It's up to the coaching staff to hold ALL players accountable, even their franchise player...similar to how Woodson did to Melonoma last year. I personally haven't seen any changes or improvements in Harden's defense this entire time, so I am beginning to wonder if the coaching staff are afraid to confront him and are walking on eggshells with him. For the first time in his career Melo has realized this and look at the results for the Knicks. I really hope Harden just realizes this by himself and picks it up defensively.
this is not on harden but on all of our guards...don't lag off to much from the 3 point shooter! There was no stopping the pick and roll, if they went under it, parker had an open 25 footer. if they went over it, duncan rolled to the basket. Both the fuhrer and now mchale do not believe in the trap. it's a trap!
yes. there has to be accountability for all players not playing defense, even if you are a star, especially if you star. if the star isn't playing defense, other players would think "why should i?". Harden has to set a good example. it doesn't hurt to put a little extra effort on the defensive side. btw, i think Delfino is going to get shipped out for a defensive minded backup sg.
Harden is a beast offensively but a liability defensively. Parsons, Lin, and TD all worked their ass off defending. Even though TD got lit up by Parker but you could see he was trying to fight through great wall of Timmy's screen and extend his arm in front of Parker's face. You don't see that kind of effort in Harden's D. On one of Spurs fast break, they had one guy handling the ball and the other guy trailing. Houston had Parsons trying to out run and stay in front of the ball handler, and Harden was between the 2 Spurs guys. He just decided it's not worth running with Parsons and let Parsons go 1 on 2. Last night's game was really entertaining but it pissed me off with Aldrich and Harden's defense. I don't blame Aldrich because the effort was there. He's just not very good. I didn't understand why Smith couldn't be on the floor more than Morris and Aldrich. He could make a huge difference in the paint both ends. Anyways, I don't care if Harden is going to make 4 out 4 shots in 2 min when he's also going to give up 4 out of 4 open 3s. Green was wide open all 1st qtr which imo that killed the Rockets. Momentum will change throughout a game but the 1st qtr was just unacceptable.
Nothing new though. In high school he was that way...even in college. He lacked the "motor" that Collins always talked about. Collins wasn't referring to his offensive motor BTW. As I said previously, time for some accountability for ALL our players.
If Lin made those defensive mistakes, Sampson would meet Lin half court just to bark his head off. But they look the other way when Harden does it.
It was on a lot of the team. People act as if Harden's man was the only guy getting open shots. Duncan had open shots, Parker had open shots, Manu had open shots, pretty much their whole team had a open shot if they wanted it. Harden is not a 'liability' on defense. Players that are so bad at defense like this they are attacked on defense all night long.
I think some of the ppl here are singling out Harden because in many games they have seen him not making any sort of effort to even contest the shots. They are not saying the defense by the other players was superb by any means, but they can see the effort more.
People are mad because they don't see the effort every single play I suppose. But the effory is there, I've seen Harden plenty of times chase a guy down on the fast break or chase a guy around screens. With the way some people talk you'd think he doesn't try at all and is just standing in one spot the whole time.
I think one of the things with Harden is that he doesn't have the body type to defend a lot of the SG/SF that he might be matched up with besides comparable speed. But truthfully, the entire team outside of Asik plays horrible one on one defense most of the time, even last season's defensive stars like Parsons and Patterson.
Sometimes I'm nt sure if he's got the lateral quickness to be a good defender. Ive never sen any evidence of it. Then again he forces the other guy to d on him and tires him out on offense so maybe it works anyway.
When you're playing 4 in 5, and being relied upon as the primary scoring option, if you're putting up 100% on the defensive end, you're not going to last even if you're Lebron James.
Harden could be trying to save his energy for the btb OKC game in the beginning, got humiliated by the perimeter 3pt shooting and then almost got fouled out later in the game. All our guards were doing very well after the first quarter. Parsons was excellent. Jeremy's "lay-up" 10 feet away from the hoop was impressive.
This led to his foul of Parker near the perimeter at the last few seconds of the clock. And how regretful he was after committing the foul. It's a good learning experience for Harden.
Harden is not only a lazy defender, but he simply doesn't have elite foot quickness. His athleticism shines on the offensive end because he's crafty with the ball and can use his long strides and good quickness/speed to cover alot of ground. But when asked to simply get in a proper and low defensive stance and move laterally and change directions quickly, he doesnt do as well.
It is true that Harden (and some other great offensive players) conserve their defensive energy for offensive purposes. But the truly great players do great on both ends. Examples: Hakeem, Bird, Jordan, Duncan, LeBron, Durant.
Although elite foot quickness does help someone be a good defender, it is not the end all be all requirement for being a defensive monster. Look at Bruce, Shane, and Kirelinko (just to name a few). They were fantastic at reading tendencies of their opponents and exploiting them. In addition, if you watch then play defense, they use their arms as distractions and use their feet to play defense. People that are not taught how to play defense always try to play defense with their arms..(reminds me of Greg Smith of last year), which ends up making it seem like they continuously are getting beat. If you look at Harden, he tends to rotate his hips instead of sliding. This is mainly because hes playing defense with his arms and reaching for the ball. In addition, another thing thats taught is always stay grounded until your opponent leaves the ground...Harden got eaten on that one Even though these things can be easily fixed...I don't believe he can be a true 2 way player...
