James Harden WAS just what the Clippers needed
Let’s talk about James Harden James Harden yeah James Harden who has really embraced this sort of point guard role that we saw him play in Brooklyn is like point guard James Harden where it’s no longer Harden ball not the entire offense doesn’t run through him but you
Still start with all these pick and roll progressions and in his case in Los Angeles we’ve seen this kind of synergy that he’s developed with a zubot on the pick and roll where he can hit them with lobs he can hit zubats in the middle of
The paint and Zoo can kind of Spin and find a finish that way and you know Harden had this I think in the past with certain players like Clint capella where you have the vertical threat but you also have the timing of just how to hit
Him in the lane and set up that player to do his thing and then once defenses start to say like okay we’re going to pay a little bit more attention to zubot as a roll threat with Harden he can start skipping it to the corner to open
Three-point shooters or run the pick and roll and swing it to you know one of the other Clippers out on the wing or something like that he’s been able to develop this and it’s really started to kind of Kickstart the Clippers offense into a more organic position where
Harden is the guy at the center of the ship but again it’s not Harden ball he can initiate and just let plays unfold where you’re hitting Paul George you’re hitting Kawhi Leonard all this stuff and the Clippers offense has has taken off yeah some of those quick hitting actions
Like it’s not as much as you know what are we 2017 Rockets pound pound to pound screen get some switches and he’s going to attack there is some like up yeah these two guys are maybe going to be in a horns action and then somebody cuts to
The basket and he throws a lob to them or even if he does get downhill off a pick and roll I think something that’s really helped him as he’s aged and maybe lost a step in his speed is he’s a really strong dude right so he can get
Down low he’s kind of bouncing off guys as he goes down there and then you know they see the zoo lob coming but nope skip it to the opposite corner and he’s going to hit somebody for a three we know that he can do some of this like
Primary creation kind of thing but like you look at some of the lineups when he’s on the court with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and I know you know I didn’t see some of the granular stats but his usage percentage when he’s on the court with those two is is the
Lowest of the three his scoring per 100 is the lowest of the three it’s a lot of this like secondary type of passing that he’s doing right you see some of these beautiful game possessions from the Clippers and he’s sort of at the center
Of it like he gets a step on his guy and you know maybe throws behind the back pass somebody cuts he catches the ball and immediately like touch passes it to the corner and then all of a sudden he gets the ball again he gets a little bit
Of space instead of like dancing and doing like the step back three thing he drives into the paint draws some more attention kicks it to the corner bam Paul George quter pocket 3 right and so he’s at the center of a lot of this beautiful smooth ball movement that you
Know we were extoling the greatness of guys like Joe Engles or like or Kyle Anderson Nick patum and he’s sort of flowing in between like I’m an on ball pick and roll type of Creator but also I’m over here and I’m ready to do some of the second side quick sort of passing
And above anything else I’ve seen from James Harden those are the passes that make me the most impressed yeah I think an interesting wrinkle there as well is what you mentioned about his size and strength so part of this Clippers offense that we’re seeing is using him
As a passer from the elbow a little bit like those elbow passers that we talked about earlier so in Harden’s case they throw him at the elbow and he can hit Cutters uh or let the kind of offense unfold out of that area and so Paul George and Kawhi Leonard naturally can
Do their off ball thing and I think it’s kind of lubricated some of the offense without playing Harden ball necessarily they had this really cool sequence where Harden’s at the elbow and I think it’s Paul Jorge who runs across the court on an Iverson cut from one side of the
Floor to the other and then gets back door and Harden snaps it to him beautifully for a layup right then they run the same thing in a different game and the defense switches so Paul George isn’t open on that back door he can turn and reuse the same screen and
Pop back out and hit a three at the top of the key because that’s Paul George’s game that like movement shooting kind of stuff um even one more in that set is they throw it to harden at the elbow and this is not an easy pass to make but the
Clippers create space by emptying the corner so George is now the only guy on that side of the court next to harden at the elbow Harden throws this beautiful entry pass over the top to George and they get uh really good offense out of that so I think this all ties together
In terms of using him as a point guard and sort of also being able to maximize the other players on the court and let everybody kind of do their thing in a way that fits together and I think it really helps that neither Paul George or Kawhi Leonard really seem like guys that
Want to be like these Mega creators like they don’t want to be a guy that’s like I’m going to have the ball and have you know 50 pick and roll possessions I’m going to isolate this many times they like moving off ball a little bit more Kawhi Leonard likes NE nestling into the
Post and waiting for the pass Paul George can battle a little bit spin Baseline try and go for a lob and James Harden like I said the diversity of his passing is is just so much more expansive than I’m remembering you talk about the high low passes I’m seeing a
Lot more kick ahads like really pushing ahead to these other guys and he’s really great at just just bouncing it beneath a defender’s hands to get to a guy that’s cutting to the basket you know James Harden’s not a perfect passer right I don’t think by any means he’s
Like the best passer in the league you still see a couple of times where somebody’s open for a split second in the paint and you’re like okay I can imagine somebody else making this pass he misses it uh but like in terms of like the array of passes he can make
Like we said using his strength be positioned in these different parts of the floor um to me he’s definitely a top what seven passer in the League based on all of that yeah one thing I’ve mentioned before is some of his limitations with like right to left passing or being dominant as a
Left-handed passer and even lately I’ve seen a couple nice right-handed passes from Harden out of pick and roll and things like that so let’s go back to what you just mentioned about his unselfishness when all these guys are out there on the court together Cody in 895 minutes with Paul George and Kawhi
Leonard Hardon is just averaging 17 points per 75 that’s it 17 points per 75 65% true shooting so very low volume higher efficiency very very high efficiency in fact and the uh raw assists go up in that case I think it’s like 13 assists per 100 possessions or
Something like that so really playing this theoretical role of like the ballast and the on ball playmaker and handling all this decision making around players like kawhai and Paul George where they don’t have to do all the heavy lifting but you still end up with an offense where everything kind of fits
Pretty well uh with each player playing their role thanks for listening you can find the full episode of this thinking basketball podcast on Apple podcast Stitcher Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts
The Clippers are 21-4 in January and February behind the best offense in the NBA. In this enhanced segment from the Thinking Basketball podcast, Ben and Cody break down James Harden’s role as a point guard for Ty Lue’s offense and why his pass-first style has fit so well with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
–Full episode–
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Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
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39 Comments
1:46 i bursted out laughing where cody almost slipped up and said pound town 😂
Harden has shown that he can do things like this before in H-Town as the helio guy. We just tend to forget it because of those insane scoring seasons of all-time high volume scoring, iso, and stepbacks 3s.
I'm excited for this team. Its a good mix
but….but… superteams don't work right?
He’ll play point for awhile to make his teammates happy but when the rubber meets the road he’s going to try to turn into iso harden and pout when he doesn’t get his way. We have seen him do this same thing with the nets and the Sixers.
Please name the 6 better passers in the league? Conflating vision and passing ability is erroneous
Doc rivers isn’t a good coach.
Good analysis of what is happening now, but not so much on "Harden ball". Harden was amazing in Houston. "Harden ball" was a product of personnel, Daryl Morey, and D'Antoni's offense. If you go back to interviews in that season, Harden didn't ask for that role. If there is a stat available for passes to wide-open players, he would have set season-high records as "Houston Harden". They just couldn't knock down shots. It is good to see him in an integrated offense and play a style where you can compare him to other point guards. He gets way too much criticism and not enough credit. The dude has always just done what was asked of him by his coach. Now he's a straight-up point guard and he's criticized for not being a scorer.
Why should I be impressed about a dud who threw a fit for years? No shit its working, having 4 superstars will do that for you.
You are seeing more "kick-aheads" because you used to not watch him play. He's always pushed the ball up with passing and rewarded guys for running the court.
HES THE SYSTEM
It would be a great story if the Clippers win a 'ship. But I'm still rooting for the Wolves to grow up
First time watching your channel and you earned me a subscriber with the on-point edits. Perfect sync guys. Good content and quality vids.
FIX YOUR POST SEASON JAMES!
Embiid wont be MVP last year without Harden. Clips wont be this good even with Kawhi and PG without Hardem. Him being at point makes the players around him play at their optimum. Hope he again gets to be chosen as an All Star this year, he deserves that and should have been consistent All Star without the drama on his previous teams. If Clips can have just 2 All Stars this year instead of 3 then it should be Harden and Kawhi
This nigga ain't no system tye lue let him know the chain of command give the ball to kwahi or pg that's it😅😅😅😅😅
So was it only the contract issue as to why Harden wasn't happy in Philly? I'm guessing it was a myth then that he wasn't happy doing in Philly, exactly what he's doing now in LA? Rivers was booted before Harden requested a trade.
Top7 disrespectful af
I'd rather you guys have your normal analysis, dont wanna see your faces.
The switch up is crazy stay on that side bro
So much for James harden not being a portable player ehh ben
harden is a top 3 passer in the league. he has been for the last 5 years.
I still wait for the playoff to say james harden is fit for clippers
Ben and Cody are the basketball podcast version of a prime Harden and Capela pick-and-roll.
Once my guy left from OKC I knew he was the system ❤
harden do this every year… you swear it can't work and then he figures it out every time.
When super-teams don’t work video looking real different now 😂
Name the 6 Players, who pass better or as good as harden? Jokic, Trae, Haliburton now?…maybe Luka? , Lebron and CP still..? Dont know. Hes not the best passer in the world, seems like a somewaht difficult measurment to value his playmaking. What about the perspective that Harden finaly got da team that complements his true game. It was always obvious that he needed strong defensive wings beside him, that could also provide offensive punch n some shooters. No need for another playmaking comboguard – makes it just overly difficult to balance the offense, no need for a good offensive bigs, cauze he could make your grandma a lob threat. But they gave him Dwight, Joel, CP3 and Westbrook—shhh.
Clippers line-up is big
Harden isn't a "top 7 passer", only person that's close to Harden right now is prob Lebron in the entire NBA
They sound surprised. But the Clippers wanted Harden because they knew he could do this. And it's what the sixers wanted. And he played PG in Houston as far back as 2016-17, averaged 11 assists.
A year ago a lot of "analyst" says Harden career is over
Sheesh those cut aways were clean! Everything was sync so perfect. You keep that up i might have to start donating money to you guys.
"If u r a flipper fan u must be stupid"
During his prime? He choked, but he's somewhat a veteran now, so this year and onwards? He will ——-
Harden is the G.O.A.T
So what we're saying is Harden being a smart and unselfish player makes him better??!! Wow if only he'd done it 5 years ago, he might've won a ring or two…
wait wait wait… some one actualy lost they time to do a nice explanation why James Harden matters for the Clippers!?!!? TY CASUAL, please come watch this video!!!!
Beautiful Xs + Os analysis, thank you.