Clippers have already adopted James Harden’s identity offensively, and they’re far, far worse off for it

James Harden raised eyebrows when, upon becoming a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, he proclaimed “I’m not a system player, I am a system,” however he by no means immediately specified what he intended. The evident implication, after he in comparison his position in Philadelphia’s offense to “being on a leash,” used to be that he sought after to shoot extra. At his height in Houston, he averaged as many as 24.5 box objective makes an attempt consistent with sport in one season. Last season, he used to be down to fourteen.5. Four video games into his Clippers tenure, he is averaging best 9.

That quantity goes to upward push with time, however the remark used to be considerably extra loaded than Harden most likely meant. Harden groups have a tendency to percentage a equivalent aesthetic. We can widely outline what the “Harden system” seems like past his utilization as a result of few gamers in contemporary NBA historical past have ever dictated his crew’s taste greater than Harden. Generally talking, Harden groups have 3 issues in commonplace:

• They hardly ever transfer the ball. While Harden’s 76ers ranked thirteenth within the NBA in passes consistent with sport ultimate season in line with NBA.com tracking data, that quantity used to be an anomaly. His Rockets ranked twenty fourth all the way through the 2015-16 season and then twenty eighth or worse in his 4 ultimate years in Houston.
• They hardly ever transfer with out the ball. NBA.com has tracked player movement because the 2013-14 season and ranks groups by means of the overall distance their gamers go back and forth in miles on each offense and protection. We’re that specialize in offense right here. Houston used to be beneath reasonable on that entrance at that time. It slightly have shyed away from the bottom-five all the way through the 2014-15 season. And then the Rockets ranked lifeless ultimate in Harden’s ultimate 5 seasons in Houston. The Nets ranked twenty seventh all the way through the 2020-21 season and twenty ninth all the way through the 2021-22 season. Philadelphia ranked twenty eighth ultimate season.
• They dribble a ton. This pattern took a bit of longer to set, however truly crystallized as soon as the Rockets received Chris Paul. In Harden’s 3 ultimate years in Houston, the Rockets led the league in dribbles per touch two times and completed in 2nd as soon as. Obviously having Harden (and Paul, and Russell Westbrook) performs a large section in the ones ratings, however there is a little bit of a trickle down impact there as neatly. When gamers know that they’re no longer going to get the ball regularly, they generally tend to need to do extra with it after they have it.

All of this will have to mix to color a lovely transparent image of such a crew now we have all watched Harden lead for the previous decade or so. Slow, planned, isolation-heavy and predictable. What’s so fascinating about what is taking place with the Clippers at the moment is that, thru 4 video games, they have got utterly adopted that identity, and they have got finished it with out ceding regulate of the offense solely to Harden. In reality, trainer Ty Lue has openly called for Harden “to be more selfish.”

The 9 photographs consistent with sport Harden is taking as a Clipper places him fourth at the crew at the back of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook. In reality, he is nearer to Bones Hyland’s 5th at 8 photographs consistent with sport than he’s to Westbrook’s 3rd at 13.8. He is not main the crew in overall touches both, as George (56.8) simply slightly edges out Harden’s 56.3. Harden is main the crew by means of dribbling a mean of three.84 occasions consistent with contact, however at his height, Harden averaged 5.97. Harden, for lack of a higher time period, is not reasonably Harden-ing but. But the Clippers? They’ve long gone complete Harden. Let’s check out how they fared in a few of these monitoring numbers sooner than Harden and with him.

*Ranking displays the place the quantity would rank in comparison to full-season statistics for different groups

Make no mistake, the Clippers had been by no means the Warriors. No iteration of this crew used to be going to play a gorgeous movement offense with lots of ball- and player-movement and restricted dribbling. But previous to obtaining Harden, the Clippers no less than in large part fell throughout the vary of an ordinary NBA team. That center flooring used to be resulting in a hit offense. The Clippers had been scoring 117.4 issues consistent with 100 possessions sooner than Harden’s debut, which ranked fourth within the league on the time. They’re right down to 106.9 ever since, which ranks ultimate.

Right now, they have got absolutely succumbed to the way that fits Harden, and they are not even benefitting from it within the ways in which Harden groups generally do. He’s no longer scoring successfully in isolation. He’s no longer drawing a ton of fouls. He’s no longer leveraging his monitor report as a scorer into mismatches that create blank seems for his teammates. He’s simply type of current in the way in which of his teammates, a gradual, dribble-happy guard that’s not cooperating inside such a coherent machine he is informed us he does not need to be part of. It’s devolved the Clipper offense into such a “your turn, my turn” morass that so ceaselessly stalls the advance of early-stage tremendous groups.

We are nonetheless very a lot within the early levels of this tremendous crew. Harden goes to recuperate as he will get into higher form and his teammates learn to play off of him. But not anything in his personal historical past suggests that he is going to be keen to play even the compromised model of crew basketball that the Clippers hired sooner than his arrival. He desires to play on gradual groups that do not go or transfer. That’s all he is ever truly finished.

That’s no longer essentially a loss of life sentence in itself. You can have an elite offense this is gradual and hardly ever passes or strikes. The “I am a system” model of Harden in Houston proved that. But this model of Harden is 34, no longer 28. He’s been traded thrice in 3 years, he isn’t entrenched inside a company that has designed the whole thing to fit his taste. His conditioning is doubtful, and he is enjoying in one of the most NBA towns identified for its nightlife. If Harden used to be ever going to modify, it used to be almost certainly going to be sooner than he reached this level, and if the Clippers have any type of technique to steer clear of being Harden-ized, they have not precisely proven it so far.