The Miami Heat do one thing, while James Harden wants to do another. It just doesn’t seem like the best fit for either party.
Clashing Styles Won’t Let It Work
The Miami Heat are a team that believes in ball movement and man movement. In basic basketball terms, that means a lot of passing to find the open guy and a lot of cutting or action for a guy to make himself that open guy.
That goes totally against the philosophy of James Harden’s game. His game is the complete opposite of what the Miami Heat want to do.
The Miami Heat want everybody passing the ball then moving, whereas Harden wants to dribble then only find a pass when he doesn’t have a shot late in the clock. Harden is capable of running off of cuts and moving, but after being in a rhythm or when the play is specifically drawn up for him.
He typically finds his rhythm though by isolating, dribbling away, and all while the rest of the team is stagnant. Listen, great players and teams can adapt and transform, but it’s not that simple here.
If he tried to adapt to the Miami style of play, would he be him? Would he be worth the near $50 million dollar price tag he is to be paid this season?
I can’t say that for sure. What about the guys already with the Miami Heat?
Well, that goes for the guys that would still be there once they put together a package worthy enough to land Harden, but we’ll get there in a minute. Back to the guys that’ll be there though, how would they be impacted?
A huge part of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo‘s games are getting others going and playmaking. They also excel at moving without the ball and finding others doing so.
James Harden would basically take away from the other things besides scoring that they do which makes them great, that’s just one example. I don’t know if it would work and that’s just one reason that Miami needs to think about it a ton before potentially making a move.