I'd love to see analytics on this. There's a decent chance that time spent lobbying refs on the way back down the court pays off in higher plus-minus than does getting back that much faster.
this or if all your 4 teammates are getting back faster anyway and another player from the opposing team is not getting back anyway might as well catch a breather and chat with the refs people need to think Harden's bball IQ is off the charts, getting back faster and still being last compared to his team mates wouldn't have won them more than 55 games anyway.. he'd rather save that energy on doing things that actually got them to 55 games..
The person at the rim on the offensive end is usually the last man back since he has the farthest distance to cover.
Which peers? The problem with this is, you don't get to watch his peers as often as you do the beard so you don't see these same players make the same mistake that harden does. If you want to validate your claims, go to other basketball fansite and check out what the fans say about their star players and you'll soon realize that they have same unreasonable complaints.
right now, Harden tops the league in Total Drives (200 more than KD & Klay, 150 more than Curry, 100 more than Lebron, 30 more than WB) , Total Points off Drives, second to Wall in Assists off Drives, and tied with DeRozan on getting fouled off drives and most importantly committing Turnovers off drives at a lower rate than KD, WB, Giannis, Wall, Wiggins, Davis, DeRozan, George, Butler, Klay, Ego that's why a superstar gets paid big bucks and how they lead their team to the best seed in their conference and show they're hardworking and giving their best effort every game in the "Wild West" not by getting back fast in transition or "showing" effort on defense
Harden actually has a positive DRPM this season, it’s been negative every year he’s been in Houston...he’s also leading the league in RPM
Breh, Harden is on fire this year! I got zero problems. I'm just pointing out people who don't read or don't interpret data properly.
harden finishes around the rim, its not like he , outside and runs from 3pt to 3pt line. Some pg play the outside after passing. He more in the paint type guard, so i cant see how anyone can really compare this stat to anything. I know there is times where he has let some things go, but he does have to save most his energy for the end of the game offensively or the rockets could be screwed if its a close game. just saying...
Let me guess... if Harden's stats for speed going back on defense couldn't be skewed to make him last place, they wouldn't have published the data.
People have reading comprehension problems so I’ll just drop this: it’s about speed, not time. So Harden can be closest to the basket and still be great at running speed if he’d try. He will never be the fastest obviously, but more effort wouldn’t hurt. As opposed to whining to the ref, but in general he doesn’t really run back. I have guys in my team who also just give up and do not run back but you never know what will happen. Guys could rush their shots, make bad decisions, miss a shot or careless so you can get a steal. It’s always worth it to sprint back unless there’s a guy ahead and they get an easy basket in transition within 2-3 seconds. To me it’s just incomprehensible why you wouldn’t run back every single time. After turnovers in particular! I expect that from guys getting paid millions, but I guess people have different standards and or understand Harden does so much for us on offense and already defending better than any year prior. Still, I think Harden is so important that if his mates see him sprint back that would inspire them even more. If you don’t get that then there’s no point in talking about this.
I guess 11-3 and they're still not inspired enough with Harden's MVP caliber play what's next? harden need accompany take these kids to the boys restroom?
You need to learn how to accept valid criticism and also understand that criticism doesn't dismiss the greatness of an individual player.
how is criticisim of the speed of running back in transition valid? have you seen the list of who else lag behind? how important is this stat? who even cares about this stat? you do realize that he can choose to run as fast as he can during opponent fast breaks but at what cost? which aspect of his game does he get that energy from? and what benifit does the rockets get? are you even sure coaching staff, CP3, and his team mates want him to waste his energy on this? right now, Harden tops the league in Total Drives (200 more than KD & Klay, 150 more than Curry, 100 more than Lebron, 30 more than WB) , Total Points off Drives, second to Wall in Assists off Drives, and tied with DeRozan on getting fouled off drives and most importantly committing Turnovers off drives at a lower rate than KD, WB, Giannis, Wall, Wiggins, Davis, DeRozan, George, Butler, Klay, Ego that's why a superstar gets paid big bucks and how they lead their team to the best seed in their conference and show they're hardworking and giving their best effort every game in the "Wild West" not by getting back fast in transition
