The Hate Was LOUD, But James Harden Is Silencing It
Now we already discussed how James Harden is a system within himself and elevates his Los Angeles Clippers team with his passing so if you want to watch that I’ll have it linked below but as we all know James Harden has more value than just being a passer as he can score
The ball in creative ways and when you place him in the offense with two highle scores in kawi Leonard and Paul George it opens up the floor for him even more you can see these times where the double totally leaves Harden and guns at Leonard and with nothing but space and
Opportunity James can rise up to drop it in this type of action can also happen when he leaves it behind for Paul George and once receiving it you can see two Pelican Defenders lunging out to George so it’s a easy swing to the left for wideopen Money Ball when you have three
Guys on the court at the same time who can all score the ball opposing teams can’t afford to help off because once you leave a wide open window for James Harden it’s pretty much a warm up Jay the same goes for the other guys as well but with Harden being the third option
As far as scoring he benefits greatly from the attention PG and kawhai G get on this play When the Mavericks double Kawai Kyrie is forced to leave James and take the task of guarding man Dwight po must tag zoo and while Hardway having no clue that Harden floated all the way to
This corner three it leaves him uncovered as he rotates up and B being is Money Team these plays where Harden is left wide open happen pretty often as defenses tend to be more focused on what other guys are doing on the court but when you think about it when you’re
Dealing with a 42% shooter from deep in James Harden they should actually pay more attention and try not to leave him on an island that 42% conversion rate comes from him taking six threes per game but when we look at how many of these come from him
Being open where the closest Defender is 4 to 6 feet away Harden attempts three of these and drains them at a 40% rate now don’t take that 40% shooting from Deep so lightly when you’re putting up six a game and draining them like this is truly a GameChanger so if the
Clippers want to use James as a spot up option well they have the flexibility to do so as Harden can seamlessly go from a scorer off the dribble to then being a guy who can set up shop and snipe the defense from deep I honestly think that’s the most valuable thing you get
When having Harden on your team and no I’m not talking about his three-point shooting I’m talking about how adaptable he is to fit whatever the team needs the Clippers can’t 100% all the time have guys sizing up and trying to attack as that would lead to more stagnated
Offense but with them having the option to drive and kick and swing it really stress tested the defense to see if they can keep up now will harden always be open like this of course not but what’s so great about that is that if James needs to start getting creative to find
His shot then there is nothing the defense can do to stop him from finding that slight opening some people may hate me for saying it but then I’ll say you just got recency biased because James Harden is one of the best tough shot makers in the whole entire NBA it’s
Times where it seems like the defense is right in his grill and there’s no way that Harden is going to make that shot but with his laser focus and now playing in Rhythm James can rise up and not get down over anyone when being guarded this tight Harden doesn’t get sped up
Whatsoever as he can deliver that stunt dribble to create the space needed and although it may not look open for James this is just enough on four pull-ups from Deep per game Harden sinks he at a 44% clip which is honestly ridiculous there isn’t anywhere on the
Floor that Harden doesn’t like to score for him so when you go under the screen leaving this gap between you and Harden well even when he’s 27 ft away James is going to let it fly I’m not really sure why Defenders go under the screen still
As he has proved to be more than a lethal shooter from downtown this season so if you do allow him to get into that little hop when he gathers you know the shot is going up and most likely dropping in some guys might choose to go under that screen so they aren’t crossed
Over crazily like Reggie Jackson is here so I mean hey I kind of understand but if you keep letting James get open with no real pressure well you’re just going to make things that much easier for him I feel for the defense because there’s a
Lot of things that come with the task of guarding Harden especially when he’s far out from the basket because one his ability to get to the rim is phenomenal which we will we’ll talk about later but two well now you’re all alone on this deserted island and with his handle he
Can mix Defenders up sending them back home if you’re not careful then you could easily be caught off guard by the immediate side step out the combo and if you try to get up high to eliminate the amount of area he has to work with well you’ll be left sliding hard after the
Vicious cross and it’s just too late to even recover with many and I mean many ways to get into these threes there’s one thing that gets hardened to all of his actions the best and that’s his signature size up when he’s starts whipping between the legs with the
Handle while tying in a crossover this is when you know Harden is deep in his bag so with him pushing downhill you start to play the drive but no cersi Harden snatches back out of nowhere to knock down his three ball off the step back this size up not only gives Harden
The advantage because the ability to drive or create a shot out of it but also because the defender is flat footed left waiting for him to make a move so with the defense in the palm of his hands James can always be one step ahead watch here James gets the ISO on wimy
And rifle so he shows the rookie that there’s levels to this and snatches back smoothly after pushing to the rim and his Straight Cash it’s great to see that he can get to his spots on the floor using his size up and what is he least shooting from Deep this season it opens
Up the ability to get into that mid-range or all the way to the rim if the defense decides to overplay him prime example Tyrus halber flies out at harden on the three-point line but all this really did was open up that two dribble pullup for the butter ball some
Will say hey he took away the three ball so it isn’t that bad and yeah you would be right if James was a poor shooter from the mid-range and couldn’t score well inside but when looking at the numbers although it’s a low amount taken so far Harden has dropped in 52% of his
25 attempts from the mid-range and then when getting into the restricted area Harden is connecting on 66% of his shots which is a major upgrade from last year’s 55% I’m telling you last year he just didn’t have that burst or the lift to be able to do what he wanted offensively
But you can see that now he’s moving with more intent and in a way more confidence manner obviously Harden be fishing for those fouls more last year and not really focusing on scoring the ball instead which in turn led to some pretty rough finishing around the room
But this year it’s a major difference it’s not even that it’s all the way different from James’s game already it’s just that we haven’t seen him scored this sufficiently in a while so it’s a great sign to see it all starts with his confidence as in an open court with no
Hesitation when he’s left free and uncovered well he’s going to light you up from deep but hey it doesn’t stop there as it trickles down into driving also as when he has his mind on the rim he can hesy burst past the defense and then use the double in and outs to get
Into the defender’s body for the n one by having that bigger 66 frame it allows for James to absorb contact and still go up for the bucket and this gives him a major boost inside say he’s faced with a big man right in his route Harden will
Go straight chest and shoulders first to initiate the contact so now when him already squared up he can seamlessly put up the shot what’s crazy is that Harden not only can battle through that contact but sometimes until even go out of his way to get into the defender’s body
Himself to make sure that they’re not even going to be a factor hey people might not see it but being able to use your body is another way of being creative on the court because it allows you to get to places that weaker players would have never gotten to key example
Right here this may be light but when Harden gets right inside the paint he bumps into the defender knocking him off but then ties in a Euro Step to get even closer to places off the glass trust me it’s not many guys in the league that are just running through a
Big man’s chest like this with no remorse to still go get a bucket inside but this is just the base of his ability to get inside the paint as the skill level continues to get even more ridiculous that size that we discussed earlier with his three-point shooting
Works greatly with his driving as I have stated and this is basically a cheat code AS Harden can fly right past the defender in a quickness on all driving layups and dunks this season Harden has converted 55% of his 45 attempts and it’s not to say that this is some
Outstanding stat but when you compare to his 43% conversion rate last year it shows you that James is on the correct pace and has improved his finishing drastically when serving that size up to then shift Tyler hero out the way it’s the return skill of that burst out that
Gets him to the rim before the Defenders can even catch up it’s constantly a game of tippy toes for the defense as they never know when Harden will snap out that crossover but you better be ready when he does or else you’ll be left looking all out clueless I stated
Earlier that he was going in with more aggression and not focusing on drawing the fouls and on this drive versus the Kings this is exactly what I mean you can see when he gets to the free throw line and is met by sabonis instead of that lazy rip through Harden rips
Through aggressively and is granted a easy one inside so do you see what I mean he’s showing a different level of confidence and aggressiveness when attacking the basket and this is what is taking his game to the next level right now with that floor being way more widespread due to the Personnel around
Him this is when you see that confidence ooze out and he’s highlight making plays and with that level of focus he’s playing with Hardin can go up while being smothered and place this high off the glass for the bucket James Harden is on another level right now and was truly
The connector piece that the Clippers were missing if you enjoyed this video be sure to drop a like before going over to watch the passing of James Harden I thank you all for your support and I’ll see you in the next video
James Harden has came in and immediately elevated this Los Angeles Clippers Team with his ability to score the ball & also be a master facilitator.. In part 1 we covered James Hardens passing and today we show the Blueprint to his scoring.
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This Channel will consist of everything #NBA Basketball! From Game Breakdowns, Analyzing A player in depth, Team evaluations, & more. This Video Is Analyzing The #losangelesclippers key player #jamesharden
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38 Comments
Love your content man! you have a great voice for this as well dude
Wait for the playoffs bro, all of that doesn’t matter. Can’t wait to see what he can do in the pl1yoffs
give clippers more capable defenders 🏆
Man I never so much clippers fans like you dudes keep saying he silencing ppl but ain’t help the team with nothing Yet come playoff time he’ll be going 5-14 every other game
Nice review
As a Rocket fan, I'm happy for him. I hope they win the whole thing. That's the second best Rocket ever. Whoever doesn't root for him isn't really a Rockets fan.
Let him silence us in the playoffs.
nice video
I disagree!
Harden plays EXTREMELY slow.. he doesn’t move the ball quickly at times..
Harden & PG dribble the air out the ball SMH
he doesn’t finish at the rim all to well
His defense is HORRIBLE! ZERO EFFORT, flat out LAZY..
If Westbrook could actually finish at the rim & not commit silly turnovers it wouldn’t be no need for Harden.
Unsure how he is silencing the hate when he has 2 other All-NBA caliber teammates playing beside him.
Let's wait til the end of their playoff run, then we can talk.
All these haters in Harden Playoffs like he wasnt against the GSW dynasty in the West and teammates injuries in the East.
Crazy that one of the greatest offensive players of all time is considered the 3rd scoring option on his team, and this team isn't even completely smashing the league how it would seem they should be on paper. 😂
As a James harden fan since day 1, he crushed me when he didn’t go all the way with EMBID & MAXEY, he told Molly we was winning the chip & we didn’t 💔 I felt & still feel he will regret that decision, but time will tell, I hope he does win at home, but my hope for him has dwindled…….i can’t cap, I’m not convinced 🤷🏾♂️ He may have missed his window 💔 (side note: I loved him in Houston also, but I never thought he would win a chip there, competition was too deadly imo and Chris Paul ain’t S#!T)
Haters gonna move the goal post…first it wouldn’t work, now it’ll be he has PG and Kawhi, then it’ll be win a championship…they play great together so far so yes the hater were wrong in saying they couldn’t mesh. Everything else is to be seen 🤷🏾♂️
James Harden isn't silencing anything until he remains the same size in the Playoffs and doesn't shrink like a flaccid, shriveled little cocktail sausage.
haters were ripping this man apart a couple months ago, now it’s like everyone forgot about him
Harden will choke, PG is injury prone and Kawhi needs version update every season…
I ll call this Newton's 4th law
I've reviewed all Clippers games after their 9th game together and clearly the only way teams beat them is if they shoot >40% at 3's. lol!
not hating him but lets wait for playoffs
He got clowned on for calling himself one of the most unselfish players ever. But Beardman's been sacrificing his talents his whole career with very little pouting.
In OKC, Scott Brooks played him as 6th man for 3 years in, despite being one of the most talented players on the team.
In Houston, Tim Fertitta refused to go over the luxury tax and surround him with better players, despite being one game away from an NBA finals in 2018. (The next year he averaged 36ppg 7rpg 8apg)
In Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving played less games then Harden, despite Harden being injured.
In Philadelphia, he took a pay cut so the Doc Rivers could sign more depth, despite being owed $15million more.
Generational talent that's been adapting and being unselfish since he entered the league
when the 2019 rockets are down 0-2 and he averages 40/10/5 the next 2 games to tie it up, it doesn't count. when he puts up 35/8/5 and has more points/rebounds/assists/steals than steph in game 6, he sucked and steph was legendary to win without KD.
in the bubble he put up 30 ppg on 67 TS% against an elite lakers defense that was just doubling him near halfcourt and leaving russ wide open. but he sucked.
he also tends to have his best games end in near losses, which unless he has a time machine, i'm not sure what he can do about. putting up 39/10/9 on 62% shooting (field goal, not TS%) against the #1 defense 2015 warriors and being +12 in 41 minutes, only for the rockets to be -13 in his 7 minutes off so he loses by 1 gets forgotten. still a great game.
he goes up 3-2 on the most talented team ever but cp3 gets injured so no credit for harden. he's had some disappointing playoff moments, but people way overplay it.
I mean Harden does have 9 playoff games where he scored 40+ points, including 3 in the 2018 playoff run alone.
Curry has 7 such games in his career.
Butler has 6.
Melo had 4.
Harden certainly deserves plenty of criticism. But this idea that he’s never gone off in the playoffs is ridiculous. He generally had just kind of ok supporting casts and regularly made some decent playoff runs.
His Rockets were also the only team to really give a healthy KD Warriors any real trouble. Cavs got swept and lost in 5.
I think if you take "Most Valuable Player" literally, Harden should have won. Take Steph Curry off of that Warriors team, and that's still a good team. Take James Harden off of that Rockets team (keep in mind that Dwight was also missing for most of the season), and that team is very close to the very bottom of the West.
Steph Curry had a phenomenal season, but I'm tired of team performance being taken into account so heavily in individual accolades.
Harden 2014-15. With out Harden the Rockets probably dont make the playoffs. With out Curry the Warriors still make the playoffs, just not as the first seed. I feel like considering that Dwight was injured most of the season and Harden fucking went ham to keep his team a float, that the MVP should have gone to him. The only knock on Harden was his percentages, but Harden still averaged 27.4 points, 7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals for the season. Dem be MVP numbuhs.
James Harden is an underrated defender and I will argue that to the grave
The only reason mainstream media views harden as a bad defensive player is because of lowlight tapes where harden doesn’t sprint across the court to guard a speedy fast break but when Lebron sags on defense it’s considered conserving energy.
Efficiency wise if a player is a huge plus on offense it makes sense to have them expend the majority of their energy getting points instead of making high energy cost/low return defensive plays. Especially when that player is by far the most effective offensive player on the team.
Lebrons famous 48 minute playoff games utilize this strategy and Harden is the highest usage player in league history so it’s less about defensive skill as opposed to a strategic decision.
This is why Harden prefers to guard bigs in the post where his style is more about stealing low rather than jumping to block. And when looking at his defensive efficiency in the post it’s up there with the best in the league.
Defense isn’t necessarily about the flashy blocks of a Giannis or the scrappy pestering of a Pat Beverly. It’s about not letting the other team score the ball and Harden does a good not great job at that. I rest my case.
At their peaks, Harden IS a better offensive player than Jordan (and Kobe) by every imaginable metric.
Harden is a better offensive player at his peak than Jordan. Some of this is going to sound repetitive but follow along.
Kobe averaged 5 rebounds and 4 assists in his 35.1ppg season. He did that on 27 FGAs, and a 56% TS
Jordan averaged 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his 37ppg season. He did that on 28 FGAs, and a 56% TS.
Harden averaged 7 rebounds and 8 assists in his 36.1ppg season. He's doing that on 24 FGAs and a 61% TS.
Yeah well Harden shoots too many free throws.
Harden: 11 FTA (88%)
Jordan: 11.9 FTA (85.7%)
Kobe: 10.2 FTA (85%)
Yeah well Harden shoots too many threes that's why his TS is high.
Harden: 54.1 eFG%, 52.9% from 2, 36.8% from 3
Kobe: 49.1 eFG%, 48.2% from 2, 34.7% from 3
MJ: 48.4 eFG%, 49.1% from 2, 18.2% from 3 (only on 0.8 attempts though)
Yeah well the game was much slower back then.
Per 100 Possessions:
Harden: 48.2 PPG (highest of all time)
MJ: 46.4 PPG
Kobe: 45.6 PPG
Yeah well compared to their league, Jordan stood out more.
Then let's compare to the league average.
Harden: 54.1 eFG% and 61.7 TS%, League Average: 52.4 eFG% and 55.7 TS%
Kobe: 49.1 eFG% and 55.9 TS%, League Average: 49 eFG% and 53.5 TS%
MJ: 48.4 eFG% and 56.2 TS%, League Average: 48.8 eFG% and 53.8 TS%
This isn't even factoring in seasons Harden has averaged 10+ assists, and he's done that many times.
Harden is a very capable defender when he tries. For majority of the game Harden plays defense but allows blowbys to avoid risking picking up fouls. Due to his heavy minutes, especially when he was in Houston, harden lacked in defense to avoid getting fouls, which is why he is known as a bad defender. However, in late game situations, especially in the playoffs, he locks in and is one of the better perimeter defensive players in the league. As for his post defense, he has been number one in the league statistically since 2019, and has even been second in the league in perimeter isolation points allowed per possession in 2020. In addition to all of that, he is an extremely smart player defensively. He knows when to help, where other players need to stand and is known for his defensive communication. His Houston rockets had the number one defense in the playoffs and in the bubble of 2020. Statistically James has been top 5 in steals for many seasons, number one in deflections for a few years, and has the most blocks by any guard since joining Houston. He has crucial defensive saves in important games including against Giannis, Porzingis, in game 7 of okc thunder, and even against embiid in the 2020 rockets 76ers matchup, where embiid got in a little skirmish with him after harden stopped him on back to back possessions. He may not play it the whole game, but when he tries harden is a top defender in almost every aspect, and a beneficial one to have on the court due to his intelligence.
And people talking bout his defense are idiots, hes locked up and then shit on Kawhi/PG/Beverly in a 1v3 lmaoooo he has the most points on every team too plus like 3 years of 10+ assists and the others are 8-9 assists on top of 30-36.6 points. He's the only one who even challenged the KD Era warriors and lost because of blatant ref fixing and Ariza going 0-12 on wide open threes generated by Harden along with his second best player CP3 going down and Capela getting sonned by a rookie Looney. Harden was literally dunking on draymond all day and dray got pissed and shoved him like 30 seconds into a game because he got scored on twice fast. That's not even mentioning all that happened while facing the KD warriors who had 5 star players, 2 of which were the number one and number two best shooters in the history of the league, Dpoy draymond, a top 2-3 scorer in Durant, Iggy dpoy. Then waiving off 12 of Hardens points but not making the same call if he missed the 3…blatant lmao
Harden has been a top 3 hardest working player for the past 10 years. Just because he likes strip clubs and partying doesn't mean he disregards practice and conditioning. This sub is just going with assuming narratives instead of taking 5 minutes to find out that Harden's workouts have been Kobe-levels insane for many seasons, doing HIT lifting after having played 40 minutes in an NBA game with historic usage and scoring rate for entire seasons because the durability demanded from Harden forced him to be insanely well conditioned.
There are countless stories as well as statements by his staff and teammates about it, it's just easier to shit on a player for partying instead. Literally everybody who's ever played with Harden attests to his one-of-a-kind work ethic. The reason Harden has been struggling are injuries and playing through them as well as the miles on his body but it's 10000% not because he's lazy. He ONCE forced Houstons hand for 3 weeks because they wouldn't trade him despite his demands many months before the situation escalated. Other than that he's been more than textbook when it comes to work ethic, you don't become such a legendary offensive Superstar without working your ass off every day for many years. And yes Harden can come back, he's one of the most skilled players ever and he works out like a madman
Leopards don’t change their spots. JH is a bluffer.
Yall do this every single year.
Playoffs. Once he does it in the PLAYOFFS people will respect it. The "hate" was there because he was playing like trash with two of the top 5-10 two way players in the entire league. He's just doing what he's supposed to do, in the regular season. Once he does it in the PLAYOFFS you can make videos like this. Granted you can make them now, but if he shits the bed in the playoffs, like he's done consistently for the last 5 years almost, this video will age like milk unfortunately.
Nice video them clips is stacked
Top 5 SG of all Time
We all stand corrected. He is a system. Onward to a championship.
This team just needs to stay healthy
Harden needs to avg more shots per game and start using the middy more
Harden is one of the best NBA players of all time as far as skills and IQ. His skill set is unmatched even today. He's also the best playmaker in the league. And can also get you 40 if he's in his bag
Not the “passing of James Harden” making me think he DEAD !!! James Harden’s passes LMAOOO
Nah bro he aint silencing nobody, Harden a selfish bum that causes drama
Harden pound for pound one of the strongest players of all time.
real goat of mine🎉🎉🎉
Zu can score 25 on big% if fed properly
I'm still hating.
DAWG
im a clippers fan ever since i was a kid and that harden is really good player hes a season riser im just skeptical on the playoffs
Sixers fan the hate is not enough he shrinks in biggest games.
He's my favorite player and I went to my first nba game to watch him in Memphis a week ago. Going back in February. You're going to blow up with this. Keep it up