What happens when teams start trapping James Harden in the playoffs?

The Rockets have put up otherworldly offensive numbers this season, tearing defenses apart with a heavy dose of spread pick-and-roll and James Harden working his magic in all areas of the court. As the team gears up for a deep playoff run, Mike D’Antoni and his coaching staff are thinking about what teams will try to implement to take the Rockets out of their game offensively.

It’s rare to see a team change its defensive scheme for one game in the regular season as there simply isn’t time, or incentive, for teams to scout and practice a new scheme for a single game on their schedule. However, come playoff time, the offenses that have been seeing a generic defensive scheme all season will see teams tailor their defense strictly for that series.

One strategy opponents may implement against Houston is to trap Harden in the pick-and-roll, a strategy that has proven successful for multiple teams in recent years to take away an offense’s primary ball-handler.

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As most know by now, the Rockets don’t have a lot of offensive weaknesses. They spread the floor magnificently, their big men roll hard to the rim and can finish once they get there, and Harden holds the keys to the machine. Harden has turned into Steve Nash 2.0 in D’Antoni’s scheme, orchestrating one of the best offenses in league history night in and night out. Trapping Harden on the initial ball screen serves a dual purpose for defenses — it gets the ball out of Harden’s hands and forces their big men to make plays in an uncomfortable position further away from the rim.

According to Synergy, opposing teams have only trapped Harden on the pick-and-roll 62 times all season, less than two percent of his pick-and-roll possessions. It’s important to note that Synergy only counts possessions ending in a shot, foul, or turnover, so any possessions where Harden is trapped, passes out of the trap, and the Rockets run another action will not be counted here. The Rockets score 1.048 points per possession on these plays which is actually pretty good. But relative to the rest of their offense, especially when Harden is running the show, this is a very good result for the defense.

Harden hasn’t always responded well to the trap this season. He can get a little flustered when the opposing big man really comes out hard at him, especially along the sidelines. Watch how Zach Randolph gets into Harden’s airspace and forces him into a travel:

Harden still has his dribble when Nene comes over to set the screen, but even if he had dribbled out of it, he would have been forced backward and the entire pick-and-roll would have been blown up by Randolph’s presence. The key is both Tony Allen and Randolph are as close to Harden as possible without fouling him.

This play, on the other hand, is a textbook example of how NOT to trap Harden. Montrezl Harrell sets a quick screen and then dives to the rim, but John Henson stays with Harden to execute the trap, except Henson hangs back too far away from Harden to bother him, but not far enough off of him to defend Harrell’s roll to the rim, which forces Tony Snell to crash down from the weak-side corner. Without four arms in his face, Harden is able to find Patrick Beverley in the corner, triggering another rotation from the Bucks, and Trevor Ariza can put the ball on the floor and get into the lane. Ariza ends up turning the ball over because Giannis Antetokounmpo’s arms are roughly 25 feet long and quick as a cobra, but the initial trap on Harden is the focus; Henson is in no man’s land.

Whether teams spring a hard or soft trap on Harden, he’s usually going to try to find the right pass, which is already a win for the defense — it’s always a good thing for the defense if one of Harden’s teammates has to beat them. While the Rockets’ centers play their roles very well, when the defense changes up and they have to alter their roles, it can be difficult for Houston.

The Rockets have played all but 118 minutes this season with at least one of their centers on the floor — Clint Capela, Nene, Harrell, and Chinanu Onuaku. Onuaku has played just 10 minutes all season, so it’s hard to imagine he’ll get any playoff minutes. Of the remaining true centers, only Nene has any semblance of an off-the-bounce game; he can catch at the free-throw line and take a dribble or two on his way to the rim.

If opposing teams are trapping Harden at the 3-point line, the easiest pass is to the roll man, who will be open for a brief second before the help comes, but that opening is a lot further away from the basket than in a normal pick-and-roll. Nene catches on the move outside the restricted area and is able to finish over the helping Anthony Davis for the and-one layup, but the Rockets’ other centers aren’t making that play in the same situation.

Harrell catches at the elbow and is immediately met by the rotating defender. Neither Harrell nor Capela are capable of consistently reading the defense and making the correct pass to the weak side (though Capela has had a few this year), so teams can help hard onto the roller and force him into a bad shot like the one Harrell takes in the above clip.

These defensive adjustments are all about generating small wins for the defense. In the big picture, any possession keeping Harden out of the paint and getting the ball out of his hands is a positive outcome. Any possession that forces Capela or Harrell to make a play on the roll is also a positive outcome. While the Rockets haven’t seen many traps in the regular season, the playoffs might be a different story. To combat this, the Rockets can do one of two things — go to Nene at center when teams are trapping, in order to get a better playmaker on the other end of that primary pass from Harden, or go super small with Ryan Anderson at center. In just 92 minutes with Harden and Anderson at the 5, the Rockets are a fire-breathing dragon offensively and a gaping sieve defensively, as would be expected.

With Anderson as the screener, teams absolutely cannot trap Harden, as the pass to the popping Anderson is the easiest three points the Rockets will score all night. Neither of the below clips comes with Anderson playing the center position, but both illustrate how dangerous it can be to trap when Anderson is popping to the 3-point line.

Harden, when facing the trap, can easily flip the ball behind his back to Anderson, who just isn’t going to miss a wide-open catch-and-shoot 3. The expected value of a Rockets possession is already pretty high, but giving up an open shot to Anderson will push it even higher against that type of defense.

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The difference between winning and losing in the playoffs can sometimes come down to tiny things like this that get blown up into the story of a series in the right circumstances. It remains to be seen if any team outside of Golden State will commit to a hard trap on Harden every time down the floor, but the strategy might pay dividends in the right situations.