[Insider] Proving or debunking conventional Wisdom

Do you know what his TS% was before he came to Rockets? .660 TS% That's 24th best on the all time list!

Harden's TS% is still great but still a huge fall from the insane level of .660.

 

I actually completely disagree with the Aldridge observation. It's cherrypicking numbers. The Blazers offense is one of the best in the NBA. Furthermore, the offense falls off a cliff when it is just Damian Lillard in and no LMA. However, with LMA in the offense is still elite.

Just using his true shooting percentage is a very short sighted analysis of his impact on the game as a whole. The attention he draws is Dirk like. Whlie he doesn't shoot the 3s to inflate his own TS% (and frankly isn't as good as the greatest shooting big man ever), he opens the game up for Lillard, Matthews and Batum.

 

Aldridge's TS% is the lowest of his career. He never shot lower than .525 before this season. His FGA per 36 also jumped significantly, from about 17 the past 3 seasons to 21 this season.

I don't know what they are doing with their offense this season. But it looks like LMA's usage has changed and it also looks like the change makes his efficiency drop. Yet, their offense has been great so far.

 

I disagree that it was by fluke that Harden had such high TS% as option 3 w/ Thunder.

Do you know who had the highest isolation efficiency in the league two year ago? James Harden!

Harden feasted on opposition worst wing defenders while RW and KD had the better defenders on them. It shouldn't surprise anyone that his isolation efficiency also went down drastically along with his TS% when guarded by opposition best defenders. If he were still in OKC with a healthy WB and KD, I believe his TS% would still up there with less shot attempts and less minutes played.