Harden was scoring exactly 1.16 points per iso possession as recently as January. He’s since inched down to 1.09 points, and his coach insists it has to be higher as the playoffs approach. D’Antoni is hilariously serious about this. He refused to entertain the premise of a hypothetical universe in which it goes the other way.
“It’s not gonna happen,” he said. “And if it does? You’ll see me in some other city.”
One of the few people in the Rockets’ orbit who doesn’t concern himself with such granular data is the person whose excellence can only be understood through them.
James Harden has his own theory of basketball. It’s that every action has an unequal, opposite reaction.
“If teams want to switch and put me on an island, I’m gonna keep taking advantage of it,” he said in an interview after a recent game. “If they want to double-team like they’ve been doing, I’ll dump the basketball.”
“Whatever they do,” he added, “I counteract.”
Like every successful NBA team, the Rockets are built around the unique strengths of their star player, and they get out of the way when Harden goes to work. They give Harden almost the entire halfcourt to dribble, dribble and keep dribbling once he handpicks his defender and figures out what to do with all that space.
There is no good way to stop him once he does. He’s effective in the three most efficient ways of scoring. He gets 1.17 points per shot around the basket. He shoots 88% at the free-throw line and leads the NBA in foul shots for the fifth year in a row. He’s launching so many 3-pointers—Harden is going to break Curry’s record for attempts per game by close to 20%—that even Houston’s radical general manager Daryl Morey is content.
“He might be approaching some sort of limit,” Morey said. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever said that.”
He’s able to do this because he invented a new kind of shot. Curry shoots off the dribble. Harden shoots as he’s stepping away from the basket. He took the most stepback 3-pointers last year. He’s already taken 182% more this year.
But there are some limits to Harden’s game. His heavy workload puts him at greater risk of wearing down. He is not known for his defensive expertise. And his brutally efficient style isn’t for everyone. There are times when rooting for Harden feels like marveling at the subway.
D’Antoni is aware of this criticism. He would rather listen to a clanking radiator.
“Everybody runs to their strengths,” he said. “This is our strength.”
It’s their strength because of Harden. He saved their season when Chris Paul and Clint Capela were injured, and they climbed back into contender status by empowering him to be even more iconoclastic than he already was. That meant more isos.
The beauty of his isos is that they’re a means to the end that everybody can see coming. Harden goes one-on-one to get a layup, get fouled or get off the game’s most improbable shot. A possession that ends with four Rockets watching Harden take a stepback 3-pointer is perfectly acceptable.
It’s worth precisely 1.16 points. It’s the best offense ever.
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