Four things to watch for in James Harden’s Clippers debut vs. Knicks

And so begins the James Harden era in Los Angeles.

Following an absurd saga in Philadelphia, rife with public declarations of animosity and enough drama to make The Young and the Restless blush, the former MVP is back in his hometown and hoping to restore his name alongside a supporting cast of superstars.

When a player changes teams, it usually represents a fresh start. But when a player has been on four teams in the last four years as Harden has, fresh just doesn’t fit the bill.

Though he’s excelled at each stop, continuing to be one of the best offensive threats of his generation, his play in the post-season has left much to be desired. But more importantly, his off-the-court antics likely had producers for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills blowing up his phone the second he landed in Los Angeles.

Since being dealt to the Clippers late Monday night, he has sat out games against the Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers as the team ramps him back up into playing shape. He’ll start his Clippers career against the Knicks, under the bright lights of Madison Square Gardens.

Here are four things to look out for in Harden’s Clippers debut. You can watch the game on Sportsnet One or Sportsnet+ at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT.

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Will Harden fit the system or will he be the system?

In Harden’s introductory press conference with the Clippers, he came through with a few all-time lines, calling himself “elite as an individual” and saying that playing for the 76ers was “like being on a leash.”

Perhaps the most iconic though was his bit about how he believes he should be used, saying “I’m not a system player, I’m a system.”

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When Harden won his MVP award in 2018, that was irrefutable. The system in Houston under coach Mike D’Antoni was built with one player in mind – Harden. He garnered the second-highest usage percentage of all time at 40.8 per cent that season, eclipsed only by Russell Westbrook‘s 41.7 per cent when he won MVP the year prior.

That’s not the case in Clipper-land, as he’s joining a team with a system already installed around Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook. When examining the bodies of work of the three players he’ll be joining, it begs the question as to how a ball-dominant player like Harden will work in a system built around two iso-heavy players like George and Leonard and the ball-dominant Westbrook.

Last season, Harden had the second-highest time of possession in the league at 8.6 minutes a game (behind only Luka Doncic at 9.1), but still claimed that the 76ers had him “on a leash” within their system.

He’ll now join a team that doesn’t seem likely to build a system around Harden, and his touches per game should decrease with all three aforementioned players also needing the ball in their hands. Will Harden take to it?

Which version of Harden will we see?

At every stop over the course of Harden’s career, his role has shifted based on what each team needed from him. Say what you will about his dependability and consistent ability to stir the pot, but he has proven to be one of the most adaptable players while still maintaining his own style of play within a team.

In his early years in Oklahoma City, flanked by Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, Harden came off the bench, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2012 after averaging 16.8 points, 3.7 assists and putting up .491/.390/.846 shooting splits.

This isn’t to say that he’ll be anything like the player he was more than 10 years ago, but could there be similarities in his role now that he’s playing not only with his former teammate in Westbrook but with two wings who aren’t known to be frequent shooters off-the-catch?

Or could his role be similar to the one he had on the Brooklyn Nets, functioning more as a table-setting point guard for two of the best isolation scorers of all time in Kyrie Irving and the aforementioned Durant?

What if it’s similar to the way he played in Philadelphia, leading the league in assists last season while functioning as one of the best pick-and-roll maestros in the league? He may not have a big star the level of Joel Embiid to work with, but Clippers centre Ivica Zubac is a great roller and could excel alongside Harden.

Harden’s game has evolved over the course of his career, so how will the version we see in Los Angeles be a reflection of each stop he’s been along the way?

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How rusty will Harden look in his first game of the season?

In the five games before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in the 2020-2021 season, Harden put up some of the most tired, indifferent games of his career, averaging 17.4 points on disastrous .378/.256/.875 shooting splits and came to pre-game shootarounds looking completely out of shape.

Then he got dealt, averaged 33.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 13.0 assists in his first two games in Brooklyn, and looked like he was in peak condition.

Fat suit speculation aside, as soon as Harden got his way, it was as though the rust was never there to begin with. Now that he got his way, could we see that same level of production in his first game back?

That season though, Harden still took part in training camp, played in pre-season games and suited up for eight regular season games before being dealt to the Nets.

In this case, though he still took part in the 76ers training camp, it’s been clear that the intention was never to get him into game shape or actually let him get real reps to be ready for NBA action. He’s been ramping up since being dealt, but he’s still being thrown into the fire here.

According to coach Tyronn Lue, Harden could be on a minutes restriction until the medical staff clears him for a full workload, but said that the restrictions wouldn’t be “crazy.”

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Who gets the run at point guard between Westbrook and Harden?

Harden and Westbrook would share a backcourt in every life.

The last time the two played together in Houston during the 2019-20 season, they both put up ridiculous numbers. Harden averaged 34.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.5 assists while Westbrook went for 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists.

They finished with the sixth-highest offensive rating at 112.9 and the eighth-best net rating at +2.8. They also finished with the third-highest pace.

However, you’d think that with two of the best play-making guards in the league running the show on virtually every single play, the Rockets would have finished much better than 29th in the league in assists.

The two players are at vastly different points in their careers now, so concerns that the team-wide assist numbers and usage rates for the two players will look like they did in Houston should be unfounded.

Which of the two will take up the mantle as the primary point guard for the Clippers? Though Harden wasn’t anything close to an off-ball player last season in Philadelphia after racking up the second-highest time-of-possession, 12.7 per cent of his shots were catch-and-shoot looks – the most he’s taken since the 2016-17 season – and hit them at a 41.1 per cent clip.

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue also told Law Murray of The Athletic that Westbrook will be the point guard and ball handler in order to keep Westbrook’s defender engaged as he’s a much less productive shooter off the catch than Harden but still operates well on drive-and-kicks.

In his debut, it makes sense that they’d deploy Harden in a lower-usage role so as to get him up to speed and integrate him within the system. But shades of how the team could look come playoff time will likely be present in the debut against the Knicks.

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