Harden was very well full of midrange and variety when McHale was here. MDA is the one that enabled Harden to have it programmed out of him.
Ultimately, nothing really changed since 2017 in that our team is not very smart, and it starts with Pringles but neither Harden (nor now RW) should be absolved. We were legit when CP3 came in bc he was pretty much the player coach with a higher IQ than most.. but he was a glass canon who couldn't stay healthy.
Russ is somewhat more durable but IQ-wise he doesn't force switches to mismatches like the bald cac, he instead forces switches to have AD or Bron guard him, then settles for one legged fadeaway bank shots over them. He just brings the iq down and we were lacking there to begin with.