Why James Harden Keeps Struggling In The Playoffs

James Harden struggled in the NBA Playoffs again. But why? If you use my link to sign up for NBA Top Shot and purchase a $9 Starter Pack, Top Shot will give you $20 back so you can start building your collection with Moments from the Marketplace: https://hoo.ps/mj2kallday
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And look there is the argument that he just ran into the Warriors dynasty**. Did he run into that against the Kawhi-less Spurs in Game 6 at home. What about when Kevin Durant went down in Game 5 of 2019 and wasn’t even there in Game 6? In 21 elimination games in his career, Harden averages 24 points, 5.7 assists and 4.5 turnovers while shooting 42.5% from the field and 32.5% from 3. **More like Hammered Hard**

So now that we got the fact that he does struggle, but why does Harden struggle in the playoffs?

If Harden isn’t scoring, if he’s turning the ball over, he doesn’t provide other value. His defense is shaky at best. Man will not move on offense. And he’s just not great at catch and shoot 3s, shooting 33.8% this season. In the past, he’s been an average 36% catch and shoot 3s. But it hasn’t mattered because Harden has always been an isolation player. Like isolating more than entire teams. In Harden’s MVP year in the regular season, Harden shot 55.2% effective field goal and but in the playoffs, that goes to 46.6% from the effective field goal. Going from 71st percentile in the league all the way down to 43rd percentile. **Harden in general is an average shooter by today’s NBA standards.**

When your primary schtick is that you’re an isolation player that can generate half-court offense, that typically means you perform in the playoffs, as long as you have more than 2-3 moves. In the playoffs, defenses hone in on the 1-2 go to moves of stars. We saw it with the Celtics versus Durant. We also have the reverse where teams will let stars go off but no one else. The Spurs would do that against LeBron and make him into a shooter. With Harden, part of that is taken care of without the defense doing nothing. **Yes, I’m talking about free throws.** (Harden has averaged over 10 free throws a game in the regular season since joining the Rockets. In the playoffs, he averages 9.1 free throws, so not much variation if you really think about it. But perhaps, if you look at the extremes in the playoffs, in nearly 1/3 of Harden’s games under 10 free throws attempted, he scored 15 points or under, 31 games out of 97. In games with 10 free throw attempts or over, there’s only 2 in 48 games. The free throws are a foundation for his game, but playoff basketball games can vary wildly depending on the officiating. **And Harden’s performances vary greatly because it, he has extremely bad outlier performances that cost his teams the series.**

Charles Barkley called Harden "the best one-on-one player I've ever seen in my life.”



The supposed greatest scorer in our NBA era has had some of the worst playoff performances by a superstar in NBA history. 3 of 20 from the field. 13 turnovers in a single game. We’ve already talked about Game 6 against a Kawhi-less Spurs. Keep in mind that the Rockets also designed the whole team around Harden for him to iso and have shooters all around.

What about game 7 in 2020 against his former teammate Chris Paul, 4 of 15 from the field? But his playmaking was solid even is Chris Paul outplayed him and Harden had the block.

But maybe there’s a simple answer. Harden gets tired. Harden has never been super athletic, he’s been crafty using his weight and shiftiness to throw defenders off, it takes more effort for him to go at that speed, ****The regular season drains on him, especially when he’s logging all those minutes That’s what Mike D’Antoni said for 2017. Steve Kerr has said that he knows that Harden would get tired because of how much he dribbles and the constant pick and rolls.

And now it’s even worse because he’s lost quickness, he’s lost his first step so now all his shooting inefficiencies are out in the open. We’re seeing Harden isolate and not get anything. Over and over and over again. He’s not really able to get by consistently, his slightly above average 3 pointer isn’t enough to be a superstar.

But now, because he’s not as shifty, defenders can stay up on Harden more and still cut him off for the drive. So Maxey is actually leading the Sixers in scoring without Embiid. Harden is no longer the isolation scorer he once was, and he’s already struggled with the playoffs.

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