"System Harden" plunges super team into the abyss
The L.A. Clippers have been trying in vain to win an NBA title for years. Injuries and retirements have always put a spanner in the works and the club seems cursed. Can one of the most controversial superstars of all time turn this fate around?
The scoreboard in the Los Angeles Clippers' home arena showed an eleven-point lead with twelve minutes left to play. The reigning champions Denver Nuggets were visiting, albeit in a slight slump and without their three best players: Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon. The hosts, on the other hand, had four current or former All-Stars on the floor, four key players and four future Hall of Famers. A Californian mega-team against a shorthanded team from Colorado, who were also playing back-to-back games, their second in two days.
A foregone conclusion, you would think? Far from it, because the Clippers imploded. Once again. Head Coach Tyronn Lue's team hit less than a quarter of its shots in the final quarter, conceded five turnovers with just two assists and let the game slip from its grasp after a disastrous 16:36 run. An 88:77 lead turned into a 104:113 defeat.
New signing James Harden did not score a single point in his eight minutes in the final quarter, did not even take a single shot from the field and also conceded two critical turnovers. The fact that two aging former Clippers players, Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan, of all people, brought about the turnaround for Denver added to the embarrassment.
After five weeks, the team from Los Angeles is in eleventh place in the Western Conference with just seven wins from 16 games. Far below all expectations: their own as well as those of all the experts, who had once again placed L.A. among the "contenders" at the start of the season. A lot has happened since the end of October in "Clipper Nation", where they naturally continue to dream of the title - especially since the trade for Harden.
The problem with the system
The ten-time All-Star is a former MVP, multiple scoring and assist champion, Sixth Man of the Year, World Champion and #NBA75 member, making him one of the most outstanding players the NBA has seen in its first 75 seasons. An elite playmaker who single-handedly changed the outlook of entire franchises. No one has played with more superstars than Harden. So far, however, the newly assembled superteam from L.A. has conceded failure after failure. Which raises the question: Was it all really worth it?
"I'm not a system player, I'm the system!" - with this now iconic statement, Harden introduced himself to the Clippers at the beginning of the month, for whom the signing of the enigmatic, idiosyncratic and often bizarre island talent was obviously worth the potentially severe headache. The price was manageable, but also revealed just how much the value of the most valuable player of the 2017/18 season has fallen league-wide.
So far, Los Angeles' Harden era has seen seven defeats and just four wins. In his first outing against the New York Knicks, he immediately lost the ball (a colossal 22 in total), coupled with allocation problems in defense and static standing around in attack. Less than a month later, the Californians' basketball still doesn't look very promising. Despite good phases, it has rarely been enough to win so far because there is still a lack of cohesion, team spirit and a clear plan.
Harden can reach the highest level, but ...
Much of this, of course, has to do with having to integrate a player of Harden's status and caliber on the fly. All of the protagonists have slimmed down since the 34-year-old joined the squad. The two All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are desperately trying to integrate the newcomer somehow - also because they know that their own championship ambitions are now inextricably linked to Harden.
"He's one of the best players to ever step onto an NBA floor," says two-time NBA champion Leonard about his new teammate. And eight-time All-Star George adds: "You don't get a player like that every day. We still lack consistency, especially against the good teams. But it's better for us to have an elite playmaker on the floor at all times."
Even at his advanced age, Harden can still perform at the highest level. In the previous season, he led the league with 10.7 assists per game and also scored 21 points per night. The main problem, however, has always been that he usually disappears in the playoffs, often disappearing altogether. Harden also led his Sixers to an interim 3:2 lead against Boston in the pre-season with 45 points in game one and 42 points in game four of the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Then what has happened to Harden since his Rockets days happened: he failed at the decisive moment, the statistics of games six and seven are relentless. 9 and 13 points, only 7 goals on 27 shots, plus ten turnovers. His team once again failed on its way to the NBA Finals. This was also the case for the Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets, where Harden always demanded a trade after several failed attempts: first from Houston to Brooklyn, then from Brooklyn to Philadelphia, and finally this summer from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
Russell Westbrook ends up on the sidelines
Russell Westbrook, a former league MVP himself, has struggled the most with Harden's arrival so far. The perennial triple-double king has changed his game several times to save his career into old age as an athlete. At the start of this season, Westbrook was one of the Clippers' top performers with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game, the team with him on a power plus and solid 3-1 start.
Then came the trade, and familiar problems that had already come to light during their failed partnership in Houston once again bubbled to the surface. Harden and Westbrook are friends and have known each other since childhood. They are the first MVP pair in NBA history to play together for the third time (as young professionals from 2009 to 2012 with the Oklahoma City Thunder, in the 2019/20 season in Houston, now in L.A.).
However, the duo doesn't work at all on the court. Both need the ball in their hands and are at their best when they have defenders, paint-checkers and agile off-ball players next to them - not a second ball-dominant guard who wants to hold onto the ball.
It wasn't until Westbrook more or less willingly accepted his demotion to sixth man on Nov. 17 that things started to look up in L.A. - the Clippers won three straight games and four of their next five. Harden lined up almost exclusively with the starters, while his minutes alongside Westbrook shrank by more than half. More ball control catapulted Harden's assist rate steeply upwards. He handed out seven assists or more five times in a row, more than twice as many on average as in his first five games as a Clipper.
Superstar with a loading brake
But Los Angeles is hoping for much more than just a ball distributor and playmaker. They also need the aggressive Harden, a scorer and shooter who can put pressure on the opposing defense and take the pressure off the other stars. On the one hand, it is understandable that the three-time scoring champ is taking a little longer to get going after missing the pre-season and lacking match practice. On the other hand, big question marks remain: Behind his willingness to get himself into absolute top physical condition, as well as behind his dwindling superpowers that have characterized him for years.
The number of his forays into the zone and the associated fouls he draws have reached a worrying level. His 6.6 free throw attempts per 100 possessions is the lowest figure of his career. Harden also shoots from mid-range or close to the basket more rarely than ever before. Only 12 percent of all his shots are made in the restricted area under the basket - by far his career low. So if the three-pointer doesn't fall, "The Beard" usually remains pale in offense - more pressure on George and Leonard to shoot L.A. to victory.
"I keep emphasizing that I haven't had training camp or preseason," says Harden, playing for time. "So I have to learn on the fly and get myself in game shape, in James Harden shape. I was in a similar situation in Brooklyn: two stars who can score and create mismatches. I can operate on the ball or off the ball, whether it's pick-and-roll or catch-and-shoot. We have excellent coaches and unselfish players here."
Real title contender or just a pseudo-contender?
As bumpy as the start has been so far, this Clippers experiment can certainly work in theory. Leonard and George remain the best wing duo in the league. Harden as the third fiddle and Westbrook as a microwave off the bench. Flanked by role players such as Terrance Mann, Norman Powell and P.J. Tucker, center Ivica Zubac or the other newcomer Daniel Theis, the sum total is enough squad quality to achieve the high ambitions. Can these protagonists come together? And will their luck hold out for a change?
George and Leonard have been playing here since 2019. The team is one of the best in the league when both stars are on the floor together and has won a total of two thirds of its duels (103:55). The problem? Together, the two have only played 41 percent of all possible games (134 out of 324) and have also missed most of the decisive ones in the playoffs. So Harden and Westbrook are also backups in the realistic event that Leonard and/or George are out for a longer period of time.
Coach Tyronn Lue, who is known for taming difficult characters, has the unenviable task of forming a cohesive unit from this collection of stars. He already achieved this once before with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, when he coached LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to the title. "We can't hang our heads, everything takes time," says Lue. "I've worked with a lot of good teams, it always takes a while. We just have to keep working. I am confident and believe that we will be good."
Four wins - but only sometimes
"Big fours" can win, and there are quite a few examples in the history of this league. Teams such as the Golden State Warriors (Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green), Miami Heat (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen), Boston Celtics (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson) or Los Angeles Lakers (Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott) have been crowned champions. However, it has also often happened that accumulated star power was too much of a good thing: the Lakers with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton once failed spectacularly, as did a later version with Bryant, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.
To avoid the same fate and fulfill their potential, the Clippers must find solutions - and quickly. The pressure is immense. Both for Harden, for whom this is his third stop in two years, and for the franchise as a whole. Money is not an issue, because team owner Steve Ballmer has deeper pockets than anyone else in the NBA. However, the new penalties for clubs over certain salary caps, as well as the high price in future draft picks paid for the superstars, have taken almost all options off the table to further round out the roster in the future.
Before moving into their own brand new "Intuit Dome" arena next season, the chronically unsuccessful Clippers - they've played in the NBA for 53 years without ever reaching the Finals - are looking to build positive momentum and at least partially justify all that investment. If they fail again before the Conference Finals, the Harden deal would be the latest proof that more is not always better. So far, this super team looks too old, too slow and too small to be successful. The first impressions - measured against the quality - are shameful. "The Beard", Lue & Co. have a good four months to get their act together.
In the heat of the game, the Clippers' struggle with their new-found superteam was evident. Despite a strong lineup with four current or former All-Stars, including James Harden, they crumbled under pressure in the final quarter, allowing the Denver Nuggets to snatch a 104-113 victory.
In light of Harden's recently stated disdain for playing within a system, the Clippers' lack of cohesion becomes even more conspicuous. While Harden has proven capability as a playmaker, scoring champion, and elite performer, doubts remain about his consistency in the post-season and his ability to adapt to the system in Los Angeles.
Source: www.ntv.de
