One day after James Harden was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Harden aired out his dirty laundry and threw a few people under the bus on his way out of Philadelphia.
Harden told the media that the role he was given on the 76ers left him playing “on a leash.” He argued that he was not a system player. “I am a system,” he boasted.
Harden isn’t completely wrong about his “system” argument. Systems are built around NBA superstars. The problem with his claim is he is no longer an elite player. He’s still an above-average starter in the league, but the days when he was an All-NBA performer or MVP candidate are long gone. In terms of the superstar hierarchy in Clipper Land, Harden falls behind Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Harden is now 34. He’s past his prime. He is playing for his fourth team in three years. He is five full years removed from his 2018 MVP season. If the season ended today, his 17 points per game would be the lowest of his career since 2012 (his last season with Oklahoma City). Seems like we have a systemic problem for The Beard.
Meanwhile, his understudy in Philly, Tyrese Maxey, has been unleashed and thriving under head coach Nick Nurse’s system. The Sixers are playing at a much faster pace, which wasn’t the case when Harden was running point because he preferred to walk the ball up the court.
L.A. started the season 3-1 and were among the league leaders in offensive and defensive efficiency. After acquiring Harden, the Clips lost their lost their rhythm for a stretch and dipped to 30th in offensive efficiency and 24th in defensive efficiency. Since Dec. 1, the Clippers have regained their footing and have become a top-five offensive team. Harden has blended well with Leonard and George in the starting lineup, and the Clippers have climbed back in the top tier in the conference.
Despite their recent success, the Clippers remain vulnerable against teams with length and size up front. During their annuals Grammys road trip, the Clips’ lone blemish in an otherwise successful 6-1 roadie was a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs are solid in the backline, anchored by 6-11 center Jarrett Allen and first-team all-defensive forward-center Evan Mobley. Allen and Mobley combined for 30 points and 26 rebounds.
In the Battle of L.A. series, the Clippers had all sorts of problems dealing with L.A. Lakers big man Anthony Davis in their three losses against their intracity rivals. Davis punished the Clippers’ small ball unit offensively and defensively, taking away driving lanes and making them one dimensional.
Harden’s ability to attack the paint is supposed to be the key to free up some of the congestion on offense. But Harden was part of the problem. He finished with 23 points in the 116-112 loss to the Lakers on Feb. 28, but 12 of them came in the second quarter. He was MIA during the fourth quarter when the Lakers mounted a furious rally that erased a 21-point deficit. When asked by reporters what went wrong, Harden said, “everything.”
“It’s on all of us,” said a frustrated Harden, who was just 2-for-9 from behind the 3-point line and committed four turnovers in the third loss to the Lakers.
“We are in this together, you know what I mean? It’s frustrating,” Harden said. “You can’t be up [21] points at home and give away a win, especially this time of the year. It’s that simple.”
The Lakers loss capped a brutal February for the Clips.
In their high-profile showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 12, the Clips were punished by the Timberwolves’ twin towers Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns in a 121-100 beatdown. A week later, the Clippers were routed by Oklahoma City 129-107 coming out of the All-Star break. It marked their second straight defeat to a team ahead of them in the standings.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue is well aware of the team’s shortcomings against bigger squads. His solution? Go small.
“I thought our physicality wasn’t there. They played better than we did. They outreached us, outplayed us and everything,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
Lue admitted that the size of the T-Wolves affected the Clippers, especially Kawhi and PG as both struggled to get to their basket and couldn’t make enough shots from the perimeter to pull Gobert and Towns out of the paint.
“When we’re not making quick decisions and playing the right way, they will make you look bad. I thought their length bothered us. They’re the No. 1 defensive team for a reason.”
When asked how to combat the size and length issue, Lue said “going small” is their best option.
Going small has been Lue’s modus operandi since he took over the job. He prefers a small ball lineup to finish games, usually playing Harden, Leonard, George with Norm Powell and Russell Westbrook or Amir Coffey. The small lineup normally works against most teams, but not against teams with quality bigs.
The best way to counter size is to push the pace and don’t allow defenses to get set. Unfortunately for the Clips, the man charged with initiating the offense prefers to walk it up.
“You can’t walk around offensively. You have to get to your next action. Things we have worked on the last two years. We just have to do a better job in doing that. If you don’t do that and you don’t do it hard, you’ll get beat every night,” Lue said earlier in the season during the Clippers’ six-game losing streak.
Lue refused to put all the blame on Harden during the team’s awkward period. But he did engage in some “dialogue” with his veteran guard about how they could make things work.
“He just needs to understand what we need from him. Him being aggressive, not looking at the bench. Just do your thing,” Lue said. “If you do it too much we’ll let you know. He’s a special player. When you come into a new situation it is tough to come in and try to take it over. With PG, Kawhi and Russ, we’ve had these conversations. We just have to make sure to make James as comfortable as possible because he is going to be huge for our team on what we’re trying to do.”
The Clippers’ season turned around in late November when Westbrook reportedly approached Lue and suggested that he’d be willing to come off the bench to allow Harden more time to gel with Kawhi and PG13 on the first unit. Since Westbrook’s selfless move, the Clippers were able to right the ship and now find themselves in the thick of the race for the best record in the West.
But just when the Clippers were finding their groove and surfacing as serious contenders, the injury bug bit them at the worst possible time. Westbrook fractured his left hand on March 1 and Kawhi left the game against the Timberwolves on March 12 with back spasms. Down two of their studs, the Clippers blew a 22-point lead against the Wolves and ended up getting demolished 118-100. Harden was MIA yet again, finishing with just 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting with four turnovers.
The Harden experiment is still a work in progress. There are days when the Clippers look like word beaters and then there are games when they look like they’re headed for an early playoff exit. The Clips will secure a playoff berth for sure, but the regular season is not where this team will be judged. The final grade will come in the postseason where Harden often failed to deliver.
Harden, who is now playing for his fourth team in three years, acknowledged his playoff shortcomings in a 2022 interview with Fox Sports, but didn’t put all the blame on himself. “I’ve had a few bad games in close-out games. Not all of them have been bad,” he said. “Quite frankly, a lot of the times our team wasn’t good enough to compete for championships, if you want to be honest. There’s only so much I can do.”
He could only do “so much” in a couple of high-profile meltdowns in the postseason.
Against the Golden State Warriors in the 2018 Western Conference finals, Harden had a hand in the Houston Rockets’ disastrous cold streak as the team missed 27 straight 3-point shots. Harden went 2-for-13 from behind the arc.
Against the Boston Celtics in 2023 the Eastern Conference semifinals, he teased the Sixers with a tantalizing 42-point performance in Game 4. A few days later, he had a 9-point stinker on 3-for-11 shooting in Game 7 in Boston.
Anything less than a trip to the conference finals would be considered a huge disappointment for L.A. Should the Clippers get bounced from the postseason in first or second round, the question will pivot to re-signing Harden. Is owner Steve Ballmer — despite having deep pockets — willing to give Harden the big payday he coveted in Philly?
It’s a million-dollar question for a billionaire owner.