James Harden Is Far From Being the New King James
Shortly after a 105-103 OT win over LeBron James‘ Cleveland Cavaliers — in which actual King LeBron James out-dueled James Harden by four points — the Houston Rockets took to basketball Twitter to express their gratitude by dubbing their bearded superstar “the new King James.”
Of course, the previous statement didn’t bode well with basketball Twitter as they took it and ran with it.
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However, this is not about how the Twitter world diminished the Houston Rockets’ tweet as it is about how far is James Harden — if so — from becoming the next leading “James” in the league.
A slightly improved defense and arguably the most explosive offense in the league have helped Harden reinforce his position as the league-leading MVP-candidate over Golden State Warriors‘ Stephen Curry, Cavaliers’ LeBron James, and Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Russell Westbrook.
Nevertheless, as good as he is, he’s still far from LeBron James.
Offense
LeBron James and James Harden are two of the most proficient scorers in today’s NBA. Their innate abilities to score at will have them within the top-five in scoring for the ongoing season.
With James Harden on the court, the Houston Rockets score 107.1 points per 100 possessions and have an overall plus-6.1 plus-minus with him on the floor. Without him? Those numbers drop all the way to 92.6 and minus-4.1 respectively.
In LeBron’s case, the Cleveland Cavaliers score 111.3 points per 100 possessions and have an overall plus-10.1 plus-minus with him on the floor. 100 and minus-6.4 without him.
And even though LeBron James’ impact on the Cavs is greater than James Harden’s on the Rockets, the latter not only leads the league in scoring with 27.1 points-per-game, but he is also having a slightly better shooting season than his James counterpart.
| Rk | Player | Season | MP | FG% | 3P% | 2P% | FT% | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Harden | 2014-15 | 36.6 | .447 | .381 | .489 | .866 | 27.1 |
| 2 | LeBron James | 2014-15 | 36.4 | .489 | .336 | .544 | .716 | 26.2 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/2/2015.
Also…
Most 30-point games this season:
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 2, 2015
1) James Harden: 26
2) LeBron James: 17
3) Russell Westbrook: 16
4) Anthony Davis: 13
5) Steph Curry: 12
Defense
After getting mocked by his lack of defensive effort during the 2013-14 season, James Harden made a commitment during the offseason to become the two-dimmensional player he was born to be.
And he has somewhat honoured said commitment by holding opponents to 42.2-percent shooting, which is 2.4-percent less than the 44.6 field-goal-percentage that shooters guarded by Harden usually have.
In LeBron James’ case, he holds opponents to 43.0 percent shooting. However, even though it is worse than Harden’s, opposing shooters are only able to try 8.1 field goals per game when LeBron is defending them. Against Harden? 12.2.
So even by defending at a worse percentage than James Harden, LeBron James is still allowing only 3.5 made field goals per game, while James Harden allows 5.1 made field goals per game.
One-on-One
Against each other, LeBron James’ teams lead the series 11-5 over James Harden’s. Of course, most of those games came back when James Harden was the sixth man of the Oklahoma City Thunder behind MVP-hopeful Russell Westbrook and reigning MVP Kevin Durant.
Regular Season One-on-One
| Player | G | W | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeBron James | 11 | 7 | 11 | 40.0 | .489 | .426 | .680 | 6.2 | 7.1 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 2.9 | 29.7 |
| James Harden | 11 | 4 | 6 | 34.2 | .460 | .373 | .817 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 3.2 | 18.4 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/2/2015.
Playoffs One-on-One
| Player | G | W | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeBron James | 5 | 4 | 5 | 44.0 | .472 | .188 | .826 | 10.2 | 7.4 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 28.6 |
| James Harden | 5 | 1 | 0 | 32.8 | .375 | .318 | .792 | 4.8 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 2.4 | 12.4 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/2/2015.
Also, in 16 games against each other LeBron has scored a total of 469 points whereas Harden has scored only 264. In 11 games without LeBron James, the Cavaliers are 2-9, whereas Harden is yet to miss a game or the season.
Rings
In the ring department LeBron James leads James Harden with two. Nevertheless, through his first six seasons in the league LeBron James was yet to win his first, therefore it would be rather unfair to try and judge Harden’s career by his current lack of hardware.
Also, this is James Harden’s sixth season in the NBA, so if he were to win the 2015 NBA championship — which is not exactly the longest of shots– he would be ahead of LeBron’s first by three years.
Even if it’s never a good idea to get on LeBron James’ bad side, it remains to be seen if the Houston Rockets pushed the right buttons by elevating the three-time All-Star right next to his 11-time All-Star, four-time NBA’s Most Valuable Player and two-time NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP counterpart.
As of right now, even though LeBron James is still in a class of his own, rest assured, James Harden is on the way. As far as he being the new King James? The Rockets might’ve been a little premature on that one.
Next: Westbrook's Coming For James Harden's MVP
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