There are two NBA players who, more than anyone, are capable of doing something incredible on any given night.
One is Russell Westbrook. He won the League Pass MVP award two months ago. He has 30 triple-doubles this season and deserves it every month. You will see him later in this post.
The other is James Harden. As we mentioned last month, on a nightly basis, Westbrook and Harden are the two best players in the NBA. Westbrook earned this distinction for being a human atomic bomb, obviously.
Harden, meanwhile, has probably the most enviable job for a player in basketball. He is the guy who has the ball in his hands all the time in Mike D’Antoni’s guard-friendly offense. Not only does this mean he gets the opportunity to score in bunches (which would happen with any coach, especially when you’re as good of a natural scorer as Harden), but he is also given the chance to set his teammates up. Here is what D’Antoni said about Harden before the season:
He’s more or less responsible giving rhythm to the team, that’s what a point guard does. He’s going to be on the ball and he’s going to be distributing the ball and it will take some adjusting. He’s got a lot more responsibilities as a point guard. A playcaller, a good basketball mind, he’s already telling guys we can do this we can do that.
Considering the year Harden has had, he probably got all of that adjusting out of the way before the season. Houston is the second-best team in the league by points per game, while Harden leads the NBA in Real Plus Minus Wins.
Basically, whenever Houston needs anything, the ball is put into Harden’s hands. The expectation is that he will make something happen, whether it be for himself or one of his teammates. When he is able to make those plays, the Rockets win. When he isn’t able to do that, they lose.
Every single month, Harden does amazing stuff that reminds us why he’s so valuable to the Rockets’ success. Unlike Westbrook, he’s been able to propel his team to the top half of the conference (although to be fair, Houston has the perfect roster for what Mike D’Antoni wants to do, whereas Oklahoma City is mostly just Westbrook and a bunch of other players who are meh-to-solid). He’s done this by leading the league in assists and being third in the NBA in scoring. Additionally, Harden leads Houston in rebounding.
If it wasn’t for Westbrook averaging a triple-double, Harden’s monster season would get more love. He is an MVP candidate, possibly the frontrunner, and he drove that point home in February. In nine games, he averaged 30.9 points, 10.4 assists, and 7.9 rebounds a night while connecting on 37.9 percent of his threes. He is insane.
I don’t think Houston will win the West. In fact, I think it’s going to be hard for them to make the Western Conference Finals. But I know that neither Golden State nor San Antonio would enjoy playing the Rockets, mostly because Harden would keep Houston in every game. And who knows? Maybe I’ll be wrong about the whole “Houston won’t win the West” thing. Harden’s good enough to get the job done.
Honorable Mentions
Russell Westbrook:
Duh.
Andrew Wiggins: Zach LaVine went down for the rest of the year on Feb. 4. It was a horrible loss for the Wolves, as LaVine was in the middle of a breakout year. Fortunately for Minnesota, Wiggins picked up the slack, at least on offense. The former No. 1 pick was fifth in the league in scoring in February, averaging 28.8 points a night. Is this sustainable? No idea, but hey, at least it’ll be fun to watch.
Dario Saric: The best rookie each month in the NBA has usually come out of Philly during the 2016-17 season. This is just the first month it’s not Joel Embiid. Saric has stepped up in a big way with the Sixers’ star big man out.
With Feb. officially in books, Dario Saric's 17.0 ppg topped all rookies, as did 4 double-doubles, 5 20+ pt games, 78 fgm, 361 minutes.
— brianseltzer (@brianseltzer) March 1, 2017
Imagine if he can do this with a healthy Embiid and Ben Simmons, along with whatever pieces Philadelphia can add next year. The Sixers are going to be really good in the near future, y’all.
Kawhi Leonard:
He is the best two-way basketball player in the NBA other than LeBron. There’s a chance the last three words in that sentence won’t be necessary sometime soon.
DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis: Brow and Boogie (read that in your best Migos voice) played in three games with one another in February. Cousins averaged 23.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks in those games. Davis averaged 35.3 points and 10 rebounds in those games. Those scoring numbers will probably level out, and Davis’ other numbers will probably increase, but still, we’re seeing flashes of a terrifying front court. Now if everyone else can pick things up from there, maybe the Pelicans will start winning some games.
