I like Magic but he is prone to hyperbole. Our own commentators have mentioned Harden's matador defense and lack of effort. Sure he's capable of playing good defense from time to time, but its his lack of effort throughout the season. Our team defense sucks but Harden is a key factor. Faried abused Greg Smith and every one else out there tonight but we know our PFs are projects at the moment and we know they're our weak spot. Parsons has been playing mediocre defense this season for the most part cf. what he is capable of. A lot of it is because he's carrying a bigger offensive load, but I'm confident now (I was a harsh critic of his defense earlier) that another reason is because of Harden. He's consistently slow to get back to his man, he's regularly out of position, he ball watches regularly, he does a statue impression and gives up when beaten on the drive, he often leaves shooters too much space to close out, he gets mixed up on switches. Everyone on this team has their share of defensive lulls, but Harden does this the most outside of our rookie PFs. He's the franchise player and team leader, he needs to be putting more effort on that end rather than none at all.
I do remember the warriors board being trolled by LOF during linsanity and when they first cut him so it isn't a stretch to think that he is a LOF. That being said you probably shouldn't use join date as an only indicator even though the bulk of the worst posts on this board do come from a specific join date. There are also some great posters too who get drowned out with generalizations.
You are really stretching here. If he were a LOF, he would have joined the Knicks forum at that time. What in the world would he want to do here in Feb 2012?
Troll the team that had cut him literally a month before he became the biggest story in sports? If you think thats a stretch on the internet then you are naive.
That's like saying Kemba Walker is the best offensive player on his NBA team. It means basically nothing because public individual defensive stats are more or less useless(or by Morey's standards, absolutely useless).
Now he puts no effort in it at all? I wonder where those steals come from then... Ball watching is not him having a lack of effort. It's ball watching. It's a mistake. It's like saying a turnover is a lack of effort, no it's a mistake. I hope our coaches are telling him "No this is a mistake, this is how you correct it" and not "You need to give more effort!" playing good defense is mental. The people that think defense is mostly effort are usually wrong. It's mostly mental. This is how guys like Battier and Bowen can still defend well into their career because they know what other players are going to do. Allen too. Defenders a lot of times get better with age because they have experience and knowledge. When our rookie PFs do this do they get called out for a 'lack of effort?' because it's not. When LMA was getting mid range jumpers all day it wasn't a lack of effort, it was just the mistake of big man not being ready to guard a stretch 4. Just like how Ppat would get all those open jumpers, big man just aren't usually ready for it. Any ways. Most championship teams have a guy dedicated 100% to defense. The Rockets do not. They all have guys that are only getting paid for one reason. Also not many guys really shoulder the load on defense AND offense are Jordan and Lebron. Also Jordan had Scottie Pippen, a all-time defender and Lebron has Wade and Battier. Chris Paul and Gary Payton come to mind, but they are Point Guards and can only do so much on that side any ways besides just be disruptive. The Rockets need a role guy or two whose only job is to play defense, because Harden is going to be worried about other things and they need that guy whose jacked to play defense all the time...any ways according to Harden it's Lin that's the team leader any ways.
That's a pretty HUGE stretch.. back then I didn't even know Lin had been cut by the Rockets, I knew he played for the Warriors at one point...
Synergy sucks as a way to measure how good a defender someone is. Defense is one of those things you need to use your eye test with because there are no reliable stats. Harden's a good help defender & team defender but not good at covering his man. He drifts off to help and is slow to get back, doesn't have good lateral quickness, and isn't always committed. Do we really need another thread where we hate on Harden though? Feels like every time Harden is brought up we are saying something bad or discrediting him. Need some HoFs on this board to yell at people when they talk about James.
No stat is a perfect encapsulation of defensive ability. And sure they may all be useless but honestly I trust a combination of the eye test & synergy much more so than I do just the eye test or just synergy. And by both standards Harden is decidedly mediocre. Really don't know why this is being argued.
Mediocre is fine. I've said he's been mediocre at best all year. But people go way overboard and say he's horrible Or they blame the entire lack of defense as a team and put it all on him. I mean going by what some say you'd think Harden just stands in one spot on defense with his hands at his sides going "F it."
Ooops I screwed that post up. No stat is a perfect encapsulation of defensive ability. And sure they may all be useless but honestly I trust a combination of the eye test & synergy much more so than I do just the eye test or just synergy. And by both standards Harden is decidedly mediocre. Really don't know why this is being argued. Wait I am confused. So you provide stats to back your statement that Harden shouldn't be singled out on D . THen I provide stats that say a different story and then you respond saying that my stats mean nothing? Don't you see the faulty logic?
Read back to when the argument began then. No one said Harden's a good defender. Just that he's not a lazy, horrible, useless, doesn't give a crap defender.
I used those stats as a team setting. Not to rank Harden the way people use synergy to. If Harden is ranked 300 and Bargnani is top 10, I make absolutely no conclusion from that.
The guy you quoted is a LOF-OF. The only time you'll ever see him post is when its about LOFs, not even Lin, as if he has a personal vendetta.
we can't blame him too much, Harden carried the team on his shoulder most of the nights in this season.he is not a selfish a player. you can't ask him for more in such a young team. I think his defense is effected by the injury since the All star game.Hope he will get better
I didn't give you any rep bruh. Yes, he knew it in February. And in January. And in the January and February before that. And also, in the February equivalent of the Mayan Calendar.
I believe the last part was actually OP's post regarding Lin... RioFan probably should've put the whole thing in quotes: OP (from previous post about Lin): 'What happened to him? He used to attack the basket fearless he's way too passive... Worst pick up this season. Makes me miss Lowry and dragic' Dunno about you, but def sounds more like a troll/Lin hater than a Lin fan to me. First bashing on Lin, now bashing on Harden... OP just needs to GTFO.
Harden didnt look good today, but our fowrads were doing nothing. Garcia hit some shots but iggy was driving by at will, and the rotations went to poo creek. (Got infraction for vulgarity, must tone down the language)
