James Harden is not often accused of being the most athletic player in the NBA. The sport scientists at the P3 Applied Sports Science group in Santa Barbara, California, are here to tell you, however, that in some very specific ways, Harden is an elite NBA athlete.

Andrew Wiggins is commonly understood to pass every test of athleticism you could throw at an NBA player. The P3 group isn't about to refute that sentiment. But they will tell you Wiggins may be the most athletic player they've ever tested. What's more, P3's scientists have uncovered the reality that in some very specific ways, Harden and Wiggins are similarly unique, and their distinct movement skills have manifested themselves within their effective -- though different -- styles of play.

Dr. Marcus Elliott, a Harvard-trained physician, founded P3 to bring a science-driven approach to elite athletic performance. The P3 group collects literally thousands of data points on each athlete that walks through its doors -- a population that includes more than 300 athletes with NBA experience.

When Harden, Wiggins, or any other athlete goes to P3 for testing, they are wired up as if they were models for the latest version of NBA2K, while cameras capture their motion and metal force plates measure the impact of each movement. Instead of creating the next best video game, the goal is simply to quantify aspects of athleticism that, to this point, have remained largely qualitative. After assessing an athlete, P3 uses those thousands of data points to create a profile of the athlete based on their individual strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the hundreds of NBA athletes in the database.

The deeper tests of athleticism have provided athletes -- and the teams that might employ them -- with a much deeper understanding of what their physical skills and limitations are, and how those skills translate to their on-court performance.

In Harden's case, his athletic profile is very similar to the average NBA guard assessed. Looking at high-level performance metrics, he is generally right in the middle of the pack. Still, despite lacking obvious, elite athletic qualities, Harden has made a career out of keeping the defense off-balance -- creating space when it suits him and drawing the defender into a foul when the opportunity presents itself.

"He has astoundingly consistent spikes in metrics associated with a single characteristic -- braking," Elliott says of Harden. "He has the best all-around NBA braking system we've ever measured."

Simply put, Harden exhibits an almost unparalleled ability to quickly slam on the brakes. When having athletes complete the Standing Vertical leap -- an NBA and NFL combine staple -- P3 measures not just the height that the athletes can leap, but the force they generate at different phases of the jump. As Harden prepares to jump, he creates more force than all but 2 percent of NBA athletes in P3's database. According to P3, an athlete's ability to generate force during this phase of the jump is at least part of what gives Harden an elite ability to stop and change direction.

On the court, Harden has learned to utilize this elite skill to his extreme advantage. In a sense, despite lacking superior top-end speed, his first-class ability to apply the brakes becomes its own physical advantage with the ball in his hands. When driving to the basket, Harden can change the path of his attack like no one else. When he stops and changes direction, he is already several beats ahead of his defender who either has to let Harden blow by on his way to the basket, or foul him. Harden's mastery of this athletic ability has put him in the position to lead the league in trips to the foul line.

In several ways, Wiggins is Harden's athletic mirror -- a high-level athlete in P3's traditional and more sophisticated measures. While Harden can decelerate impressively, Wiggins exhibits a rare ability to accelerate. During a set of prescribed movements, Wiggins demonstrated an elite ability to explode out of a jump. In fact, his measurement in the Standing Vertical Leap related to this type of explosiveness is the best P3 has ever measured in an NBA player.

Andrew Wiggins' exploits in the Standing Vertical Leap help demonstrate his otherworldly athleticism. Courtesy of P3 Applied Sports Science

On the court this skill has similar implications to Harden's stopping ability. Offensively, his explosiveness allows him to seek the easiest shot available -- whether that involves a drive to the basket or raising up for an uncontested jumper (or another SC Top 10 play).

Defensively, Wiggins' unique athleticism allows him to more easily catch up to a ball handler or move quickly into 'help' position -- making life tough on the opposition regardless of who he's guarding. Though Wiggins is still learning how to maximize the value of his athletic gifts on the court, his athletic abilities provide him time to learn to be as crafty as a player like Harden. If he puts both pieces of the puzzle together, look out.

Although there's been much noise about the use of technology and biometrics as it relates to injuries, P3's sports and data scientists are showing that technology and data can also help us better understand what makes athletes excel or struggle in very specific areas or actions on the court. This granular assessment of performance systems allows us to start unlocking the hidden code that underlies all competitive sports.

"We have found," says Elliott, "that in the rare case that a professional athlete has any one physical performance metric that is substantially better than those of the other genetic lottery winners they play against in pro sports, they nearly always find a way to exploit it on the court or field."