A few extra freebies would certainly help, but refs not taking the bait has nothing to do with Harden attempting fewer drives to the basket per game than he has since 2013.
Brooklyn bounce restart free#
Yet the whistle doesn’t come, and the play ultimately breaks down:īut as Harden himself has said, the dramatic reduction in trips to the stripe-his free throw rate (.192) is less than half what it was last season (.440), and just over one-third what it was in 2019-20 (.528)-isn’t the whole story here. On more than a few occasions this season, Harden has gone about his typical business: initiating contact with a defender, locking arms, and snapping his head back. Harden’s the most notable, though, for the same reason he’s been the league’s premier call-hunting villain for years: Nobody makes it more visible. NBA teams are on pace to average the lowest number of free throws in NBA history, a drop of about two per game this season from 2020-21, and three fewer than in 2019-20. Harden’s far from the only player affected by the new “no abnormal non-basketball moves” rule change. Adjusting to that new set of standards appears to be taking Harden some time: He’s attempted just 15 free throws on the season, his lowest total over any five-game stretch in more than 10 years. Heading into the 2021-22 season, the league instituted “ an interpretive change in the officiating of overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves by offensive players with the ball in an effort to draw fouls.” One of the specific kinds of moves on which refs were told not to reward the offensive player with free throws? When he uses his off arm to initiate contact with a defender, long a Harden specialty. Many, including Nets head coach Steve Nash, have pointed to the NBA’s latest adjustment to officiating as a contributing factor in Harden’s slow start.
But given Harden’s résumé and the Nets’ galactic need for firepower sans Irving, that sort of production isn’t just an issue. A lot of teams would kill to have a starting point guard who averages 16.6 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds per game. Most of them surround Harden, who has opened the season looking like a pale imitation of the player who won three scoring titles and the 2017-18 Most Valuable Player trophy.įive games into the season, Harden has yet to score more than 20 points the last time it took him this long to top that mark was a decade ago, when he was coming off the bench for the Thunder. (Brooklyn sits 17th in points allowed per possession, and 25th or worse in points allowed off of turnovers, second-chance opportunities, and fast breaks.)Īfter a 106-93 home loss to the Heat on Wednesday-the Nets’ lowest-scoring regular-season performance with Durant in the lineup, just below the previous nadir: Sunday’s home loss to the Hornets-a team that entered the season as the championship favorite even without Irving sure looks like it has more questions than even a superhuman KD can address. But it can’t be the only answer-especially for a team expected to top out at average at best on defense. Despite the Nets’ early-season turmoil, Durant’s still averaging 29.8 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists per game on. In fairness, that’s typically a damn good answer. We’re About to Find Out Whether the Bulls Are for Real How Immanuel Quickley Became the Exciting New Name at Madison Square Garden And the third member of the Nets’ shot-creating Cerberus, Kyrie Irving, isn’t in uniform, and won’t be for the foreseeable future, barring a sudden change of heart or New York public health policy.ĭurant’s attempting this shot because, a week and change into a season that was supposed to serve as a coronation for the league’s latest player-crafted constellation, the Nets don’t have many better answers than, “Hey, Kevin, just make something happen.” He remains mired in one of the worst slumps of his career. He’s doing this because the other player in Brooklyn black who’s supposed to be able to make something out of nothing, James Harden, had just front-rimmed a stepback 3-pointer, slung a pocket pass out of bounds, and given the ball up to Durant before crossing half court. He’s doing this because his Nets, a team built to overwhelm opponents with relentless offensive onslaughts, had missed seven of nine shots with a pair of turnovers over the previous six minutes, allowing the visiting Heat to rip off a 20-5 run and regain the lead. That’s Kevin Durant, dribbling into a triple-team in the corner and rising for a pull-up jumper over Dewayne Dedmon and P.J. This is what the Brooklyn Nets look like when things are not going according to plan: