The NBA is a star-driven league, but there is a danger of relying too much on your franchise’s best player. Analytics even encourage teams in the modern NBA to steer clear of “hero ball,” a brand of basketball in which players dominate the ball by over-dribbling and/or attempting to score in isolation, or man-to-man, plays. Even the eyeball test shows that crisp ball movement is often the key to having a high-octane scoring unit, with the ability to stifle a team’s passes at the other end a prerequisite for a shutdown defense.

Yet three of the league’s MVP front-runners — James Harden, Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan — rank in the top five for most isolation possessions and most ballhandler possessions in the pick and roll this season, and two — DeRozan and Westbrook — are using more than a third of their team’s possessions.

There have been 16 players in NBA history who have used 35 percent or more of their team’s possessions during the regular season while qualifying for the scoring title. Five players were on teams that failed to make the playoffs. Five more were bounced in the first round. Four lost in the second round. One made the conference finals leaving one other, Allen Iverson in 2000-01, to play in an NBA Finals. None won a championship ring, a trend we aren’t likely to see end any time soon.

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