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The Los Angeles Clippers have had one of the best offseasons of any NBA team, but Bill Simmons has a James Harden-sized problem with the Clippers.
Although the Clippers have been widely praised for their signings of Bradley Beal, Chris Paul and Brook Lopez, the acquisition of John Collins, and the re-signings of Nicolas Batum and Harden, some, including longtime season ticket holder Simmons, can't convince themselves of anything too lofty in 2025-26 with Harden still on the roster.
“We could talk about, they’re better, they’re deeper. They’re still a team built around James Harden,” Simmons said on the ‘Bill Simmons Podcast'. “And I don’t know if you’re a Clippers fan, if you work for the Clippers, you coach the Clippers, if you’re the GM of the Clippers, if you own the Clippers — I don’t know how you fall asleep at night feeling great about that, after what happened in Game 7 and what’s happened over the course of his entire career. I actually went back and watched because I was like, ‘I feel like that was so bad, maybe enough time has passed that I’m misremembering something and maybe it wasn’t that bad.' It was that bad; he was so bad.”
For as great a player as Harden has been throughout his career, he has been consistently criticized for his performances in the biggest moments, particularly in the postseason. And this past playoffs served as another black mark on Harden's career.
In Game 7 of the Clippers' first-round series vs. the Denver Nuggets, Harden, although he had 13 assists, scored a series-low 7 points and took eight shots, his fewest in any of the seven games. In addition to eight field-goal attempts, Harden had just a pair of free-throw attempts, which marked the first time since 2022 that Harden had 10 or fewer combined field-goal and free-throw attempts in a playoff game. The last time that happened was Game 6 of an Eastern Conference second-round series vs. the Miami Heat, during which Harden had 11 points, nine shots, and zero trips to the line.
While the Clippers are surely aware of his consistent shortcomings in the playoffs, it appears L.A. is hopeful that its additions can help overcome that. Beal, in particular, could prove to be a major signing, considering he learned how to be a tertiary option with the Phoenix Suns and exceeded 30 points per game in back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Beal agreed to a buyout with the Suns earlier this offseason and recently officially signed a two-year, $11 million deal.
