After losing to Kevin Durant on Feb. 13 due to a leg injury against the Golden State Warriors, the Nets ’offense didn’t miss a beat thanks to James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
Harden has demonstrated his endurance by leading the Nets in minutes during the team’s standard eight-game streak at 37 minutes per game. In fact, James Harden has added 24.9 PPGs this season along with 11.4 APGs despite not entering the top 25 in usage rate according to statmuse.com.
Usage rate is a percentage of plays a player engaged that resulted in a team turnover, a site visit attempt, or a free throw attempt. Harden had a practice rate of 36.0 last season, but that has dropped to 26.3 since joining the Nets.
This means James Harden is able to give the Nets 25+ buckets and 10+ game discounts as long as he doesn’t even need the ball all the time when he’s on the court. . James Harden no longer has to carry a team offense on his own, but he can still put up wild numbers without stopping the ball.