HOUSTON — Is James Harden capable of being Kevin Durant 2.0 when it comes to post-FIBA growth?
Many credited FIBA international play in 2010 with aiding Durant’s evolution into an NBA superstar. Now, fresh off a gold medal in Spain with the U.S. national team, Durant’s former teammate and good friend Harden is hoping to see a similar transformation of his own as he embarks on his third season as a franchise cornerstone, a Big Two alongside Dwight Howard for the Houston Rockets.
The theme for the league’s second-highest scoring team a season ago is all about defensive improvement. Coach Kevin McHale spoke at Monday’s Media Day about the importance of better rebounding. Point guard Patrick Beverley, long known as a bulldog defender, lauded the “toughness” and “grittiness” of offseason Houston additions such as Trevor Ariza, Jason Terry and Jeff Adrien. Howard – a three-time Defensive Player of the Year – put more responsibility on himself with help defense.
But it’s tough to see Houston emerging as a serious contender from a loaded Western Conference unless Harden becomes less of a liability on the defensive end.
He knows it, too.
“I know at times my defense is pretty bad,” said Harden, who averaged over 25 points and six assists in 2013-14, leading Houston to a 54-28 record and the West’s No. 4 playoff seed.
“I have to be better. I have to be great on both ends.”
Though he was far from perfect, Harden’s defensive lapses on Team USA this summer were fewer and farther between. He trapped the ball more intently, aggressively closed out on shooters, and in general seemed much more aware and engaged when away from the ball. Harden credited the legendary coaches on the U.S. national team, led by Mike Krzyzewski and longtime defensive mastermind Tom Thibodeau, with helping his development.
“The coaches were unbelievable,” said the 25-year-old Harden, who despite his miscues was an All-NBA First Team selection last season. “It’s not the fact that I can’t do it. I know I can be a really good defender. It’s about the focus and small things that I kind of lose track of. And I know that. But in order for the Rockets to get where they need to go, I have to be better.”
The improved defensive effort didn’t go unnoticed, both by Team USA staff as well as his teammates and coaches in Houston.
“I was very happy for him,” Howard said. “Before he left, we talked a lot about the season. I really tried to do whatever I could to build his confidence up. A lot of people were saying things about his play, and I know he was down on himself.
“But I believe in James. I’m going to stand by him, and I think he’s going to have his greatest season to date. I was very happy with the way he played this summer. He played great defense. After seeing that, I was like ‘Man, I can’t wait for us to get started.’”
Harden wasn’t the MVP of the World Cup. That honor went to Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving after a scintillating shooting performance in the gold medal game. But Harden was Team USA’s rock. One of only two holdovers from the 2012 Olympic group (the other being Anthony Davis), Harden led the squad in scoring, steals and free throws, and ranked second in assists and 3-point percentage.
Moreover, as games got bigger and competition stiffened, Harden rose to the occasion. He shot a combined 14-of-22 (.636) in the semifinals against Lithuania and the final vs. Serbia, averaging nearly 20 points per game in the process. Teammates and staffers raved about his leadership, too.
“He played really well,” said McHale. “After Durant left, I thought that team for its expectation level kind of overachieved. James did a great job of leading them and working hard.
“And that’s the thing about him. James is not afraid to work. He’s not afraid of challenges. He’s a good, hard-working kid. I think the [international] experience this summer helped him a lot.”
Now comes the hard part: transferring all that effort to an 82-game NBA regular season – and what Harden and the Rockets hope is followed by multiple postseason series.
“The good thing is that it’s not us having to push him, it’s where James wants to go himself,” said general manager Daryl Morey. “We don’t have to bring it up. He’s the one talking about where he needs to go to make the next step. He wants to continue to improve and become a great player.”
But no longer is it a two-week sprint with the eyes of the world watching and Coach K and Coach Thibs lurking over Harden’s shoulder. It’s back to the grind of a marathon NBA schedule and seeing whether the corner has truly been turned.
“It’s a long, long, long season, and there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs,” said McHale. “His job is to be a better basketball player next April than he is today.
“Defense comes down to a trust factor. You can’t always rely on the built-in help,” McHale noted, alluding to the presence of Howard as a rim protector. “Your object as a defender is not to use that help all the time. You can’t get beat on average moves and average stuff. You have to make guys work hard to beat you. These are simple things, and he understands what it is.
“It takes a huge amount of trust to be a championship team, and that trust comes from doing it night after night.”
On the surface, those might seem lofty expectations for someone who ranked as one of the NBA’s worst defensive players only a few months ago, and also for a team that exited from the postseason after just one round.
But after Oklahoma City lost in the 2010 first round to the Lakers, Harden had a front-row seat to watch Durant’s evolution. After leading Team USA to gold in September 2010, Durant returned to those same Thunder just weeks later and ultimately led a comparable supporting cast to the 2011 Western Conference finals and the 2012 NBA Finals.
Harden believes the pieces are in place for a similar breakthrough in Houston. Perhaps more importantly, he’s putting the pressure squarely on himself to lift the Rockets to those heights.
“For us in Spain, there was one goal – to win a gold medal,” Harden said. “That was it. It was about going out there, playing hard and competing at all times.
“So now I’ve got to bring that mindset back here to Houston. If we take that same approach toward winning an NBA championship, it can be done.”
Ben DuBose is a veteran sports reporter who has followed the Houston Rockets and the NBA since Hakeem Olajuwon was Akeem Olajuwon. He writes for SheridanHoops and ClutchFans, an independent Rockets blog. You can follow him on Twitter.