ATLANTA — Two days after James Harden posted an eight-to-eight assist-to-turnover ratio in a loss to the Houston Rockets, Nets head coach Steve Nash said his star guard has “improved” in taking care of the ball.
The numbers, of course, would say otherwise, underscoring an issue plaguing a Nets team angling to compete for a championship. Harden leads the NBA with five turnovers per game and ranks second behind only Chris Paul with 9.6 assists a night. He has more games with at least seven turnovers (four) than he has with zero (one).
Turnovers are going to happen. They’re a byproduct of a number of factors: Harden’s time spent handling the ball and creating plays for his teammates and, of course, Kyrie Irving’s unavailability that robbed the Nets of a secondary back court playmaker and shot creator.
But some of his turnovers have been inexplicable and unforced.
“I think he’s improved overall. He’s handling the ball so much that there’s going to be nights where it’s not what you wanted, but that’s the responsibility he carries,” Nash said at shootaround ahead of his game against the Hawks on Friday. “I think he’s done a great job lately for a few games of really controlling his turnovers, making plays for his teammates, being aggressive, getting in the paint a lot, but it’s not going to happen every single night. You can’t expect that, but what he provides for our team is really important.”
It would be one thing if Harden was turning the ball over at a high rate but also shooting the lights out. Compounding The Beard’s early struggles is his career-low efficiency: Harden is shooting just 40% from the field and 34.6% from downtown. He shot 4-of-16 from the field and 3-of-12 from downtown in the Nets’ loss to the Rockets — a game he said he got the looks he wanted, but they just didn’t fall.
Harden is a former MVP. He has earned some extra rope to work through his mistakes because he has a track record as one of the best offensive weapons in NBA history. But at this point in the season, he is in game shape, and his hamstring injuries of last season are no longer hampering his play.
The Nets need the best version of Harden if they hope to win a championship this season, and they may need an even better version than that if Irving doesn’t return to play due to his vaccination status this season.
Veteran forward Paul Millsap says the team isn’t concerned about Harden’s play.
“He’s got a lot on his plate. First off, that’s a given. He’s trying to figure it all out,” Millsap said at shootaround on Friday. “For us, it’s not really a struggle. It’s kind of maximizing everybody on this team and what he can do and what he can accomplish, and just try to stay in that rhythm and stay in that flow. But we know what he can do and we’re not concerned about it at all.”
James no. 2
Millsap said his veteran teammate James Johnson reminds him of crucial piece of the Golden State Warriors.
“You look at things that Draymond Green does, you look at players of that caliber, a lot of people say James is not a shooter but James can knock down shots,” Millsap said of Johnson, who has emerged as a key role player on a depleted Nets team this season. “He chooses to be a playmaker and distributor. He chooses to get other guys involved because he understands how to win basketball games. What makes him unique is that he’s so unselfish. He wants to get everybody involved.”
Third wave
As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus begins to spread across the United States, several NBA figures have entered the health and safety protocols. That includes Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri (who tested positive for COVID-19), Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, Grizzlies star Ja Morant (who is out with a knee injury), and five different players on both the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls, including stars LaMelo Ball and DeMar DeRozan.
Nash said he texted the players about staying safe amid the spread of a new variant, but suggested there may not be a way around it.
“It’s probably going to happen to every team in the league,” he said. “There’s a new variant, it’s highly contagious and I think we’re going to face this. This is the world we live in. So there’s not a lot you can do about it. You can be extra careful and still face this type of thing so that’s just important for everyone to stay aware and understand you can do everything you can to stay safe, but the reality is teams are going through this and it’s probably more unusual if a team doesn’t go through that this year.”
Joey Buckets
There is still no definitive timeline for a return for Joe Harris, who suffered a significant left ankle sprain in Oklahoma City and subsequently underwent surgery to remove a bone particle from the area.
“(He’s doing) good,” Nash said on Friday. “Just doing his rehab and letting that thing heal while trying to re-strengthen and continue on that path to reentry.”
