The Whiteboard: James Harden is one of the best offensive players ever

James Harden might not have the best rep, but he’s capable of playing offense at a higher level than just about any NBA player has reached.

Defense is not a strong suit for James Harden. Harden’s defense has improved somewhat in recent years, but he’s never going to be a defensive stopper. Fortunately for the Houston Rockets, that shortcoming is mitigated greatly by the fact that Harden is one of the very best offensive players in NBA history.

That was an established fact coming into the season, but with a recent run of incredible performances, Harden is reminding everybody of just how skilled he is. Starting off with a 50-point, 11-assist performance against the Los Angeles Lakers, Harden has averaged 40.8 points and 8.9 assists per game over his last 10. He’s shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 41.3 percent from 3-point range on an incredible 13.8 attempts triples per game over that stretch.

As Harden-detractors will be quick to point out, many of his points have come from the free throw line. Harden is averaging 14.9 free throw attempts per game over his last 10 games. At times watching him score can get tedious, but it’s Harden’s combination of skill, speed and strength that gets him those calls. If anybody could get to the line 15 times a game, they would. Harden’s ability gets him those free throws, particularly his ability to draw 3s behind the 3-point line.

That first game against the Lakers is an example of an exceedingly rare statistical line that Harden pulls off more than literally any player, ever. According to basketball-reference, there have been just 26 50-point, 10-assist games in NBA history.

All-time greats like Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James are on the list, as is Harden’s former teammate Russell Westbrook, who is tied for second-most 50/10 games with Tiny Archibald. Both Westbrook and Archibald pulled off three such games in their careers. James Harden has six of these games, or as many as the second-place finishers combined. In the 2018 calendar year, Harden had as many 50/10 games as anybody else did in their entire careers.

Those numbers aren’t the end-all be-all of determining the value of a player’s offensive attack, but it’s obvious Harden is able to rack up huge scoring and assist totals better than anybody else, ever. His Houston Rockets being built around him obviously helps, but every great player has teams that conform to them. None of them can rack up that many points and assists on a consistent basis like Harden does.

He’s not the most aesthetically-pleasing player to watch and he needs to perform better in the postseason, but James Harden is one of the most dangerous offensive weapons to ever grace the NBA. He should get his due respect for being able to rain buckets on the opposition while also picking apart its defense with adept passing.

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