Basically, Morey (and other moneyball followers), abhor long twos, and live by the thought of Either an easy bucket (within 3-5 feet of the hoop) or go ahead and launch the 3. Seems like Harden has really taken that approach to heart.

This is interesting in two ways:

1) Will be interesting to see if the strategy pays off long term, or if eventually the offense begins to demand Harden to open up his game to longer 2's a la Kobe.

2) It shows that perhaps Harden is taking the Battier approach to analytics. Battier was always a big believer in the statistical breakdowns of his opponents and would use the analysis to alter his defensive approach to a teams best player on a game by game basis.

It's interesting that he is relatively inefficient from the left wing, yet money from near everywhere else along the perimeter.

That's incredible. Thanks for posting.

It reminded me of this Grantland piece from February.

quote:

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Harden averages nine drives per game, which is fifth among players whose teams have the cameras. The top four: Tony Parker (10.8), Rajon Rondo (10.1), Russell Westbrook (9.3), and Jrue Holiday (9.2). As an aside, that Holiday number is a fantastically good sign for Philly. He ranked below average by this metric last season, and he’s piling up about twice as many drives per game this season, according to the 2011-12 data I’ve reviewed.

...snip...

Houston is scoring 1.51 points per possession on trips in which he drives at any time in the shot clock. That is easily the highest mark among all players in the 15-team database with more than a token number of drives. It is a mammoth number; keep in mind, teams average just about one point per possession overall. Harden has drawn a foul on one-third of his drives, which is among the highest numbers in the data set, and sort of amazing when you think about it.

Jeremy Lin is averaging 8.1 drives per game, ninth among all players, and even though he’s having a disappointing season, the Rockets are scoring 1.32 points per possession when Lin drives — about what the Spurs have scored on Parker drive possessions.

In other words: There is some merit to the idea of telling guys, “Put your head down, get to the paint, and make a play — any damn play,” especially if the team has skilled 3-point shooters and good passers driving the ball.

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I'm really hoping that he continues with the "shoot a 3 or drive to the basket" mentality with D12 in the lineup. My biggest fear is that D12 just clogs up the lane. However, I keep reading about how good of a pick-and-roll tandem Harden and Howard are going to be together, so it sounds like there will still be plenty of drive opportunities.

Welcome to 2 years ago... sorry.

And Parsons...

50% from the corner. Gracious

You always need a white boy in the corner.

quote:

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You always need a white boy in the corner.

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Case says Hi.

Informative, informative, OMG I ruined my keyboard.

Grantland

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9109245/how-lebron-james-transformed-game-become-highly-efficient-scoring-machine

Watching that video in the article with Dream and LeBron working together made me excited thinking about the potential Dwight is going to have with Dream's instruction

He has had Hakeem's instruction for years. And Ewing's.

Hakeem is on staff and Dwight now lives in the same city. Something tells me they will be working together a whole lot more than they have in the past