Clippers Continue to Ask Too Much of James Harden

The Clippers are heavily relying on James Harden with Kawhi Leonard sidelined.

LA Clippers guard James Harden (1) against the Dallas Mavericks in an NBA Cup game at the American Airlines Center. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden made his eighth All-NBA team last season. In Year 16, the former league MVP averaged 22.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 8.7 assists in 79 games. Those numbers are up across the board this season, but so are his minutes.

Despite sitting the entire fourth quarter, Harden logged 31 minutes in a loss to the Orlando Magic on Thursday, tallying a game-high 31 points. Harden is now averaging 35.8 minutes per game — slightly up from the 35.3 he averaged a year ago. With Kawhi Leonard limited to just 37 games last season, the Clippers asked a lot of a 35-year-old Harden. Which is why before this season began, both Ty Lue and Lawrence Frank emphasized the need to manage his workload.

When the Clippers were nearing an agreement to sign Chris Paul in July, Frank told reporters the team had a responsibility to take care of Harden. He said that was one reason why they chose ball-handling as the primary focus for their final roster spot. Just a few months later, Lue told reporters the same thing during training camp.

“We don't want that,” Lue said when asked about Harden’s usage last season. “We don't want that. I think we had to, but he just had to do too much for us to be successful to try to win games, to try to stay afloat while Kawhi was out. So we don't want James to have to do that all year.”

Lue said something similar before last season.

Ty Lue says the Clippers are placing an emphasis on not running James Harden into the ground this season, even with Kawhi Leonard out.

Lue: “We gotta be smart about it… Just making sure we don’t run him into the ground… He thinks he can play 48, but we’re not gonna do that.” pic.twitter.com/nzvOrp640g

— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) October 18, 2024

When asked about this again prior to a Nov. 10 game against the Atlanta Hawks, which was two days after Harden logged 41 minutes while battling an illness, Lue gave a familiar answer: “As much as James wants to compete and play, it’s my job to be responsible and make sure he doesn’t play too many minutes.”

Harden played 39 minutes that night, tallying 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 105-102 loss. Two games later, he logged a career-high 51 minutes in an overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks — LA’s only victory since Halloween.

James Harden Refuses to Complain About Heavy Workload

As Lue has also continued to state, Harden wants to play. Lue often describes the dynamic as “saving James from himself” when it comes to managing the 36-year-old’s minutes. Harden displayed no concern about his workload when I asked him about it last week.

“I’m just getting into great basketball shape,” he said. “I feel really good. Getting younger.”

Always the last player working out after practice, often for an hour or more, Harden is undoubtedly one of the NBA’s best-conditioned stars. But there’s a reason both Lue and Frank were adamant before the season that the Clippers need to do a better job of managing his workload. 

More post-practice work from James Harden today pic.twitter.com/hcnbXGSze0

— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) October 6, 2025

Since the start of last season, only Mikal Bridges and Devin Booker have played more than Harden’s 3,290 minutes. Both players are 29 years old. Of the 18 players who have played at least 3,000 minutes since last season began, only Harden and DeMar DeRozan are above the age of 31.

It seems the Clippers’ decision makers all agree that asking this much of Harden is both unfair and unsustainable. But they also face the exact same problem they did for much of last year, which is needing Harden on the floor. 

Entering Thursday, the Clippers were 5.6 points per 100 possessions better with Harden on the floor. This is an even bigger swing than last season, when the team was 4.0 points per 100 possessions better in his minutes.

The plan coming into the season was for this not to be the case. LA acquired Bradley Beal and Chris Paul in the offseason for additional ball-handling duties and to buy Harden more time on the bench. But after just six games, Beal was ruled out for the season with a hip fracture. As for Paul, he has been a healthy scratch in five games already, and has averaged just 13.7 minutes per game in his 10 appearances. His -12.8 on/off swing was the worst on the team entering Thursday.

While the Beal and Paul additions have been unfruitful, the biggest obstacle for the Clippers’ goal of Harden preservation has again been the limited availability of Kawhi Leonard. After spraining his foot and ankle on Nov. 3, Leonard has missed nine straight games. He did travel with the Clippers on their seven-game road trip that ends Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers, but he has yet to fully practice, meaning a return before then is very much TBD.

The Clippers built their offseason vision largely around the idea that Leonard would be healthy and unlimited from day one, and their offseason additions would help ease the burden on Harden. None of that has played out as planned, which has left the team in a nearly identical position to a year ago — needing Harden on the floor to be competitive, but asking way too much of a 36-year-old in his 17th season.