Houston Rockets’ James Harden not elite?
Houston Rockets’ guard James Harden is one of the game’s elite scorers but several parts of his game, mostly his defense, has been criticized.
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Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders does not believe Harden is at an elite level like some of the older shooting guards in the NBA were.
"No, Harden is not nearly as good as Kobe or Wade, even if we limit it to offense. The key is that Wade and Kobe were able to be effective in the playoffs, an ability Harden has not yet shown as the number one option. Some of that I think is the superior athleticism Kobe and Wade had that enabled them to get higher quality shots in one on one matchups than Harden can. Harden is more dependent on getting calls to score than they were, and more of his calls come from simply trying to get fouled as opposed to Kobe and Wade, who would get fouled more organically after actually beating their guy and trying to score.Then throw in defense–Wade was a great helpside force as recently as a couple of seasons ago, and Kobe was also a very good individual defender up until the Lakers’ last championship run, when he began to fall off dramatically."
Harden averaged 25.4 points, 6.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 45.6% from the field, 36.6% from beyond the arc and 86.6% from the free throw line. In his five-year NBA career, the third-overall pick of the 2009 NBA Draft has put up 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 44.5% from the floor, 36.9% from three and 84.9% from the charity stripe.
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