James Harden frustrated at ‘having to be the guy’ for Nets after thinking he was

James Harden joined the Brooklyn Nets in part because doing so was supposed to create the greatest offense in NBA history. No team had ever employed three, in their prime shot-creators as dominant as Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving before, and with a deep stable of shooters led by Joe Harris to surround them, the Nets assembled perhaps the most offensively gifted roster in NBA history. It’s just rarely been together at the same time.

Durant has suffered significant injuries in back-to-back seasons. Irving is only a part-time player thanks to a New York City vaccine mandate. Harris has struggled to recover from a major ankle injury and might now need a second surgery. The team Harden wanted to join largely hasn’t been the one he’s actually played for, and according to The Athletic’s Alex Schiffer, that has been a source of major frustration for the 2018 MVP. Harden reportedly “came to Brooklyn expecting to be part of a three-headed monster, yet has played a similar role to what was required of him in Houston: having to be the guy.”

There is some truth to those frustrations. Harden, Irving and Durant have played just 16 games together. The Nets looked like obvious championship favorites in both of the last two seasons, but circumstances at least partially out of Harden’s control have hindered Brooklyn’s title hunt. Statistically, though, it would be a bit unfair to say that Harden has had to carry the sort of load he did in Houston.

Harden’s usage rate with the Rockets averaged out at around 33 percent and peaked above 40. With the Nets, it has fallen to around 28 percent. His assist rate has jumped playing alongside Durant and Irving, but that doesn’t account for such a steep decline. It’s not as though he’s been forced to play completely independently either. Harden played in 44 regular-season games with the Nets last season. Irving participated in 27 of them and Durant played in another 11. Durant has played in 32 of Harden’s 44 games this season while Irving has participated in eight more.

That’s not the three-headed monster that Harden expected, and such a top-heavy roster exacerbates the absence of any single star. The Nets are not especially deep because few three-star teams can afford to be, and missing Harris has severely restricted Brooklyn’s spacing. But it’s not as though Harden has been without help entirely. Having just one of Irving or Durant by his side is a luxury. Not every star is so lucky.

If Harden were to be traded to Philadelphia as rumors have hinted, he’d be playing alongside Joel Embiid. There would not be a third star on the roster and Embiid has suffered plenty of his own injuries. There is a reasonable chance that, at least for stretches, Harden would be asked to be “the man” again. That would be the case on any team Harden played for. He made his name as a player by becoming one of the greatest individual shot-creators in NBA history. That is his skill-set. That is what teams are acquiring him to bring to the table. He might not be capable of doing it at the level he did in his physical prime anymore, but if he plans to win a championship in Brooklyn or elsewhere, he should probably get comfortable with the idea that it’s going to be necessary at least some of the time. No situation is ever as clean and talented as Brooklyn’s was supposed to be.