Harden says he plays too much to maintain defensive focus

Agreed, but not much choice when the media already has your bad Vines and Youtube videos.

He's just trying to cover his ass instead of covering his opponent.

 

stagger lawson and harden mins play harden only 30, we should try anything at this point if we lose oh well

 

All those iso moves take a huge amount of energy. Just pass the ball more.

 

at this point im sorry I would trade him If i was LES

 

i think its your logic and arguments that are irrelevant.

the question isnt whether the game has changed, or how much it has changed.

the question really is -
if shaq/ai/finley/butler/kobe/lebron/durant/butler (too many names to fill in) all could play the minutes that harden is playing (many played heavier minutes), and still play higher level defense, be effective on both ends of the floor,,, why not harden?

 

Wow, such horse****.

 

Dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble jack up a 3 or bail out pass along with driving to the rim and getting hammered take up energy

Solution: Run a modern day team based offense like Spurs and GSW where you keep the ball moving until you get a good shot instead of one guy holding onto the ball for 20 seconds

 

No. It's terrible logic. This team is built for transition offense. What is most taxing to Harden is playing half-court possessions. Yet, he's doing that to himself by being a defensive turnstile out there. If he D'd up, we'd get more stops, turnovers, and runouts and our offense would be even more efficient.

The Rockets pace would slow down some if they actually played D. And if they played D and got more runouts, then they could finish more of those possessions without Harden. It's very simple folks. Everything for this team starts on the defensive end. It does not start on the offensive end. Harden is shooting himself in the foot by not D'ing up. Playing defense should be his FIRST priority, not his LAST.

There's no excuse for not playing D. It's a matter of desire and drive. Harden is way too talented not to play D.

More faulty logic Sam. We're losing. And everything starts on the defensive end. When we don't stop guys, we've got to come down and set up half-court with Harden pounding the basketball for 17 seconds. It's ridiculous. We do not have the floor-spreading shooters to run efficient half-court sets. We've got to get in transition. THAT STARTS ON THE DEFENSIVE END! If Harden wants to lighten his load he needs to D up and demand everybody on the floor D up!!! Be a leader! Be the man!! Make your guys D up by D'ing up yourself so you can then demand it of everybody else!!!

Instead he's whining about playing too many minutes and justifying his total lack of effort on the defensive end. That's not want championship mettle superstars do, Sam. Harden is losing this season. He's responsible for that.

 

Let's give him 24 minutes the next game, see how good his defense gets.

 

I said, I'm not making an excuse for Harden.

I'm saying the past mpg data is irrelevant, since everyone played more minutes so everyone was also tired equally -- it balances out. Analytics of player-tracking is changing mpg. So we can assume the players are all fresher now vs the past, which is arguably evident in the return to a much faster pace in the NBA now vs the '90s.

Can you not agree that playing 3-5 mpg more than other offensive stars is an issue across all eras.

 

this dude is such a whiny little b****. Doesn't take care of his body, drinks late at night, isn't disciplined and then has the balls to say this?

 

At times "ISO ball" with Harden works great. He is a great ISO player. That is a nice "facet" of an offense. But the whole offense?

The Rockets force Harden to play 40mpg because if they take him out, the house of cards falls down. There is no offense without Harden's gravity.

The addition of Lawson was supposed to, I guess, give the Rockets....TWO ISO ball guys and then the Rockets could maximize their ISO! 2 for the price of 1! Something happened along the way.

I agree that the Rockets offense doesn't seem progressive. Golden State and San Antonio are advance stats users. Their offense flows and don't fall apart like a house of cards when you take out 1 player. They are more more difficult to scheme for and can weather some shooting slump storms by being more diversified.

 

I wish I could rep you again.
It's incredible that with our system people can't understand that good defence is NEEDED. For the freaking offence.

Good defence brings good offence.
Same as good offence brings better defence.

But when it comes to the Rockets the colleration between defence and offence is even more pronounced than other teams.

 

Funny, the only current player who plays 37+ minutes, besides Harden, does so at an All-Star level on *both ends*. James isn't too tired, he's too lazy and selfish.

If Harden truly is too tired, he should sit more and/or let Lawson run the show more. Or how about an ISO reduction.

 

He played like 1 or 2 min less per game last season and he was a lot better. And we are barely a month in.

C'mon man, dude is just out of shape.

 

Oh damn

 

A strong leader wouldn't be making these kind of remarks to the media at this point of a disastrous session. Nobody wants to here these kind of excuses. It's like he's trying to invoke a pity party. It's just weak of him. This is something you discuss inside the organization/team. Shows lack of leadership and lack of intelligence too. Like I've said several times, I've lost respect for Harden this year and don't care if he stays or goes. He can leave, get traded, whatever for all I care.

 

Khloe gets her exercise by traveling between him and Lamar.

Step up James.

Jordan wouldn't date Khloe.