playstyle.
He’s jacking up too many threes for a guy that’s not that great of a shooter.
In these 2 games he has attempted 26 three-pointers and made just 3 of them.
From 42 shots he’s attempted, 26 of those have been three-pointers.
That’s just ludicrous.
Steph Curry, who’s also not hitting his threes just yet to be honest, but he is the
player who is recognized as the greatest shooter ever and has NEVER hit less than 41.1% of
his threes during a full season.
Even Steph is attempting less threes.
He’s currently attempting 11 threes per game, while Harden is attempting 13.
And Harden on the other hand hasn’t yet had a season where he’s hitting more than
39% of his threes, and that was in his last season with OKC where he attempted only 4.7
per game.
I’ve always known that both of them Westbrook and Harden are jacking up a lot of awful shots,
but I’ve also always thought that between those two Westbrook would be the one who’d
do the biggest damage with his awful decision making on when to shoot.
Instead it’s been Harden, he’s been a very ineffective scorer these 2 games and
actually for a great part of his career.
He’s jacking up some wild threes, well defended threes.
As long as it’s a three, he’ll take it from anywhere.
For sure he can make some of those, but these crazy, low percentage shots IMO are actually
one of the reasons why Houston and James Harden himself is always failing in the playoffs.
As for this season, I’ll repeat myself, I know it’s been just 2 games this season.
So let’s take a look at last season.
Last season James Harden took 24.5 shots per game and 13.2 of those were threes.
He connected on 36.8% of those which is obviously respectable, but at the same time, not that
effective.
In 78 games he played he attempted less than 10 three point attempts only 12 times and
5 of those times he shot 9 three-pointers.
30 times he jacked up 15 or more three-pointers per game and 4 times he took more than 20
three-point attempts in a game.
Do you know what percentage he shot those 4 times?
33.8%, But that number is a bit embellished because of the 10 of 23 threes he made in
a high scoring overtime game against the Warriors.
Do you know what percentage he shot when he attempted between 15 and 20 threes per game?
He shot 34.5% .
What about when he attempted between 10 and 15 threes per game?
38.2%
Do you get where I’m heading.
The more normal his shot selection is, the better are the results.
Shooting 20 threes in a game is just too much.
Even if you do make 30% of them.
You are bound for some 3 of 20 games.
Then what?
17 potential rebounds to opposing team and 17 attacks down the drain just like that?
Attempting so many threes really has become a problem in the last 2 years.
During the 2017/18 season he attempted more than 10 threes per game in 43 out of 72 games
he played and only 4 times he attempted more than 15.
Last year he attempted more than 10 threes in 66 games.
That’s just insane.
And I know last year they had some injuries, he needed to step up, but at the end of the
day, that’s just not a long-term effective basketball.
And just yesterday he attempted 18 threes and hit 2 of those.
They got lucky that they beat a Zion Williamson-less New Orleans Pelicans.
In a way, it was so close because Harden missed all those threes.
And I actually liked it, maybe it will give some clues to coaches who’ll tell him to
tone down with the threes a little bit.
That is, if he actually would care.
That was my biggest problem with people who just wanted to mark Houston Rockets as title
contenders.
I would just say no, they’re too careless with their shots and now POSSIBLY 2 superstars
who just jack them shots up are on the same team.
Last year, Harden took almost a third of all Houston Rockets shots.
He took a third of all Houston’s three pointers and what were the results in the playoffs?
Nothing to brag about.
And this year, so far in just 2 games, it’s kinda been the same song.
So I guess you can expect the same results.
One guy, sorry 2 guys, attempting everything and when he fails in the playoffs and it’s
time for others to step up, everyone’s just cold turkey cause they’ve forgotten how
to shoot.
Thank you guys very much for watching.
Do you see this as a big problem for Houston.
Is James Harden attempting too many three-pointers?
Do you see this situation improving and if not what results can the Rockets expect from
their season?
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts about the matter.
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This was PRPLPRNCH and I’m out!