Today’s Hottest Take: Harden Is One of the Best Clippers of All Time

The Clippers are not a franchise known for their greatness. They’ve never had an MVP or even made it to the semifinals under their current name. Despite only joining the Clippers in 2023, Harden has been setting records and carrying them in an all-time fashion. He holds their scoring record in a single game with 55 points and appears in the top 10 of that again with 50 points. He is their all-time leader in triple-doubles, has the most 3-point attempts per game with the second most makes and is top 10 in 3-pointers made, assists, free-throw percentage, points per game, free-throw attempts per game, player efficiency rating, offensive rating, box shares and box plus/minus. For only being here for a short period of time, Harden has left his mark on the Clipper’s history

What You Need to Know: Harden’s Impact is Beyond The Box Score

Despite putting up impressive stats for the Clippers, Harden’s true impact is outside of a stat sheet. His ability to lead a team, even when it is missing key players, is what makes him truly special. While he has been part of the team, Kawhi Leonard has missed 69 regular season games and at least one playoff game every series.

Harden has been forced to play through inconsistent and subpar lineups throughout his Clippers tenure. Despite this, he has thrived, turning the Clippers into a playoff team every year. Last season, the Clippers were voted the second most likely team to come out of the West, in front of teams like the Nuggets, Rockets, Timberwolves and city sister team, the Lakers. And this wasn’t for no reason either. They were one of the best offensive and defensive teams in the entire league. While Harden didn’t contribute much on the defensive end, he was one of the main reasons why the Clippers were so successful on offense.

After the All-Star break last year, the Clippers were the No. 3 offense in the league, ahead of teams like the Celtics, Knicks and Pacers. While Leonard coming back helped with this, the real reason the Clippers were so good is because their roster was playing so well together and had great chemistry. Harden had been carrying the team for the first five months and was thriving. His unique scoring and playmaking combination allowed players like Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell, Derrick Jones Jr. and many others to play great offense. Also, with Harden carrying most of the offensive burden, it allowed for other players to save their energy for defense. With the team playing this well, they could easily insert Leonard into their lineup and let him cook on both sides of the floor.

This season, Harden is dealing with Leonard's load management, but with a worse team construction and even worse injury luck. Players like John Collins, Bogdan Bogdanović and Brook Lopez have not lived up to their names, and Bradley Beal and Jones are both out for a long period of time. The Clippers are in a bad slump, and if it weren’t for Harden, they would be hopeless. Harden is doing his best to carry this team by averaging 27/5/8 on good efficiency. He's the only reason the Clippers can even hope to turn their season around, because with him there, they just need some of their roleplayers to fix their games.

Before You Go: He Lived Long Enough to See Himself Become the Hero

Two Face once said, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. This quote once fit Harden perfectly. He was once the hero when he was a young player on the Thunder, winning Sixth Man of the Year and making the finals with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. He was the hero when he was on the Rockets, averaging 30, winning an MVP and pushing the loaded Golden State team to 7. However, he became the villain when he started demanding out of Houston and making unreasonable requests.

People hated him when he was on the Nets, and then when the Nets' superteam imploded and he went to Philly, people hated him more. He was called a playoff choker and out of shape by fans, and when he went on a campaign calling Daryl Morey a liar and wanted out of Philly, that was the last straw. When he went to the Clippers, he was called a lazy hypocrite that only brought downfall to the teams he went to.

However, he has proved all of these statements wrong and once again become the league’s hero. He has shown that it wasn’t his fault, he isn’t lazy and that he is a winning player. Now, his public perception has changed completely.

Everyone but the Thunder fans want him to succeed. He has the leagues backing behind him with every game he plays. In a way, it is kind of thematic, with the player who was called the biggest foul baiter of all time doing his best to stop the current biggest foul baiter’s team.