Over his sixteen-year NBA career, James Harden has had a handful of superstar teammates, stepped onto the floor with high-powered offenses, and been a part of trios that have had high championship aspirations. Every year, without fail, his team makes the playoffs, they make a semi-deep run, and someone, at times Harden, ends up getting hurt.
After two years of first-round exits and Kawhi Leonard’s prolonged injuries, the Los Angeles Clippers have decided to create a new offensive trio with the addition of former Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal.
The three-time All-Star finished in second place for the NBA scoring title five years ago. Every season since then, though, Beal has missed at least 29 games, while his scoring average has continued to decrease. This is not to say that the Clippers have not constructed a great roster alongside the new trio, as they added John Collins and Brook Lopez in free agency. Harden knows what it is like, though, to play alongside injury-prone and aging teammates, of which Beal and Leonard are both.
Harden was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder third overall in 2009. He instantly saw success alongside a second-year Russell Westbrook and a third-year Kevin Durant. The trio would make the first round in Harden’s rookie year, but ran into the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kobe Bryant in his second prime.
The following year, they made the conference finals but had to play another eventual champion, the Dallas Mavericks, led by Dirk Nowitzki in his prime. To make things worse, they made the finals the year after, but lost to Lebron James and the Miami Heat in five games.
Thunder fans and even Durant himself have quickly pointed to Oklahoma City’s lack of experience and sudden rise to stardom as the reasons why they were never able to win the Larry O’Brien trophy. They also lost a key role player, their starting center, Kendrick Perkins, in the 2012 Finals, which Durant likes to joke is the reason they lost.
The season after making the finals, the Thunder could not reach a contract extension with Harden, and traded him to the Houston Rockets. This was the first instance in his career where he would be paired alongside two superstar players and was unable to win, but it certainly was not the last time.
“The Beard,” as fans liked to call Harden in Houston, quickly rose to stardom as the number one scoring option for the Rockets. Harden never had a “superteam”, but he did get to play alongside a prime Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, Patrick Beverly, Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, and, in 2017 and 2018, Chris Paul.
In his third year with Houston, Harden led his team to the Conference Finals, but like in years past, he ran into the eventual champions, the Golden State Warriors, losing in five games. After six years of hard work and trying new moves offensively, Harden would go on a historic scoring run for the Rockets. He won three scoring titles in a row from 2018 to 2020 and won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2018. He would make the conference finals again in 2017, but thanks to the Warriors now armed with his former teammate Durant, a Paul hamstring injury, and 27 straight three-pointers missed, Houston lost in seven games.
Harden played for the Rockets for two more years, losing again to an eventual champion in the second round of the 2020 playoffs against the Lakers. While his time in Houston was historic, it never led to anything more than a Western Conference Finals loss. The blame can be spread to injuries, facing eventual champions, and facing an all-time Warriors team. Harden’s playoff performance and health declined, though, leading to a trade to the Brooklyn Nets to reunite with his former teammate Durant.
Harden spent just over one year in Brooklyn alongside Durant and Kyrie Irving, but only ended up playing in 16 games with them. Durant came back from an Achilles tear in the 2019 NBA Finals and suffered several other injuries in Brooklyn, including a thigh contusion, minor hamstring injuries, and an MCL sprain. Irving dealt with ankle sprains, shoulder and thumb issues, and was unable to play because of his COVID-19 vaccination status. Harden had several minor injuries, including a nagging hamstring that sidelined him for two games in the second round.
The Nets lost in the second round to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games, enduring a haunting game-tying shot that would have put Brooklyn up by one if Durant’s foot was not over the three-point line. For the sixth time in his career, Harden would lose to an eventual champion.
Following the heartbreaking loss in the playoffs, the Nets dealt Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers to pair “the beard” with the eventual MVP Joel Embiid. Many fans believed that this team-up would end the losing streak for both Harden and the 76ers.
Even with the other key players like Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris helping the star duo, they would never make it past the second round. Embiid dealt with injuries his entire career, but during their first playoff run, he suffered a fractured orbital bone (eye) along with other nagging leg injuries. Following a decline in play the year prior, Harden would average 18.6 points, 8.6 assists, and 5.7 rebounds on 40.5 percent shooting from the field in the 2021-22 playoffs with the 76ers. He also averaged 4.2 turnovers a game and only took nine shots in an elimination Game 6 against the Heat.
The following year, Harden averaged 20.3 points during the playoffs, but he still maintained pedestrian shooting numbers. Philadelphia lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games, and that was the end of his time in the city of brotherly love.
After two years with the 76ers, Harden was traded to the Clippers, where he played in 72 games, the most for him in the regular season since the 2017-18 season. Los Angeles was eager to pair him up with Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and Leonard, but the trio only produced a first-round exit against the Mavericks. Alongside the two-time champion Leonard, Harden has made somewhat of a comeback. Last season, he averaged 22.8 points, 8.7 assists, and 5.8 rebounds and was named an All-Star reserve for his resurgence. His increased minutes did not generate postseason success, as the Clippers lost again in the first round, this time to the Denver Nuggets.
Now Harden is entering his third year with the Clippers after two seasons of first-round exits. Los Angeles has decided to add Beal, along with Collins and Lopez, to make another postseason run this year. The eleven-time All-Star had a bounce-back regular season last year, but he now has more playoff series losses than wins in his career. If history has proven anything, it is that no matter who you pair with Harden, he will find a way to be a great scorer, but lose heartbreakingly in the playoffs.
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