The "badness" of Harden's defence seems to be a bit overrated?? according to 82 games, his opponent has a PER of just 13.6 (compared to Harden's 24.0). That puts him as the second best Rocket (amongst those who have played significant minutes). Delfino at 13.3 is better. Those aren't wonderful numbers defensively, but they are far from appalling.
That is because for all his supposed "bad body language" and "not putting a hand up", his man defense is not THAT bad. I am not calling him a stopper or saying that he does not need to improve. However, most of his defensive issues are as a team defender... which is also the problem every other Rocket has other than Patterson (Patterson is a mediocre man defender) and Asik.
Half the league doesn't have a negative. Either you are good defender or you aren't. Team defense is first & foremost but you also need individually solid defenders & Harden just doesn't fit that category right now. So tell me, when Harden is routinely walking back on D allowing a 4 on 5 fast break more often than not resulting in a wide open corner 3 is it because of poor team defense, & lack of accountability on the switch? Team defense is to blame for Harden strolling back on D sipping a ****ing martini? That is absurd. That is even more ridiculous than the fans who blame Asik for taking away from Lin's assists.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01.html#advanced::none http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/parsoch01.html#advanced::none
LMFAO No..... you are not "a good defender or not", everything is in degrees. For example, John Stockton was a poor one on one defender, but an exceptional team defender, and played on a team with good defense... so on the whole, in that system he was a good defensive player. You keep saying that Harden is this terrible man defender, and it just is not true. I do not think that he is a good man defender (the Rockets really lack any really good man defenders on the perimeter), but he is not as atrocious as you want him to be. Harden could become a very good man defender and the Rockets would still be a terrible defensive team and honestly, it would be very hard to tell conclusively how good a defender he is or is not. As far as Asik hurting Lin's assist numbers, I am sure he does, he does not score as well on open looks off of penetration.
Just to make sure I am looking in the right place we are looking at this right? Opponent ORTG on court. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2013/on-off/
I never said Harden was a poor man defender I said he was a below average defender in general. I agree that the Rockets are a poor at team defense & that there is a lack of accountability on the switch. But that doesn't stop Omer Delfino & Lin (& on occasion Parsons) from having a positive defensive impact statistically. Harden is the opposite. How is it that those 4 guys are still able to contribute on D despite the poor team D & Harden isn't. It is because they give effort. Harden gives very little effort out there whereas Lin Parsons Asik Delfino do. Even Douglas gives more effort on D than Harden. I don't understand how you can even say that Lin Parsons & Harden are all bad defenders. Lin & Parsons & Delfino are all average to good. Harden is bad. When you more often than not do not even try on defense & everybody else is, you can't even be put in the same breath as everybody else on the defensive end. Poor team defense does not excuse lack of effort & strolling back on D sipping a martini. I am not asking Harden or anybody on this team to be a lock down defender I am just asking for everyone to give effort & Harden more often than not, doesn't.
You could ball-park the figure by taking a weighted average of his counter-parts scoring rate per 48 minutes, and then multiply by Harden's MPG and divide by 48. http://www.82games.com/1213/12HOU5.HTM#bypos But this will be inexact because 82games.com is just guessing which player Harden would have been guarding based on who was on the court. Perhaps a more exact figure can be gotten using the stats at MySynergySports.com.
That's probably the reason he doesn't have a ring. But since Woodson holds him accountable, his defense improves. Wish Rocket coach could do the same to the players.
The problem Harden and the rest of the team is having is defending long 2P jumpers and 3P shots. When we lose the other team averages 40% from 3P. When we win they average 33% from 3P. We're 26th in opponent 3P%. Once we get behind we start throwing up contested 3P shots instead of making the extra pass to get an open shot.
This is the most recent game. Harden 0.93PPP rank 271 41.6FG% 39.1 3FG% Lin 0.83PPP rank 119 39.4FG% 32.1 3FG% Parsons 0.95PPP rank 295 43.2FG% 41.7 3FG% Carlos 0.92PPP rank 255 41.4FG% 40.6 3FG% Omer 0.91PPP rank 240 45.8FG% 23.5 3FG%
Not really sure why there's so much debate about this. It's pretty simple. First off... the physical disparities on defense Harden has are: 1. Defense is about lateral quickness (ability to be quick side to side) 2. Harden is a tad bit below average in lateral quickness compared to average NBA guards. 3. Harden is a tad bit undersized at SG These physical disparities and attributes of Harden CAN'T BE CHANGED. These are things he just naturally is. Also he is 23. His effort in the future might get better, but these physical weaknesses will only get worse with time as his body declines... Anyway, it's not like Harden is some slow footed behemoth out there, but he's already at a slight physical/speed disadvantage on every NBA night, and at times against very quick guards + with handles, he's at a pretty big disadvantage just based on physical talent. Of course, weaknesses can be made up to a certain degree by effort, intelligence, game planning and skill. For example, James Harden isn't really the quickest guy to the hoop. When he drives, it's not based solely on the fact that he's super explosive and nobody can stop him because they just aren't as fast. (Ala Westbrook) In fact, James isn't that explosive. In terms of first step ability he's about average-to slightly above average. The main reason he gets to the rim is because he's got great ballhandling (Skill) and has stutter steps and the ability to misdirect. Ie, his offensive skill makes up and accentuates his about average athleticism on O. And that's the thing, Harden has about an average-slightly above average physical base on the physical attributes that matter on Offense, and so even if he had the basketball IQ of a doorknob, he'd still be a decent roleplayer in the NBA. However, he has a high basketball IQ and has great skill, and so those things elevate his game to the level it is at right now. On defense however, he is physically below average athletically. (Both in terms of lateral speed and size) If Harden had an understanding for defensive schemes to the same level he had on the offense, then he could make up for that physical disparity he has and become an average, to maybe even above average defender, however, he simply just doesn't have the innate ability to see how a defensive play is going to pan out. And I'm sorry, but these are things you are born with to a large degree. When Harden instinctively drives to the rim and does his euro two step and then perfectly drives around a defender even though he's not physically talented to just blow by the guy, there's a certain level of natural instinct that he has that allowed him to gauge the right moment to attack. There is an opposing kind of natural gift on the defensive side and Harden is almost totally lacking in it. This lack of an intuitive defensive mindset/IQ accounts for "Help defense." And this is why Harden is so bad at team defense. I don't think the main reason is because he's not really trying most of the time, but it's mainly because he's just not good at it. He doesn't get how defense works intuitively, and he'll never be good at it. His ceiling is simply not at "good team defender." Sorry. On man to man D, his defensive is not great (because of his physical disadvantages) but it is serviceable like people in here have said. And it is serviceable because man on man defense is simple. Stop your guy. That's it. Use your effort and your physical ability and stop the other guy. And guess what? Harden is only slightly below average on the defensive side physically, and guess how his man on man D is? Slightly below average. Boom, correlation. In conclusion, Harden could improve on D if he studies a lot of film and takes team seriously, but there's a ceiling already on the place he can reach and that ceiling is that he could potentially turn into slightly below average team d player instead of a terrible one. (Just to get to a point of below average is going to require A LOT of work though) On man to man D, he is already at his peak. The biggest psychological question to this is; Is James Harden the type of guy to work EXTREMELY HARD just so he can become barely passable at D?
According to the MySynergy stuff, Harden OVERALL allows 0.93 PPP as a defender. But I don't know if that's good or bad or what?!?
Does it say how many total plays as well? If so, points scored against per game (according to plays tracked by Synergy) would be 0.93*total_defensive_plays / GP.
PPP does not adjust for team defense, switches, etc.... it is a raw number, that has use, but is limited.
