Houston Rockets: James Harden Must Improve

How much more can James Harden improve? Ever since he was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets, it seems that is all that Harden has done. Not only has he solidified himself in the upper echelon of the NBA, he is easily the best shooting guard in the league. It sounds preposterous, and downright selfish to try and get more out of the NBA’s best shooting guard. And yet, if the Rockets want to go anywhere in the West this year, they are going to need exactly that.

Nobody can really expect James Harden’s offensive play to improve even more. It’s already at an elite level, as he averaged a stellar 25.4 points, 6.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game with a .456/.366/.866 slash line from the field. James Harden’s offensive production is at an incredible level, and to expect it to get even better is foolish. Despite James Harden’s non-existent defense, he still managed to get an elite 12.8 Win Shares. Of those 12.8 Win Shares, 10.1 were on the offensive end. His offense is so good, that Harden was one of only two shooting guards with double digit Win Shares last year, the other being Phoenix’s Goran Dragic. James Harden was fifth on the NBA’s leader board for Win Shares; no other shooting guard is in the top 10.

In short, James Harden is the man the who makes the Rockets go. He is the be all-end all for the Rockets on the offensive end, doing everything from creating contact and getting to the free throw line, to setting up his teammates with great passes. If only the same could be said about him on the defensive end. To say that James Harden is bad on the defensive end is an understatement. Harden is atrocious on the defensive end. He simply doesn’t try at all. Often times, it looks like Harden is playing zone defense, while everyone else is playing man to man.

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James Harden frequently gets caught ball watching, allowing easy lay ups and dunks, while also being slow on defensive rotations and lazy with his man to man defense. The problem is we know Harden is better than that. In his rookie year, Harden managed to get 2.5 Defensive Win Shares in about 1,000 less minutes on the court. Comparing that to 2.7 Defensive Win Shares last year with 1,000 more minutes of playing time, we can see that Harden simply isn’t trying. That isn’t going to cut it in the Western Conference, where winning anything less than 48 games basically guarantees that you will be watching the playoffs from home.

There are plenty of players in the league who seemingly refuse to play any defense; a good example of this would be the majority of the New York Knicks. However, when the rest of your roster is as defensively challenged as it is, the team really needs all hands on deck to help defensive anchor Dwight Howard. Howard simply cannot clean everything up, and he needs a lot of help from his perimeter players, starting with James Harden.

Houston will lean heavily on Harden next season, relying on him to create offense for himself and the role players around him. If Harden continues to refuse to play defense, the Rockets will likely find themselves going home early, as this team will no longer be able to simply outscore teams, thanks to a weakened bench. Adding in the fact that the Rockets’ defense was already mediocre last year, they cannot afford to stay the same defensively and will need to improve on that side of the ball, especially Harden, if they want to win 54 games again.

Harden’s throne atop the shooting guard ranks is uncontested for the time being. Should James Harden continue to neglect to play defense, that could quickly change. As a franchise player, Harden should take it upon himself to be a two-way player. Defense is what separates very good players from all-time great players. The fact that James Harden isn’t even trying to play defense and improve is not good news for a team looking to contend for a championship. Defense wins championships, after all, and it’s difficult to be a legitimate contender if your best player refuses to play any of it.

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