Luka Doncic is a top MVP favorite next season after finishing third last year. Is this the start of Doncic’s James Harden-style run? In Houston, Harden was an MVP contender for years. Meanwhile, fans and writers alike have been opining on the similarities between the two oversized guards for quite some time now. This upcoming season could be the one that makes their legacies closer or further apart than ever.
A Make-Or-Break Year For Harden-Doncic Legacy Comps
The Legacies As They Stand
At first glance, it seems blatantly ridiculous to be discussing a legacy this early in Doncic’s career. But in just six seasons in the NBA, he has already accumulated five First-Team All-NBA spots and multiple deep postseason runs. His still-nascent career already bears striking similarities to Harden’s impressive prime. But of course, it was only a year ago, with the Philadelphia 76ers, that Harden was leading the league in assists and single-handedly carrying his team to wins in the second round. If it hadn’t been for a sadly unsurprising Kawhi Leonard injury and a matchup against Doncic himself, Harden may have progressed further in the most recent playoffs. Harden may not be at his absolute physical peak anymore, but his legacy is far from entirely cemented.
How Doncic and Harden’s Legacies Could Be Closer Still
Still, all Doncic could do at this point would be to follow the roadmap. The path on that map for Doncic in the 2024-25 season would be to be a top-two MVP candidate before falling short of his ultimate goal once more in the playoffs. Of course, he’d still be well shy of Harden’s four top-two finishes (2015, 2017, winning in 2018, and 2019). That’s partly because last year Doncic actually finished third behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and third-time winner Nikola Jokic.
And as far as falling short in the playoffs is concerned, something short of another conference final would be ideal for the sake of the comparison. Harden took his Houston teams to two conference finals, both against Stephen Curry‘s Golden State Warriors. 2015 and, more memorably, 2018. Doncic made one Conference Finals in 2022 and then blew past that in last year’s playoffs to make the Finals. Harden of course made a finals himself once as well, but that was as a young sixth man/third star for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Generally, where or when the player falls short doesn’t matter that much, though. Harden may go down as the best player ever not to win a ring. That would be the crux of his legacy. The best peak not to include a championship is an intriguing conversation that features him as well. But the media will be ready to pile onto Doncic if he can’t match his finals run. If Doncic were to get MVP buzz this year and then stumble in the second round, for instance, then that would really fluff the comparison up nicely.
Or Further Apart
If Doncic wins a title as the Harden-style focal point of his team, then it would essentially confirm him as the finished product of Harden’s prototype build. However, that isn’t to say that such a mercantile analysis is a remotely fair one. Harden did essentially prove he was good enough to lead a team to a title in 2018 when his Rockets fell just short in a historically bizarre Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors.
Dedicated Harden detractors will say that Mike D’Antoni’s Houston offense at the time was a gimmick. That Houston GM Daryl Morey had constructed the perfect team to counter Golden State’s super-team. That Harden hadn’t been able to get across the finish line when it mattered.
But Doncic has his fair share of detractors at this point as well. Whether they be jealous Atlanta Hawks fans, spiteful Phoenix Suns fans, or hungry Oklahoma City Thunder fans, eager for their own star, Gilgeous-Alexander, to be considered the better player. Then there are even those just generally opposed to the idea of players constantly griping at officials. Careful though, because that’s what all the others will pretend to be as well.
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Basketball Holder
There is also a perfectly legitimate aesthetic appreciation of basketball that quite simply holds Harden and Doncic’s shared style in fundamentally low regard. Of course, both players have been responsible for their share of incredible highlights. Both are sensational passers, though Doncic may have the edge in flare. If step-back threes are your thing, then naturally look no further. Even Stephen Curry, the undisputed greatest shooter of all time, doesn’t step back with the kind of audacity that these two do.
But some basketball fans are simply more inclined towards equal opportunity offenses. Everybody touches it. Everybody contributes. The style that Doncic and Harden’s skill sets and preferences align them with is often referred to as heliocentric. That is, as a singular entity around which the rest of the team merely orbits as satellites.
Of course, Harden and Doncic have had their most success with highly charismatic satellites. Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving are not exactly conventional astronomical bodies. Those tend to be round. But even with such superstar guard accompaniments, Harden and Doncic have dominated the ball like few others.
The Last Word
Harden is still an elite player in the NBA. His legacy will always be disparaged by fans of different ilks. Those who saw him as a rule-bender. Those who count rings as the only demarcation of a player’s dominance. The fact is that he is an all-time great, and Doncic remains on the trajectory to be one too. But 2024–25 will be a make-or-break year for the comparisons between them.
