Can James Harden stay effective playing through a fractured thumb?

Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by NBA contributor Tom Haberstroh to discuss the Cavaliers guard’s latest injury and whether he can still help Cleveland despite the fractured right thumb. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ James Harden suffered a fractured right thumb, and at first when this news broke, Tom, it’s like, “Oh, my God, they trade for James Harden, and this happens.

This is horrible.

They look so good together!”

Well, it turns out he’s gonna play through the injury.

That, that’s the latest reporting, that he’s gonna try to play through it.

So that’s some good news, at least, for Cleveland.

But how much of a limitation do you think this will be on the left-handed James Harden dealing with this fractured right hand?

Yeah, if you thought he kind of flops his way to getting free throws now, just imagine- all these players are gonna be hacking at his hands as soon as he drives into the lane, and he’s just gonna be fly- flying all over the place ’cause it probably does hurt.

You know, I, I saw Jeff Stotts of insidestroothclothes.com, the injury guru for the NBA and all other sports, too.

Great follow if you haven’t followed him, Inside Clothes on- The best.

Awesome next.

Hi- him, him and Brian Sutera, those two are the GOATs of, of handling all this injury news.

They’re incredible, and, not only are they timely, but they, they provide excellent information and context to these injuries.

And what Jeff, was reporting is that, you know, this type of injury, it’s like, the, to the, to the tip of the thumb, and so any sort of, you know, catching a ball wrong or any sort of hit to his thumb, it might hurt.

But in terms of the, the actual shot motion or anything affecting his, his mechanics, it remains to be seen how much it will impact James Harden.

But we know, i- he’s old, up there in age, but people forget, like, Ja- James Harden’s as durable as they come.

Like, at this stage of his career, he’s actually been very durable and been out there and available for his teams, and so this is a tough, tough injury to, to learn about, y- as we’re rearing into the, the, the stretch run of the season.

But, you know, he also provides a lot of passing, so e- he draws a lot of gravity on those drives, and so, yeah, if his, if his shot gets a little bit weaker, yeah, that’s a problem.

But I think you’re gonna see a lot of him trying to draw more fouls because of that sensi- sensitive thumb.

And I think, you know, if you were, if you were not happy about him flopping or him dr- trying to draw fouls as he gets in the lane, I think it’s gonna be an open season for that right now.

In 127 minutes, James Harden and Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers have a plus 11.2 net rating in their short time together.

So in the early part of their tenure together, they are thriving.

As we talked about on the podcast earlier in the week, Harden’s shots are down, his points are down, his pick and rolls per game are way down, and with him, less is more.

A- and I think it’s a good thing for Cleveland that he’s taking on this lesser role, as we talked about at the time with the trade.

Like, he had this inflated role with the Clippers, too much at his age.

But ultimately, it does suck that he has to deal with this.

a- a- I agree with everything you said, Tom, but ultimately, hopefully, he’s able to get healthy by the postseason, and we’re able to see this Cavaliers team at full strength.

Can James Harden stay effective playing through a fractured thumb?

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