James Harden always plays lethargic when the opposing player is a very good defensive player. This scares me on the upcoming series with KW and the spurs... or Tony Allen and the Grizzlies.... he has the tendency to disappear and differ..... rather than be aggressive and take the fight to the man.. he talked about urgency, but I think he tends to forget that he is in the playoffs by the way he plays.
10 bucks says no one else here is payed millions of dollars to run. I was paid to run before but it only paid me roughly 15 dollars an hr and shitty VA health care.
I don't know if people are purposefully obtuse here. This is a problem. And yes, he does act quite differently compared to other guards when he is covered off the ball. The team wastes multiple possessions trying to dump the ball to him. If you are an opposing defense why wouldn't you shadow Harden off the ball? You know he isn't going to put much of an effort to break free because he's either slow or doesn't try. You also cause the Rockets offense to be delayed an additional 10-15 seconds.
good to know, kudos to Harden to tough it out, but it won't be bad idea to have others to bring the ball up to see if there is an early opportunity, wait for him if there is not one
I really don't care. Harden has had a history of being really lazy off the ball on offense. He'll cross the half court line with the entire team already set up and waiting for him. When his defender shadows him off the ball, he is ridiculously bad at freeing himself and wastes 15 seconds for the team to dump the ball for him with him trying to free himself with some stupid post positioning move 5 feet beyond the 3 pt line. It's a problem. I really don't care if some posters here percieve any criticism towards Harden as anti-Rocket trolling. That's their problem with insecurities, not mine. They can learn to deal with it themselves. Harden is a dominant player but there is a easy cheat method in making him worthless and a detriment on the court.
Please dont pass on the cheat code to the other teams or apply for a defensive coaching job in the NBA. The last thing this team needs is a worthless and detrimental MVP candidate. We would like him to continue posting 35 ppg game as he had been before the injured game last night. We appreciate your cooperation!
You brought up a great point, this has been an issue for some time now. The cop out responses of "he got a bum ankle" just show people got short term memories. Your thread deserves better replies.. if nobody else will support you, ISOBall will
Given that Harden made the bad ankle excuse after game 4, I highly doubt that he doesn't care about his performance. Obviously he does, and he always comes across as a very self-conscious guy to me. I guess as a fan, it's psychologically more comforting to resort to 'Harden doesn't care' excuse whenever he under-performs, because that means all you have to do the next game is put in some effort, than to simply admit that there are ways to significantly deter Harden's game by taking advantage of his relatively meager athleticism. Similarly, after all these years, there are people who still believe that Harden's lack of defense is 100% based on his unwillingness to play D, rather than him having slow reaction-time response. It's like having to admit your kid is not that bright, as opposed to saying "oh, he's really smart, but just lazy." The fact of the matter is, Harden is not very quick - especially off-the-ball - so if you play him really tight it's very difficult for him to shake off his defenders when they are long and athletic. One way to get around this is to draw contact and accumulate a lot of free throws, but when that strategy fails, Harden's performance inevitably suffers. It's just one of his limitations as a basketball player that we have to learn to cope with. To his credit, Harden exploits pretty much all facets of the game that does not require super human motor or leaping ability - such as change-of-speed, change-of-direction, step-back jumpers, passing, drawing contact, etc - which has elevated him to a legit elite player status, but at the end of the day, MJ and LeBron didn't dominate the league by solely relying on skills or craftiness. Sadly, sometimes Westbrook's sheer athleticism alone is enough to outdo all the Harden's 'smart moves' on any given night.
I dont think Harden is at his peak level of performance. I think if he consintrates on cardio and conditioning over the offseason, he will actually be able to start running in the middle of a game.
You always seem so personally offended when one poses criticism of the man. It's simple. Shadow Harden off the ball. He's too slow to shake off his man. He becomes irellevent AND the team wastes 10-15 seconds trying to get him the ball which drastically slows down the team's offensive production. What am I saying that is so offensive and wrong? It's a huge problem and one of the main reasons for slow starts.
It's so easy.... that he created more points than anybody in the history of the league while leading a historically great offense. Your posts are at "JJ Fatt" level of ironic/stupid/whatever.
Nothing, some people can't handle criticism. And, everyone wants to ignore his lackadaisical defense. He is a great player, he could be greater. Being great does not exempt him from criticism. DD
Very few teams full court press and shadow Harden off the ball the entire game. Roberson did. If other teams start doing this, Harden better find an extra gear to shake off his man or he becomes irellevent or a detriment. How can people not see this? The team wastes half the 24 second shot clock trying to get him the ball because he can't juke and run.
Westbrook is the most physically gifted athlete at his position that I've ever seen. Having said that, not even Westbrook's sheer athleticism can be sustained with success. Harden is human. I'm actually quite impressed and amazed at HOW MUCH of a beating and physicality he has taken this series. Roberson, traps, doubles...you name it.....Harden is facing a gauntlet EVERY trip down the floor while being the primary ball handler to create and run the offense. It's remarkable really. No other player gets the kind of scheming and attention that Harden gets every night...let alone a team with OKC equipped with athletic long armed defenders that can "sharpen" their schemes against Harden out of familiarity game to game. And through all that adversity, Harden still prevails...his team wins. Even a bad game like game 4......Harden still more than served his purpose and role as the Rockets' blue chip player. Kinda like the "Ryan Anderson" effect of a decoy....but Harden is much better of course. Harden's had an amazing series so far and season. It takes a special crafty talent (once in a generation) built to last and withstand heavy physicality and endurance to put the Rockets in a 3-1 lead over OKC. Harden's a stud and he's also human. Anyone who's played even pick up basketball knows how easy it is to get fatigued. Harden plays his 36+ minutes at an elite level against elite schemes....and still is the last man standing. David
I get it so it took 86 games but Billy Donovan and Andre Roberson just cracked the code! Take notes, NBA, you just need to full court press the Rockets for 48 minutes and they will be exposed.
Probably. I don't see how you can counter shadowing Harden the entire game when he is one of the slowest off ball guards in the game. So many times we've seen a teammate get stuck with the ball, Harden's defender is shadowing him, and Harden only attempts to stick his ass and arms out 5 ft from the 3 pt line instead of running around screens, juking etc to break free and provide a better angle of for his teammates to pass the ball safely like any other regular NBA guard who needs to break free to get the ball.
