On March 26, Beijing time, 76ers beat the Clippers 122-97 on the road. James Harden played 7-of-15 from the field in 34 minutes, including 4-of-9 from three-point range, 29 points plus 15 rebounds and seven assists from 11 free throws, a team-high plus-minus of +28 points.
In this game, Harden achieved 3 major milestones. His career total of 23,334 points equalled Robert Parrish in 28th place. He made 6,306 assists, tying kobe Bryant in 32nd place. He scored 6,883 athletic goals, surpassing Lakers star James Worthy to 78th all-time.
Harden is one of the most controversial stars in the league, and on the data, Harden is also a good player in the world, scoring and assisting. Harden has a unique influence on the significance of reforming the league's history. But in terms of playing style and team honor, Harden has flaws. Exactly how to evaluate Harden has become a difficult problem, and his wind evaluation is seriously polarized.
What exactly is Harden's level?
As the 2009 Flower Exploration Show, Harden is also the proud son of heaven. In the Thunder era, Harden only took 3 years to grow into a super sixth man. At that time, most people just saw Harden as a championship puzzle, few people thought he could become the core of a team, and even Harden himself was willing to play the sixth man role in the Thunder.
If thunder management had ignored the luxury tax and renewed Harden's contract in the summer of 2012, Harden might have ended up just like Manu Ginobili, making his name as the super sixth man on the strong team. But Harden's fate and the trajectory of history have changed because of a transaction and a change of coach.
In the 2012-13 season, Harden quickly became a sharp pointscutter after joining the Rockets, and the Rockets' data model for Harden's predictions became a reality one by one, he became the Rockets' home star, carried a team, and quickly completed the transformation from super sixth man to All-Star player, best team member, MVP candidate.
In the summer of 2016, "running bomb master" Mike D'Antoni took office as Rockets coach, and the first thing he did when he arrived in Houston was to meet harden and explain to Harden his plans for Harden's transformation. In D'Antoni's view, Harden's transformation into a point guard is the most favorable choice for his personal development and rocket championship, and he sees Harden as a personal offensive reinforcement version of Nash.
"We've had a good lobbying for him, and he's interested," D'Antoni said, "he has enough vision, his passing ability to be a point guard, he has the strength, the stature and everything else to be a good point guard." ”
D'Antoni's transformation of Harden unleashed a monster, and in the 2016-17 season, Harden averaged 11.2 assists and won the assist king. The following season, Harden's assists declined, but he averaged 30.4 points per game and won the scoring throne. From the 2017-18 season to the 2019-20 season, Harden averaged more than 30 points per game for three consecutive seasons, winning the scoring championship for three consecutive seasons, and his scoring and assists in each season accounted for more than 40% of the Rockets' total scores.
Harden has dedicated countless super-personal shows, scoring 61 points in two single games and 60 points in two single games, including Harden scoring 60 points while scoring a triple-double against the Magic on January 31, 2018. In addition, Harden has also scored a terrifying triple-double of 53 points, 16 rebounds and 17 assists in games with the Knicks, he is the first player in history to cut at least 50 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in a single game, and he is also the only player in NBA history to have scored 50+ triple-doubles twice in a single season. Harden has scored at least 30 points in a single game in 32 consecutive games, second only to Wilt Chamberlain in history.
Harden's greatness is unquestionable, but in the eyes of the world, greatness is also hierarchical. The 75th anniversary of the NBA, the official reluctance to give the great rating, launched an unrested version of the list of 76 stars (originally 75 stars, but there are two tied), Harden is on the list. Looking at the hilarious American media is not the same, "The Athletic" called its experts to vote for the ranking, and Harden ranked 33rd. The ESPN version put Harden at No. 50. ESPN data analysis expert Pelton believes that Harden's ranking is low, he should be more advanced, even if there is no champion he should not only rank 50th.
Overall, Harden's current historical ranking is almost 30 or so, he has won the MVP, entered the best team, and there is no shortage of scoring champions, assists, All-Stars, and all he lacks is the championship. Harden led an era of magic balls, he is the historical core of the ball, and his playing style and technique have a huge impact on young players. Harden is one of only seven players in history who have scored at least 23,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, and 6,000 assists in their careers. In the future, if Harden can win the championship, his historical status will be even higher.
What exactly is Harden missing?
When you summarize Harden's career, you explore "what exactly is Harden missing?" "When it comes to this question, you will definitely think of the championship first. But the championship is an ultimate goal, and not winning the championship must mean that there is a problem on the way to the championship. Harden's career has so far no championship, one lack of luck, two lack of hard battle performance.
No one can deny that winning the championship requires luck, and Harden's luck is really too bad.
In the 2017-18 playoffs, the Rockets once forced the Warriors into a desperate situation in the Western Conference Finals, leading 3-2. At that time, the Rockets cut the Warriors' offensive system with infinite changes, forcing the Warriors to enter the mode of single-handedness, while the Rockets gave full play to the roll call ability of the three backcourts in the face of the Warriors' infinite changes. Sadly, Paul's untimely injury changed everything, grabbing seven Games the Rockets missed 27 consecutive three-point attempts and eventually got out of the game.
"It takes luck to win the title, especially in the divisional finals, where the strengths of the two sides are very close, and you need a little bit of luck," D'Antoni said.
After Harden joined the Nets, the Nets had great hopes of winning the championship. But last season, the Nets lost to Harden's hamstring injury, and Irving stepped on Antetokounmpo's foot, resulting in a serious sprained ankle. Harden didn't have the expected success with the Nets, and the Big Three's bad luck with various injuries was a big reason.
Luck is an objective factor that Harden has not won the championship so far, and Harden's lack of masterpieces is also a major reason. Yes, Harden's career has also had goals that are fixed in life and death moments, such as the 2018-19 regular season game warrior Harden led the team to complete a 20-point reversal, and hit a difficult three-point kill in the last moment of overtime. But what a star is really remembered for are those heroic moments in the playoffs. Sadly, Harden played more games in the playoffs than he did for the Brave Savior.
Harden has made just 2 of 11 shots in three playoff games, and one game has had 12 turnovers. When the Rockets lost to the Warriors in Game 6 and Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals, Harden made nine turnovers on the G6 and five on 2-of-13 three-point shooting from the G7.
Harden's lack of performance in hard battles is the result of a combination of mental attributes and technical defects. In particular, Harden's technical shortcomings, as a product of the magic ball theory, Harden attaches importance to attacking the basket, shooting three-point shots and making free throws, and he is the least frequent in the middle of the shooting among the top stars. In the regular season, this style of play may work, but in the highly targeted playoffs, it is easy to eat up. To this day, this problem still plagues Harden.
What does Harden need to win the championship in the future?
Today, the outside world is still using the criteria for examining MVP-level stars when looking at Harden, but in fact, Harden's role has changed.
From joining the Nets last season to joining the 76ers this season, Harden is constantly sending a signal to the outside world: Harden no longer wants to do the ball-holding big core attack and shoulder picking, and he prefers to play the second boss than to play the boss of a team. Harden's play at the Nets and 76ers is closer to an offensive point guard, and he has said in public more than once that as he gets older and injured, he is ready to say goodbye to the big core play with the ball, and is willing to give durant and Embiid a core star.
Wang Xiaobo wrote in "Red Breeze Night Run": "When people are young, they are full of impulses to do things, endlessly changing everything, and when these impulses suddenly disappear, he will be old." ”
Harden is more laid-back than many big-name stars, is willing to admit the impact of age on him, and has little resistance to giving up the number one core position. However, this does not mean that Harden should lower his requirements for himself a lot, because it is not easy to become the second boss of the championship team. From the past three years of playoffs, Kyle Lowry, Anthony Davis, Chris Middleton (or Holliday) as the second leader of the championship team, have all played a decisive role in the team's championship journey.
If Harden wants to win the championship at the 76ers, realize his championship dream, further enhance his historical status, he must come up with better performance at key moments, develop mid-range shooting, and play a more stable performance in the playoffs.