<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Coming into tonight, Harden had faced 81 post-up possessions per Synergy, conceding .481 points per possession (97th percentile) 24.1 FG%.</p>— Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/statuses/439976123233873922">March 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just a testament to his laziness. Effective guarding the post because it doesn't require much movement.
They trolled my rep comments when I said Rocket should put Harden on Griffin... I was only half kidding. His defense on David Lee and Z-BO was very impressive. I remember someone (cant remember who) trying to laughably post-up Harden during the wizards game.. didnt work.
Harden is crazy strong. Difficult to move him. Post defense is about strength and technique. Chuck Hayes could defend centers. Harden does pretty well against SF/PF who wants to post up a SG and fail.
I found it hilarious how Mark Jackson thought he was exploiting a mismatch and kept going to David Lee...almost cost him the game if it weren't for those lucky *** shots they start to hit.
It's amazing how somebody who blows by the defense can get blown by on defense so easily. I always said it's an energy thing, but can he really consciously be that good at preserving it? Surely in the moment you instinctively put the effort in to stop what is happening because of your competitive nature? My point: A big part of defense is knowledge of your opponent and predicting where they are going. If you watch Dee Milliner, who was a sports science incredibly gifted athlete, he struggled most of the year to keep up and looked terribly slow. Is he slow? We know he isn't. Knowing your opponent needs to be studied more to be better at defense.
Harden is possibly in the top 1% of the NBA in strength per pound. It shows up in his offense and his defense. Even much bigger players like Ibaka can't move him. And down low isn't strength many times the deciding factor?
6-5, same height as James. Barkley was one of biggest freak athletes ever. Dude won a rebounding title and routinely dunked on 6'9'' (and taller) players with authority early in his career. Harden likely losses his quickness advantage if he adds weight.
