2014 NBA Top 20: #7 James Harden

Even while at OKC, he had developed a habit of being a clutch player, at times even when Durant and Westbrook were on the court. It does help though when you have exceptional passing ability and vision like Harden has for a shooting guard. With the clock dying down and a game-winning play required Scott Brooks often used to place the ball in Harden’s hands.

The trend continued at Houston where Harden became the face of the franchise last season as he averaged 25.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, and throughout the whole season remained the go-to-man for the Rockets. He had a field goal percentage of 43.8% overall, while shooting 36.8% from beyond the arc.

What makes Harden so good is his basketball acumen. For a young player, and especially someone who moved from being part of a ‘big three’ to a sole superstar, he has adapted and grown really quickly.

His decision making sets him out as one of the finest guards in the game and his ability to score with jump shots as well as while driving to the basket, make him a nightmare to guard for defenders, while his ability to beat defenders off the dribble is mesmerizing.

He’s also a very accomplished 3-point shooter. There is so much explosiveness in his game which make him one of the top impact players in the league. When he gets on a roll, he just seems to catch fire and there isn’t much that opposition defences can do about it.

His excellent season saw him selected in the All-NBA 3rd team and 3 NBA Player of the Week awards as well as the All-Star reserves for the Western Conference for the All-Star game in his home court of Houston, Texas.

Harden had a very successful debut season with the Rockets

For the second consecutive summer, Houston were involved in the most talked about deal of the summer.

Last year, it was their acquisition of Harden from the Thunder, which while weakening a Western Conference rival, added a young guard with superstar potential to their squad. And they built a nice squad around him with the addition of Asik and the existing bunch of young players at their disposal.

This year, they snapped up the big fish in Dwight Howard from the Los Angeles Lakers in the free agency.

Suddenly, with the addition of Howard, there is talk of the Rockets becoming a title-contender. As much as everybody knew Harden was good, nobody really predicted that he would have the kind of season that he did.

His breakout season catapulted him into the MVP debate and he is now ranked amongst the 10 best players in the NBA.

And now, firmly entrenched as the lead man in the team, Harden has Howard for company, the premier big man in the NBA at the moment.

Houston fans should be excited, for not since the days of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady have they had such an exciting guard-center combination in their roster. There will be a quite optimism about them that their team can perhaps once more challenge for the biggest prize of them all.

The triple ‘H’ trinity of Houston, Harden and Howard is set for lift-off with James Harden leading the charge.

#FearTheBeard