Top 10 players play defense or at least give effort on the defensive end..two things james seems to be unfamiliar with..He's a star offensively just wish he had that high motor where he at least gives effort on the defensive end.
He needs to get back to the gym rat he was last year. He was easily a top 3 player between him lebron and curry last year. If we get that harden back with the dedication he brought to being a leader on the court the sky really is the limit. When u have a player as talented as Harden leading the way with his actions, anything can happen especially with this roster while flawed still talented. With a healthy DMO coming back, adding Thornton and a improved Capela. Man we could challenge anyone, just need James to shake whatever is clearly bothering him be it personal or not and just focus on leading the way. If he wants to be the best player and mvp this year he still can. What better narrative than bringing a sinking Rockets team back to title contention? Nothing. Time to prove the doubters again James!!!! Rockets fans even the ones ragging on you now will get behind you again just bring back that fire for the team. Your the heart that makes this thing go. No more deferring time to go out and be the leader and player we saw all last year.
this. I'm as big a fan of James as anyone, but he is just not giving it any real effort yet this season. Very disappointing. Would love to see the old James return.
Harden might be the most hated player in NBA history. Even his own fanbase despises him. Feel bad for him, he deserves more respect.
I don't think his fanbase despises him, that's getting it entirely wrong. His own fanbase is disappointed in him. They deserve him to play with more effort. He doesn't deserve respect that he hasn't earned. Pretty simple, actually.
Hey I know I'm gonna get flamed for this but... Most of the vines/clips/etc. I see of Harden being lazy on defense are on plays where he probably couldn't do anything but foul. The latest with Baynes is a good example of that. Ilyasova has him beat at the rim (he's slightly behind). He has no real shot to do anything there other than foul and hope it's not an and-1. Then the ball rolls in so he stops up but it pops out on the other side of the rim where Baynes was already rolling for the putback. Should he have been in better position in he first place? Sure... But the main reason he gets so much grief is back he doesn't give "token effort" when he's out of position to make it appear that he cares. I really doubt he wouldn't try to do something if he thought it would make a difference. Also there are tons of great scorers in this league who suck on defense. I don't get an ESPN notification every time one of them blows an assignment. I'm fairly certain you could put together an incriminating montage of many players in the league.
My point is that Harden probably does care... He just has no problem with giving up on plays he doesn't think he can affect (no matter how that makes him look). I don't agree with the mindset but I think it's different from being lazy. It's being annoyingly realistic.
I'm glad you brought up that play with Baynes because it is the perfect encapsulation of Harden at his worst. It is not the first time where it seems Harden not only does give up on the play but purposely gets away from it. Go back and watch it again, it is disgusting.
He's giving up on plays, it's not really defense at all, especially in that detroit one, if capela and ilyasova were reversed, baynes gets that rebound on a very similar looking play, only with no shot. But considering he was playing a stupid amount of minutes with an illness, looking for moments he can rest isn't uncommon. This team just does a really really really really good job of putting its players in a position to fail, from a schemeless defense to absurd minutes, to playing terrence jones. We need to revamp the entire coaching staff and philosophy, and in all honesty, if morey can't see that, we need to replace him too. Harden's game has never looked like one designed for super long minutes, he's not slender and athletic, he has asthma, he's solid and well built, his greatest advantage is he's stronger than most near any other wing, he's not quick and nimble, but somehow each year we end up playing him even more minutes and then we complain when it takes its obvious toll on a player whose not really geared for it, he's a sprinter being asked to run marathons. I also laugh when people suggest he be traded to the lakers, if that happened, he'd win a title or two, and the people here would probably think that the issue here was him not trying rather than the organization. The issue has gone on for so long, Dwight is another example, his criticism of post ups at the lakers reached boiling point, but here, nope, let's post him up they say.... When people have limitations, asking them to practice/play harder rather than scheming to play smarter is what milkhair gave us, despite the world being a living example that smart not hard work is what breeds success. The first thing Mark Jackson did at Golden State was design a defensive scheme to compensate for Curry's short comings, they were the 3rd ranked defense in the nba 3 years ago even with David Lee starting as well. I still can't even grasp Bickerstaff being made heads coach, hey look our defense is awful, let's sack the head coach and promote the defensive assistant?!?!? Mchale needed to go, but god, this team does dumb better than anyone.
Yeah I'm not saying he doesn't give up on plays. I'm saying he does it when he doesn't think he can affect it. I don't agree with the mindset but I don't think he's inherently lazy.
Bull****, right? How come Dirk doesn't get completely **** on for being crappy on defense while being unstoppable on offense?
