As if Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden needed more bad news on a day that he was diagnosed with a fractured thumb, Harden is now being dragged into Luka Doncic slander.
During a new episode of The Zach Lowe Show, The Ringer's Michael Pina was describing Luka's pathetic defense when he suddenly compared Doncic to Houston Rockets era Harden.
James Harden comes up in discussion of Luka Doncic's defense
"Once a week, there would be a meme where he would just glitch out on defense," Pina said of Harden.
Lowe chimed in and added insult to injury by suggesting that Harden still does this now.
In Harden's defense, the Cavaliers didn't trade him for defense, nor has his mediocre value on that end prevented Cleveland from going 6-1 with Harden in its lineup so far.
Moreover, it's obvious that Harden has had a profoundly positive impact on Cleveland's offense already, whether you're looking at Jarrett Allen's increased production or other statistical evidence.
It's also a little unfair to compare any version of Harden to the current version of Doncic, mostly because Luka has other issues, like constantly whining to the officials, that make his defensive reliability even more fragile.
Harden's "poor" defense isn't a relevant narrative right now for the Cavaliers because they actually improved their defense at the position by turning Darius Garland, who was essentially a 6-foot-1 cone on defense, into the 6-foot-5 Harden.
Harden isn't going to look like prime Marcus Smart out there for the Cavs, but at least he's a big body for a guard, and he won't get bullied in the way that Garland did, particularly in the playoffs.
Speaking of getting targeted, that's a huge issue for Luka and the Los Angeles Lakers, who also have Austin Reaves to worry about in that regard.
Both of these offensive stars can turn into liabilities on the other end, and while Harden has his moments of defensive absent-mindedness (as joked about by Pina and Lowe), he's far from a complete zero defensively when it comes time to lock in for a possession or two.
Ultimately, Harden and Luka are going to find each other in comparative discussions for the rest of time, but that's due to their similar, heliocentric style of offense that almost no one besides them can pull off.
It's a mistake to also group Luka and Harden together as identical defenders and assume that all of Doncic's flaws on that end are also Harden's.