James Harden delivered on his hard work in the offseason, quickly putting the fruits of his labor on display in the Houston Rockets' first preseason game against the Shanghai Sharks. The Beard had been seen mastering a one-legged drift-away jumper, and he made use of it when he was shaded to his left, taking a quick dribble and pulling up by the right corner, though clanking off the side of the rim and out:
The new James Harden shot, what do you think?https://t.co/AFeI9FaLtG
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 1, 2019
Harden had no problem disposing of the Sharks' defense, trotting out 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 17 assists in a mere 21 minutes of action on Monday. The one-legged fader was just rubbing salt on a 69-point wound, as the Rockets walked away from their first preseason tilt with a 140-71 romp:
“It’s already natural,” Harden said of his one-legged shot, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “It’s a shot that I work on, just like the step-back. You make shots or miss shots, I have confidence to shoot them. I don’t need it. I can create shots and shoot shots whenever I want, obviously. But I try to do it in the flow of the offense, whether it’s a step-back or one-legged shot.”
In that instance, Harden had no room to step back unless he drove toward the basket and then executed his patented move, yet this drift-away one-legger has so many things wrong with it that it serves no functional purpose. Harden uses his pointer of his non-pivot foot as his base foot for the shot, which is also at a near 90-degree angle from the basket, rendering him out of balance from the onset. His hips are also turned away from the basket, further reducing his accuracy — so it was no wonder he bricked the shot, despite such a light contest from his defender.
Feigen himself questioned the choice to add this to his repertoire, considering he has already mastered a weapon in his signature step-back move:
“He took it off his off (left) leg, making it seem even more difficult to hone into a good option,” wrote Feigen. “But the greater question about the move that he apparently sought to add in the offseason is, why bother?”
It seems Harden is determined to keep taking that shot during games, even if his 3-point acumen is only at 36.8% for this past season and a lower 35% in the playoffs. The Beard will likely no longer have the volume of shots he has enjoyed over the past few seasons, which makes this one-legged shot an entertaining yet dumbfounding choice.
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