He seems to be reasonable quick in straight line, it's hard to judge his movement as we haven't seen enough of him defending any of the REALLY quick PG's. He makes a lot of defensive errors in terms of positioning, and he doesn't contest aggressively enough to be considered a good on ball defender yet. And his help defense leaves much to be desired, though I suspect a significant part of that is not having much time playing with the team. I definitely think the game hasn't slowed down for him yet. We'll have a better idea of where he sits over the next couple of weeks.
It took a year for the game to slow down for Jones and D-Mo. Parsons took training camp and a few games. Who knows how long it will take Canaan?
Overall thoughts? Harden can defend well when he wants to. Too many times in the crunch he has "suddenly" made smart switches and kept his man in front of him. Harden has taken another step this season. I thought he would be on par with a player like Mitch Richmond when he entered the league. Then he looked like a #3 type player on a team when he was in OKC. Then the Rockets got him, and he looked like a Carmelo Anthony type volume scorer, that is a #2 player on an elite team. This year? Well he has shown an ability to create and score in the crunch that has only been matched by Durant. I didn't think that Harden had the physical talent to do it... he apparently does. Double teams? Doesn't matter... Since the all star break he is averaging nearly 29/7/5 and shooting 48% from the field and 43% from 3's.... those are elite numbers, those are Wade and Kobe numbers. Jeremy Lin can be a very good player when he has it going. He can penetrate better than 90% of the league, and when he is confident he is a huge key.
Insightful. I wish I could have expressed those thoughts so succinctly. The best thing? The Rockets have pretty much locked up HC in the first round and the last few games of the season we are probably looking at Howard and Bev coming back, and Parsons and Harden resting. The post season is looking good.
I agree with you. What we do know is that he is quick going to the basket and obviously can score well. Defensively he is a mess 90% of the time. He is consistently out of place. He guarded Joe Johnson some against the Nets and was a good 10-15 feet away from where he should have been. At this point we cannot say if he has the physical skills to be an adequate defender. I will say though, that Morey likes his center of gravity and firmly believes he will at a minimum be adequate defensively.
I think Harden was really affected by that niggling ankle injury and thumb injury, it really messed with his rhythm. But now he seems to be over all that and steam rolling. I am really impressed with his clutchness, its these sort of players that win you championships
I had no idea we can trap and play frantic defense so well. That is how the Miami heat play the entire game. We need to play that more often. Cannan is doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing, I can't wait to get Daniels next year finally a legit pure 3 point shooter
canaan is fast! rookies are notoriously known for bad defending and he has been thrown into the fire. but i like what i see from him.
Don't want to derail thread BUT, Omer faked it! Having said that, it's too bad he doesn't want to stay and that we can't afford to keep him! He's a beast on the boards! ....... ....... .......
I hope once Dwight gets back that we can play him and Asik together before the end of the regular season. We need to find a way to have both of them on the floor against certain lineups in the playoffs.
I personally don't like that idea. I don't think it's wise to try and make them play together this close to the playoffs! Everyone by now should have a firm grasp of what their roles are and what is expected from them. Beside when we tried the twin tower combo earlier in the year it was a disaster, and I don't see that changing much at this point. ....... ....... .......
We haven't seen enough of Canaan's defense to make that determination yet. Morey said that build is more important than height (ie Lowry), and he seems to have the speed for it. Canaan has more burst on the offensive end than I expected, and he's hitting 3s at the exact same clip Lillard was last year (with significantly less game time, might I add). Assuming Lin gets traded over the summer (which is dependent on whether we get Melo), I'd expect Canaan to jump right into the backup PG/SG role.
