Well said. Those same posters who grilled Lin for "D, turnovers, no 3 point shot, inconsistency, etc" whike not allowing any excuses for his offseason injury. Now look at them. They have become the exact thing they hated Lin for...a Hof. Excuse makers. Whiners. Dont look know, but if Harden wore number 7 the bbs elders would be in full cry mode. Lol....classic. Agendas. We know who really has em.
Right, Chicago lost to Nets in last year's playoffs since they were missing DRose and Noah was playing with one good leg because they were using the same excuses you are using now. Oh wait...
Hopefully that's not a basis for setting double standards (based on players' talent), cause that might actually be the root of the problem. James can be better, we've seen it. The concern is how to get him to play with consistent effort. Good coaches, like Pop, like to pull out their players when they fudge on D. Like in the Spurs game, I know we all saw Pop pull Danny Green out when he messed up a defensive rotation.
I wish that once Parsons, Lin and Asik get back, and we're good enough to win most games even without Harden, that he gets benched after every defensive mistake. It's apparent the guy doesn't learn. Never in my life have I seen so much consistently bad defense from a single player in a professional basketball league, come to think of it, you rarely get to see defense this bad in most amateur leagues. I don't know who can honestly watch Harden play and say things like: "Well at least he's not Kevin Martin", Kmart was always in front of his man, he got burned because of his physical attributes and not nearly as much as Harden does for no good reason. People also say Harden's defense is fundamentally solid, how can you say that when he's never in position and never even moves his feet at all, I've yet to see him stop a guy from penetrating (I bet he does that all the time off court though). Players constantly blow by him surprised how easy it was. Something needs to happen. When we win, we kind of forget about this issue, but it is a real one and needs to be worked on extensively. I'm happy at least Howard is calling him out, way to be a leader. McHale apparently doesn't have the balls, or the wallet.
Bench Morey, he's the guy who brought these frauds in knowing full well that they were paper tigers. Howard is done, not ever going to be an impact player again. Harden was a fraud from the beginning, this guy is Gilbert Arenas part 2. Linsanity? ROFL. Parsons is the best player that Morey added to the team, but just like with all great players we add to the roster in Houston, he can't and will not ever stay healthy.
Harden Out ... We won games against good teams - Lin was in the games Parsons Out ... We lost to bottom feeders - Lin was not in the games Not trying to defend Harden, just stating the fact. Does Lin makes the difference, I don't know.
Harden is playing 'playground basketball' now, where you usually spend 80-90% of energy on offense, and take it easy on defence, just have fun. But in competitive game, more so at the highest NBA level, this is not going to cut it. Psychologically, overtime, such non commitment in D is a sure thing to erode morale, and cause resentment among teammates. pls dont let it happen, before things go downhill.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/svrr0HJ4SM8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> We are horrifyingly bad off the ball. Our backcourt fall asleep and allow offenses to go haywire on us. Coach does a pretty good job detailing how we just make bad decisions. Much of this has carried over into this season as well.
All those highlighted plays were problematic indeed. This guys a great job of breaking it down. The only thing that made me absolutely angry was the play were Harden was not to initiate the play and he starts walking out of position away from the play down towards mid court. Its like he was making a statement. "If Im not in the play Im not IN the play" That play single handedly describes my disgust with the guy.
OMG just watched it again. He completely is selling his team mate out. Just giving up and refusing to even help the play. No Id call it sabotaging the play. Right at 5:11. Disgusting to watch.
I would love for someone on this team to get in his face, preferably a player and not coach. Dwight, nope, too soft. PBev is the man, from Chi to let him know he sucks rocks on D.
I think this is a good idea. Sit his ass for the first 6 minutes of the next game. If he sulks, then we know we are screwed for the next 4 years. I would think it would piss him off and motivate him though.
No, don't bench him. Just limit his defensive responsibility to his man and his man only. No passing lanes, no help defense, no double teaming. Make him soley responsible for guarding his man. I'd be willing to bet that he'd pick his defense up to an elite level. That is if he has an ounce of pride and cares about how he's viewed as a player. No way he'd sit back and allow himself to continue to get torched night in and night out everytime down the court.
Arian Foster got benched for the first quarter of a game 2 years ago. He ended up killing it the rest of the game (and season). Not sure, but I heard some stuff about his improved pass protection. I might just be making the last part up..
