Harden is 50th in assists per game and 31st in potential assists per game (this is also with a 17.3% usage rate — 221st in the league).

I looked at the assists and potential assists of everyone above him and calculated the conversion rate.

This obviously doesn’t factor in the quality of shots or what the efficiency of the player receiving the potential assist is on those plays.

However, Harden is creating wide open 3s when attacking the rim in the PnR after the help defender rotates, easy pocket passes to Zu in the PnR or dump offs/lobs to Zu once the Center steps up, feeding Kawhi in the low post after forcing a switch/mismatch (though he barely fails in these situations), among other high percentage plays.

Harden’s conversion rate is 45.6% (4.7 assists to 10.3 potential assists).

In previous years it was:

22-23 — 62.6% (11.1 asts)

21-22 — 56.0% (10.3 asts)

20-21 — 57.4% (10.8 asts)

19-20 — 51.0% (7.5 asts)

18-19 — 54.3% (7.5 asts)

17-18 — 54.0% (8.8 asts)

16-17 — 50.2% (11.2 asts)

15-16 — 50.7% (7.5 asts)

14-15 — 48.9% (6.9 asts)

13-14 — 48.8% (6.1 asts)

The only players with a lower conversion rate in top 50 are Desmond Bane (40.6%), Jalen Brunson (43.6%) and Dame (43.9%). Taking a quick glance at the next 50 — most also seem to be over 50% or around it at worst…

Dame is also adjusting to a new team, Brunson has the Knicks’ offense to work with lol, and Desmond is by far the worst playmaker in the top 50 (though both his averages are very similar to Harden — either Grizz are failing to convert his looks or the looks he creates aren’t high percentage looks).

There are 6 other players under 50% but none of these are lower than 48% (CP3, SGA, Lebron, THT, Smart & Sabonis).

There is no reason for PG, Powell & Kawhi to be struggling to convert these looks so much other than chemistry & adjustment issues. On top of Zu being ass lol sry…

Zu is such a huge net negative because even when he isn’t fumbling passes in the PnR, he’s taking too long to set a solid pick. Harden would often have to tell him to re-screen on the other side in the first few games, and by then the defender is ready to adjust and the play breaks down. He would also be hesitant/indecisive when setting the pick in the first place, which again allows the defender to shade and adjust to the pick (and Harden’s options are already limited since Zu can’t do much).

However, he was much more decisive when setting picks last game — as a result Harden used it to attack the rim early in the shot clock and created wide open 3s once the help defender rotated (that weren’t converted unfortunately).

Once they get used to the looks Harden creates and the positions they need to be in, and start converting shots — defenders won’t be able to cheat off their man and clog the lane and it will be even easier for Harden to attack and create.

Then hopefully the team/coach will trust and play through him more; he can still be off-ball at times, but he should be the primary ball handler/decision-maker when on the court.