A lot stood out from Lee Jenkins’ feature story on Houston Rockets guard James Harden in Sports Illustrated, much of it already dissected by various commentators on various parts of the web, including myself on Twitter. The line depicting “Harden as Steve Nash on steroids” in particular seemed to be a big hit with the masses. A few other things, however, stood out:
The first time D’Antoni and Harden met at Toyota Center as colleagues, they watched video of Nash. “James,” the coach cooed, “you can do all this.” D’Antoni, who spent so many empty seasons trying to sell superstars on his system, wanted to coax Harden from the wing to the point.
This further confirms my suspicions from this summer regarding D’Antoni’s intentions on a positional change for Harden. Recall that after the hiring, myself and others speculated as to whether D’Antoni would move Harden to point guard full time. After it was officially done, the move was downplayed by many in the media as a mere formalization of existing reality: it was argued that while not the team’s point guard by name, Harden was effectively already the team’s point guard previously and that nothing had changed. This was clearly not the case, as I’ve explained on this page ad nauseam, and this post hoc account of D’Antoni’s mindset at the time provides evidence of such.
One reason Harden leads the NBA in turnovers, D’Antoni believes, is that he forces passes to players he’s worried about.
This is another fascinating byproduct of the positional change: as the point guard, James Harden is able to impact every aspect of the offense, during each possession, from the very beginning. At shooting guard, while he created the offense, Harden did not touch the ball on 100% of the team’s possessions, and also had to expend energy simply receiving the ball. I would argue that added extra cognitive burden worked to diminish the efficacy of the game’s most brilliant passer. The counter-factual is on full display this season, as evidenced by the league’s second most explosive offense. James Harden can spread the love and keep people happy because he absolutely never has to worry about himself.
He took mental notes for potential jobs, brainstorming ways to replicate Draymond Green.
This would’ve been Royce White, had the former Rockets forward’s aversion to flying not been prohibitive. But to this point, it will be interesting to see who Houston adds to the roster going forward to fill certain roles. They clearly have discovered a formula that works, but to stagnate is to sink. I thought K.J. McDaniels could’ve been a new age Shawn Marion but the Rockets showed what they thought of the former when they gave him away for free. Players like Green, of course, will be difficult to find, but what the above quote, and Harden’s change to point guard, both underscore is that with D’Antoni, one should always expect the innovative approach.
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