Ultimate "James Harden Doesn't Play Defense" Video

I sure as hell was. Mcgrady was a talented SOB! He was criticized for his play in the playoffs, but I seem to remember him being unstoppable all while locking Dirk down in 05! Tracy deserved to be bad mouthed on how he handled his knee injury. I was a huge fan, but it was just a shame how he didn't dedicate himself like Kobe, or Yao.

 

Agreed. They can probably win a few where the other team scores more than they do, but it will be hard.

 

could only get through the first 3 minutes, painful to watch.

i think i've figured out why harden let's his man drive to the basket so easily. he doesn't like taking charges. i actually dont think he's ever taken a charge. if you lower your shoulder and drive right at him, he'll move to the side and try to reach around the back. btw, that move should be banned by Mchale. i've seen parsons do it as well, but obviously without as much frequency.

wes mathews will probably avg 25 for the series. but harden will average 28 so that's a plus for us.

 

T-Mac's issues have always been consistent; zero leadership or even the will to be a leader, poor work ethic, and a diva to the nth degree. T-Mac is basically the prime example of wasted talent. Harden has not shown to be a diva and has proven to be a much better leader, though he is definitely an inferior talent. Work ethic is questionable though.

 

Just the Spurs game alone I believe he took one charge and tried to take another one on Ginobili but was called for a personal foul.

Harden's d isn't good at all, but I think we all hope he can turn it up in the playoffs. If not then Wes Mathews should have a field day on him.

 

lol'd

 

He took a charge on Ginobli the last game he played. How do you not remember that? lol Played the eurostep beautifully. His defense sucks, but people seem to forget that he has had games with 4+ steals, and he has also had multiple block games. Give it a rest people, he will pick it up in the playoffs.

 

When all is said and done, Howard is going to have to step up just as much as Harden for us to be successful. But, Howard needs to step it up on defense more than we need his offense. But, we will need his offense so our offense doesn't stagnate behind Harden trying to make up for when the other players disappear...which some of them will inevitably disappear into mediocrity on offense under the more intense defensive pressure. James couldn't do it all last season when the rest of the team mostly disappeared from the big plays and I expect we will see more of that in these playoff games. Howard, Bev, Parsons...we need those guys to step up especially. And, of course, we wouldn't be anywhere without Harden.

 

We all pretty much knew about this a while ago, but I think there was a certain point where Harden's pretty much stepped up his defense since then...

we good. B-)

 

Umm... no? If the opponents outscore us, we lose. That is the entire point of the game. How are we going to win if the opponent has more points than us? Defense PREVENTS the other team from outscoring us as does a more potent offense, but either way, you HAVE TO OUTSCORE THE OTHER TEAM in order to win.

 

This is nothing new. I mean everyone here knows he plays ****ty defense. The coaches know, the teammates know, the whole league knows. The only person that doesn't realize this yet, is Harden himself. He just does have the defensive mentality.

 

I disagree with this. Harden knows he has piss poor D. He has said so many times himself that he needs to really improve and to his credit, he had until the Pelican game. That game was just atrocious effort on D by Harden.

 

yes when he played AAU ball. worked at my local park, too.

 

Please don't form opinions off highlight videos. I've watched perhaps 20% of Rockets game this season and I can clearly remember Harden drawing more than 1 charge. He got one a few days ago, actually.

I looked it up and it's only 3 people on this team and 76 in the NBA that have drawn more charges than Harden. Harden draws more or as many charges as 83% of the NBA. He plays more minutes than most of them, of course, but that's a double-edged sword. On one hand he has more chances to draw a charge, on the other hand he has more reasons to protect himself. The fact is, the regular season isn't that important.



Harden's main problem is lack of ****s given. It's not pretty to watch and sometimes he looks like he has ADHD out there, but as long as he gets the job done and shows up in the clutch, as well as come playoffs, all's well. Let's just wait and see. You could make Jodie Meeks look like Jordan in a highlight mix.

 

Eh. I don't know. He spent the preseason saying how he wanted to be guarding the other team's best player. He sure didn't look like he wanted to be doing that during the regular season.

This is a case where actions speak louder than words. But (I think) he'll be trying harder during the playoffs. We know he can do OK at the end of games, so maybe that will creep down to the beginning of the fourth instead of just the end.

 

No actually, you couldn't. LeBron, Durant, CP3, heck even tony parker don't get caught ball watching 15+ feet away from the ball allowing back door cuts again and again and again and again. It's one thing to get beat back door if you are aggressively trying to deny the ball on the wing. It's something completely different to be covering the 4th/5th option on offense in the deep corner and letting him walk 22 feet along the baseline unseen/untouched right under the basket. He's getting caught ball watching and he's not even in a position to pick off the pass in 90% of these clips.

This video doesn't even show him getting blown by off of the dribble, or not trying to get through screens. These types of defensive plays, while still frustrating, at least can be attributed to the fatigue of carrying a huge offensive load nightly, and are somewhat forgivable. What is seen here is just god-awful habits.

I love Harden he is an offensive maestro but there is no doubt in my mind his mental defensive lapses have cost us games in the standings (and possibly additional rounds of home court). Of course he will try harder in the playoffs but if he just tries harder at his fundamentally flawed strategy (watching the ball and playing passing lanes, no matter how far away from the ball) it still hurts our chances of winning.

There is no reason Harden can't do his thing on offense and keep track of his man off the ball on D. Nobody is asking him shut people down or play ball-denial defense. Just stay within one arms reach. Don't drift. Either help aggressively and double team the ball handler or stay at home on your man.

 

Hardens defense is unparalleled and unprecedented.

 

I don't think so bro, there are definitely instances that I have seen where the Rockets have scored less points than the other team this season but walked away with the W. You have to take into account Lin's greatness that he can will his team to victory even when they get outscored.

 

This is sarcasm right?

 

I don't expect him to play defense nearly as hard, but not even knowing where your man is is a completely different story IMO