PHILADELPHIA — If you can’t stop them, legislate them.
Going into Monday’s preseason defeat in Philadelphia, James Harden was not only dealing with playing his way into shape after an offseason spent rehabbing, but rule changes to keep players from using unnatural motions to draw fouls. In short, to cut down on his parade to the line, and the epidemic of players emulating him.
Neither seemed to slow Harden, who had 21 points. He and Kevin Durant were the only bright spots in a 115-104 loss to the Sixers. But the fact he looked both spry and unbothered by the Harden Rule were more important than a preseason result.
“He got to the basket and did some things that we haven’t seen,” Steve Nash said. “So obviously still got a ways to go just as far as playing basketball. He’s played basketball probably seven, eight times since we’ve been back. Really, you go back to the injury he only played the Boston series and the last game of the regular season.
“So he’s played very little basketball for quite a long time right now, and that’s not easy to just turn it back on and come back to full steam. So he needs some time, and he’s working really hard and he’s doing a great job and he’ll keep improving.”
After sitting out the Nets’ first preseason game and being rusty in the second, Harden took a huge step forward in the third. He got to the rim three times, was 3-for-7 from deep, had four assists, four rebounds and played his normal game.
“He looks pretty good to me in terms of his movements and seeing what he’s been doing up to this point, practice,” Joe Harris said. “He’s been putting in a lot of work.”
Infamous for launching himself into defenders to draw fouls — especially on step-back 3s — he used his trademark move to get a whistle on Georges Niang with 5:58 in the third. The Sixers challenged the call, but lost.
New rule, same as the old rule?
“The competition committee came very quickly to agreement that these non-basketball moves were not what the game should be about,” NBA head of officiating Monty McCutchen said. “It should be about playing the game.
“We can see that a lot of the innovation that’s taken place is driven by analytics. Players have learned that it’s efficient to get to the free throw line. And we want to get back to normal play … we want to inject some flow back into our game. We want to inject discipline back into our game, and we want to play.”
Harden led the league in free throws six straight years, until injuries limited him to just 44 games last season and saw him finish 23rd. But when The Post pointed out Harden had long been launching himself at defenders, McCutchen — who didn’t single out the Nets star by name — said players copying him was the issue.
“Innovation takes time to become ubiquitous, or become something that other people follow because they see a positive outcome,” McCutchen said. “If we have a player who innovates and creates a new step … and we see an effectiveness to it, then our league recognizes what works. You see young players coming in that’ve already mastered the move. They’re not waiting to get here to be proficient.
“When something among these non-basketball moves becomes so ubiquitous that it starts to take over the flow of the game, the appearance, how we want our product to look, it’s [an issue]. This had become so ubiquitous we [had to] get more balance and flow to our game. It wasn’t just one or two players anymore; it was starting to be something we saw so much [it] wasn’t good for the game.”
Exhibit A: Cam Thomas.
Harden’s rookie teammate has been praised for his offensive savvy. The teenager calls Harden his favorite player, and studied the latter’s foul-drawing skill.
“When James was in Houston, I picked up a lot of his moves, the tricks of the trade he did, the way he draws fouls,” Thomas said. “I got a lot of that from when he was in Houston, and even last year in Brooklyn, I was still watching him.”
For his part, Nash wasn’t concerned about the Harden Rule impacting his star.
“Players will adapt back and they’ll figure out how to play within those rules,” Nash said, “so I’m not so worried about that.”