James Harden: The Universally Hated, Notoriously Loathed And Now Criminally Underrated Superstar
By Aaron Mah
James Harden’s game may not be aesthetically-pleasing, and his foul-baiting ways fringe on the authenticity of the way basketball is supposed to be played, but that does not change the fact that he is still among the top six guards in the NBA.
Twenty-nine points, six rebounds and seven assists per game.
Over the course of NBA history, there have been exactly four men who’s been able to average those numbers through the entirety of a full 82-game season: Michael Jordan (who did it once in 1988-89), LeBron James (who did twice), Oscar Robertson (who did it seven times) and James Harden (who did it this season).
Just take a second and wrap your head around those numbers — those names.
And when you take into account the ridiculous pace and outrageous numbers players like Oscar, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor put up during that era, Harden is really one of only three men to achieve the said feat in the modern, post-merger NBA.
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But while Jordan, LeBron and the Big O all finished within the top five in MVP voting in their respective 29-6-7 seasons, the barrel-chested combo guard of the Houston Rockets was suspiciously left off of the three All-NBA teams when they were announced a couple of weeks ago.
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To call Harden polarizing would be disingenuous to the definition of “polarize.”
To be polarizing, the opinion of one’s perception, or in the NBA’s case, ability and personality would have to cause a divide between opposing factions — some who think highly of the player, and some who can’t stand the thought of watching them play.
With Harden, it seems everyone hates the way he plays. You can find a slew of extensive six-minute compilations of his flops and defensive mishaps on YouTube.
If you venture through popular basketball forums around the ethernet, you’d find most posters loathe every time the Beard shows the candy and lures the opposing defender to draw a shooting foul.
Is he the most aesthetic superstar in recent memory? No. In fact, his game might be the antithesis to what pleases the naked eye.
His production, however, screams top-15 player in the NBA.
Yes, he turned over the ball at a historic rate this year, as he became the 11th player in NBA history to average more than 4.6 turnovers a game. And yes, his team severely underachieved this season, after reaching the Western Conference Finals just the postseason prior.
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And triple yes, his defense was painstakingly bad, after showing some signs of improvements in 2014-15.
But, when looking at the crop of guards who made the three All-NBA teams over The Beard this season — Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson and Kyle Lowry — aside from Curry, Russ and CP3, there isn’t much empirical evidence to justify the selections of Lillard, Thompson and Lowry over the former Arizona State Wildcat.
As bad as Harden was defensively, Lillard was arguably just as bad. In fact, Dame’s Defense RPM was 2.45 points per 100 possessions worst than the 6’5″ combo guard this season, per ESPN.
Team performance-wise, what Lillard did with a team that lost four its starters was one of the best feel-good stories of the year.
However, the Rockets only finished three games back of the Portland Trail Blazers in the standings this past season; and when considering the internal turmoil surrounding Houston, with Dwight Howard openly admitting to not trying as hard and the early-season firing of Kevin McHale (which, full disclosure, had Harden’s fingerprints all over it), Harden almost single-handedly carried them to the playoffs over the second half of the year.
In addition, Harden has Lillard beat in almost every statistical category — from Win Shares per 48 to Player Efficiency Rating; from True Shooting Percentage to Value Over Replacement Player.
As for Thompson and Lowry, while both played instrumental roles — on both sides of the floor, no less — for top-four teams in the NBA (based on regular-season records), the two newly minted All-NBA guards did not have to carry the offensive burden of a Harden.
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Over the aforementioned second half of the season, the Beard put up 30.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 8.3 assists a contest on 0.607 TS% while leading Houston’s late season playoff push.
If their roles were reversed, most cognitive observers would agree both Lowry and Thompson would have a hard time duplicating that level of consistent offensive output.
Although late season awards and fictional All-NBA teams are merely a concept at its core, but much like All-Star teams, it serves as a snapshot of the specific year.
When we look back at the 2015-16 season 20 years from now, we’ll see Lillard was left off the All-Star team and Harden left off of the three All-NBA teams — which is a deceitful representation of their play for the year.
Having an appreciation for winning is a good thing. But this is not Jerry Stackhouse circa 2000-01 we’re talking about; James Harden produced at a historical rate while carrying his mentally depleted team to the playoffs.
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We might hate his game, his basketball integrity and blatant selfishness, but to say he is not a top-15 player in the NBA … we might have gone too far.