While he's one of the most efficient players in the league on the offensive end of the court, he consistently loses his man, gets beat off the dribble, and generally destroys his team on the defensive end.
It's an issue for a Rockets team that has a championship-caliber offense (4th in the league) but an average defense (13th in the league). On Sunday night they gave up 122 points in an overtime loss to the Trail Blazers.
Last week an 11-minute long compilation of Harden's defensive exploits, entitled "James Harden, Defensive Juggernaut," started getting passed around. It's a lowlight reel of Harden basically not trying on defense.
We pulled out some representative GIFs.
1. James Harden falls for pump fake:
2. James Harden gets beat baseline:
3. James Harden loses his man backdoor, part one:
4. James Harden loses his man backdoor, part two:
5. James Harden goes for a steal, fails:
6. James Harden does not stop the ball:
Here is 11 minutes of it: