In his sixth year with the Houston Rockets, James Harden enjoyed yet another season in MVP-caliber form even with the addition of Chris Paul.
The biggest question the Houston Rockets faced coming into the 2017-18 NBA season was the addition of Chris Paul and how it would affect the team’s superstar player. After all, James Harden had just finished a close second behind Russell Westbrook in MVP voting while leading the league in assists per game.
The trade to acquire the former Clippers guard was puzzling given the fact that Mike D’Antoni seemed to entrust ball-handling duties to Harden throughout his tenure as coach. Because of this, it was definitely understandable to question whether or not these Rockets could share the ball and run an efficient offense.
Chris Paul had always been someone who dominated possession on the offensive end throughout his career. It was clear that there was going to be a learning curve for this backcourt to mesh and compete with the plethora of guard duos that dominate today’s NBA game.
Well, fast forward to June and all of our questions about the chemistry of this Rockets team have been answered. Even though they lost in seven games to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors, they had the best regular season in team history, winning 65 games and finishing first in the Western Conference.
The tandem of James Harden and Chris Paul was instrumental to the team’s success, and Harden’s production did not suffer. He led the league in scoring with a career-high 30.4 points per game and also contributed 8.8 assists and 5.4 rebounds in 72 games for the Rockets. Let’s take a look back at Harden’s historic season.