“Wasn’t aggressive before, now I’m being aggressive”: James Harden shoots a whopping 19 free throws and reacts to finally breaking through the NBA’s foul rules.

James Harden reacts to his season high 19 free throws and claims he wasn’t aggressive before but is being aggressive now. 

James Harden, as said by him and Steve Nash, has become the poster boy for the NBA’s new rule changes when it comes to offensive players drawing fouls. In his first five games for the Brooklyn Nets, Harden attempted merely 15 free throws, averaging 3 a game; the lowest of his career. Tonight, he attempted 19 free throws against the Pacers. 

The new foul changes prohibit an offensive player from veering off path to launch themselves into an opposing defender. They also don’t allow a shooter to kick his leg out abnormally to draw a foul, nor can they lock arms with defenders when given a clear path. These are all tactics James Harden had in his bag.

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However, merely 6 games into the season and ‘the Beard’ has found his way around the rules, seemingly, as he made more foul shots against Indiana than he did in his previous 5 games. 

James Harden claims he’s being aggressive now. 

James Harden was accused of not being as aggressive in his first 5 games of the season when in reality he averaged 12.7 drives per game in those five games. For a person who operates on the perimeter as much as he does, that is a decent amount. 

This goes to show that Harden was both, shaking off a bit of the offseason rust and was trying a bit too hard to draw foul that simply would not be called in the 2021-22 season. Tonight seemed to have been different for the All-NBA talent as he seems to have figured it out, claiming he wasn’t being aggressive enough before and that he’s aggressive now.

James Harden on 17 free throws: “That’s just me being aggressive. First couple of games, I wasn’t being aggressive.”

— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) October 30, 2021

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With Kyrie Irving out for the unforeseeable future, James Harden has to be the undeniable secondary star next to Kevin Durant. It felt as though this is exactly what he was tonight. In fact, he led the Nets in scoring tonight, going 3-6 from beyond the arc and 16-19 from the charity stripe. KD dropped in a light 22 points and 11 rebounds.