Mike D'Antoni and James Harden may be a match made in heaven.
The new Houston Rockets head coach made his name in this league as an offensive genius, revolutionizing the game to a degree with the “7 Seconds or Less” style. Harden is working on leaving a similar mark as he has blossomed into one of the game's great offensive players.
This season, Harden will get to play under D'Antoni and expectations are for Harden to put up some crazy numbers. D'Antoni is extremely excited to get the chance to coach The Beard.
“The way he shoots, the way he moves, the way he handles the ball, it's just like, wow,” said D'Antoni of Harden. “And then you watch film of his passes, and he's a passer with incredible vision. What he does is special. I'm really looking forward to coaching him. He's receptive and he's in a great state of his athleticism. This is going to be fun to coach because he wants to play the way I want to coach. That's what makes it great. There's no complex.”
Harden is coming off his best scoring season of his career in which he averaged 29.0 points, 7.5 assists and 6.1 rebounds on 43.9/35.9/86.0 shooting splits. All of that was done within an offense that often relied solely on him to create out of the pick-and-roll or nothing.
The one criticism of Harden's has always been his defense, which at times is some of the worst in the league. That can overshadow other aspects of his game, including his playmaking, which D'Antoni puts right up there with some of the best point guards ever.
“You know what, he does,” agreed D'Antoni. “But Steve Nash held onto the ball a lot. Chris Paul holds onto the ball a lot. They have this unique position where they can make a play. That's as much as you want. When the ball goes to him, he's going to make a great play. But he's never shooting with three guys on him. He's not going to make bad passes, and he's efficient. That's why he can play that way, because he's efficient.”
It will definitely be interesting to see this season just what Harden is capable of doing with D'Antoni at the helm in Houston. The sky is the limit.
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