James Harden is on pace to have a season for the ages. With averages of 28.7points, 12.6 a sists and 6.1rebounds through the opening 11 games of the season, he has an opportunity to become the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1965-66 to . If there is a slight decline in those numbers as the season progre ses, Harden will still likely do something weve only ever seen from .Harden will keep posting these sorts of numbers for two reasons. First, the Rockets have put all their eggs in one basket by building a team based entirely on his Tre'Davious White Jersey strengths. Despite it being a small sample size of 11 games, its no surprise their offense free falls from when Harden is on the court to 88.4when hes on the bench. As long as he continues to use around of Houstons offensive po se sions, hell be counted on to create for himself and others in otherworldly volume.NBA PREDICTIONS: The other reason Harden wont slow down anytime soon is because of how Mike DAntonis system magnifies his skill set. While Harden was once an isolation-heavy wing, hes become more of a traditional point guard under DAntoni by doing the bulk of his creating out of the pick-and-roll. Harden proved to be a dominant pick-and-roll scorer last season, but hes almost doubled his pick-and-roll usage while maintaining similar levels of efficiency.FrequencyFGMFGAFG%PPPPercentile2015-1625.916537044.60.9791.42016-1742.0428251.21.0686.3Its not as though Harden is doing anything particularly Zack Moss Jersey complicated by his standards, either. The joys of a DAntoni team is you can basically stop any video of them running a pick-and-roll and clearly see each of the options available to the ball handler thanks to the spacing his sets create.Take this sequence against the Lakers as an example. With Tarik Black hedging to contain Harden, Clint Capela has a free lane to the basket on the roll. Unle s Jordan Clarkson and/or Lou Williams leave their a signments in the corners, all Harden has to do for the Rockets to score is lob a pa s at the rim for Capela.Heres another example. Notice how Kevin Love cant venture too far away from Anderson on the pick-and-pop because hes an elite shooter. With Tristan Thompson being the last line of defense, Harden has the choice of either attacking the basket himself or slipping a pa s to Nene on the cut. (TrevorArizagives him another option by making his way to the baseline for a corner 3-pointer whenLeBronJames turns his back to him).Harden settles for option No. 2 on this po se sion, with a slick behind-the-back pa s to Nene when Thompson slides over to take away the layup.Sometimes the Rockets muck everything up for the defense by getting both Anderson and Capela involved in the pick-and-roll.MORE: The Hawks switch Paul Millsap onto Harden following a pick-and-pop with Anderson in the video below, and Harden then runs a pick-and-roll with Capela. As good as Millsap and Dwight Howard are on defense, Christian Benford Jersey they dont have much of a chance at stopping Harden from creating a play for himself and others in a pick-and-roll.Harden has been making those reads over and over again in Houstons road-heavy 6-5start. Hes still turning the ball over at a record-setting rate, but its not as detrimental to the offense when hes a sisting on 59.4percent of his teammates baskets. Besides, his a sist-to-turnover ratio of 2.21 currently ranks 42ndin the NBA it also happens to be way up from last seasons putting him ahead of the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, John Wall and Ru sell Westbrook.Although its unlikely he averages 13 a sists per game over the entire season, Harden has a real shot at becoming only the fifth person in NBA history to average .MORE: The funny thing is pa sing isnt what Harden does best. To go along with those strong a sist numbers, hes scoring his 28.7points per game on 47.8percent shooting from the floor and 37.5percent from the perimeter. Hes still amongthe league leaders in transition scoring, where hes able to power his way to the rim and pirouette around opponents with nifty moves.Harden can obviously break players down all by himself with cro sovers and step-backs as well. He hasnt been as efficient scoring 1-on-1 so far this season hes only averaging 0.70points per po se sion but he ranked in the 74.2 percentile last season and recorded than Carmelo Anthony in second place. Its only a matter of time until that numbers creeps up to being amongthe best in the NBA again, even if the volume isnt what it once was.The combination of his pa sing and scoring withinDAntonis system is probably why Rick Carlisle called Harden the "."Its something the Spurs learned in their lo s to the Rockets on Nov. 9, when they had Kawhi Leonard defend Anderson in the first quarter so they could switch him onto Harden when they ran pick-and-pops. It wasnt a bad strategy seeing as Anderson has scored around 15 percent of his Cam Lewis Jersey points as the roll man over the last two seasons, but the Rockets responded by parking Anderson in the corner and running pick-and-rolls with Capela.PHOTOS: Since Leonard couldnt afford to leave Anderson alone for a spot-up opportunity, the Rockets basically turned the leagues best all-around defender into a spectator.When Leonard did force a turnover by helping off of Anderson, it took a Herculean effortthat le s than a handful of players couldve pulled off. And even then, Harden couldve prevented the turnover from happening had he thrown a slightly stronger pa s to Capela.Putting Leonard on Harden didnt exactly solve the problem, either, because the Rockets run pick-and-rolls until they get the matchup they want. Plus, its Stefon Diggs T Shirts tremendously difficult to stay in front of Harden because he can shoot and put the ball on the floor. Going under the screen sacrifices a pull-up from the perimeter or midrange both shots Harden is comfortable taking and making but going over lets him attack a helple s 7-footer downhill.Throw in Houstons ability to always space the floor with four players on the perimeter, and one overreaction tends to pave the way for an open 3-pointer.As for trapping the pick-and-roll, its not an option thats going to fluster Harden often. Watch him use his height to see over the double team and launch a rocket over Marcin Gortat to the rolling Capela, who finishes the play with a simple layup over Otto Porter Jr. At 6-6, there arent many defenders who can easily block Hardens vision of the cutter.Harden is incredibly durable, too. Hes averaged 27.0 points, 6.6 a sists and 5.4 rebounds per game since joining the Rockets in 2012, and hes only mi sed 14 games during that time due to injury, so we know he can handle being the focal point of the offense for an entire season.TOP 15 AT EVERY POSITION: | |