James Harden and Doc Rivers added to their histories of playoff failures during their time together with the Philadelphia 76ers. As Rivers moves on from the Sixers after being fired, Harden is deciding whether or not he wants to stay with Philly.

Rivers believes that Harden is a very talented player and pushed against the narrative that Harden quits in the postseason. But he also said that the two did not see eye-to-eye often enough to work well together. The former Sixers coach said on the Bill Simmons Podcast (at the 1:01:17 mark) that it was “challenging” to coach him because their basketball philosophies were so different.

“It was challenging,” Rivers said. “More because we were fighting two things — and not like visually fighting. It's that James is so good at playing one way and the way I believe you have to play to win, in some ways, is different because it’s a lot of giving up the ball, moving the ball and coming back to the ball. I would’ve loved to have him younger, when that was easier for him, because giving up the ball and coming back to it is hard. It’s physical and it’s exhausting.”

Harden has been one of the most prolific offensive engines in basketball for roughly a decade, even as he slows down physically, but the one major knock on him has been that he is not an off-ball threat. Zipping around screens like Stephen Curry or Jamal Murray has never been a consistent feature of his game.

The closest Harden has come to being an off-ball threat was becoming more of a catch-and-shoot player, which he did in his first full season with the Sixers. He took 1.8 catch-and-shot threes per game last season and 7.2 total threes, meaning 25 percent of his three-point attempts were off the catch. Not since the 2016-17 season has he made off-the-catch threes such a big portion of his overall threes.

Spot-up shooting is a helpful skill for Harden as his athleticism declines. Rivers noted that the veteran star is on the typical trajectory where finishing shots inside is tougher because the springiness in his legs is not the same. He said that Harden taking on more of a scoring role changed the Sixers for the worse.

“I thought the first half of the year we were the best team in the game,” Rivers said. “I thought James was playing perfect basketball — he was a point guard of the team, he was still scoring — but he was doing more playmaking and scoring. And then the second half he started scoring more and I thought we got more stagnant at times. I thought we changed.”

Circling back to Curry, Rivers used the superstar as a point to illustrate how great players have changed their games to better suit the playoffs. The Golden State Warriors using Curry more off the ball helped unlock a dynasty. The same was true for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who rode the triangle offense to six championships. Even though letting stars cook works well in crunch time, Rivers indicated, ball movement and player movement is essential.

“It was the movement and the inability to find where you could trap him that made it so hard,” Rivers said of Jordan. “I think that's James’ kryptonite right now. But I don’t believe the whole thing that he quits and all that stuff. I just think teams make him struggle because they know where [he’s] at and how it’s easier to find him.”

Rivers may not be with Harden to give him inspirational gospel music anymore. But the star guard should recognize his coach's point of view and be better at playing a more holistic style of basketball. As he gets further removed from his prime years, it's clear that he can’t keep playing exactly like that anymore.