J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez are teaming up this season for a look at the NBA from two perspectives, called West Side/East Side.

J.A. is in L.A., a la the West Side. And Israel is down in Miami, home of the NBA champs, representing the East Side.

Enjoy.

Let's start with this, because apparently James Harden has a massive following with a bit of a mean streak now that he's been deemed replaceable on a championship-level roster:

Harden is a very good, All-Star level player who's young enough to improve.

He's not elite in the athleticism department, but he makes up for it with craftiness -- his old-man game matches his older-man beard -- and an ability to play the pick-and-roll to near perfection.

He's an above-average shooter with the potential of being an 80-50-40 guy (he was pretty close last season with his .846 free throw percentage, .491 field goal and .390 3-point field goal), he's got the Euro-step down to a tee, defensively he has the potential to guard two-guards and small forwards at an above-average effectiveness, and he's got the lefty thing going for him.

Now that all the flattery is out of the way, here's the bigger picture: His move from Oklahoma City to Houston won't change much at all in this year's Western Conference landscape. And frankly, it won't elevate the Rockets that much in the long term, either.

Before you Harden enthusiasts get your beards (real or fake) all tied up in knots, ask yourselves this question: Is James Harden a franchise player you can build an elite team around?

If your answer is yes, this might take a while.

Because what you have in Harden is a smart player, an excellent complementary piece on a championship team, but still a player with a ceiling just low enough to make him effectively a second-tier player in a league where only the top tier truly have the ability to elevate a franchise.

This has nothing to do with Harden's Finals last season being a near-complete disaster, or him continuing that pattern this preseason. Because all you have to do is look back at his conference finals against the then-dominant Spurs and you'll see a player who even exceeded his regular-season numbers.

But that was on a team with Kevin Durant, arguably this generation's second-best scorer behind Kobe Bryant, and Russell Westbrook.

If you take Harden and place him on a team where (a) he's playing another 8-10 minutes a game and (b) make him the primary option almost the entire time he's on the floor, you'll see more of a player who doesn't have the ability to maintain that level of efficiency.

You even saw it in last year's playoffs. Against teams with lesser individual defenders on the wings, the Mavericks and Spurs, he shot 50 and 49 percent, respectively, from the floor.

Against teams with better defenders at his positions, the Lakers and Heat, Harden shot 36 and 38 percent, respectively.

There are those who use the Manu Ginobili comparison when making the case for Harden as a great, not just good, player. That's beyond fair.

They're both lefty, crafty, just athletic enough, good passers (though Ginobili's a notch ahead in that category) and both effective as pick-and-rolls players or spot shooters.