Wasn't Harden trusted with some defensive assignments last years in the playoffs? I know there was a big deal about him guarding Lebron, but I don't know for how long and under what circumstances. Still, he has shown he can defend, which is already better than, say, Kevin Martin.
While I do think Harden needs to pick it up on the defensive end, usually Harden goes out because the other team's bench is in, so the players are not as good and thus they score less?
Maybe couch staff can create a defense system to hide harden's defense. But the other 4 must be defense specialist. Which team can afford that? Even talented OKC can't.
I share the general sentiment of the OP. But in reality, come playoff time, you really need some 'hero' balls a la Harden or Linsanity to get points. So, it's OK that the team practice on that aspect in regular seasons too. But you are right that better defense from Harden would help a lot. And that's when the team needs another star-level scoring anchor to lessen Harden's load on offense, which would save some energy for defense. The closest championship team to 'democratic ball' was the Pistons. In 1-2 years with expected maturity, the Harden/Lin backcourt may be about the same level of Billups/Hamilton in their prime regarding aggregate impact. But the rest of team has long ways to go to emulate the impact of Prince/Rasheed/BenWallace in their prime.
That is the point! His big contract had been forcing the management to put him over the team to pad his stats.
Wow you are serious ... You may now be the most ignorant poster in the GARM.. Not an easy thing to achieve.
Harden don't need to sacrifice stats , cuz defense is part of stats also. Staff need to work on how not to ruin the team defense chemistry when hardens on court.
I have no evidence to back it up, but I think (overly) relying on Harden this season has gotten us many more wins than losses. Yes, it's not a sustainable strategy for the long term, but it nevertheless gave us a winning culture, which you can't underestimate. Also, it bought this VERY young team valuable time as it develops and learns how to play with one another. I don't blame McHale because he really has no other option, especially in the beginning of the season, unless his goal was to tank from the get go. Personally, I'm glad he didn't panic and try for a short-term payoff, such as recreating Linsanity or even making D-mo the focal point of the offense. He's sticking to his guns and doing what's right for the team in the long run, while keeping them moderately competitive. Harden's burnout was bound to come at some point. It's time for other players to continue to step up like they did vs. the Clippers, and for Morey to find at least one more star player to complement Harden in the coming seasons.
Could you please provide with link. Thanks! If we are better than Jazz and Lakers while we are so much better in offense, what does that tell you about Rockets? We are what we are; an average defensive team with flaws and a high pace offensive team. To say we are a bottom ten in defense is really misleading.
This was the first time in my rockets fanhood where I was actually wondering why the refs were against the other team haha
Correct. Also, it's a shame that people keep comparing Harden's defense to Kevin Martin's. Let's aim a little higher.
I don't know, when the Rockets lose, people around here act like the world is imploding. Based on reading Clutchfans' posts, when the Rockets win, McHale kicks kittens for fun. When the Rockets lose, McHale slaughters kittens and then drinks their blood (while plotting to destroy Jeremy Lin's confidence in his spare time).
rep. coz our strong D, TOs didn't impact the game as much as someone made them look like it were the case.
I find it showing how valid this thread is when Harden sits and all of the sudden we hold the Clippers to 81 points! pretty impressive! not saying we are not better with Harden but we certainly are better defensively! I say Mchale tells Harden he isn't playing again the rest of the regular season if he doesn't show some intensity in practice. Because you know Harden wants to play even though that ankle is killing him
Yeah! Bench your best player because your ego is so inflated that one game changes your entire personal perception of your team... Oh wait, a ClutchFans idiot troll isn't coaching the team? Yeah... they'll probably just start him when he's ready to come back.
I wish people would stop complaining about that. Name a star number one option on the perimeter that doesn't iso during the course of a game.
