James Harden, a player for the Oklahoma City Thunder at ARCO Arena. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The 2011-12 Sixth Man of the Year award had James Harden's name on it since the lockout ended in December.
Sure, there were other candidates; Harden finished seventh in Sixth Man voting last year. But none of the usual veteran suspects (Jamal Crawford, Manu Ginobili, Lamar Odom, Jason Terry) had near the potential for improvement than Harden, who showed growth in last year's playoffs and just turned 22 last summer.
And improve is exactly what Harden has done, increasing his scoring output from 12.2 to 16.8 points per game. No regular bench player has had a bigger role than Harden, who has averaged more than 31 minutes and has given his team a lift every time he has stepped on the floor. And it's not like he's been putting up numbers on a bad team. He's the third or fourth most important player on one of the four elite teams in the league.
Harden's increased production comes in part because he's playing more minutes, but also because he has scored much more efficiently than he did in his first two seasons. In fact, Harden has been the most efficient backcourt player in the league this year, leading all guards in true shooting percentage.
http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/john_schuhmann/04/25/sixth-man-award/index.html
