How James Harden Got Himself Into This Jam, What Has Happened to This Great Player?
How James Harden Got Himself Into This Jam, What Has Happened to This Great Player?
The questions about James Haden this predicament are becoming hard and hard over time. The Philadelphia 76ers, having just swept the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs, sat down one by one in the visitors’ interview room deep within Barclays Center.
With league MVP Joel Embiid nursing a sprained right knee, head coach Doc Rivers, young guard Tyrese Maxey, veteran forward Tobias Harris, and live-wire big man Paul Reed came in, sat down, praised how hard Brooklyn played, and emphasized the importance of getting some time off to recuperate before Round 2.
James Harden repeated all of those points when it was his chance to speak. However, he continued to speak after that. Harden answered the question with a mouthful on what keeps him going 14 years into his career.
‘I’m all big on sacrifice,’ he said. ‘I told myself this year, man, I’m going to go out there. Whether it’s financial or professional, I’m learning to let go, make sacrifices, and evaluate the results.
I don’t consider myself to be a naive person. A lot of information soaks into me. When you talk, I listen. And I can go out there and be myself for the good of the team. People look to me all year to be the scoring James Harden, the guy who can consistently put up 40 or 50 points in a game.
Then they start saying things like, “Oh, you can’t win like that.” Well, then, I’ll just go out there and score 20 points and dish out 11 assists, you could think. Well, he’s definitely not the same James Harden we knew and loved. What do you think? That’s why there’ll never be a shortage of things to discuss.
Now, two and a half months later, there is more to say about Harden, albeit it isn’t quite new. This is his third attempt to leave in as many years.
Harden’s $15 million sacrifice and offensive dominance didn’t help him advance any further than he had in the previous four playoffs, as Philadelphia blew a 3-2 series lead to the Boston Celtics and ultimately lost in seven games.
Even though Sixers president and longtime Harden advocate Daryl Morey was widely expected to offer the former league MVP a make-you-whole multi-year deal as the wink-and-nod back end of Harden’s initial pay cut, Philadelphia entered the NBA’s 2023 free agency period apparently uninterested in ponying up that kind of long-term dough, leaving the 10-time All-Star in a bit of a sticky situation.
Despite months of speculation that Harden might return to Houston, the Rockets have since signed another point guard to a contract worth more than $40 million annually. It appears that no other teams with considerable cap room gave Harden so much as a raised eyebrow.
For the first time in a decade, a player who had effortlessly moved from one enormous deal to the next found himself straining to see the next one.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski speculated last week, “I think he looked out at the landscape and didn’t like what he imagined” was out there for him.
Harden’s environment suddenly changed, which must have been somewhat jarring for him. Just a few weeks ago, everyone assumed he would forego the $35.6 million player option for 2023-24 in order to pursue unrestricted free agency.
No new lucrative deal over that level materialized, and he found himself opting in suddenly.
To what extent does the market not exist for a point guard who just finished as the NBA’s assist leader, who was one of only three players in the entire NBA to average 20 points and 10 dimes a night last season, who remains a top-15 to top-20 player according to a slew of different advanced statistical metrics, and who just hung 40 in the second round of the playoffs, twice?
Probably because that point guard shot 16-of-63 (25.4%) in the other five games of that series, including two silent games (6 and 7) that left a bad taste in the mouths of many Sixers fans that went beyond “bad” to “you simply cannot bring this guy back next season at any price.”
When that point guard has a CVS receipt-length history of quiet, clutch performances despite receiving individual accolades such as selection to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team and certain first-ballot induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
When the point guard in question is about to turn 34, has played more minutes than anybody else in the NBA over the past 11 years, and has lost substantial time in each of the last three seasons due to hamstring and foot injuries. Especially when it is still unclear what the point guard is trying to accomplish.
“What does [Harden] hope to get out of his remaining NBA seasons?” inquired Fox Sports’ Yaron Weitzman last week. Is this a chance for him to further establish his legacy and get a prestigious title? Is there a monetary value? Is it the freedom to play in his preferred style? “Is there…?
The correct answer is “all of the above,” although the first possibility stands out as the most plausible. True to his word, Harden told Weitzman last October, “Honestly, the only thing that I’m missing is a championship.”
Harden’s later career has been driven by his pursuit of the missing hardware and the recognition it would bring.
The Rockets’ inability to beat the Lakers in the playoffs can be traced back to their disastrous trade of Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook and the subsequent need to double down on small ball.
From his prediction that the c. 2020–21 Houston Rockets are in a “situation [that] is crazy [and] something that I don’t think can be fixed,” through his ultimate departure to Brooklyn to form a new superteam with the Nets.
The trade deadline bombshell that took him to Philadelphia and left the Nets carrying Ben Simmons’ bag was in response to his prediction that he would need to get out of a fresh intolerable scenario with the Nets around 2021–2022.
And after another second-round stall, he’s obviously looking westward. Reports from multiple outlets, including Yahoo Sports’ senior NBA reporter Jake Fischer, suggest that Harden is interested in joining the Los Angeles Clippers, a team in the midst of its own existential crisis due to impending extension talks with star wings Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Leonard and George, who formed the face of the franchise in 2019, have only played in 142 of a possible 345 regular season and postseason games together since joining forces in 2019.
As a result of yet another dismal early exit, during which the Clippers struggled to get their top players on the court at the same time when it counted most, the team allegedly entered this offseason contemplating significant changes.
Marc Stein reports that part of that process involved determining whether or not to trade for George, one of the league’s best two-way wings when healthy but now 33 years old and having not played in more than 55 games in a season since his days in Oklahoma City.
According to Stein, the Clippers’ recent attempts to measure Paul George’s trade value clearly signaled to the organization that the reward on selling George and commencing a squad breakdown wouldn’t be particularly enticing.
To maximize its competing window and put a stop to its years-long hunt for an improvement at the point, Los Angeles may instead opt to go in the opposite direction and recruit Harden to bolster its existing point guard situation.
The idea has a charming “island of misfit toys” sloppiness to it; a squad that can’t seem to get itself together when the stakes are high turns to a guy who, despite his dazzling abilities, maintains the same level of enthusiasm.
Also, it could be effective. Remember that last year’s “not the old James Harden” version of the hirsute facilitator authored arguably the league’s most potent two-man game (outside of Denver, at least) and led the NBA’s third-best regular-season offense, which helped propel Embiid to MVP status.
Harden would give the Clippers a new level of production in all areas, including shooting, passing, ball handling, and usage, not seen since Chris Paul’s prime.
It would be a nightmare for rival opponents to have to deal with a Harden-Leonard pick-and-roll. With Harden ready to set him up, George would be able to run off pindown screens on the weak side and earn some of the easiest shots of his career.
It’s possible that the Clippers can cover for Harden better than most teams because to the phalanx of long perimeter defenders that head coach Tyronn Lue has at his disposal off the bench.
Harden, then, offers the Clippers a potential game-changer in a Western Conference full of flawed alternatives on the ball. But the key word here is “could.”
The step(s) Harden has lost off the dribble since injuring his hamstring in Brooklyn must be accounted for in any study of what he still contributes. Harden’s 13.5 drives per game last year were 10 fewer than his average from the previous five years.
As a result of those drives, he scored less points than he had since the 2013–14 season. His percentage of tries near the basket was the lowest it has ever been.
Second Spectrum keeps track of a statistic called “blow-by rate,” which is exactly what it sounds like: the frequency with which a ball-handler dribbles past his defender without touching the floor. Harden averaged 10.1 fast breaks per 100 drives in his final season with Houston. Philadelphia’s rate dropped to 3.7% per 100 in the previous season.
As Harden explained to Weitzman last autumn, “guys who I could normally get by or certain moves that I’d always hit, it just wasn’t happening” in games.
The Nets and Celtics frequently played Harden to drive and daring him to finish over length near the rim in the playoffs, highlighting Harden’s lack of quickness and lift.
Harden had his shot blocked 15 times, the 10th most of any player in the 2023 playoffs, and shot just 15-for-39 (38.5%) from within the restricted area and 15-for-40 (37.5%) from other areas of the paint. Nine other players received more swats than Harden, but they all played more games.
There are still methods for him to get work done, such as by arranging the table in the pick-and-roll, by stopping and popping in the midrange more often than he did in Houston, and by periodically reverting to his old method of cooking in isolation.
As seen in Games 1 and 4 against Boston, he is still one of the hardest covers in the league when he has his stepback going beyond the arc. However, when he doesn’t, elite playoff-level perimeter defenders have an easier time containing him.
Harden’s defensive shortcomings have been exposed time and time again, making him a potential liability in the highest-stakes games. Those are the games the Clippers need to win to make the Kawhi-PG pairing the start of their long-awaited golden era, so you can be forgiven for being doubtful that this will turn out to be the best fit for everyone involved.
However, there may come a time when neither the player nor the team can worry about whether or not they are a good fit. The Clippers require a point guard, an increase in scoring variety, and additional opportunities to take shots.
Harden requires a safety net, a place to start again in the eyes of the league, and a second chance at a championship for a puncher. How far you get when you can’t have everything you want depends on how much you’re ready to give up.
