didn't the players have a meeting where they talked about who wasn't getting back on defense and other problems they had? so if harden gets excused from playing bad defense, what message does that send to his team mates? isn't he the team leader or star player?
So does Amar'e Stoudemire. Are you saying you want him to turn into a an offensive powerhouse who gives up tons of points on the other end by playing matador D? I would think that as a Rockets fan, one would prefer that he play superstar D as well. Lebron was in talks for DPOY last year because of his versatility, and yet he had no problem being an offensive force. Harden is young and his game is still being shaped on his way to his prime. How he is treated will effect his development. Lavish praise on his offense and excuse his lack of effort on defense and you'll end up with Amar'e Stoudemire's development. Hold him accountable for defense as well as offense and maybe he can develop into a two-way player like Lebron.
Harden's defense has been less than stellar, mainly due to how much he has to work on offense. He's hardly the worst, though. He certainly is no Kobe or Carmelo, who bleed points on the defensive end.
really? Kobe might be a bit overrated when it comes to his defense, but there is a reason why he was in 9 times NBA All-Defensive First Team (2000, 2003–2004, 2006–2011) and in 3 times NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2001–2002, 2012). Basically starting from 2000, every year he is chosen as one of the best defenders. The NBA All team is not chosen by fans like All-Star was, it's chosen by the coaches in the league. It's safe to say the coaches know better than us average fans. As for Westbrook, hardly ever puts efforts? He is active on the defensive end, he runs fast to the defensive end he chases the opponent. He might be lost sometimes due to his average BBIQ, but he always put effort on defense. His high steal number (higher than Lin's) is just one of the indication.
Danny Green was not getting threes off of Isolations as like just jacking up threes. He was getting threes off of ball movement and plays and that is not ALWAYS on Harden but team defense over all. The Spurs will execute teams to death and the only way to stop them is to be solid as a team. Any ways, defense is more importantly a unit thing. This is how some times a average defender could look good when he's playing on a great team defense. You see this all the time really. I could point out times where Harden was beat yesterday one on one...but it didn't matter because the guy who came in the lane was instantly challenged. Or rather times where Harden was screened but a timely switch prevents a open shot. Also I HIGHLY doubt that he isn't being targeted on defense by other teams because they haven't had a report out on him. It's way too late in the season for that and every time Harden has a bad 3 games or so some people here will go "Welp, they figured him out! Oh well, he's been exposed!" It's not that complicated to isolate a bad defender and get him into foul trouble. Good coaches do this in the middle of a game on the fly all the time. If he was so terrible/horrible it wouldn't take them this long to figure it out.
I know what you mean. I agree some coaches in the league are clueless (I'm not talking about McHale, although I still do have reservation about him ). By the way, my previous post has a little mistake when I said the All NBA team is chosen by coaches, no, it's actually chosen by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. That's even more unbiased than the coaches.
But Harden doesn't get excused. Craig Ackerman was talking about how the coaches have been on him for his defense just today. (Good question, BimaThug!) http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/rocketscast-live-second-wind (29:25). It is and the Spurs will make you rotate like probably no other team in the NBA, however Harden simply over-helped by unnecessarily sagging off Green multiple times that game. It's usually not his individual defense that negatively stands out, but rather his off-ball D. Again, though, he's been better lately and better days may be ahead from that standpoint.
This thread proves that there is no difference between LOFs and HOFs. You guys deserve each other. Criticize your preferred players and the excuses/outrage mounts. These guys are both young ( and Lin has barely played a full season ). If you're going to use the age/xp excuse it goes for both sides. They will both improve. Hardens defense has been anywhere from pathetic to just bad this year. Fortunately he contributes in other ways
I wouldn't mind seeing their defensive stats compared. I can't say we are getting much more from harden than we did from Kmart.
Who are some of the HOF? (note: they had to have joined after he was traded or else they wouldn't be HOFs). I agree they are both young and should be let develop. They are a good team right now (with a few problems like coaching at times and PF situation), but they are not contenders (not like anyone expected them to be)
Yeah and I've said this many times. He'll often just lose his man on the ball and will get caught ball watching a lot. This is coachable though and he's getting better at playing team defense. His man defense is really not bad like Martin's was, so that is why you really don't see teams just attack him relentlessly. Well I sure hope you aren't talking about me since I've been here since Harden was even a NBA player. As far as I'm concerned, I'd prefer Lin, Harden, Parsons, Patterson, and Asik all be top 5 players at their position.
Join doesn't mean much. My join date is pretty recent ( my longest held account was banned thanks to a friend of mine ) but I have been a member of clutchfans since 04 and lurked for longer than that.
Morey said in a recent interview that Harden is elite on O and "doesn't kill you on D." When Harden gives an effort, this is true-- he makes some nice defensive plays (mostly steals that he gambles for, not the worst thing n the world) and doesn't, for example, get hung up on picks or bullied by opponenrs like Kevin Martin used to. However, he went through a stretch where he was giving 08/09 McGrady level of (non-)effort on the defensive end. Had a play vs. Philly when he just flat out gave up defending a breakaway layup by Holiday. Very TMac in Toronto vs. JaMario Moon like. His effort level has improved of late, though.
In playoffs the game becomes more of a half-court battle. Even if we try best, imo, we wouldn't have be able to achieve the same pace and and fast breaks as in regular season. Also the refs won't give a lot calls to Harden when he drives to the basket. So we won't have the luxury to have high scores and win the game simply from the offensive end like we have been done so far. In the playoffs we simply can't afford to have a weak link in our defense. Defense usually wins games. It's especially true in the playoffs. And every one on the team has to play better defense to for us to have a hope. Plus unlike skinny Kevin Martin, Harden has the strong body to be a good defender. There is no reason he can't improve if he puts more efforts into it. I do agree with you turnovers control and crashing the defensive boards are all huge factors, too.
I'm assuming you can read comments just as well as I can. Reactions were about what in would expect from someone criticizing Lin ( maybe not as annoyingly over the top ) Yeah it sucks because harden is our star, but the dudes defense is pretty weak and Lowe isn't wrong. There really isn't any excuse for it either. People can't bash Melo for his d and brush it aside for harden. Well, I guess you can but then they are hypocrites .
