Houston Rockets: Effort Measured By Numbers
By Duncan Smith
What’s Wrong With James Harden?
James Harden has quickly regained his title as Twitter’s defensive laughingstock. Every time the Rockets play, a new vine or gif or five of Harden getting blown by on the dribble or making some poor effort in the paint pops up and makes its way around basketball Twitter.
Example below, Devin Harris of the Dallas Mavericks beating Harden backdoor.
His calling card is offense, considering his 27.3 point per game average, but so far this season he’s been the definition of a volume shooter. A volume shooter puts up points, but requires a disproportionate number of shots to get there.
Harden is shooting just 37.2 percent from the floor, and 26.2 percent from three-point range. As a frame of reference, Harden shoots 44.1 percent from the floor for his career, and 36.6 percent from long-range.
To dig in a bit deeper, 9.7 of Harden’s 27.3 points per game are coming from the free throw line, and he’s averaging 20.3 shots per game, which means that it’s taking him over 20 shots to average 17.6 points from the floor per game.
That’s not good, and it’s not efficient.
Of note, when Harden and Lawson share the floor, they are being outscored 110.8 to 102.8 per 100 possessions. That -8 net rating seems almost respectable on this team full of net rating blood-baths, but it’s shockingly bad when you realize this was supposed to be one of the best backcourts in the NBA this year.
Next: The Rockets Don't Rebound