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James Harden led the Arizona State Sun Devils to their second victory of the season versus UCLA last night. Harden, who many believe is a Top 3 pick in this year's NBA Draft, had 15 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds. I'll ignore the 8 turnovers by Harden for now, but I think Arizona State proved that they are more than a one man team last night.Arizona State is currently 8th in the country in offensive efficiency and as I've stated before, teams who are Top 10 in the nation in offensive efficiency have a far better chance to reach the Final 4 than teams who are not. They also rank 29th in defensive efficiency and 11th in overall efficiency. They are certainly a sleeper team to make the Final 4 with an NBA ready talent in James Harden, a solid fringe NBA talent in Jeff Pendergraph, and some deadly outside shooters in Derek Glasser and Rihards Kuksiks. One problem I see with this team though is that they don't have much depth, so things would have to fall in place extremely well for them to make the Final 4.
Ok, you tell me if he is a top 3 pick. He can't go left, and he turned the ball over 8 times. He is VERY GOOD, but if he goes top 3, it would be because of a very shallow draft class, not because he's that raw. If he was in the same class as last year, he wouldn't make the top 10.
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He's left handed....so I think they were playing his left more than anything and not letting him go that way. He was also double teamed the whole night. He does turn it over a lot, but he still has positive assist to turnover ratio and won't be handling the ball as much in the NBA as an off guard. He's also a very efficient scorer.
ReplyDeleteand I agree with the very good but not great theory and so does DraftExpress.com:
ReplyDeleteWith the 2009 draft class not looking very deep in elite talent, Harden looks like he’s going to be in a great situation come June, as if he picks up where he left off as a freshman, and makes a few improvements to his game, he could easily see himself in discussions for the lottery. He’s not your typical lottery shooting guard prospect due to his just adequate athleticism and a style that doesn’t net him nearly any highlight reel plays, but with his build, length, and excellent feel for the game, if he can improve on last season’s performance, he’ll definitely be someone scouts and executives will be talking about.
I think he's the perfect player for an NBA Championship contender though, because he doesn't need a lot of shots to be effective and could probably be a solid # 2 or a real strong # 3 on a championship team. He could be like the Ginobili to Duncan and Parker or the Ray Allen to to KG and Pierce. I don't think he's someone you build around though like D-Wade, Lebron, or Kobe.
James Harden is definitely a top 5 pick and he can most definitely go left. What's crazy is he almost ended up at Pitt. Check it out ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.echofromthebuttes.com/2009/01/13/arizona-states-james-harden-in-blue-and-gold-yes-it-almost-happened/
From what I've seen (it's limited), Harden should go top 10, but not top 5, I'm not sure the potentil is there, but the draft might be weaker than normal.
ReplyDeleteIt's still early, but every mock draft I've seen has him at # 2. I don't think that's set in stone, but I think it would be hard for him to drop out out of the Top 5 unless 2 or 3 other players really come on strong that nobody is talking about right now. I could see a team taking Thabeet over Harden, but other than him I don't think there is anyone right now who has seen their status rise to a definite Top 5 pick. I'm sure someone will move up though as the draft gets closer.
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