Harden says he plays too much to maintain defensive focus

intelligent comments from your star player that will surely be flamed by people who have never put forth the effort to even play a half court game, much less full court at a downhill pace.

 

Well, he isn't wrong re: playing too many minutes. I'm not excusing his apathy, but he isn't wrong. This is why Ty HAS to be better.

 

Every single player who plays comparable minutes with Harden DOES play MUCH better defence than him.
Buttler who played almost the same last year maintained for the most part elite defence last year. Rookie Wiggins who didn't even know how NBA defences worked played better defence than Harden AND he played as many minutes being his team main offensive weapon.

But since he likes to find excuses the solution is simple. Make his minutes 30 per night and DEMAND defence. The end. Stop enabling him and his petty excuses.

 

James Harden is fat therefore has no stamina. He needs to stop eating Chipotle and train harder in the offseason.

 

When you have the ball in your hands you forget how tired you are. You spend every ounce of energy you have when you absolutely need to (like when you have the ball in your hands). Then after you release the shot or make the pass, you remember again how tired you are and you find spots to slack.

If you have a good gas tank, you can pick spots to get quick rest that don't affect the game.

But if you don't have a great gas tank, you will slack in spots that you shouldn't be, which can lead to bad defense.

It's true that some guys just have better gas tanks than others. I am a fan of mixed martial arts, and that is one sport where it's very evident who has better gas tanks. Because in MMA, there isn't any room to rest. You rest and you get knocked out. You can see guys fading and slowing down and you can see other guys who can seemingly fight forever. Body type doesn't even matter a lot of times. Roy Nelson is a big fat guy yet had incredible stamina.

Some guys just get tired quicker. It's a born trait.

 

Well this we knew right? Harden asked for help in Lawson so he wouldn't be reliant on basically carrying the team offensively...and Lawson barely does anything so there you go.

 

He didn't make an attempt to contest to avoid drawing a foul. On the second shot he did but I don't think James could have done anything but foul (and not significantly alter the shot) Baynes at the point the ball came off the rim.

 

He needs to stop bringing down the ball on offense, being a ballstopper and doing too much ISO plays and i promise he will have more energy on defense.

 

So the guy who openly wanted backcourt help and got it is now saying he's playing too much to play defense lol. This guy makes little sense. The opposite has happened since Houston got Lawson. Harden is playing more minutes, taking more shots, dribbling way more, and has essentially made Lawson's strengths useless. He has yet to sacrifice playing off the ball more to make his job easier. He wants to play like he is a PG when he's really not while you have just acquired a real PG whom you wanted but because of your playing style (being extremely ball dominant w/o defense) was demoted to the bench. He needs to look himself in the mirror first and foremost. He has little room to complain when he has just as much responsibility in the process of integrating someone like Lawson on the floor. Yet thus far this season, he's been playing one on one basketball with pathetic defense.

 

Why post this? It's an obvious foul on Thomas that wasn't called. He closelines Terry. What are they looking at on this play.

 

stop seeking excuses for him. leaders in p/t in the past easily see over 40 minutes per. dont talk like his minutes this season, which is not even 40, is sth. unprecedented.

and the point is not even about minutes. to me its his mentality and the fact that he said it in public.

seriously, this guy looks like a guy or THE guy to y'all who can lead his team and win houtown another ring?

 

I will give Harden another 60 somewhat games to show up on D.

otherwise he is dead to me on that end

 

He's officially a Kardashian now

 

oh I'm sorry. I didin't know that Harden was a rookie and still hadn't learned that you don't stop playing until you actually hear the whistle.

 

i guess your resume incl. certain number of yrs of playing in the nba, then?

 

pretty disappointing actually. You would never hear the league's elite say something like this. The league's elite look at themselves first before pointing out anything else.

 

What is more worrying is that Harden himself says those excuses in the media. Shows how much the team itself is enabling him not to be held accountable for his awful defence.

 

4 minutes into the game and the focus is gone?

I know it would probably backfire, but I wish Bev would have lit into him there. Someone needs to go in and make the locker room their b****, and have everyone playing hard AF.

 

I don't see him making excuses. People can take what he says and make an excuse out of it. But he's saying he plays too many minutes, which is true. I think yall are inferring an excuse and running away with it.

 

We are seeing that though, aren't we? Or am I just imagining the bad turnovers and poor shooting percentage?