It isn’t up for debate that James Harden makes his teammates better, from creating assists to perfecting the pick and roll to being an outright leader for his team.
But according to Chris Paul, it isn’t even him doing anything specific that helps.
“It’s been great. It’s been cool. It’s the way that we play,” Paul said, according to Michael Pina of SB Nation. “If you play the way that we play, push it in transition and stuff like that, and then we play together some and then we don’t play together some. I don’t think for me and him, we don’t even pay any attention [to assisting each other].
“Sometimes the biggest assist is having James on the court, and me driving and them hugged on him. There’s no stat for that though. There’s no stat for that. When I’m driving, and the guy is denying him, you know what I mean?”
Both Paul and Harden are players that like to run the point and have the ball in their hand, but they’ve clearly found a great rhythm together.
Interestingly enough, SB Nation points out, in 1130 minutes together on the court, Paul and Harden — a pair that averaged 15.7 assists per game overall this year, which was more than any other two teammates in the league – only set each other up on 53 total buckets.
“Is there another tandem of two Hall of Fame point guards?” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said when asked why Harden and Paul don’t collaborate more often. “James is an iso guy, that’s what he does. That’s what he does best. He’s great at it. We exploit that and we’ll live with the consequences…we’re not questioning now ‘Oh yeah let’s change everything and let’s figure something else out.’ No we’re not doing that.”
Let’s hope the two can get rolling for Game 6 tonight (9 pm ET on ESPN), as the Rockets face elimination from the Western Conference Semifinals at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
Harden is having a great series, whereas Paul is struggling.
