Just a thought? James has actually proven he is a pretty decent post defender because of his strength. He is a good rebounder as well. By removing Anderson off the team and Harden off of the perimeter I think that team becomes a very good defensive unit. But more to the point what would it mean to the offense to have James at the Power Forward position if the Rockets had Chris Paul playing the 1? Draymond Green is only a couple of inches taller than James and he is pretty good at the PF spot. James might not be the defender that Draymond is but he would do all the things on offense that Draymond does for the Warriors except he would do those things a lot better. James would have the ability to punish pretty much any Power Forward in the league on the perimeter and he could also abuse the smaller power forwards in the post. The offense could run through either CP3 on the perimeter or James in the post. What would it mean for the offense to have a PF that could run the break, post up, hit the 3, create his own shot, destroy defenders off of the dribble and facilitate the offense for other players without sacrificing elite PG play? I know the Rockets have played James at the PF at times in the past but could they create some serious mismatches by feeding the league a steady diet of James as a PF? Of course that would be dependent on the Rockets having someone else to run the point at an elite level. There would obviously still be scenarios where James could run the point or play any of the positions 1 thru 4. But in this scenario his primary spot when all of the starters were on the floor would be PF. CP3, Eric Gordon (or Pat Beverley) , Ariza, Harden and Capela as the starters with Pat, Lou Williams, Nene (or Montrezl) and Sam Dekker off the bench. So am I crazy to think Harden could be an elite Power Forward for the Rockets providing the team can get elite Point Guard play from someone else?
i dont think he's strong enough for starting pf but if he hangs out with morey in the summer he'll at least be big enough for pf. then we'd have to trade ryan and lou for it it bev eg harden ariza make way for ultra-midget ball.
I think he can in stretches.... asking him to do it as his main position seems like crazy talk though.
Depends on which Jim Harden shows up. The one who wants to attack and take it to the rim or the one who had a long night at the clubs and decides to jack up contested 3's with a slow footed PF up his grill
no, the Rockets would get absolutely crushed and abused on the boards Harden would get worn down quickly having to defend bigger and stronger guys in the post for big minutes night after night Harden as a full time PF is just a crazy idea and will never happen
........ I mean sure, if you think his body can hold up to that amount of stress for an 82 game season. Just check what happened in a couple of games in San Antonio for your answer. (coming from a strong advocate of Harden is our best on ball post defender) If it isn't in stretches, it isn't going to work.
He already takes plays off on defense. He'd gas even faster having to go against bigs in the paint. This would make his offense woeful which is what makes him so good.
he is 6'5 and dose not have anywhere near the power or the athletic ability a prime Barkley shorter PF's had. He will breakdown if you put him at PF. With CP3 he will go back to SG and play PG when chris is sitting.
Agreed. You could see how it wore him down in the SAS series after the Nene injury, and that was only a couple of games.
Harden has been bulking up at the detriment of his speed and agility. Go look at videos of when he first got here. If he bulks up to defend PFs and gets even slower as a result, what's the point?
He could play Power Forward defensively with Beverley at PG. Imagine replacing Ryan Anderson with a Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Gordon Hayward type, bolstering our perimeter defence, gaining speed, and not losing any shooting (I'm a huge fan of Jonathon Simmons in this role as an immediate realistic option to impliment this immediatly). Allow Harden to take the easiest defensive matchup 2-4. There's another thread ranking the best Power Forwards in the league, go look at it. It's not deep, many teams are going with average stretch 4's and obviously Ariza or an Ariza type would take on the real threats. I believe our realistic ceiling is with James as PG on offense, and PF on Defense, daring teams to challenge our best player who is stronger than he is fast, play the 2's vs 3's game with us, take all the turn around post ups they want, put James in a great spot to average a triple double of his own (Not a big deal to us, but him being motivated by this could end up being very beneficial to our wins/losses by accident). If the star chasing doesn't pan out i believe this system tweak, along with big step ups from Harden and Capella could do wonders.
