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As the Brooklyn Nets were beating the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, I was walking back and forth in our NBA chat room with my editor, who at one point asked a question I hadn’t given much thought to. : Why was James Harden given the same type of vitriol for hopping on a superteam train that Kevin Durant did when he went to the Warriors?
This is an interesting question. People went out of their way to pick up bones with Harden while he was in Houston, where he was actually going the toughest route, trying to kill the super-teams, a seemingly admirable quest. It would make sense that if he was such a bright target while fighting the NBA behemoths, he would be even brighter when he joined their.
But it didn’t work that way.
In fact, Harden – who posted a 29-point triple-double, 14 assists and 13 rebounds in Brooklyn’s win over Sacramento on Monday – has become one of the league’s most famous players over the past month. . Well Named. He was brilliant with Brooklyn. But Durant has been brilliant with Golden State, and four years later he’s still dragged on for his decision, with his back-to-back Finals MVPs being treated by many as footnotes in a sold-out NBA story.
The difference, of course, is that Harden didn’t join a 73-game winning team that had already won a championship without him. When Durant joined the Warriors, barring injury, nothing could go wrong. He was an almost perfect player in an almost perfect team. We don’t like certainty in our sports.
The Nets aren’t a perfect team, not even the title favorite in most people’s eyes, and it wasn’t certain that Harden would fit. I would say then, perhaps, that our collective fascination with anything that could go wrong in Brooklyn – however unfounded those concerns may be – has removed the typical annoyance we have with stackers. How would all these cranky guys share a locker room, let alone a ball? Was defense even a consideration?
A month after the start of the experiment, defense is still a major issue. Since Harden’s arrival, the Nets have the fourth worst defensive rating in the league entering Monday. But the offense is magic. The ‘one bullet’ crowd was silenced by Harden, who stepped so naturally into the role of facilitator that one wonders how anyone could have questioned their ability, or willingness, to do so. in the first place.
Of course, Harden was probably the most determined isolation goalscorer in NBA history with the Rockets, but if you think he wasn’t also one of the best passer in the world at the time, you didn’t pay attention. We’re sure to turn that change in Harden’s role into a romantic sacrifice, and that’s right, Harden has been willing to swallow some of his pride in scoring. But above all, that’s what makes the most sense in basketball.
Durant and Irving are better shooters, naturally adapted and very experienced in off-ball roles. Durant existed alongside Russell Westbrook at OKC and then Stephen Curry with Golden State. Irving played against LeBron James and then burned out in Boston because he could never quite master the delicate balance between scoring and sharing.
Harden took that burden off Irving without completely compromising his own aggressiveness. He still scores more than 23 points per game. On Monday, he scored 29 points on 18 shots with Durant out. Irving had 22 shots for 40 points. This slight deference to Irving as a goalscorer makes Harden resemble the generous hero in a way we could never look at him in Houston – even if Harden was only functioning according to the ethics of Daryl Morey, who built the Rockets. in a way that required Harden to function as a solo artist.
“I think he did a great job just managing the playmaker role,” Irving said of Harden on Saturday. “We established it maybe four days ago. I just looked at it and I said, ‘You’re the point guard, and I’m going to play marksman.’ And it was that easy. “
It really sounded simple, but in truth, that role clarity Irving alludes to, at least from the outside, was achieved much earlier than four (now six) days ago. Harden had 14 assists in his Brooklyn debut. In 15 games for Brooklyn, Harden has had double-digit assists in all but two games, and he’s averaged 12 cents over that span.
Against the Warriors, Harden distributed 16 assists taking just 11 shots, hitting six of them, including five of his eight three-pointers (one of three misfires was a late-quarter lift). It was the third time Harden has finished a game with more passes than shots attempted with the Nets. Meanwhile, Irving and Durant got 36 shots. They combined for 43 points against Harden’s 19, while Harden led the team with a plus-28.
People love to talk about “chemistry” with newly formed teams. “It’s going to take time,” is the course of action when a team fails to meet expectations. But there was no need for such an apology with the Nets. Irving and Durant have been great all season, and Harden has improved their efficiency rather than just not cutting it off.
It’s not just about sacrificing shots. Yes, Harden is attempting eight fewer shots per game than last season in Houston and 10 fewer than in 2018-19, but it didn’t come at the cost of his aggressiveness. If he exaggerated generosity, it would slow his pace and the offense in general. but it was his shot selection and overall determination that proved most vital to Brooklyn’s offensive flow.
In short, Harden doesn’t dominate possessions so much. He doesn’t dribble the air off the ball as his teammates grow up watching him. With Houston, Harden was going to get into his bag and stay there until he found something. In Brooklyn, he comes and goes, realizing that over-creation in a creator-populated environment comes with diminishing returns, cutting his possession time by almost a second per touch compared to last season in Houston (a direct product of him dribbling less), which is way more than it looks.
* Numbers by NBA.com, entering Monday
|
2020-21 (with nets) |
5.3 |
4.7 |
|
2019-20 |
6.0 |
5.7 |
|
2018-19 |
6.3 |
5.9 |
|
2017-18 |
6.3 |
5.8 |
As for Harden’s improved shot selection, we’re mainly talking about his signature 3 point recoil. So far with Brooklyn, Harden is taking four of those shots per game, down considerably from the 7.2 downsides of 7.2 he averages per game from 2018 to 20 with the Rockets.
To be fair, Harden pulled that shot off at solid rates in Houston (38% from 2018-20), but at similar volumes he wouldn’t stand up to the test of effectiveness in Brooklyn with Durant and Irving’s attempts representing the opportunity cost – especially, again, when you factor in all the time, Harden tends to dribble before throwing that shot.
|
2020-21 (with nets) |
3.5 |
3.7 |
|
2019-20 |
5.8 |
6.7 |
|
2018-19 |
6.7 |
8.1 |
All of this is quantifiable proof of Harden’s commitment to change, which should come as no surprise. Consider the alternative: Harden steps into the guns of Burning Brooklyn while Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who were scorching before he arrived, hang out to the side? Facilitating was always going to be Harden’s smartest route, let alone the easiest route, to immediate acceptance, both in the team and in the public eye.
Suddenly Harden feels like a whole different player, a really fun player to watch as his most aesthetic talent – his passing – is now showcased every night, a welcome departure from his often-drying paint possessions in Houston. And that’s, in my opinion, the main reason Harden avoided the super-team backlash. Because he showed humility. A willingness to operate outside of its own conditions.
Maybe it should never have been questioned in the first place, but it was nonetheless. People really believed that Harden had gotten so used to playing in a way that he was unable to adjust at this point in his career. The fact that he made this adjustment so easily is a testament to his incredible talent, which, in the absence of any negative rhetoric, the masses perhaps begin to fully appreciate.
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