It seems like part of Dekker's job is to monitor Harden's help side defense and direct him when necessary
Harden truly has trouble with his help defense assignments, that's for sure. Not saying he's not trying. He's just not that good at it. And we hide him a lot away from the point of attack. He just doesn't track the offensive movement very well, and often either gets out of place or loses his man or the ball. But, he sure gets plenty of defensive rebounds. And I think I did actually see him take a charge against the Wizards. woohoo.
Harden is a decent on the ball defender. It's just that when his man doesn't have the ball he gets lost a lot. Interesting how a guy sees the floor so well on offense but has little court vision at the other end.
I think it has more to do with quickness & motor, tbh. Magic and Nash weren't great defenders either. But you're right, people don't give enough credit to Harden's on-ball defense ability which is pretty solid, his off-ball D not so much but that's what separates elite defenders from average/below average defenders.
Harden is doing a much better job on D this year, I have zero issues with his D, would like him to clean up his turnovers a bit, but even those are acceptable considering his assist numbers. DD
Harden is too lazy to be a good defender consistently. Two seasons ago, Harden came into preseason determined to be a better defender. He was. It was impressive too. But the amount of focus it required was unsustainable. Last night we almost lost the game, because of Harden's laziness. It is standard for a PG to get pressured, so they will pin their man, push off, and get free for an inbound pass. Harden simply does not do this. He just tries to push the defender after the ball is tossed his way, then proceeds to b*tch at the in-bounder after the play. Harden is on his way to an MVP caliber season so it is hard to actually justify complaining at this point. But if he did want to tighten up his game this is where he could do it (and always has been where he could do it) effort. No half ass screens, no ball watching on D, pin your man and get open on in-bound plays. If he does not pick it up, we may be completely fine because he is super human and even with some slight flaws he is still a basketball god. It is the rest of the team that needs to pick it up.
He is not likely to be a good defender ever. What we need him to be is an average defender. He is a good man to man defender but he is not good running around screens or chasing wings around. He often loses focus and as a result loses his man for an open 3 or back door cut.
You're username says it all, but just to refute your main point When Harden is on the court : Opponents score 109.4 points per 100 possession When Harden is on the bench : Opponents score 113.2 points per 100 possession Actually Harden has been a net positive defender this year. I'm pretty sure anybody can nitpick Westbrook, Lillard, Irving or Curry's defensive flaws if they wanted to, it's just rarely talked about because why? some vindictive hater didn't care enough to make a youtube video out of it. Oh by the way, Harden is + 31.4 on offense (With Harden we are 119.3 vs without Harden we are 87.9), so yeah. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01/on-off/2017
I believe I did not clearly type my thoughts. I believe Harden is a great defender. I however, believe he will always have the lapses in his defense leading to the "low-light" videos unless he is able to adjust his effort/focus levels as we saw two seasons ago (preseason). I do not think this is a necessity, only a luxury if it were to come true. He give us so much that it is on the rest of the team to pick up the rest of the slack. Why I was so butt-hurt in my post was that he almost lost the game because he forced Nene to turn it over when he did not push off his man. This is something they teach a PG to do in Highschool basketball. @heypartner fact check me if you wish, Harden has turned it over multiple times when we have been pressed because he does not pin his man and push off for the inbound pass. It is embarrassing.
Does anyone else think we should put Harden on the opposing team non skill big? His frame would be great blocking out for rebounds. Harden just isn't good at fighting through screens.
Just because he didn't push off his man last night, doesn't mean he always does that. I've seen on numerous occasions that Harden does exactly what you are describing and quite frankly I don't recall that much TOs committed during inbound play situations, so I don't know what you are talking about. Again you are complaining about a net +35.1 player on our team. Sure, there are always room for improvement, but Harden's defense is the least of our concerns this year. We need a big who can rebound as well as protect the rim, and upgrade our bench depth.
Ye man I was too impressed with the charge. With his body control and flop geiuosity he should be assigned to take 3 charges a game.
Harden simply has to do everything. We need to get him some help and some toughness. Bev and Trez need to play.
Anyone notice how Harden is always getting a foul within the first minute? I'm beginning to think he does that on purpose so coach and Worrell will worry about him picking up his 2nd foul for playing too tight on defense...and greenlight him for backing off opponents and not helping aggressively.
Olajuwon had to do pretty much everything to. Please stop acting like just because Harden is so great, that we cannot criticize him, it's getting old. The thread was tongue in cheek anyway. I'm not saying let's bash him, just like to start a discussion since it's pretty obvious he's been sub-par. Last night was the tip of the iceberg when the Wiz had a fast break, Ariza chased Wall and Harden was already back. Instead of trying to get in his way, take a charge, he just watched and Ariza was visibly mad at him afterwards, obviously.
Haha, I don't know if that's the reason. I think he's trying to be aggressive on D and then just picks up a foul