James Harden is Ridiculous

Honestly, I get it if you don’t like James Harden. His style of play isn’t for everybody, and there are times he’s more irritating to watch than you are amazed of his scoring prowess. He still hasn’t had his big playoff moment, where he leads the Houston Rockets to the NBA finals. There are times where he looks disinterested on the court, sometimes in big playoff moments. I get it. At some point though, it’s time to appreciate what he’s doing and realize that this is a once-in-a-generation type of scorer.

Last year, Harden averaged 36.1 points per game, a scoring mark only vested by Michael Jordan in 86-87 (37.1) and the most since Kobe Bryant in 05-06 (35.4). This is the type of scoring company we need to commonly put Harden in when we talk about historical context. And this year, he’s amped it up to 39.5 points through the first month of the season. The numbers he’s putting up commonly is comical at this point and it’s almost a surprise when he doesn’t hit the 40 point mark in the games he plays. He’s that good offensively. Right now, he’s only shooting 42% from the field when he’s a 44% career field goal shooter. From three point land, he’s at 32% when he’s a career 36% from downtown. Sooner or later, those shots he’s missing right now and he’s going to be averaging over 40 a night, a stat that seems impossible for almost any other player in the league.

You can say he’s a product of Mike D’Antoni’s run and gun system, you can say he manipulates the refs to get more foul calls (he’s averaging 15 trips to the free throw line. Insane), and you wouldn’t be wrong. No other player is going to put up those numbers regardless. James Harden is that good, that special offensively. He’s been doing it ever since he got to Houston. If he were to win a championship this year or in the next couple of years, he will be validated much more than he is right now. Whether he does that remains to be seen, but let’s appreciate what he’s doing right now.

James Harden’s stats can be found here.