Mike D’Antoni Cracks That James Harden Will Play ‘Points Guard’ Full-Time

With Mike D’Antoni of “Seven Seconds or Less” fame now running the show in Houston, you knew there were going to be some changes. You knew he would find a way to rev up James Harden’s already-high-octane scoring prowess. But you maybe wouldn’t have guessed he’d do that by moving The Beard over to point guard on a full-time basis.

That’s what the Rockets’ new coach told reporters at training camp on Monday, via Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com:

“With James you make a joke he’s a ‘points guard’ because he’s going to score some points,” D’Antoni said.

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“He’s more or less responsible giving rhythm to the team, that’s what a point guard does,” D’Antoni said. “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.”

In reality, the move is little more than a nominal change. After all, as Harden himself pointed out two years ago, he’s been Houston’s de facto point guard for some time now and had the third highest usage rate in the NBA last season.

The challenge will be whether he can adequately get his teammates involved. It’ll also open up an opportunity to boost the Rockets’ offense by pairing him with another scoring guard in Eric Gordon in the backcourt.

Harden and company have a lot of work to do if they want to put that disappointing 2015-16 season behind them and climb back into contention in the Western Conference. While scoring has never been much of a problem for the Rockets, they’ll also have to prove that they can defend against the league’s elite offenses, something D’Antoni has never really been known for — and playing Harden big-time minutes alongside a defender of Gordon’s substandard caliber might make even more difficult.

(ESPN.com)