How To Draw James Harden Easy

PHILADELPHIA — If you can't stop them, legislate them.

Going into Monday's preseason defeat in Philadelphia, James Harden was not only dealing with playing his way into shape afterward an offseason spent rehabbing, but dominion changes to keep players from using unnatural motions to draw fouls. In short, to cut down on his parade to the line, and the epidemic of players emulating him.

Neither seemed to ho-hum Harden, who had 21 points. He and Kevin Durant were the only bright spots in a 115-104 loss to the Sixers. But the fact he looked both spry and unbothered by the Harden Dominion were more than important than a preseason result.

"He got to the basket and did some things that we haven't seen," Steve Nash said. "And so obviously still got a ways to become only as far as playing basketball. He's played basketball game probably vii, eight times since we've been back. Actually, you lot go dorsum to the injury he only played the Boston series and the last game of the regular season.

"Then he's played very little basketball for quite a long time correct now, and that's not easy to just plow it back on and come up back to full steam. So he needs some time, and he'south working actually hard and he'due south doing a groovy chore and he'll keep improving."

James Harden #13 of the Brooklyn Nets handles the ball — James Harden'due south go-to motility to draw a foul was outlawed this season.

After sitting out the Nets' first preseason game and being rusty in the second, Harden took a huge step forward in the third. He got to the rim three times, was 3-for-7 from deep, had four assists, four rebounds and played his normal game.

"He looks pretty good to me in terms of his movements and seeing what he'south been doing up to this point, practice," Joe Harris said. "He's been putting in a lot of work."

Infamous for launching himself into defenders to depict fouls — especially on stride-back 3s — he used his trademark move to get a whistle on Georges Niang with 5:58 in the third. The Sixers challenged the call, only lost.

New rule, aforementioned as the old rule?

"The contest committee came very quickly to agreement that these non-basketball moves were not what the game should exist about," NBA caput of officiating Monty McCutchen said. "It should be about playing the game.

"Nosotros tin can come across that a lot of the innovation that's taken identify is driven past analytics. Players take learned that it's efficient to get to the costless throw line. And we desire to get back to normal play … we desire to inject some flow back into our game. We want to inject discipline back into our game, and we want to play."

Harden led the league in free throws half-dozen straight years, until injuries limited him to only 44 games concluding season and saw him terminate 23rd. Only when The Mail pointed out Harden had long been launching himself at defenders, McCutchen — who didn't single out the Nets star by proper name — said players copying him was the outcome.

"Innovation takes fourth dimension to become ubiquitous, or go something that other people follow because they meet a positive result," McCutchen said. "If nosotros accept a player who innovates and creates a new step … and we see an effectiveness to information technology, then our league recognizes what works. Y'all meet young players coming in that've already mastered the motility. They're not waiting to go here to be proficient.

"When something among these non-basketball moves becomes so ubiquitous that information technology starts to take over the flow of the game, the appearance, how nosotros want our production to look, it's [an issue]. This had go so ubiquitous nosotros [had to] become more balance and period to our game. Information technology wasn't but ane or two players anymore; it was starting to be something we saw and so much [it] wasn't good for the game."

Showroom A: Cam Thomas.

Harden'southward rookie teammate has been praised for his offensive savvy. The teenager calls Harden his favorite actor, and studied the latter's foul-drawing skill.

"When James was in Houston, I picked up a lot of his moves, the tricks of the merchandise he did, the way he draws fouls," Thomas said. "I got a lot of that from when he was in Houston, and even final twelvemonth in Brooklyn, I was still watching him."

For his part, Nash wasn't concerned about the Harden Dominion impacting his star.

"Players will arrange dorsum and they'll figure out how to play within those rules," Nash said, "so I'1000 non so worried nigh that."