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2025 Clippers Exit Interviews: James Harden
Our exit interview series on the 2025 Clippers continues with the team’s starting point guard and chief playmaker, James Harden.
Basic Information
Height: 6’6
Weight: 220 pounds
Position: Point Guard
Age: 35
Years in NBA: 16
Key Regular Season Stats: 22.7 points, 8.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 0.7 blocks, and 4.3 turnovers in 35.3 minutes per game across 79 games played (all starts) on 41.0/35.2/87.4 (8.5 3PA, 7.3 FTA attempts) shooting splits (58.2 True Shooting)
Postseason Stats: 18.7 points, 9.1 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.0 blocks, and 3.0 turnovers in 39.4 minutes per game across seven games played (all starts) on 43.6/36.4/81.8 shooting splits (6.3 3PA, 4.7 FTA) shooting splits (56.7 True Shooting)
Expectations
Expectations for Harden entering the 2025 season were complicated. On the court, his role was extremely clear-cut – be the starting point guard, offensive organizer, and lead playmaker. However, with the departure of Paul George and questions swirling around the health and availability of Kawhi Leonard, most people’s expectations for the overall team were quite low – it was widely predicted the Clippers would be a mid-30s or maybe upper-30s win team that would be somewhere in the play-in range but not close to a real force in the Western Conference.
Therefore, even if people expected Harden to be very good, their overall expectations were maybe lower than they would have been otherwise, as the season as a whole was not predicted to amount to much. A common projection was for Harden to start off strong but then fade down the stretch of the season, much as he had in his first year on the team in 2024. In short, while there were clear expectations for Harden, the team’s context and his reasonable salary meant that there was not a ton of pressure on him entering 2025.
Reality
James Harden blew all realistic expectations out of the water this past year. There were disappointing moments. The playoffs could have gone better. There were nights he didn’t have it. But 35-year-old James Harden (he turns 36 in August) showed up every game (he missed just three), carried the Clippers on offense just about the entire year, and was by all accounts the leader in the locker room of a team that just didn’t quit despite being frequently undermanned and undertalented.
There are nits to pick, to be sure. Harden shot his worst two-point field goal percentage (47.2%) since his rookie season, frequently failing to finish at the rim and rimming out far too many seemingly clean midrange looks. His three-point shooting was good, not great. The turnovers, especially at the start of the season, were insanely high and often very frustrating own goals. It was not always pretty, especially on defense.
However, considering age, circumstance, and expectations, it was a massive victory of a season for Harden, who deservedly made the All Star Team and squeaked into the All-NBA Third Team, a tremendous honor. His production in terms of points, assists, and rebounds for a team that severely lacked offensive potency was needed every night – the Clippers usually could not do anything on offense without Harden on the court. He weathered the brunt of opposing defensive schemes game-after-game, soldiering through without Kawhi Leonard for most of the year. The Clippers did most of their winning on the defensive end of the court, it’s true, but without Harden’s offense they would not have sniffed the playoffs.
That’s not to excuse the playoffs. But again, considering overall expectations for Harden (second-best player on a good, not great, team), I think his postseason performance was not all that much worse than baseline, and certainly better than several other key Clippers. He was magnificent in Games 1 and 6, excellent in Game 3, good enough in Game 2, not good enough in Game 4, and dreadful in Games 5 and 7. You’d like more consistency, but the highs were incredible and the lows came in games where the entire team shat the proverbial bed. It’s easy to make fun of Harden, who has a horrible track record in the postseason. And I do think that his tendency to not go down firing is incredibly frustrating. But as always, he took too much heat for a series loss where only two Clippers played to or above expectations. It’s just the reality of James Harden in 2025. And, as the Clippers are not reasonably expected to be a championship-caliber team in the near future, that level of play is ultimately fine. If the Clippers are a competitive playoff team the next two years as they clear cap space and slowly rebuild their draft pick equity, that’s a positive outcome.
Future with Clippers
James has a player option for $36.3M for next season, which is immediately one of the most interesting decisions in the NBA. Harden was good enough this season that he was worth much more than that figure, though at his age there is some decline that has to be factored in. Getting that much money at his age is hard to pass up, but almost of the reporting so far is that Harden will opt out of that deal – but exclusively to re-sign on a longer deal with the Clippers. Harden seems to love playing for the Clippers, and the Clippers seem to love having him. So, what’s the issue?
Well, the Clippers have had their eye on the summer of 2026 (and 2027) to reload their roster in free agency for a long time. That means clearing the books, with as few major salaries on the roster as possible. Kawhi and Ivica Zubac are already signed through those years, as are a couple of the younger guys. Harden on a large deal would make things more complicated. That means a true long-term deal (three years or more) seems very unlikely.
If I had to guess, I think Harden will opt out of his player option and then re-sign to a very similarly structured deal (two-year deal, player or team option on the second year) but just with a salary increase. Maybe instead of a 2/70 deal, it will be 2/85. That keeps Harden in LA, rewards him for his excellent 2025 season, and gives the Clippers flexibility for next summer as well as the summer of 2027.
Regardless, it would be pretty surprising at this point if Harden was not on the Clippers next year. The Clippers’ pick is out the door, so there’s no point in them tanking, and Harden was the most important floor-raiser on the roster this past season. I think we will get at least one more season of Uno in Los Angeles, and that’s probably a good thing for all parties.