James Harden said the quiet part aloud. After losing 44 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists in 42 minutes to help the Brooklyn Nets beat the Detroit Pistons 113-111, “The Beard” made it clear how he felt about his performance so far in the 2020-2020 season.
“I feel like I’m the MVP.” said Harden, as cool as it can be. “It’s that simple.”
Your approach is just that, simple; He is a superstar figure focused on a teammate who accepts what the defense gives him. Harden’s mind is always in the best interest of the guys who share a similar shirt.
“I just try to go there every night and give my teammates everything I can bring to the game,” explained Harden, whose 11.2 assists per game lead the league.
Much has been written about Harden’s stylistic change this season – from a historically dominant isolationist in Houston to a supreme orchestrator of the best attack on the association as a network.
He became a more efficient player and his 46.8% pitch percentage in Brooklyn would be his best kicking accuracy since his days as a bank player in Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, his 25.4 points per game is his lowest scoring mark since his second season in Houston in 2013-2014. Once again, he changed his offensive approach in search of a title alongside two other historically great attack players, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. With Nets having the third best record in the Association, this approach has so far paid dividends.
“It just makes the game so easy for you,” explained Harden’s new three-game teammate, Blake Griffin. “And it draws a lot of attention. At the same time, you look at your assistance numbers – they are also unbelievable. Playing against him has always been one of those things where you hope to slow him down. And now, playing with him, you really enjoy playing with guys like that, because most of my pictures are just ‘be ready’, and he does a great job of finding you. It is not something that I take for granted. “
Harden has long been appreciated for his explosions of scoring – the three steps backwards, the proficient deceleration tactics for generations, the characteristic foul design and his flowering in the middle of the game that features a flip-shot float that he may never have been best.
And now, the NBA in general is finally reaching the magnitude of Harden’s play. Their lob launches disguised under Harry PotterThe invisible cover of – indistinguishable from the left-handed float he plays regularly – is finally gaining deserved attention on television screens across America (and abroad). His passage, always early and never delayed, is opening irreversible holes in even the toughest defenses. He even started hoisting precise passes from his own rebounds with consistency to give his Nets the oxygen they need when the attack subsides for a crawl.
Harden’s 44-point performance against Detroit was an excellent example of this – it was a low-key coronation of the player he became, a mental fusion of Harden’s past and present. He is a player who changed the Brooklyn season’s trajectory from an outside contender to a steamroller that can rule the federation for a quarter of a decade.
“He carried us offensively. He made some important plays, ”said coach Steve Nash after narrowly winning in Detroit. “James definitely carried us offensively.”
This he has, Steve. This he has. With Kevin Durant playing only 19 of 46 games in Brooklyn, and Kyrie Irving missing from 15 games, the onus was placed on the most durable member of the Brooklyn three-headed monster to carry the load. With an average of 38.5 minutes per game, his highest average since the 2015-2016 season, when he was 26, James Harden gladly took on that burden.
The MVP race is obscure this year, to say the least, tainted by injuries to some of the best players during the season, a cruel reminder that things in this world are not meant to be enjoyed right now. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid had the warmest start of any great man since Dwight Howard in 2011, before falling with a premature bone bruise on his left knee. LeBron James gave a strong boost early in the season, but the achilles tendon of his teammate Anthony Davis forced LeBron into a corner with limited offensive options before James himself suffered an injury.
There remained the vote with Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Portland Trail Blazers owner Damian Lillard, and the two-time MVP Giannis Antetkounmpo. So, of course, there is “The Beard”, which as much as skeptics wanted to erase his performance in the regular season from the archives due to his bad departure from Houston, he is making it very difficult to do.
Look, when James Harden says he’s the MVP, he’s serious. He’s not a guy who likes to mess up. And based on his incredible time in Brooklyn so far, who really disagrees with him?