Ok I've been trying to stay off the forum during Houston off-season until FA starts, but I have followed the forum.
I agree with JG's assesment of Harden. Most people seems to give Harden too many excuses and quoting stats. While most of his stats are very impressive, and can display a lot of his greatness, the game logs gives a different view of Mr Harden.
DATE OPP SCORE MIN FGM-FGA FG% 3PM-3PA 3P% FTM-FTA FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS Fri 5/3
L 94-103 43 7-22 .318 4-10 .400 8-11 .727 6 7 2 2 1 4 26 Wed 5/1
W 107-100 42 10-16 .625 7-9 .778 4-5 .800 8 3 1 1 2 3 31 Mon 4/29
W 105-103 35 4-12 .333 0-4 .000 7-8 .875 1 3 1 5 5 10 15 Sat 4/27
L 101-104 44 9-22 .409 2-8 .250 10-15 .667 8 6 2 2 4 2 30 Wed 4/24
L 102-105 45 9-24 .375 1-7 .143 17-20 .850 11 6 0 1 3 6 36 Sun 4/21
L 91-120 34 6-19 .316 1-6 .167 7-7 1.000 6 2 0 1 3 2 20 Conference Quarterfinals 40.5 7.5-19.2 .391 2.5-7.3 .341 8.8-11.0 .803 6.7 4.5 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.5 26.3 POSTSEASON STATS MIN FGM-FGA FG% 3PM-3PA 3P% FTM-FTA FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS Averages 40.5 7.5-19.2 .391 2.5-7.3 .341 8.8-11.0 .803 6.7 4.5 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.5 26.3 Totals 243 45-115 .391 15-44 .341 53-66 .803 40 27 6 12 18 27 158
One look at the playoff series. 6-19 , 9-24, 9-22, 10-16, 7-22, 4-12, Those are the fg attempts and made.
4 out of 6 games he shot under 40%. While the overall average is decent, there are too many games when he shoots under 33%. He still got his 26 ppg in the series due to his FT which are important but as a shooter and finisher he wasn't that great. And if you take off his hot night when he was 10 for 16 he was during the other games which was 35 for 99 which is 35%.
I forgot the stats and too tired to looked at the complete game logs. But on a quick scan he had 13 games where he shot under 30% out of 78 games which is roughly 17% of the games. So your are looking at almost 1 out of 5 games he is shooting under 30 %.
Under 40 % the game total is 31 games out of 78 games. = 39.7% round it up to 40 % so basically 2 out 5 games he shoots under 40 %.
If harden just shoots under 40% its not terrible because he gets on the line but most of those games he is in the mid 30s or below. But you have to consider that out of a full season schedule this is 32 games when he struggles. And for someone who doesn't contribute to defence its kind of hard to have your go to guy shoot poorly and play no D to win especially when Harden is our best player by far.
Sorry for cluttered post, but I just put it up quickly. I would give Harden an A for exceeding our expectations but an overall grade of B+ because when you don't play defence and you struggle about 40% of the games where you shoot below 40% and dont stop your opponent its kind of hard to give an A. It's like giving a student an A when he is a great test taker, but can't put up a decent paper, because you need to do both to earn that illusive A where you almost had a perfect season. His D is just too poor to deserve an A even though he ace it on one side of the court.
He is a potential Superstar, but right now he is just a offensive star, not a superstar player.
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