BROOKLYN – James Harden is never included in the debate concerning basketball’s best point guard. His consensus nominal position is off-guard, after all, and the Houston Rockets MVP candidate boasts the numbers to prove it – he leads the league in scoring at 27.4 points per game. But that nomenclature and scoring production belies crucial context. Harden is his team’s primary ballhandler and top playmaker, and is as natural a passer as close to any player in basketball. Even if his hoops id was more aligned with a traditional shooting guard’s, though, The Beard says his team’s roster necessitates embracing his floor general side.
And that was never more evident during teammate Patrick Beverley’s winning performance during All-Star Saturday’s Taco Bell Skills Challenge.
Despite Beverley being crowned champion of the event after beating Brandon Knight in the final round, Harden didn’t exactly seem impressed with his teammate’s effort – especially when it came to passing accuracy. Not that he was surprised, either:
James Harden on Patrick Beverly's trouble passing in the skills event: "he doesn't pass back home either; that's why I'm the point guard."
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) February 15, 2015
Beverley indeed struggled getting his dish through the passing sphere – enough that we wondered whether or not he actually made it immediately after he was named winner. But the officials deemed his fourth pass in the final hit the bullseye and catapulted off its netting before bouncing back onto the court.
Either way, that it took the reigning All-Defensive Second Team honoree four tries to pass that obstacle before moving onto the next one isn’t a ringing endorsement of his distributing prowess. But Beverley was riding high off his Skills Challenge title after the event regardless, openly hoping that his achievement might lead to more offensive responsibility with the Rockets.
“I hope Coach McHale is watching, and maybe I can get some plays now,” he joked.
“On our team James has the ball a lot, which is fine. He is the best player in the NBA right now. He’s our MVP. So on a setting like this, just by myself I was able to display my skills and some things that some people have never seen before.”
We think Beverley is perfectly suited as Harden’s defensive-oriented partner in the backcourt. That he’s a vastly improved long distance shooter this season – a development driven home last night as he hit treys in each round on his first attempt – makes him an even even more ideal fit for Houston.
But even a team so willingly reliant on a player of Harden’s all-encompassing offensive merit could always use more dynamism. Maybe McHale will afford Beverley more playmaking opportunities after all – as long as it doesn’t involve setting up teammates with pitch-perfect chest passes, of course.
