There are transfers in the NBA that, despite having a clear destination and defined teams involved, take months to complete. It’s the details that ultimately make the difference and can be hammered out in a negotiation, especially if there are highly technical salary issues of interest to either party. This happened in the exchange between LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers with James Harden. As of July, the 2018 MVP has been linked to California residents with no deal materializing. His arrival The beard in Los Angeles seemed a fact, the question to be resolved was when and under what circumstances, something that was set Tuesday, October 31, 2023 by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
James Harden will return to what has always been his home, Los Angeles, to play alongside an old acquaintance like Russell Westbrook and two stars destined to succeed for the project: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
More | All the details on James Harden’s transfer to the Clippers
The LA Clippers have been trying to conquer the sky for some time in a strategy of accumulating all the talent available on the market at any cost. A by no means risk-free path that, for now, boils down to a single appearance in the Western Conference Finals. His landing James Harden in the Californian city comes to solve an endemic project problem like the absence of base manager, someone who would make sense of Tyronn Lue’s offensive system and unloading Kawhi and George.
However, Harden’s adjustment to the team may cause more problems than one might initially think and will require quite a few adjustments for the Clippers, especially in the Playoffs.
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How James Harden’s transfer affects the LA Clippers
The pieces that left the LA Clippers for the Philadelphia 76ers shouldn’t be a high cost in the short term or in their championship aspirations. Robert Covington, Nicolas Batum and Marcus Morris They were great value substitutes for second sectionbut that in recent years they had taken a step back in their performance.
Covington could be considered a figure of relative importance on the floor due to his ability to open the court (36.2% career 3-pointers) and defend multiple positions. While with Batum, his importance to the Clippers came down to a matter of locker room chemistry, as he was one of the franchise’s veterans in terms of setting the pace for the group, not so much on the floor as he was nearing his 35th birthday. old. While, Marcus Morris had been excluded from the rotation at the beginning of the course and KJ Martin He barely had a testimonial role after arriving in June.
More | How the LA Clippers’ roster, rotation and contracts are handled after James Harden’s transfer
However, The key to the move for the Clippers will be accommodating Harden in their system and as regards the rotations. Until now Russell Westbrook has started as the starting guard with Covington at the four and the automatic thought would be to move Rush to the shooting guard role, Kawhi to the four and include The beard as a game manager in one. This scheme is likely to end up taking place because of the importance of status that comes with being a starter in the NBA, especially when it comes to stars.
The thing is, it’s more complicated than a quintet made up of Harden, Westbrook, George, Leonard and Zubac I ended up racking up a lot of minutes. Not just during one game, but while watching an entire season. The need to distribute the ball and how incompatible these four profiles are a priori playing on the court at the same time makes it difficult for Lue to provide much continuity in matchups.
So the key for the Clippers and how it will really affect them has more to do withn the variables offered by Harden. Now, Angelenos will be able to rotate and compose different pairs of stars to pose with and respond to in many situations in the game. If they want to open the court and run, they can do it with George and Westbrook, and if they want to go to the middle of the court, the Kawhi-Harden combination can be very successful.
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How James Harden fits on the LA Clippers alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
Since the LA Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in 2019, the Los Angeles team has been Searching without success for a point guard who would be responsible for maximizing the performance of their two stars. First up was Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams. Then came Razon Rondo. Later it was Reggie Jackson’s turn. John Wall passed without pain or glory. And the latest arrival, Russell Westbrook, was perhaps the one who had the most impact across the board, but without playing that role of playmaker that was sorely missed in Los Angeles.
James Harden is becoming that player. Stripped of the explosiveness that made him MVP in 2018, finalist in 2017 and 2019 and third in 2020, the Californian channeled everything through ball distribution. The beard He lacks that physical add-on that allowed him to take massive amounts of the ball into gaps, forcing himself to be limited in production throughimmediate blocking, where his intelligence and vision remain elite. Exactly, last season the Clippers were one of the most effective teams in these types of situations, taking 79th percentile in operator actions and 48th in continues.
Tyronn Lue places a lot of importance on the two-on-two game as the cornerstone from which to build the offense. However, the technician does not do this as a terminal state. That is, an immediate block is not where the work should end, but rather creates many variables to note.
The Clippers have been a great team in sequences like this without a natural creator, not a finisher. Leonard and George have played very well there thanks to their fantastic offensive spacing, being able to execute more than they execute. Now me Harden the controls many of the problems associated with this could go away, especially the relative chaos created by depending on the direction in Westbrook’s hands.
In this way, the arrival of James Harden can maximize the offense of the Californians due to his ability to keep track of what is happening and where each member of the offense is. This means an increase in standing shots for Paul George, vital to open the field, but also better situations for Kawhi Leonard attacks from the outside to the inside, where he is one of the best.
On the other hand, like Westbrook, Harden excels at reading after a defensive rebound, connecting a quick pass with the first bounce, giving rise to many triples on arrival or simple layups that end up making the difference in the course of a game. so in Normal Phase.
The issue with James Harden on the Clippers and what will affect his performance the most will be defense. The 34-year-old point guard never flashed his skills or intensity in the backcourt. The beard He will hardly be able to contribute in that aspect of the game, however much his level of responsibility on offense is reduced, which means the Clippers are more exposed despite having Kawhi and George.
Harden has gotten to the point on defense that he is one of the opposing team’s fundamental targets when it comes to offense. This means that the adversary seeks to force situations in which The beard to be the center of the ball, which will require an extra effort in terms of helping the Clippers.
There is no reward without risk and the LA Clippers have gambled on everything that can happen this season.
The arrival of James Harden means adding more talent to a highly gifted, star-studded rotation. Now it remains to be seen if the union of Westbrook, Harden, George and Leonard has more to contribute than the umpteenth addition of names.
