“You know what? I don’t look to get fouled, as people might think I do,” Harden said, darting his eyes left and right to caricature the notion. “I’m not like: ‘Where’s the foul? Where’s the foul?’ as I’m driving.” [...] His only aim is to score the basket, Harden said, and if any defenders want to swipe at the ball to stop him, they can. But, he added, when he makes a move to the basket, he drives hard, and fouls are sometimes a byproduct.
Still, he was asked, what about the way he flattens out his arms to make them susceptible to being smacked, or how he changes pace on his dribble at counterintuitive times to create collisions, or his tendency to cling to defenders’ bodies even when freer paths to the rim seem to exist? [...] Harden smiled. “That’s just being crafty,” he said.
“Getting fouled is definitely an art, and he’s very good at it,” Rockets Coach Kevin McHale said, adding that Harden’s body awareness allowed him to initiate contact that works in his favor. [...] “You either know how to draw fouls or don’t, and I’m not sure you can teach it,” McHale added. “It may be innate.”
I've watched a few Rockets games and from what I observed, he's just great at drawing contact and a fantastic penetrator. Their offense is quite often predicated on Harden taking a screen at the top of the key, driving to the hoop, then kicking it to the open guy when help comes and when the defense is slow to rotate, they can't do anything but foul him. That's when he's at his best. I hate it when he takes all those crossover, step back, jab step 3 pointers while falling away. It looks awesome when it works but it's such a low percentage shot. But the few games that I did watch, there wasn't much theatrics and phantom calls on his defenders. He was earning his way to the line.