Former Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale recently gave his thoughts on the team's plan to move their superstar shooting guard, James Harden, to the point guard position. The 58-year-old may have deeper knowledge of how the four-time all-star is as a player, having coached him for more than three seasons. Per Calvin Watkins of ESPN:

“You are who you are a lot of times. Can you change and be a facilitator first? I don’t know.”

“James is a scorer, and at the end of the day, you do fall back on what you are. James is a scorer at heart. Can you change that? … Can you be something that you’re really not for an entire 82-game season? He’s a great facilitator, great passer, and he has great vision — he really is a scorer as a basketball player.”

Harden's move to a new role is part of new head coach Mike D'Antoni‘s system that calls for more spacing and outside shooting in a fast-paced tempo. Though it is expected that the Arizona State product's 85.1% touch rate from last season will increase now that he'll be running the plays, his efficiency at it will remain in question unless he proves the doubters otherwise.

Former player, Grant Hill, who was part of the Phoenix Suns that D'Antoni coached back in the 2007-2008 season, talked about his expectations from the Rockets with The Beard playing the one position:

“Now you have a guy in Harden, he wants to score and he's great at it, and I know he had seven-plus assists last year. But it's going to be interesting. The jury is still out. I'm not sure how it's all going to work. I think he will put up great numbers, and his numbers may even be better … if that's possible from last year. In terms of how the team plays, how they play together, how they jell, I'm not entirely sure the style of play — the position that Harden is in — is going to translate to success with the team.”

It will be hard to question the two legends' take on the third overall pick of the 2009 draft's new role on his team, but as far as the Rockets' first three preseason games are concerned, Harden has been doing a phenomenal job with it. He has averaged 12 assists per game while not sacrificing much on his scoring with still 23.3 points per game.

Should he continue to perform like this during the season, it could spell trouble for other contenders as the Rockets are geared to make a successful run this year.