James Harden Is Powering Down

To watch the Detroit Pistons is to marvel at the highest level of team defense being played anywhere in the NBA. The mental strain they induce in opponents is remarkable, as offenses will cycle through primary, secondary, and tertiary options with increasing mania, unable to engineer anything open despite putting the Pistons deep in rotation. They fly around the perimeter, making dozens of cascading collective decisions despite scant time or space to communicate with each other. It's a sight to behold, one whose only statistical echo is what they've done to poor, overmatched James Harden's two-game box score: nine made field goals, 11 turnovers, and 1-for-11 three-point shooting. The theory of this most recent Harden trade was that Cleveland wanted a regular-style point guard to relieve Donovan Mitchell of his playmaking burden, further unlock their imposing yet stodgy pair of bigs, and do so without totally compromising their defense. It's not often that Harden, one of the league's premier stander-arounders, is thought of as anything better than a total traffic cone on that end of the court, but Darius Garland is tiny and way more easily picked on. Harden wants to play slow and control the offense from the top of the key, and the idea is that he can apply constant pressure with his pull-up and foul-baiting abilities. Those who watched Harden fall apart at the end of the playoffs in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2017, 2015, or 2013 will not be surprised to learn that it's not going too well. The Pistons have Harden in hell. His defense has been as mediocre as expected, but the really concerning aspect of his play has been his invisibility on offense. Other than the fourth quarter of Game 1, Harden has not been able to get to the basket. Detroit surprised many when they began that game with Cade Cunningham on Harden. With Ausar Thompson spending most of his time on Mitchell duty, the only way for the Pistons to simultaneously insulate Duncan Robinson and keep their guards out of size mismatches was to begin with their superstar on Harden. He's done a great job, though defending in the playoffs is a team endeavor, and Detroit has pressured Harden ridiculously well. Some of his turnovers have come while trying to kick out into collapsing passing lanes, but mostly he has crapped himself while being defended one-on-one.