Kyrie Irving settles Nets roles with James Harden: ‘You’re point guard, I’m shooting guard … simple as that’

One of many largest questions dealing with the Brooklyn Nets once they acquired James Harden by way of commerce earlier this season concerned ball distribution. With three ball-dominant scorers in Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who would have the ball of their palms to provoke offense? Effectively, it appears as if the Nets have found out a solution to that query. Throughout a observe session earlier this week, Harden and Irving had a dialog to iron out their roles, and it was determined Harden would function the group’s de facto level guard, whereas Irving would play off the ball in a taking pictures guard-type position. 

“We established that perhaps 4 days in the past now,” Irving mentioned after Brooklyn bested the Golden State Warriors 134-117 on Saturday night time, via ESPN. “I simply checked out him, and I mentioned, ‘You are the purpose guard, and I’ll play taking pictures guard.’ That was so simple as that. It is not a mystical dialog that we had.

“He is been taking management of the tasks and doing an unimaginable job,” Irving added of Harden. “It simply makes my job simpler to simply exit and play free and simply make performs.”  

The choice was a clever one since Harden has extra expertise relating to making performs for others. Though he is often called one of many league’s elite scorers, Harden can also be a superb help man. He led the league in assists per recreation as a member of the Houston Rockets in the course of the 2016-17 season, and he is main the league once more up to now this season with 11.2 dimes per efficiency. In truth, his open acceptance of a facilitator position with the Nets has propelled Brooklyn’s offense to historic levels early within the season. 

Harden could also be a three-time scoring champion, however in Brooklyn he is allowed his scoring to take a again seat for the general good of the group. With the Nets, Harden is averaging 23.0 factors per recreation — a sizeable dip from his previous three seasons in Houston when he averaged 34.3, 36.1, and 30.4 factors per efficiency. The 14.6 field-goal makes an attempt per recreation he is averaging with the Nets is his lowest output since his last season in Oklahoma Metropolis in 2011-12.

“I simply need to are available in and get a really feel for what is going on on,” Harden said after a Nets victory over the Heat in late January. “Clearly, I could possibly be extra aggressive offensively, however now we have greater than sufficient scorers and guys that may put the ball within the basket. Simply obtained to select and select my spots, which I really feel like I am doing OK. However facilitating, getting guys pictures, getting our bigs ending on the rim, and simply attempting to be stable defensively is what I am attempting to do.”

Harden mentioned one thing comparable on Saturday night time, too. 

“I got here to this group understanding that they’ve two particular scorers on this group,” Harden mentioned after the win over the Warriors. “Clearly, I rating once I must, however so long as I am getting everyone concerned and Ky is getting the pictures that he desires, Okay.D. is getting the pictures that he desires, it is fairly environment friendly. Offensively is just not the issue for us; we are able to rating in bunches. It is defensively. It looks like we’re getting a rhythm as of late. We simply obtained to stick with it.”

The Nets seem to have issues found out on the offensive finish, however like Harden mentioned, they should do the identical defensively, as their group protection has been fairly porous in the course of the present marketing campaign. On the season, they’ve the Twenty fifth-ranked protection within the NBA, and that simply is not adequate for a group with legit championship aspirations. Similar to they’d a dialog to iron out issues offensively, maybe the identical method will work for them relating to the opposite facet of the ground.