ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Kings 12/15/2015

Harden no defense, garbage time points, ****ty effort somehow manages to get by the fans everytime.

 

The Number one culprit of bad defense is poor coaching.

It's never on one man to play transition defense. Whether Harden can go back on defense is dependent on the play. If he's driving how is he supposed to be the one to get back on defense if there is a miss?

 

So I always go back to the same question, who exactly are you going to bring in here, with these "terrible" role players. You think a team is ready to give up a Ryan Anderson for Corey Brewer or Jones?

 

Again Harden's turnovers are on par with other superstars because he has the ball a lot. He is not great or even good defensively but that's not the same as blaming him for everything which really shouldn't be done. All you have to do is watch Corey Sewer and Terrance Jones play basketball and you just know Harden is not the primary reason our defense sucks or that we are losing as a whole. Howard doesn't even bother boxing out anymore, lol.

 

https://instagram.com/p/_VwXvJIC-T/

Don't think this is on coaching at all. It's simple awareness and laziness

 

Seriously.

Brewer gambles on EVERYTHING. Does anyone not realize what this does? It causes the defense to scramble every time and puts guys out of position. Rockets have bad defensive principles. If a guy like Brewer continues to do this it's because the coaches allow him to do so.

 

https://instagram.com/p/_VwXvJIC-T/

Don't think this is on coaching. It's simple awareness and laziness

 

ahaha really??? So the center and the powerforward will go back in transition defence? The responsibillity for transition defence is for the WINGS. This has nothing to do with coaching this is the same in every team. The WINGS have to leak out first to stop the fastbreak.
And guess who is the wing of the team? HARDEN. And non surprisingly he finds himself a lot of times in transition defence as he should and he is horrible. The MOST horrible transition defender in the whole league.

TRANSITION DEFENCE =/= HALF COURT DEFENCE.
TRANSITION DEFENCE IS NOT THE RESPONSITIBILLITY FOR ALL THE TEAM LIKE HALF COURT DEFENCE.

 

What a complete liar. Now I'm really worried.

 

When you have players playing this badly against bottom of the barrel teams what does that suggest to you? Given that we are not going to trade James Harden but we still need to beat these teams I would say finding role players are not going to be that hard because all they need to do is play defense and hit open shots decently. Taking Corey Sewer and Tj out and playing Thorton more maybe getting a pf/center who is a decent rebounder and defender would help. It's not impossible like you are making it seem given the way the role players have played like D league players.

 

I meant the video.

 

Don't look at number of turnovers. Look at points scored from turnovers and tell me who hurts his team more.
And who cares about Corey Brewer? Are we going to compare now (real mvp ) Harden to Corey Brewer who has one of the worst 5 contracts in the league will require a salary dump with serious sweetener to get rid of?

 

And? This team is still heavily reliant on James Harden and at the same time he is one of the worst defenders in the NBA. How are these two statements mutually exclusive?

 

A scramble play where James runs out to Gay who drives and then has to run out to Cassipi is the example for being lazy? So what about the other members of the team?

Umm, I never said it was on the center or PF. But you can't really expect the player taking the shot unless it is a three point shot to then run back on defense.

Sometimes a fastbreaking team will send the player out on a run when the player he's guarding shoots the ball. So you tell me, how is Harden supposed to shoot a 3 and simultaneously get back on defense?

Again, it depends. If you think it is all about the wings you are wrong. It's about where the team puts emphasis on.

Harden has the ball a lot, he takes the most shots. You are saying it is the responsibility of the guy who is taking the shots to take the shot and then also run back? That's unrealistic, especially for a player that likes to drive as much as Harden does. He can't drive, miss a layup...THEN run back.

Now, if Harden is on the perimeter without the ball it is on him. It's on whoever is furthest from the rim at that time. UNLESS the team is meant to play more half court and instead put more effort into team rebounding and going for the miss shot and Oreb.

If you want to know the real reason for poor transition defense just look at our offense.

Poor shots and poor offense leads to that. Chucking up 3s that don't go in leads directly to that.

 

Runs out to Rudy gay with the pattened lazy poke around defense forcing ariza to help then giving up a open shot. What about the other players in this play. Everyone found their matchup initially. The possession went downhill once harden finally realized where his man was and decided to let him go to the basket

 

Well when you are blaming Harden for the team's losses then they are not exclusive at all. Before you bring up your Strawman thing realize I'm not talking about you.

But several posters have said Harden is the problem on the team. One guy said "This team will never win a championship with James Harden." that doesn't make it any more clearer.

 

No you are not logically connecting one thing to another. Harden's value and what he does for this team is much higher than Corey Sewers. So like any star Harden can afford do not do some things well. Would we like him to? Yes But he's not perfect. Brewer makes worse mistakes than Harden and doesn't have an upside. He is supposed to be a good defender - He's not. He should be a spark off the bench - He's not. He's never been a good three point shooter so overall he hurts the team because he can't accomplish the good things that Harden can and he is just as bad or worse at the things that Harden is bad at. Replacing him would be a big positive for the team. Same with Jones. You have to look at whether or not they are doing their main job at the very least and none of our role players and Dwight are really doing what they were brought here to do. You can't blame that on Harden. Dwight is rebounding well overall but not lately and wasn't he supposed to come here to be a second star and a post up threat? He's not. So Harden is our only go to and the only other guy who scores well the coach decided not to play and he went with his homeboy 60 year old Jason Terry. Coaching, role players and Dwight not being an offensively player while getting 23 mil a year are our biggest problems.

 

Yeah, well that's why getting Orebs leads to easy shots. You should be more upset at Dwight for not getting the rebound and leaving his team in a scramble mode like that.

If you want to get on anyone for being lazy how about your starting center get more than 4 rebs?

 

People were blatantly blaming Harden for everything you shouldn't have to explain yourself he probably hasn't been reading the thread, lol.

 

No bc it's not on Dwight in this specific play. He wasn't even in the area to grab that rebound yet he got back in the right position to defend. So no there's no reason to be upset with him on this particular play.

There's plenty of blame to go around. But things like this have definitely taken a toll on this team and it clearly shows