James Harden over the last month is going on a tear that the NBA hasn’t seen but only twice in the past 30 years. On New Year’s day he became the first player since Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to score over 400 points in a 10-game span. Harden is now the best scorer in the NBA, yes, he has surpassed the 2- time champions in Kevin Durant or Steph Curry, but what makes him so unguardable?
Is it his uncanny craftiness with the ball in his hands, what about his ability to stop on a dime and shoot from 30 feet with incredible accuracy, or maybe it is his unorthodox playing style that allows him to manipulate the rules and get a large amount free-throw opportunities? Let’s look deeper into Harden’s unusual style of play by using P3 Applied Sports Science that propels him to another level offensively. P3 is the first performance facility to utilize advanced sports science technologies to assess and train professional athletes.
While being one of the best players in the league Harden’s physical frame isn’t the same of players like LeBron James or Russel Westbrook, so it wasn’t a surprise that Harden was below average in athleticism in most categories. Nonetheless Harden did test very well in one category and that is decelerating. He’s one of the best athletes in the world regardless of sport in that category. The former MVP emphasizes change of pace, the ability to stop and start at an elite level. Many trainers focus on explosiveness, quickness and speed, but being able to decelerate quicker than your defender you will always have upper hand on all areas on the floor. Being able to decelerate quickly will have your defender guessing how and when you will attack, leaving them off-balance causing you to be even more unpredictable as an offensive player.
Harden clearly has mastered this skill, so much that so far this season he is one the front runners for MVP and is having one of the best seasons of his career. In 44 games this season he leads the NBA in scoring at 36.3 PPG, while dishing out 8.3 APG, with 6.6 RPG, and still shooting 37.4 percent from 3. Harden’s unusual athletic ability has made him unguardable and has frustrated defenses over his career, so much so that many players around the league have started to complain about his foul calls, and some have even protested by putting their hands behind their back while guarding him.
Basketball is 90 percent Mental and 10 percent physical, with that being said Harden has figured out how to use his unique talent to his advantage and has terrorized the league ever since.
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