James Harden blames heavy workload for his defensive lapses

Houston Rockets superstar James Harden isn't thrilled about his burgeoning workload, which he claims it is affecting his ability to defend.

Harden, who leads the league in minutes per game at 39.7, told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle that he hopes to see that figure come down.

"Nobody's playing 40 minutes," Harden said. "Obviously, those minutes are going to have to be cut down."

And as Harden pointed out later on the morning scrum, the workload is affecting his defense.

"Playing those amount of minutes, you're going to have some mishaps, you're going to have some mistakes. I try not to worry about them, I try to just give it my all on both ends of the floor and live with the results," Harden added.

Playing heavy minutes has been the norm for Harden since joining the Rockets in 2012. He led the league in total minutes played last season and has averaged 37.8 minutes per game across parts of four seasons in Houston.

Also the norm for Harden since he joined Houston: defensive negligence.

To his credit, Harden has remained remarkably durable in his career (never missing more than nine games in any season), while carrying a substantial portion of the offense.

But that's hardly an excuse for his lackadaisical defense. It's one thing to be a bad defender due to a lack of quickness or a lack of size, but Harden isn't lacking in any of those areas.

It's also not as if Harden is the only superstar who has to carry an offense. Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyle Lowry, and Paul George all profile as two-way players who log over 35 minutes per game.

The Rockets, however, don't have many options at their disposal. They're forced to play Harden extended minutes because they have scored just 85.9 points per 100 possessions with Harden off the court, as compared to 103.3 when he plays.

Granted, he gives a significant portion of that back on defense, but the Rockets' offense has yet to find a consistent source of offense for the brief spells when Harden sits - which is why he's logging heavy minutes.

Houston's offseason acquisition of Ty Lawson was supposed to spell Harden and bring some balance to the offense, but Lawson's play has inexplicably fallen off tremendously this season to the point of being unplayable.

Therefore, despite his advocacy to the contrary, Harden will likely continue to log heavy minutes (and continue his poor defense) for the reeling Rockets, who sit at 7-11 despite finishing with the second seed in the West last season.