James Harden #13 of the Houston Rockets handles the ball against the San Antonio Spurs in Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals on May 9, 2017 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
James Harden might not win the Most Valuable Player award, but he is the most transformative player of 2017 thanks to Mike D'Antoni's tinkering. After he took the Rockets job, D’Antoni got rid of the middleman, consolidated his best scorer and passer into an innovative role, then threw Houston's offense into warp drive.
Courtesy of that mad science, Harden has been weaponized into the NBA's shark with friggin' laser beams attached to his head. He led the league in points per game while finishing second in points, despite being unassisted on a career-high 82 percent of his field goals. His ceremonial position shift this season allowed the Rockets to detach from the binary of utilizing a distributor alongside a wing scorer in the lineup.
From the early '90s through the 2000s, combo guards were sculpted in Allen Iverson's image. Quick, tweener shooting guards such as Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Ben Gordon, Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford and Dion Waiters became the norm. In 2009, The Beard was a 6'5" combo guard blessed with a 6'11" wingspan. He’s been great for a while, but his reinvention from shooting guard to point guard is the ideal archetype for the combo guard clan.
Positionless basketball allows forwards to interlope along the lines of both forward and center. The Rockets exploited the synergy between Harden and a second combo guard. Putting Eric Gordon or Lou Williams beside Harden has been a deadlier conundrum for defenses than facing a double-bladed sword at a knife fight.
For the NBA's copycat coaches, it's only a matter of time until Harden's positional fluidity becomes a template for other teams. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is a unicorn who struggles to score outside the paint, therefore he can't be replicated. Harden can, with varying degrees of success. It was just a matter of showing the league it could be done.
These are the guards who could be tempted to play the Harden "transguard" role next season.
5. Jimmy Butler
Butler is 6’7,” has above average court vision and has hinted at his desire to become a full-fledged point guard before. He’s one of the NBA’s best at creating contact when he's barreling into the lane and has developed into a competent pull-up shooter from downtown.
During the last four games of 2016, while Derrick Rose sat so the Bulls could get an early start on pitching him in trade proposals, Butler averaged 21.5 points, 10.3 assists and 9.3 rebounds in his absence. In 2017, his assists per 36 minutes increased for the sixth season in a row. What’s not to like?
Butler is a good ball handler—for a swingman. However, a certain level of basketball IQ is required to execute the pick and roll and be heady enough to make the correct choice between passing, shooting or driving to the rack in a fraction of a second.
Butler's penchant for finding the open man when he probes the paint or backs down his defender is more reminiscent of ‘90s Penny Hardaway than 2017 Harden.
4. Devin Booker
Phoenix's Devin Booker distinguished himself as a carbon copy of Klay Thompson at Kentucky when he was assisted on 98 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Suns head coach Earl Watson envisions something more. “I don’t know if I’ve said this publicly before, but he reminds me a lot of James Harden,” Watson said in April after Booker averaged 6 assists a game during a late stint as de-facto backup point guard.
Watson wasn't frivolously bumping his gums either. Booker can score in more diverse ways than Thompson. Becoming a more independent scorer is an integral aspect of playing the point guard position. Booker is more like Harden than most realize. In contrast to Steph’s aforementioned Splash Brother, who was unassisted on just 16 percent of his field goals this year, Booker was unassisted on 57 percent of his shots.
3. Denzel Valentine
As a little-used reserve averaging only 5.6 points in 17 minutes per game this season, Denzel Valentine was the 2016 draft's forgotten rookie. Being buried behind Dwyane Wade, Butler and Rondo did him no favors. However, his D-League averages of 28 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists per game were enlightening. Those were derived from only three cameos, but his 50 percent field goal percentage, plus his 53 percent shooting on 13 3-point attempts per game portend great things for the former National Player of the Year. Valentine is unproven but knows how to navigate a pick and roll. Think of him as a poor man's Harden.
2. Jamal Murray
Denver guard Jamal Murray is only 6'4,” with a 6’7” wingspan, but played the majority of his freshman season at Kentucky as an off-ball guard. And he did it well, making 41 percent of his 7 threes per game.
By the end of his rookie year, Murray had displaced Emmanuel Mudiay as Denver's point guard of the future. Ultimately, 40 percent of his rookie minutes came as point guard due to the team souring on Mudiay and his subterranean shooting percentages. Murray's ascendancy over Mudiay is especially surprising considering he generated a negative assist-to-turnover ratio at Kentucky.
During the last four months of the season, Denver was arguably the league's best offensive team.
An offense that prolific could take another leap forward if the 2016 draft's designated sharpshooter could smoothly transition to point guard and play alongside burgeoning scoring savant Gary Harris.
1. D'Angelo Russell
D'Angelo Russell has rarely held a defined role through much of his prime developmental years. Shannon Scott tag teamed with Russell on point guard duties during his lone season at Ohio State. Post-Kobe, Russell took on a more significant offensive usage role and rotated with Jordan Clarkson as the floor general.
Fortunately, it's resulted in Russell's honing slick point guard tendencies and a sleek scoring repertoire. This may come in handy, depending on who team president Magic Johnson drafts in June.
Like Harden, he's a lefty with an unorthodox blend of moves. His success is predicated on craftiness and creating space to operate rather than a quick first step or above the rim levitation.
He has all the tools and the fluidity to balance both distributing and scoring production. It's just a matter of reigning in his sloppiness and maturing his reckless talent.