James Harden, 36, is inching toward the end of a legendary career, but debates about how good he was in his prime rage on. Perhaps it is because, unlike some of his more prominent shooting guard peers, Harden has never won a championship.
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Yes, although Harden has now transitioned into a point guard, early in his career, he dominated as a shooting guard with the Houston Rockets. Interestingly, people have attributed the lack of rings to Harden’s style.
The argument is that Harden’s style of play was far different from other legendary shooting guards like Dwyane Wade, making it far less effective. Durant discussed Harden and Wade’s play style with Houston Rockets teammate Fred VanVleet on the Unguarded podcast, sharing his perspective.
VanVleet got things rolling with his bold statement on Harden. “That play style might not necessarily be as effective in winning a championship as somebody like D-Wade, where his play style might impact winning more,” stated the 2019 NBA champion.
Durant, however, refused to get behind VanVleet’s opinion. He asserted that he saw a lot of similarities in Harden and Wade’s styles of play.
“Everything was downhill — pick and roll to the cup. I’m scoring tonight. Shaq was out there, but he was a second option. And he had shooters around him — [James] Posey and Antoine Walker. And he had backup point guards that could help him. Who that sound like? James Harden,” Durant proclaimed.
These comments circulated all over social media and reached Wade, who, in his most recent appearance on the Time Out podcast, accepted it as a compliment.
“He was comparing James Harden and said he sees similarities in our games in that you look at downhill players making plays for their teammates and themselves and putting pressure on the defense all day long,” Wade said.
Despite social media being fairly divided on the subject, if one analyzes Durant’s statement, there’s a lot of truth to it. Harden has developed a more reliable three-point shot than Wade over the years, but getting to the rim was always his recipe for success.
Wade’s key to winning his first championship in 2006 was getting to the rim and drawing fouls. That sounds pretty similar to Harden.
The only knock people can have on the current Los Angeles Clippers star is that he has been unable to win a title. But that isn’t completely his fault. He had to go up against arguably the greatest constructed team in NBA history in the Golden State Warriors.
Meanwhile, Wade was on the Big Three Miami Heat, which dominated the early 2010s. The luck when it comes to teammates wasn’t in Harden’s favor. But that doesn’t mean his play style isn’t comparable to or less than Wade’s.
