A familiar chorus may be playing once again for James Harden.
The LA Clippers star Harden is not in great shape heading into the new NBA season, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported this week on “The Hoop Collective.” Windhorst quoted anonymous league scouts, who said that Harden has been in better shape heading into seasons past.
“James Harden is actually not even in that great of shape,” Windhorst said, per Dallas Hoops Journal. “That’s one of the things that the scouts have said is that Harden has been in better shape at this point.”
Harden, who is officially listed at 220 pounds, is about to enter his 17th NBA season at 36 years old. Over the summer, he agreed to a new contract with the Clippers for $39.1 million this season along with a $42.3 million player option for 2026-27. That means that Harden still has some financial incentive to perform well this year if he wants to gun for a bigger payday next offseason.
There probably is not much reason to worry about Harden, who appeared in 79 games for the Clippers last season (his most since 2016-17) and was an All-Star and an All-NBA selection with 22.8 points and 8.7 assists per game. Harden also played in three preseason games for the Clippers this month before sitting out the finale on Friday.
But Harden does have a well-documented history of conditioning issues. While his game is based more around creativity, shiftiness, and outside shooting rather than athleticism, Harden has been criticized at some of his previous NBA stops for being out of shape.
