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Every week in the course of the 2021-22 NBA season, we are going to take a deeper dive into among the league’s greatest storylines in an try to find out whether or not the developments are based mostly extra actually or fiction shifting ahead.
[ Last week: The Celtics, an airing of grievances and a players-only meeting ]
James Harden is susceptible, so the Nets are, too
Or James Harden is simply out of form once more.
The 32-year-old spent the shortened offseason rehabbing a hamstring damage that price him 21 of the Brooklyn Nets’ closing 24 regular-season video games final season and severely restricted him within the playoffs. He declared himself “100%” initially of coaching camp, blaming final season’s damage on poor conditioning.
Solely, he is been far worse to begin this season than he was when he walked in from partying in Las Vegas and a preseason holdout to drop 44 factors and 17 assists in his 2020-21 season debut. He has scored 16 or fewer factors in six of Brooklyn’s first 12 video games, one thing he did solely six occasions all of final season. His 18.2 factors per sport are his worst common since he left the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder a decade in the past and a precipitous drop-off from his 33.7 factors per sport from 2017-20 en route to 3 straight scoring titles.
Harden’s utilization price has steadily fallen from a career-high 40.5% three seasons in the past to 26.7% this season, and his manufacturing has dipped together with it. His skill to get to the rim from the guard place, the place he shot higher than 60% on five-plus makes an attempt per sport in 5 of the final six years, was as soon as unparalleled. That determine has dipped under 50% on fewer than three makes an attempt per sport within the early going of this season.
Likewise, Harden tried double-digit free throws per sport at an 86.2% clip six seasons straight earlier than becoming a member of the Nets in January, when his nightly makes an attempt dipped to a mean of seven.3. His free-throw makes an attempt are right down to 4.7 per sport this season. The place as soon as he scored 16.7 factors per sport both on the rim or the free-throw line — his two most effective spots on the ground — he’s now scoring 6.8, and that could be a downside.
Quite a bit has been made concerning the influence of the brand new guidelines on Harden. Over the previous two seasons, he has drawn a mean of 1 foul per sport on a 3-point try. Because the league voted to eradicate non-basketball strikes aimed toward drawing fouls in the course of the summer time, Harden’s three freebies per sport have been reduce in half.
That lower in foul drawing might have had some influence on Harden’s dip in manufacturing, however of far better concern is his incapacity or unwillingness to get to the rim, mixed along with his inefficiency as soon as he will get there.
It has not helped Harden that the Nets are sometimes compelled to play two non-shooting threats round him and Kevin Durant, even when Durant tilts the axis of a protection greater than most. The absence of Kyrie Irving, who’s sitting out the season in favor of being unvaccinated, is having an influence past the zeroes within the field rating. Brooklyn’s most-used lineup options Blake Griffin and Bruce Brown, who’re taking pictures a mixed 25% from distance over the primary 11 video games, and spacing is worse when LaMarcus Aldridge is on the ground.
Durant can solely carry so nice a burden.
Harden is chronically out of form. He cannot manufacture whistles the best way he needs to anymore. He’s a step slower attempting to maneuver by faster-closing areas. And all of it could possibly be worse if he was not taking pictures 40% from distance for the primary time in his profession. But, he has a far better pattern dimension from which he can argue he’s merely enjoying his method again to perennial MVP-caliber type after the hamstring damage.
“As a lot as I need to get again to only [scoring] 30 and 40 factors, I can’t do this [right now],” Harden mentioned a handful of video games into this marketing campaign. “I had no alternatives to play pickup or nothing this summer time. Every thing was rehab for 3 months from a Grade 2 damage that occurred thrice in a single season.”
That is months after he declared at his charity softball sport in August, when asked by KPRC-TV reporter Ari Alexander what Nets followers can anticipate this season, “Wholesome James Harden. It is scary — scary hours.”
When Harden suffered a Grade 1 hamstring pressure in October 2018, he returned three video games later to common a career-high 36.1 factors per sport, enjoying all however considered one of his remaining 75 outings. It’s doable three high-usage seasons and a worse hamstring damage later that it takes six months to return to type. It is usually doable that two straight offseasons of minimal dedication to conditioning have compounded to show a participant who by no means missed greater than 10 video games in a season in his 20s into yet one more liable to damage.
There may be sufficient right here to marvel if this could possibly be the beginning of a everlasting dip in Harden’s manufacturing. It’s too early to make that dedication, however it isn’t too early to suppose any drop-off could be sufficient to decrease Brooklyn’s ceiling from a crew that may win a title with out Irving to 1 that wants Irving greater than ever.
Willpower: Reality
The Wizards received the Russell Westbrook commerce in a blowout
Give Washington Wizards common supervisor Tommy Sheppard the Government of the Yr award already, as a result of he fleeced Los Angeles Lakers counterpart Rob Pelinka in August’s Russell Westbrook commerce.
Three extra groups ultimately joined the deal, and Sheppard emerged with Spencer Dinwiddie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma, Aaron Vacation, the No. 31 decide within the draft and a few money. All it price the Wizards was Westbrook, Chandler Hutchison and a handful of extraneous second-round picks.
Even when we had been to concede that Westbrook, 4 years faraway from an MVP season, is one of the best participant within the deal, Washington walked away with at the least the second- by sixth-best gamers, pending the draft outcomes. And who’s to say this yr’s No. 31 decide, stretch huge Isaiah Todd, is not going to be one of the best of the bunch.
Westbrook has not been one of the best participant within the commerce, both. He has been a detriment to the Lakers, who’re 7.9 factors per 100 non-garbage possessions higher with him off the ground, according to Cleaning the Glass.
He’s averaging 19.3 factors per sport on 42/28/66 taking pictures splits. Solely 12 gamers who’ve tried at the least 100 area objectives this season personal a worse true taking pictures proportion, and 4 of them are rookies. His league-leading 64 turnovers forged a shadow over his 8.9 assists per sport. The Lakers sacrificed a number of high quality defenders to get Westbrook, and their protection has dipped from league-best to center of the pack.
Their 7-5 file is a mirage. They’ve a detrimental internet ranking in opposition to one of many league’s best schedules. LeBron James has missed six video games already. The Lakers acquired Westbrook to hold them for such a tough patch. Solely, his teammates needed to win the 12 minutes he sat by 20, simply to pressure additional time at dwelling in opposition to the Charlotte Hornets. The Lakers received regardless of Westbrook, as has largely been the case all yr.
That is unsustainable within the playoffs. James and Anthony Davis don’t need to be working in opposition to the grain.
Earlier than Westbrook pushed for a commerce to L.A., the Lakers reportedly had a deal in place to ship Kuzma and Harrell to the Sacramento Kings for Buddy Hield, who’s off to a different blistering begin from 3-point vary (39.1% on 10.7 makes an attempt per sport). In addition they would have retained Caldwell-Pope and a first-round decide.
Westbrook has absolutely run his course as an asset who might fetch a lot, if something, of worth after three trades in three seasons. The Lakers are on the hook for the $91.3 million he’s owed this season and subsequent. The most effective Pelinka would possibly be capable of do if his Westbrook experiment proves to be an utter catastrophe is commerce the expiring contract at season’s finish for worse bit items than these the Lakers traded to get the 33-year-old.
In the meantime, Dinwiddie, Caldwell-Pope, Harrell, Kuzma and Vacation have shaped half of a 10-man rotation that has the Wizards off to an East-leading 8-3 file and house owners of the NBA’s fourth-rated protection. They common a mixed 62.9 factors (47/38/80 splits), 29 rebounds and 12.8 assists (in opposition to 6.9 turnovers) per sport.
Sheppard turned John Wall, who’s sitting on the Houston Rockets bench, unable to find a trade partner, into one season of Westbrook, which resulted in Washington’s first playoff look in three years, and ultimately the haul he obtained from the five-team commerce. It’s the Wizards who now have the pliability to mix a number of high quality mid-tier contracts, together with future draft picks, for an additional star to pair with Bradley Beal.
In essence, the Lakers guess the final two seasons of James’ contract — and maybe his prime — on Westbrook, solely Sheppard is holding the total home, and Pelinka continues to be ready for his third ace on the flop.
Willpower: Reality
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Ben Rohrbach is a workers author for Yahoo Sports activities. Have a tip? E mail him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or comply with him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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