Should we all Fear the Beard?

James Harden is Ruining the Game

Few things in life are better than watching good, clean, and smooth ball movement. Watch the Warriors play, for example. They exemplify good ball movement; their offense is built around All-Stars like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson moving without the ball, cutting, and using off-ball screens. The Warriors for the past three years are arguably the best team ever to play in the NBA, and it’s because of how well they pass and play as a team (though, having five All-stars doesn’t hurt either).

Now watch any clips of the Rockets playing the Warriors from the past two years. The Rockets are similar to the Warriors in one aspect: they shoot a lot of threes. Everything else about how they play is different and ultimately inferior. The Rockets value isolations; they use mainly on-ball screens, and most of all, their offense revolves around Harden. And let me get this out of the way: Harden has incredible basketball talent, with unparalleled skills and a fantastic shooting stroke. But he’s ruining the way basketball is meant to be played.

Harden leads the league in points per game this year by a whopping margin of eight points. He averaged 36 points, while the next highest, Paul George, averaged 28. However, almost half of all of his touches were off isolation plays. To put this into perspective, the player with the next highest isolation frequency was Chris Paul, with 29 percent of his plays being off isolations. And Paul just happens to be on the same team as Harden. Maybe it’s contagious. Harden is notorious for stopping the ball on offense, and while it’s obvious that this has led to his team’s success and his own personal success, his style of play isn’t good for the NBA.

Another eye-popping stat is how many three-pointers Harden shoots per game: 17.6. His threes account for 54 percent of all his shots. I’m all for shooting threes; it’s the main reason I’ve had success at the varsity basketball level at Stuyvesant, but Harden is doing it way too much. Let me back this up. For the past three years, the Houston Rockets have led the league in three-point rate (the percentage of shots taken that are threes), with 46 percent, 50 percent, and a whopping 52 percent this year. No other team has ever even surpassed the 42 percent mark. The league is changing, and these numbers will continue to grow, but the Rockets and Harden are changing the way they play—that is, too fast for anyone’s good.

Ball stopping is a basketball sin, but taking off possessions, in my eyes, is the ultimate transgression. During the Western Conference Semifinals, when the Rockets played the Warriors, Harden would stand near the half court line every couple of offensive possessions and let his team play four on four. He’s doing this so he can conserve his energy and whatnot, but that is simply not how basketball is meant to be played. Elite players have always played hard on both ends of the floor. They are in the game every second, and Harden has no right to play differently. During Game 6, I watched as Harden held the ball for about 20 seconds, jab step, and then dribble it through his legs until he finally launched up a signature step back with two seconds left on the clock. The next offensive possession, he brought the ball up, passed it to Chris Paul, and proceeded to stand by the half court line, drawing a defender but not participating in his team’s possession. It’s hard to watch and easy to set a bad example for younger generations of players to follow.

Earlier in the playoffs, Ricky Rubio of the Utah Jazz made highlight reels by guarding Harden from behind. Yes, you read that right. He played defense by standing behind James Harden. From an analytical point of view, it wasn’t the worst strategy. Rubio was baiting, or even forcing Harden to drive toward the basket where other defenders were ready to help. Some might say that this just shows how elite Harden is. I think it proves my point exactly. When you played defense against Michael Jordan, you played straight up. Maybe you threw some help defenders at him, but you moved your feet, used your body, and prayed for the best. Players who guard Lebron James might move back a few steps off the three-point line because his ability to shoot threes is average compared to the rest of his game, but they play him straight up. Basketball isn’t basketball anymore when a player is so unorthodox that his opponents are forced to play defense a way that’s the opposite from anything they have learned. Harden scores a whole lot of points every game and helps his team win, but he’s doing it in a way that alters the whole framework of basketball as we know it and our parents and grandparents knew it. Harden is a bearded genius, but his style of play does not belong in the NBA.

Fear the Beard

As somebody who can score from anywhere on the court, James Harden is one of the most dangerous offensive players in today’s NBA. He is also the focal point of one of the NBA’s best offenses and can score 50 points on any given night. His talent is undeniable, but despite his league-leading scoring ability, his style of play is put under more scrutiny than any other star in the NBA.

One of the biggest critiques against Harden’s game is that he tries to draw too many fouls, which I personally find ridiculous. Being able to draw fouls is a skill that, if any other star were to be able to do it at the same ridiculous rate, would be appreciated and even applauded. When Harden shoots a three-pointer and is fouled, he scores on average 2.6 points per possession. To put that into context, Steph Curry shooting an open three is only worth 1.6. Any other player shooting with that type of efficiency would be showered with praise, but the more fouls Hardens draws, the more critique he draws.

Harden’s critics also like to draw attention to his isolation style of play, complaining that good ball movement and planned offenses are what the NBA deserves. By taking so many shots off of one-on-one opportunities, Harden is apparently both a bad role model for younger generations and someone who hurts the entire NBA. To say that Harden is ruining the NBA by shooting off isolation plays is ridiculous. The fact of the matter is that most players simply aren’t talented enough to score as much as Harden does off of isolation. Most of this isolation ability goes back to Harden’s game-changing move: the step-back.

The stepback three is the key to Harden’s game, and it is what allows him to be such an efficient scorer while seemingly ignoring every other offensive norm. His stepback is such a good move that he doesn’t need to work off the screen or get the ball from a driving point guard. When Harden shoots a stepback three, his shooting percentage off of just stepbacks would be eleventh in the NBA. No other player can shoot at such an elite level while they’re being guarded. Harden is certainly changing the NBA with his stepback. Young players like Luka Doncic are becoming known for their own stepback threes. However, it’s not as if Andre Drummond is going to start shooting stepback threes in isolation—he can’t. Harden isn’t a lazy player. Rather, he’s a generational talent that has the ability to score without the usual gimmicks an NBA team has to employ to get an open three.

As for Harden’s effect on younger generations, go to any street court in NYC. It’s true—you’ll see play very similar to Harden’s. Lots of threes, isolation, and, admittedly, an occasional lack of effort. However, that doesn’t come from Harden. Streetball has been played like that for many years before the Harden era, and it’ll be played like that for many years after him. It’s the same style of basketball I grew up playing. The only difference is that while other players are coached out of their isolationist ways, Harden is simply talented enough to make this playstyle work. High school, college, and even NBA coaches are still going to teach young, talented kids to work in an offense and facilitate ball movement. Kids on courts across cities are still going to shoot way more threes than they can ever make. All Harden is doing is bringing this style of play to the big stage, and, at the end of the day, fans don’t want to see ball screens. They want to see a nasty handle and stepback threes.