Emerging, quickly, as one of the league’s best stars, James Harden is a monster on offense. An undervalued sixth man for the Oklahoma City Thunder turned cornerstone unquestionable leader for the Houston Rockets, Harden is arguably one of the best offensive players on the league. He’s often regarded, along with Kevin Durant, as one of the league’s most prolific scorers.
Anyway, no human being is perfect, James Harden has flaws too as he seems allergic to defense. Unfortunately (for Harden) as everything during the Internet era, there’s footage to prove his allergy:
When you’ve got Dwight Howard on your team, nobody expects you to play lots of defense but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even try.
In an effort to prove how Harden’s lack of effort on defense is affecting the Rockets, we discovered that, not only is James Harden not even the team’s worst defensive rated player, coming in at 107 he is the ninth-“best” player on the team according to this stat.
He’s even ahead of former Rockets’ center Greg Smith (108).
| Rk | Player | PER | ORtg | DRtg ▴ | OWS | DWS | WS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dwight Howard | 21.3 | 109 | 101 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 8.0 |
| 2 | Omer Asik | 14.0 | 109 | 103 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| 3 | Josh Powell | 2.5 | 60 | 104 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 4 | Terrence Jones | 19.1 | 119 | 105 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 7.3 |
| 5 | Robert Covington | 15.0 | 112 | 106 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| 6 | Jordan Hamilton | 11.7 | 103 | 106 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| 7 | Donatas Motiejunas | 10.7 | 101 | 106 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| 8 | Omri Casspi | 12.9 | 105 | 106 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
| 9 | James Harden | 23.5 | 120 | 107 | 10.1 | 2.7 | 12.8 |
| 10 | Greg Smith | 13.7 | 116 | 108 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 11 | Francisco Garcia | 9.3 | 108 | 108 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
| 12 | Patrick Beverley | 12.4 | 115 | 108 | 2.7 | 1.6 | 4.2 |
| 13 | Chandler Parsons | 15.9 | 114 | 108 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 7.6 |
| 14 | Ronnie Brewer | 3.5 | 77 | 109 | -0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| 15 | Isaiah Canaan | 9.5 | 97 | 109 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| 16 | Jeremy Lin | 14.3 | 109 | 109 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 4.4 |
| 17 | Aaron Brooks | 11.9 | 106 | 110 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| 18 | Troy Daniels | 16.0 | 126 | 114 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/8/2014.
Harden’s Defense vs. Rockets’ Success:
As bad a defensive player as he might seem, it’s only fair to try and prove otherwise by looking at how Harden’s defense is affecting the Rockets during the course of the regular season:
February: Harden’s DRtg. 105.6; Rockets .800 (8-2).
| Rk | G | Date | Opp | MP | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 | 41 | 2014-02-01 | CLE | W (+14) | 36:38 | 27.6 | 131 | 103 | |
| 50 | 42 | 2014-02-05 | PHO | W (+14) | 38:15 | 19.9 | 150 | 115 | |
| 51 | 43 | 2014-02-08 | @ | MIL | W (+6) | 39:06 | 32.9 | 82 | 97 |
| 52 | 44 | 2014-02-10 | @ | MIN | W (+18) | 32:08 | 29.8 | 105 | 97 |
| 53 | 45 | 2014-02-12 | WAS | W (+1) | 40:33 | 27.3 | 157 | 117 | |
| 54 | 46 | 2014-02-19 | @ | LAL | W (+26) | 32:05 | 25.1 | 163 | 95 |
| 55 | 47 | 2014-02-20 | @ | GSW | L (-3) | 45:26 | 31.4 | 132 | 109 |
| 56 | 48 | 2014-02-23 | @ | PHO | W (+3) | 41:39 | 23.2 | 119 | 109 |
| 57 | 49 | 2014-02-25 | @ | SAC | W (+26) | 31:10 | 45.1 | 143 | 99 |
| 58 | 50 | 2014-02-26 | @ | LAC | L (-8) | 42:43 | 26.2 | 84 | 115 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/8/2014.
Atrocious defensive rating overall for Harden, but still, the Rockets came out with their winningest month of the regular season.
You think the sample’s not big enough? Okay, let’s try this:
March: Harden’s DRtg. 107.9; Rockets .714 (10-4).
| Rk | G | Date | Opp | MP | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 | 51 | 2014-03-01 | DET | W (+8) | 39:43 | 25.0 | 114 | 109 | |
| 60 | 52 | 2014-03-04 | MIA | W (+3) | 39:40 | 26.0 | 108 | 114 | |
| 61 | 53 | 2014-03-05 | @ | ORL | W (+12) | 36:05 | 29.4 | 139 | 100 |
| 62 | 54 | 2014-03-07 | IND | W (+26) | 30:31 | 34.4 | 129 | 90 | |
| 63 | 55 | 2014-03-09 | POR | W (+5) | 47:12 | 34.0 | 127 | 97 | |
| 64 | 56 | 2014-03-11 | @ | OKC | L (-8) | 43:42 | 27.8 | 115 | 109 |
| 65 | 57 | 2014-03-13 | @ | CHI | L (-24) | 26:36 | 22.6 | 67 | 130 |
| 66 | 58 | 2014-03-16 | @ | MIA | L (-9) | 43:11 | 27.5 | 126 | 128 |
| 67 | 59 | 2014-03-17 | UTA | W (+38) | 26:38 | 20.3 | 139 | 96 | |
| 68 | 60 | 2014-03-20 | MIN | W (+23) | 36:20 | 30.2 | 119 | 115 | |
| 69 | 61 | 2014-03-22 | @ | CLE | W (+7) | 29:28 | 33.7 | 173 | 103 |
| 70 | 62 | 2014-03-24 | @ | CHA | W (+11) | 39:07 | 30.2 | 132 | 105 |
| 71 | 63 | 2014-03-27 | PHI | W (+22) | 31:29 | 30.1 | 129 | 97 | |
| 72 | 64 | 2014-03-29 | LAC | L (-11) | 41:31 | 33.1 | 111 | 118 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/9/2014.
Of course when Harden got a 128 and a 130 DRtg the Rockets lost the game, those numbers are terrifying even for him. But still, as it happened in October, the Rockets came out with a very good record on those months. The offensive effort logged in by Harden clearly overcomes his defensive struggles. Even with his terrible defense he was able to produce 2.7 Defensive Win Shares for the Rockets, add up his 10.1 Offensive Win Shares and you get a massive 12.8 Total Win Shares, good enough for the fifth spot in 2013-14 Win Shares around the NBA.
Not bad at all. As a matter of fact, as terrible as Harden’s defense looks like, look at what happens when you put James Harden’s defensive numbers against some of the best shooting guards the game has ever seen:
| Rk | Player | PER | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | OWS | DWS | WS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kobe Bryant | 23.4 | 31.8 | 111 | 105 | 123.4 | 49.6 | 173.0 |
| 2 | James Harden | 20.2 | 24.4 | 118 | 106 | 34.6 | 12.0 | 46.6 |
| 3 | Allen Iverson | 20.9 | 31.8 | 105 | 106 | 60.9 | 38.1 | 99.0 |
| 4 | Michael Jordan* | 27.9 | 33.3 | 118 | 103 | 149.9 | 64.1 | 214.0 |
| 5 | Dwyane Wade | 25.3 | 31.9 | 111 | 103 | 68.2 | 37.2 | 105.4 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/9/2014.
(*cue to mind exploding*)
Yes, Harden has the same career offensive rating as Michael Jordan (so far) and almost the same career defensive rating. I guess shooting guards’ are historically “bad” at defense.
Entering the 2014-15 season with a diminished 2013-14 roster and an overall improved Western Conference, the Houston Rockets will have trouble reproducing the fifth-winningest season in franchise history. With a 54-28 record, the team was just four games shy of tying the best record in franchise history logged in by Hakeem Olajuwon‘s, eventual NBA Champions, 1993-94 Rockets, no easy feat whatsoever. Nevertheless, if James Harden’s offense continues on this seemingly inevitable path to greatness, they’ve got a chance.