From a linked article below, "In playground parlance, he’s a ball hog, with the coach’s blessing. The Rockets took an average of 87.4 shots per game this season; Harden accounted for 24.5 of them and that was while playing only three quarters of a game on an average night. He took 1,909 shots during the regular season — 225 more than his nearest rival.

Earlier this month, Don MacLean, the TV commentator for the Clippers, finally had enough of watching the Bearded One. "This style, what Harden does, is manipulating the game somehow,” he began. “Almost like cheating it somehow. And I don’t really have a thought beyond that other than I’m watching something that isn’t basketball. To me, basketball is player movement, ball movement, designed plays. Not just a guy walking it up and isolating every time ... who else could do this? It’s not like that within the system, he’s getting all these numbers. The system is built for him.”

It is revealing that 87 percent of Harden’s field goals were unassisted — the highest in the league except for Harden’s teammate, Chris Paul. Most teams stress passing and minimal dribbling; not the Rockets.

There’s a statistic called defensive rating, which quantifies a player’s performance on the other end of the court. He ranked 385th this season.