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James Harden thinks playing every game should matter in NBA voting
The practice of NBA teams choosing to periodically rest healthy star players in hopes of reducing the likelihood that those marquee talents will suffer fatigue-related injuries, or just flat-out play worse late in the season/in the playoffs because they’re tired from the 82-game grind, has become a hotly debated topic of late. Broadcasters, retired players, the commish and many current NBA players have shared their feelings on the matter, will some siding with organizations that take the longer view with their players, while others continue to hold the belief that if you’re not injured, you should be lacing up your hightops, biometric analysis be damned.
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Count James Harden among the latter camp. The superstar guard has missed just one game in the last three seasons — and even missed only one practice this season, according to ESPN’s Calvin Watkins — suiting up to lead the Houston Rockets’ high-octane attack come hell or high water, night in and night out.
As Harden sees it, that perpetual availability ought to factor into voters’ thought process as they prepare to cast their ballots for year-end awards in a few weeks. From Watkins:
“Yeah, because you’re not leaving your teammates out there to dry, ” Harden said Tuesday morning, before the Rockets’ game against the Warriors. “For me, I worry about always having my teammates’ back and always being out there.”
Harden has played more minutes (8,772) than any NBA player in the past three seasons. He’s currently second in total minutes (2,666) — behind the Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins — and tied for sixth in minutes per game (36.5) this season. He’s also playing through a jammed left wrist, suffered March 18. […]
“I’m going to have [my teammates’] back and they know that they have mine as well,” said Harden, who is second in the league in points and first in assists. “For the coaching staff and the fans, especially here in Houston, the front office, I’m here to play.”
It’s a similar note to one Harden struck during a preseason interview with Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical back in October:
As franchise players go, he fits the most important criteria: He’s always available, always balling. […]
“You can say [the perception] is frustrating, or you can look at it and say, ‘OK, what if I play 65 games and miss 17 games. Play 32 minutes a game. And look like the best player ever.’ I wish I could, but in this instance, I’m here to play and do what I do.
“We don’t have … listen, I can’t sit out games. My teammates, my coaches, this organization needs me on that floor.” […]
In Harden’s mind, yes, he knows that he could probably lighten his games and minutes burden, sparing himself some of those viral episodes. To Harden, hanging 82 games a season on the board matters to him. It matters a lot.
“It means everything,” Harden told The Vertical. “I’ve been playing basketball since I was a little kid. Just for me to be on the court every day … it’s important to me.
“You’ve got a lot of guys taking nights off. My body is stable, so I play a lot of minutes. I’m always on the court. I’ve got to do so much. I’m not complaining about it. I’m not crying about it. It is what it is. I’m taking full responsibility of it. But I’ve got to figure out how to be most effective in those minutes.”
Harden has certainly done that this season. The 27-year-old triggerman has taken to point-guard duties in head coach Mike D’Antoni’s freewheeling offense like a duck to water, averaging a career-high 29.4 points per game while playing fewer minutes (36.5 per game) than he has since coming to Houston in 2012, and also leading the league in assists (11.3 a night) and points per game created via direct assist (27.5).
He’s carrying the biggest playmaking burden of his career and making it look easy, leading a Rockets team many expected to toil in the middle of the Western Conference pack to a campaign for the ages — 51-22, the NBA’s third-best record, fueled by an incinerating offense that trails only the league-best Golden State Warriors in points scored per possession and will likely break the all-time record for 3-pointers made in a single season against the Dubs on Tuesday night.
As the NBA’s leader in assists, its No. 2 scorer, a top performer in virtually every advanced statistical category and the top gun on a team winning 70 percent of its games, Harden clearly ranks among the favorites to take home this year’s MVP award. In a race with at least four extremely good cases to be made — for Harden, for Russell Westbrook, for Kawhi Leonard, and for LeBron James — every differentiating factor matters, and while Westbrook, too, has played all 73 of his team’s games this season, the fact that Harden has appeared in every Rockets contest might provide a bit of separation in the minds of some voters from Leonard, who has missed seven of San Antonio’s 73 games, and James, who has sat out six of Cleveland’s 73 games. Or, at least, Harden seems to think it should.
And so, despite the Rockets being all but locked into the No. 3 seed behind the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, and despite Harden carrying around a wounded wing after a big fall following an attempted block of a Mason Plumlee shot …
… he continues to insist on suiting up.
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“I’m a hooper,” he recently told reporters. “I just want to hoop. I’ll rest when I’m done. I feel like my teammates and organization need me to go out there and do what I do. I get obviously paid for it, but it’s something I love. I enjoy the grind. I enjoy how hard it is. I think that makes you tougher. That makes you who you are.”
And who the Rockets are, as star, coach and pitbull point guard have affirmed, is a team that shows up for work.
“We don’t rest,” D’Antoni recently said, according to Rockets blog The Dream Shake. “We don’t do that.”
Even if it’s not really “rest,” and if the breather might be beneficial to the Rockets’ chances of advancing to the Western Conference finals — or beyond. From Rahat Huq of Red94:
The only thing that can change this [MVP] race is if Harden sits and the Rockets start losing, while Westbrook keeps racking up the uncontested rebounds. This presents a dilemma. The Rockets have stated affirmatively that they will not rest players. D’Antoni said they don’t do it; Beverley was much harsher, calling it a disgrace. But is sitting an ailing Harden really “resting him?” I’ve made clear that I’m as much about the MVP as anyone here. But that wrist that is being wrapped tightly in ice after every game needs to heal before the postseason begins. Can we convince James to at least take the night off in Phoenix or Minnesota? He knows his award is on the line. This is a man acutely aware of his place in the NBA pecking order, boldly proclaiming two years ago that he was the best basketball player in the world. He can validate that claim this year. I maintain that I don’t think he lets them sit him.
Whether that winds up being the best course of action for Houston’s chances at postseason success remains to be seen. But Harden’s in the midst of the best sustained stretch of excellence of his NBA career, and the career-defining individual accomplishment that just barely eluded him two years ago is once again within arm’s reach. It’s hard to fault him for wanting to do everything in his power over this season’s final two weeks to grab it — including highlighting the fact that he’s always ready when the ball goes up.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
