There was a time when Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden was extensively seen as top-of-the-line gamers within the NBA, however these days are lengthy gone.
Harden has develop into considerably of a punchline in 2024, thanks a lot partly to his jarring lack of playoff success.
Now, Harden is absorbing yet one more jab.
Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes compiled a listing of the 5 most overrated gamers within the NBA throughout the final 5 years, and Harden ranked on the very high.
“The Clippers offloaded two first-rounders (one through the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder) and an extra swap to onboard Harden after an unpleasant holdout in Philadelphia,” Hughes wrote. “That’s an awesome quantity of constructive worth for a participant who isn’t wherever near what he was with the Rockets and can’t be trusted to remain glad wherever he occurs to be.”
Harden is coming off of a 2023-24 marketing campaign during which he performed 72 video games and averaged simply 16.6 factors per recreation, his lowest output since his second yr within the league again in 2010-11. He was nonetheless environment friendly, registering a true-shooting share of 61.2 %, however it’s blatantly apparent that the 35-year-old is on a steep decline.
To make issues worse, Harden was eradicated from the primary spherical of the playoffs, because the Clippers misplaced to the Dallas Mavericks in six video games.
Throughout his days with the Rockets, Harden was one of many NBA’s most dynamic scorers. He received three straight scoring titles between 2017-18 and 2019-20, topping out at 36.1 factors per recreation in 2018-19. He received an MVP award within the first yr of that run.
Harden’s fashion has all the time grated on the nerves of many basketball followers, with the shifty veteran largely being accused of foul baiting all through his profession.
As Harden has aged and his first step has dissipated, the once-elite scorer is now basically a shell of what he as soon as was. You continue to see that outdated Houston model in there for spurts, however more often than not, that MVP candidate simply isn’t there anymore. The right proof of that’s in his free-throw fee, which has dipped tremendously during the last a number of years.
James Harden re-signed with the Los Angeles Clippers on a two-year, $70 million deal this summer time, which is a contract that won’t age notably nicely for Los Angeles.
Need the most recent NBA evaluation, breaking information, and insider data? Click on Right here. Observe NBA Evaluation Community on Twitter and Fb.
Excited by studying the most recent storylines and evaluation within the NFL? Try our associate NFL Evaluation Community.
