Why I Hate James Harden

by Cameron Zeluck

If you’re a longtime LeBron James fan, you’ve probably come to realize something: you’re not scared of any opposing NBA team. Even after postseason losses to the Celtics, the Mavericks and the Spurs, every year you remain confident that LeBron and whichever team he’s on will be unstoppable.

I’m scared of Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

Steph Curry is not only the best player on the team that posted the best regular season performance since the ’06-’07 Mavericks, but he also plays basketball the right way. This is particularly the case when compared to James Harden, who many reporters claim is the “real” MVP. Even though Harden and the Houston Rockets play efficient basketball, as an avid fan of the sport I can’t help but think that they play the ugliest basketball in all of the NBA — even after taking into account the Timberwolves and Knicks.

General Manager Daryl Morey’s analytics-based strategy has the Rockets jacking up three-pointers and free throws, and that’s fine from a GM’s standpoint, because they win! From a basketball fan’s perspective, though, it’s hard to feel satisfied watching a Rockets game. I don’t enjoy watching half of the Rockets’ offensive plays result in Harden charging into the defense, dangling the ball three feet in front to lure defenders into reaching in, only to fling his off arm up and flop at the slightest to draw a foul. On the topic of trips to the foul line, I also didn’t enjoy watching Harden’s first career 50-point game (versus the Denver Nuggets) be a result of inefficient 12/27 shooting from the field being made up for by 22/25 shooting at the line.

It doesn’t seem right to vote for someone who plays offense like that. It also doesn’t seem fair to laud Harden’s improved defense when it was so appalling in the first place. Defensive statistics can easily be skewed when you have one of the most dominant shot-blockers of the late 2000s on the team and share the court with defensive specialists Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza. Both players are on the floor for Houston primarily to alleviate defensive pressure on Harden, allowing Kevin McHale to “hide” Harden on the opponent’s weakest offensive wing player. Harden is still slow on rotations, helps on defense wrongly and rarely keeps track of his man. He’s an awful isolation defender, particularly on dribble drive penetrations, according to the NBA. The average NBA player makes 3.0, 3.4 and 1.6 percentage points higher than usual through their shots from less than 10 feet, six feet and two pointers respectively when he is defending them. In other words, he gives up when players drive on him!

I’m not done there. James Harden is not only an awful teammate on the floor, but also off of it. In an interview this past summer, he said,“Dwight [Howard] and I are the cornerstones of the Rockets. The rest of the guys are role players that complete the team,” demonstrating how little he values the players on his team. In addition to alienating his teammates, he also has made multiple enemies in the NBA, such as LeBron James, the best player in the world, in a dirty play this season wherein he kicked LeBron in the groin as James was attempting a steal. The MVP has historically been recognized as the face of the NBA, as has been the case with James, Tim Duncan and Steve Nash recently. An MVP should not be an egotistical star who treats his teammates with disdain while taking cheap shots at opponents.

Now, instead of continually writing about that scoundrel James Harden, let’s point out Stephen Curry’s achievements this year. Like Harden, Curry has been known to be a subpar defender at his position. Yet, unlike Harden, Curry’s improvement has been more evident, as he has played as the primary point guard defender on the best defensive team in the league-per-defensive rating. His two steals per game are also good for fourth in the league. Offensively, Steph leads the league in free throw percentage (91.4 percent) and is third in three-point percentage (44.3 percent). He is the leading scorer on the highest scoring team in the NBA. He even broke the record (his own, might I add) this season for the most three pointers made in a season in NBA history with 286. Wow.

When comparing statistics, analytics cite Harden’s significantly higher points-per-game average, 27.4 to 23.8, as evidence that Harden is the better scorer. However, Harden plays significantly more minutes per game, partly because Curry’s Warriors have had so many blowout victories that he has sat out fourth quarters. Adjusting statistics for a per-36 minute basis, Curry is only behind Harden in scoring by a margin of 26.2 to 26.8. He surpasses Harden in assists by 8.5 to 6.8, steals by 2.2 to 1.9 and turnovers by 3.4 to 3.9. He leads Harden in field goal percentages across the board, shooting 48.7 percent from the field and the aforementioned 44.3 percent from three and 91.4 percent from the stripe, while Harden shoots meager percentages of 44.4 percent, 37.5 percent and 86.8 percent, respectively. Curry also posted a better player efficiency rating rating than Harden (28.0 to 26.7). Statistically speaking, Curry is having a superior season.

Curry scored 51 against the Mavericks, 45 against the Blazers with 10 assists (17-23 shooting from the field) and 38 with 10 assists against the Memphis Grizzlies. He also posted 34 points, 27 points and 11 assists in two games against Harden’s Rockets. While some have praised Harden’s plethora of 40+ point games, only two of his 10 40-point games came against playoff teams. Meanwhile, in four games against the Warriors (Houston went 0-4), Harden only shot above 50 percent once and shot dismal percentages of 33.3 percent and 26.7 percent in two of those games. Harden’s “great” games are greatly overrated.

Here’s the icing on the cake. Harden’s MVP case is often supported by the argument that he single-handedly led the injury-ravaged Houston Rockets to the second seed in the brutal Western Conference. This somewhat ignores that the Rockets (56-26) were still 11 games behind first-seeded Golden State. Naysayers of Curry’s value also claim the Warriors would easily make the playoffs without him, therefore he is not as “valuable” as someone like Harden, who has carried the Rockets, especially on the offensive end. While the Warriors’ roster is stacked, and yes, they would have a shot at winning 50 games even if you took Curry off the roster, the argument that “Harden is more valuable to his team than is Curry because Curry has an elite supporting cast, while Harden carries a mediocre team” overlooks the fact that Golden State, despite their +10.1 point differential per game, gets outscored when Curry is off the court (they outscore opponents by +17.0 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court and are outscored by -0.1 points per 100 when he’s off). The difference on/off court (17.1 points per 100 possessions) dwarfs Harden’s 8.4 (+5.8 on court, -2.6 off court).

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All in all, it is safe to say, objectively (statistically) and subjectively (from a fan’s standpoint), that Stephen Curry should (and had better be) this season’s Most Valuable Player.