James Harden is perhaps the craftiest offensive player in the league, but even coming off a season in which he averaged over 36 points per game, he’s still trying to find ways to get better. Last month, Harden spoke about a new move he spent the summer working on: a one-legged 3-pointer.
In the dog days of summer, with nothing else to talk about, the video clips of him pulling off the move in pick-up games drew plenty of attention. But of course, the question was, would he actually try it out in games? The answer is yes. At least in preseason action. The Rockets took on the Shanghai Sharks on Monday night in the first preseason game of the 2019-20 season, and it didn’t take Harden long to break out his new move.
Just two minutes into the game, Harden dribbled right into the corner and launched up a 3 off one leg. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t go down.
Despite the miss, Harden put up a triple-double in the first half, and finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 17 assists in the Rockets’ 140-71 drubbing of the Sharks. The result doesn’t matter, though, and neither does Harden’s line considering the level of competition. Seriously, read that score again.
What is noteworthy is that Harden felt comfortable enough put up his new shot in an actual game, even if it was against sub-par competition. There are all sorts of things players can do in workouts and scrimmages that they never break out in a game; just watch big men shoot threes before a game sometime. For Harden to attempt that move means he’s extremely comfortable shooting it — something he talked about after the win.
“It’s already natural,” Harden said. “It’s a shot that I work on, just like the step-back. You make shots, you miss shots, just have confidence and shoot it.”
Even more interesting, though, was that Harden acknowledged that he doesn’t need the move.
“I don’t need it, I don’t need it,” Harden said. “I can create shots and shoot shots whenever I want — obviously I try to do it in the flow of the offense. Whether it’s the step-back or the one-legged shot, I’ll be able to get my shot off. I’m able to create enough space to shoot over the defender. So I don’t need it.”
Though it’s not much of a surprise, this seems to be an admission from Harden that the new move isn’t going to be a major part of his attack this season. He’ll probably break it out here and there to keep the defense off-balance, and just because he can, but the step-back three and marauding drives through the paint are his bread and butter; there’s no reason to change that after he dominated the league last season.
