James Harden reaches unprecedented combination of free throws and 3s
Jeremy Brevard / USA TODAY Sports
James Harden might as well have been concocted in Daryl Morey's lab.
In Harden, the Houston Rockets' general manager (who stumped for analytics before it was cool) has both an all-world superstar and a perfect distillation of Houston's organizational ethos.
In short, Harden almost exclusively shoots the ball from the most efficient spots on the floor - the paint, the free-throw line, and 3-point range - and proficiently, at that.
In the penultimate game of the regular season on Monday night, Harden reached a heretofore unseen combination of plateaus for 3-pointers and free throws made in a single season:
James Harden is the first player ever with at least 200 3-pointers and 700 free throws in the same season.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) April 14, 2015