It is not a well kept secret that Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden is one of the best scorers in the history of the game. He does that through his ability to create for himself.
Those two statements have culminated into 29 year-old Harden becoming the NBA’s all-time leader in unassisted 3-pointers. Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN compiled all of Harden’s long-range bombs into one beautiful chart.
At 29, James Harden is already the all-time leader in unassisted 3s in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/TugdcLdzaZ
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) February 27, 2019
The beauty of it is nice contrast to the beauty of watching Harden do his thing on the floor. It seems there is nothing he cannot do with the basketball, highlighted by a 50-point triple-double earlier in the year. Not only that, he has an unbelievable amount of 30-point games just this season.
Harden’s mark of 36.3 points per game is good for seventh best in NBA history if it holds up. He has top players in the league, like Paul George, talking about how difficult it is to guard him.
The ability to score unassisted is coming out even more so this season than in the past years. In terms of 3-pointers, Harden’s assisted percentage is 13.8. Prior to this year, his lowest percentages were 26 percent last year and 31.7 percent in 2017. Other than that, he has always hovered around 50 percent or higher.
He scores unassisted more than anyone else in the league and that ability to create for himself makes him a weapon. It can open the floor, which has helped him to 7.6 assists per game.
This does put James Harden in the record books, and it is well earned.
The post Beautiful shot chart of James Harden’s unassisted 3-pointers with Rockets appeared first on ClutchPoints.
