National Basketball Association

With James Harden struggling, is it time to hit the panic button in Brooklyn?

Updated Oct. 25, 2021 8:03 p.m. ET

Entering the season, the Brooklyn Nets were billed as one of the top contenders in the NBA.

While they are still capable of reaching those lofty expectations, it has been anything but an ideal start to the season.

The hype surrounding the Nets was based on their trio of superstars in Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, but that trio has become a duo with Irving's status in the air. And with Harden's slow start to the season, the Nets have looked like a one-man band through three games.

To start the season, Harden is averaging 18.3 points, eight assists and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 38.8% from the field. That is his second-lowest scoring average since the 2012-13 season, when he was traded to the Houston Rockets and made his first All-Star team.

He averaged 18 PPG through the first three games of the 2015-16 season. The Rockets finished eighth in the Western Conference that season, and it was the only season during his Rockets tenure in which Harden was not named to an All-NBA team.

For a player who has won three scoring titles and averaged at least 24.6 PPG in each of the past nine seasons, an 18.3 PPG average is an eye-opener, but there could be an explanation for it. Harden has attempted only nine free throws through the first three games, a big dip from his career average of 8.7 free-throw attempts per game.

The NBA has placed an added emphasis on not calling fouls on unnatural shooting motions this season, and so far it appears that Harden has paid the price. In fact, he believes he is being unfairly officiated under the new changes, which he spoke about after the Nets' 111-95 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

"It's still basketball at the end of the day," he said. "No matter how much of a big deal we try to make it, a foul is a foul. I feel like we're putting too much emphasis on certain people to where you look at it as clear fouls. But for me, you just have to keep going. No big deal."

While it might not be a big deal to Harden, Nick Wright sees it as a cause for concern for the Nets.

Wright explained on "First Things First" how Harden's ability to dominate from the free-throw line and the 3-point line is what has made him a great player, and if one of those elements is taken away, it compromises not only him but also the Nets as a whole.

"Apex Harden, the three years in Houston when he won three straight scoring titles, he averaged an unprecedented 23 free-throw attempts and 3-point attempts per game," Wright said. "It's why his scoring was so off-the-charts. Last year with Brooklyn, in a slightly different role, it was seven 3-point attempts, seven free-throw attempts. It is now, very early, seven 3-point attempts and three free-throw attempts."

If Harden's three free-throw attempts per game were to hold for the entirety of the season, it would be the lowest of his career, below the 3.2 attempts per game in his rookie season.

It is also possible that Harden is working himself back into form after dealing with a nagging hamstring injury that limited him to 31 games last season and caused him to miss three playoff games.

Regardless of what is limiting Harden so far, the Nets need more from him, or what was primed to be a dream season in Brooklyn could become a nightmare.