[Huffington Post] James Harden's Glaring Defensive Problem Is Way Worse Than You Thought

If your best player refuses to improve the flaws in his game, you can rearrange the deck chairs around him as much as you want, and it won't ultimately matter.

 

How Howard "predictably a colossal disappointment"?

 

True. But, Harden has improved (at least offensively) every year except this year. So there has been a trajectory. The question is, is this year the outlier or is this year going to be the new norm. I don't know, but I wouldn't make any rash moves to trade away Harden or dismiss him quite yet. That's just me.

 

This year should have an asterisk

*When Frauden spoke about being the real MVP and got a fat pay check

 

It depends what you use stats for. If you are trying to disprove something factual then they are invaluable and can't really be disputed.

If you are trying to prove something subjective like who's better than who, then of course they aren't as effective.

If you haven't noticed, my pet peeve, is when people quote something as a fact when it isn't. It happens all the time and gets repeated by other posters who also reference it as fact. Those situations are perfect uses for stats.

When people complain about Harden passing the ball with a couple of seconds left on the shot clock, it's extremely easy to prove that doesn't happen very often by using stats. That's a great use of stats because it's a factual point that is in dispute and the league happens to track those things so it's indisputable.

Likewise, when people claim that we end up taking a large number of contested 3's, its really easy to disprove that with stats. Again, because it's a factual argument.

When you get into trying to figure out what's wrong with the Rockets, no stat is going to provide your answer because it isn't that simple. There's multiple things wrong. Posters don't know the real answer so they make assumptions about what is actually happening and why it's happening.

Poster just make assumptions with nothing to back it up. How many times have we heard the "Harden didn't work on his game at all in the offseason" line? What's this based on? It's based on an assumption that if Harden isn't playing as well then obviously he didn't work in the offseason. I understand the logic, but maybe opposing defenses have something to do with it? I understand that it's easier to just make and assumption rather than trying to understand how we are being defended differently this season.

DD you do exactly the same thing. In the last day you posted that Harden hardly ever shoots at the end of quarters this year. Guess what? You couldn't be more wrong and all you have to do is take 2 minutes to look it up before you make an erroneous statement like that but you don't.

Here's a rule of thumb about stats: You can't always prove something with stats but most times it's quite simple to disprove something with stats.

If you want to argue a point then make your case and provide something to backup your points. I may not agree with your point but I'll at least respect your argument. HeyPartner is a perfect example, we've disagreed about quite a few things over the years but in all of those cases I still respected the fact that he presents his points and backs them up with facts.

Posters who continually repeat things with no basis in fact don't provide anything usefull to a discussion. It's even worse than that because other posters take those statements as fact and repeat them.

Obviously, that rant was directed a larger audience than just you.

 

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This season I have always felt Harden is aware of this & has to be doing it on purpose!

Every game I watch, my gut feeling about this gets progressively stronger.

- He knows his stature in the NBA & knows not playing D won't hurt his future.
- My belief is that he is hoping the Rox become willing to move him.
- Didn't Stephen A. Smith mention KD & Harden will unite in LA?

Who knows what the truth is behind all of this?
All we need to know is Harden is conscientiously making a choice to play the way he is this season.

It's that or - he is under a real curse of depression, and is going down a dark path..
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Nothing new or original here, but credit to the writer for getting a shot in at Dwight for no apparent reason.

 

Huffington post?

 

You lack understanding of defense and how it relates to a team's best player.

Not giving up on Harden yet.

If a Tibbs-like coach can't check him, trade him.

 

Schultz and Cuban seem to be close (which Mark is with many journalists). Here's a sample of his "reporting" on Dwight's FA situation:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/nba-free-agency-2013_n_3536984.html

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Forget that Dwight Howard met w/Rockets first. Great source confirms Dwight Howard is likely to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.</p>&mdash; Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/351794296732663809">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After Dwight spurned Cuban/Dallas and his "report", he's been on the attack ever since with all sorts of nonsense -- such as his bizarre rant last May about Howard's "body language":

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dwight Howard is so selfish it's just unreal</p>&mdash; Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/603027359340621824">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dwight Howard should be ashamed of himself. Sickening. He should sicken any hoops fan. Honestly just awful.</p>&mdash; Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/603767298139279360">May 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dwight Howard Is FINISHED Masquerading As A Superstar: <a href="http://t.co/6QcgpW6aRS">http://t.co/6QcgpW6aRS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RocketsvWarriors?src=hash">#RocketsvWarriors</a></p>&mdash; Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/603970340927188992">May 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Months before the Harden deal, here's Schultz claiming the league is "laughing at" Daryl Morey:
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/07/06/league-laughing-at-morey/

I'm not saying the latest column is 100% wrong, but Schultz is an agenda-driven clown with an ax to grind against many in Houston, and that needs to be kept in mind. The unnecessary swipe at Dwight is par for the course.

 

LOL, nice find Cat!

 

This entire post should be stickied on the front page of Clutchfans. Well done Aelliott.

 

Post should be made into its own thread and stickied at the top of the GARM for the rest of this sites existence.

 

I appreciate the digging and insight.

We have a show in Australia called 'Media Watch' which basically calls out media for reporting news that hasn't been fact-checked, allegiances between journalists and political figures etc.

What I wouldn't give for a website dedicated to covering NBA journalists and their numerous agendas.

 

Agree. By the way, I updated my original post to include Schultz's bizarre rants against Dwight Howard during the Golden State series (when he played very well, actually). This guy isn't exactly a neutral source when it comes to the Houston Rockets.

 

Flawless

 

I'm not saying to trade him. I'm saying it's time for the organization to stop treating him with kid gloves and trying to make every other player fit around his flaws. He either becomes a passable defender and a leader going forward, or he gets shipped out for a true two-way player.

 

GOAT post

 

"Harden has hovered around a -2.5 defensive box plus/minus this year, one of the worst clips in the league for shooting guards."

For those wondering, it's -0.7 and never been close to -2.5, if you want a player close to -2.5, that'd be klay thompson

Honestly, his defensive issues mainly come down to his horrible lateral quickness, any quick player on him, i'm not sure he can keep them in front of him, and he couldn't navigate a screen to save his life. His focus issues are nowhere near as bad as they were 2 years ago, perhaps if our defensive system worked on early traps up around the free throw line, rather than late help by dwight, it'd help. Given that Ariza seems to be ageing, probably moreso, the problem there is you need interior defenders who understand angles, which we don't have.