This was interesting. Last season, James Harden went into isolation on 24.2% of his possessions, shooting 37% from the field, and scoring 41.5% of the time. He led the league by a wide margin – 566 total isolation possessions; Carmelo Anthony was second with 393. This year, Harden leads the league again, but by a smaller margin over Russell Westbrook (490 to 449 so far), devoting 23.7% of his possessions to one on one play. He’s shooting 37.6% with a score frequency of 41.8%. Kyrie Irving’s been the best isolation player in the NBA this year, shooting a ridiculous 48.5% on isolation possessions, with a score frequency of 50.7%, and scoring 1.15 points per possession on such plays. (Harden has a PPP of 1.00).
It’s interesting to note that for the most part, Harden is isolating just as much this season as he did last season, despite the team’s frantic pace and philosophical overhaul (i.e. they actually have a coach and an offense and plays for the first time during the Harden era). I don’t know what any of this means. I think in the past, where, if it wasn’t a Harden ISO, it was some awkward Terrence Jones spot-up three or a grueling Dwight Howard post-up, whereas this year, if its not a Harden ISO, its some masterfully executed orchestration of some other brilliance. Harden is still doing what he’s been doing, but everything else is cleaner. A related observation, speaking of Jones: ever notice how if nothing is there, the Rockets will immediately pass the ball back to James Harden to reset? That has to be a D’Antoni implementation. Last season, you’d see Josh Smith or Terrence Jones awkwardly driving into space, resulting in wasted possessions. It’s a simple formula: cut out the Howard postups and all the other garbage, and keep the ball in Harden’s hands, and the result is one of the best offenses of all-time.
