How James Harden Can Use FIBA World Cup to Jumpstart Season with Houston Rockets
James Harden’s Team USA experience wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Houston Rockets shooting guard was originally expected to fill the "super sixth man" role normally reserved in Olympic competition for Carmelo Anthony.
But then some of his colleagues decided their summer didn't need a trip to Spain. Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin said thanks but no thanks, Paul George broke his leg and Kevin Durant backed out in the eleventh hour. All these things are "bad" for Team USA, but great for Harden.
He's spent the tournament as a lead ball-handler and primary scoring option instead of a break-in-case-of-emergency alternative off the bench. How can his expanded role in international competition jumpstart Harden’s 2014-15 season? And how will the Rockets be affected?
Offense
There’s something different about playing on a team surrounded by the country's very best players. Instead of waving off Francisco Garcia or Jeremy Lin, Harden is directing traffic for the likes of Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving. It’s more stimulating. More powerful.
Instead of standing in the corner as a spot-up option, Harden is carving opponents up in transition, running unstoppable pick-and-rolls with Anthony Davis and dictating the game’s flow with unfettered confidence.
Through eight games, Team USA's captain is averaging 13.1 points per game on 49.3 percent shooting. His 38 free-throw attempts also lead the team. Not that he has anything to prove on offense at this point, but Harden is further establishing himself as one of the four or five best scorers in the world. It's in two other areas where he needs to get better.
Defense
Harden has 19 steals in FIBA competition, which leads Team USA. Steals are miles from the be-all and end-all statistic able to grade how any player is doing on defense, but in this case it deserves some mentioning.
Harden’s sometimes porous defense is still what most people think of whenever his name is uttered. Compared to his last season with the Rockets, it’s been up-and-down on Team USA, with most of his mistakes coming away from the ball—losing his man on a baseline cut or failing to see a back screen before it catches him like a fishnet.
But much like it’s been in the NBA, Harden’s effort is mostly there whenever his man has the ball. He has quick hands, is one of the strongest shooting guards in the league and makes the ball-handler work for progress. In this tournament, Harden is consistently closing out on shooters, too.
Due to a lowered level of competition, it’s difficult to watch the members of Team USA and say for sure whether any individual improvements will translate back to the NBA. But what we’ve seen from Harden is at the very least promising.
Leadership
Leadership is an intangible attribute needed from any superstar, and heading into the World Cup, Harden was still searching for some of it.
For all the amazing and impressive things Harden did last year, it wasn’t enough. Houston was still upset up in five games by the Portland Trail Blazers partly because its best scorer couldn’t score.
Normally one of the league’s sharpest spears, Harden made just 34.7 percent of his shots from the floor through that series’ first five games. The points were there, including a 37-point explosion in Game 3, but it took 35 field-goal attempts to get there. That’s not good.
But the more important issue here was how Harden responded on a game-to-game basis. Having a bad night or even a bad series isn’t the worst thing in the world. But amid his struggles on the basketball court, Harden’s public response was far from sophisticated.
As reported by The Oregonian’s Mike Tokito:
"When a reporter from a national organization asked him about his struggles, he got short. 'It’s basketball – making shots,' Harden said before moving onto the next question.
But when his media session in the Rockets' opulent locker room ended, Harden went back at the reporter, asking if he had ever seen a player not play well before. The reporter answered that the struggle seemed unusual for Harden and was coming on a major stage, the playoffs.
The two went back and forth for a while, with Harden asking the reporter if he’d ever seen a basketball game before, then demanding to know whom the reporter was. The exchange got testy enough that team officials stepped in to usher Harden out.
As he left the room, Harden called the reporter 'weirdo.'
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Who knows how Harden acted around his teammates or in the locker room? And passing judgment on someone’s character or mindset based on one isolated incident doesn’t do much good. But still, lashing out at a reporter and showing public frustration after just two playoff games isn’t how a wise, experienced star is expected to act.
Playing on Team USA, being among the best of the best in another country on a daily basis and facing a different type of pressure, Harden is reportedly taking steps in the right direction.
Harden told reporters that he understands his situation:
"This is a different platform. A platform that I haven’t really been on before, but I think most of us haven’t been on it, either. I think we’re all kind of figuring it out together. That’s what’s going to be so special about this team. We figure it out together and we come out with a gold medal, it makes it that much more special.
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Team USA chairman Jerry Colangelo agreed that Harden is ready to become more of a leader: "Right now, I think I would look to Harden as that leader. Harden is kind of a natural leader and he seems to be willing to accept that role. And you can just kind of feel it and sense. He’s the one."
The Rockets pay Harden his max contract to provide 25 points on a nightly basis. They pay him to live at the free-throw line, run top-notch pick-and-rolls and take big shots in big games.
But they also need him to become a competent defender. They also need him to rise off the court in times of hardship and struggle. He's only 25 years old, but as the Rockets' best player he still needs to lead.
Playing on Team USA won't make Harden a better three-point shooter or decision-maker on the fast break, but it just may give him the experience necessary to elevate himself in other ways that matter.
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