James Harden: Sometimes advanced stats are ‘too much’
By Tom West
James Harden isn’t totally against advanced statistics, but he’d rather just get on the court and play.
As one of the best scorers in the NBA and boasting incredible confidence in his own talent, Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden isn’t who you’d expect to be a massive fan of advanced statistics. Whether it’s his dunks in transition, and-one layups or step-back jumpers, he might as well forget about the nitty gritty details that his statisticians may want to discuss.
In an interview with FOX Sports, Harden made as much totally clear. And while he didn’t say that he’s against advanced statistics, he did state that they can be a bit too detailed.
"FOX: Do they show you anything super-detailed like ‘hey, when you hold the ball, or when you dribble this many times, your shooting percentage is X?’Harden: “No, no.”FOX: Or do they stay away from that stuff?Harden: “That’s too much [laughs]. I don’t need to be thinking about none of that. I just need to go out there and play my game and attack.”"
For basketball writers and fans alike, advanced statistics can not only be highly insightful, but interesting as well. By looking at breakdowns of a player’s game you can see the precise strengths and weaknesses of their performance in greater detail.
To some, that can be great. In sports, people always talk about numbers. Who can average 20+ points per game? Which quarterback threw for the most yards between 2000 and 2005? How many seconds did it take for Ronda Rousey to demolish her last opponent?
Numbers are always at the heart of sports in today’s technology based society. However, for a player like Harden who creates impressive statistics with his performance, it makes sense that he thinks they can be too much sometimes. Even if they can help coaches discover how different players and lineups perform in various situations, which shots work best or who’s making the most pull-up 16 foot jump shots in any given month, the players can forget about that stuff.
However, while Harden did make that clear, he did say that his Rockets coaches emphasize going for more layups, fast break buckets, and three pointers than other shots. Which probably means his signature step-back, mid-range jumper isn’t technically the best decision all the time.
"“We try to just get the best shot available. Our coaches emphasize that we want easy layups, easy transition buckets, and then open threes. We penetrate, we attack the basket and we get the quickest for open threes and open layups. We try to eliminate tough twos and taking just contested shots. But for me, I don’t really try to think about that too much throughout the game, I just try to go out there and just get the best available shot for myself or for my teammates, and that’s how I think we’ve been able to be successful.”"
Other players may differ in opinion, and some teams don’t even rate the use of advanced statistics nearly as highly as others. Yet, after Harden recorded the second best value over replacement player mark (7.8), the fourth best player efficiency rating (26.7) and the most win shares (16.4) in the NBA last season, he’s got to at least like the advanced statistics that he’s putting up himself.