Fixed? Because, as is, he is certainly a liability. I'm giving him a pass (as hard as it is sometimes) this season. If he is as horrible next season, I will be worried.
fair take. but his role on OKC was a sixth man and never really complained about it before? only when he had a bad game, in a big WIN? he was looking at the stat sheet, in the locker room, while his other teammates were celebrating the win. anyway, that was last year and i'm sure he has learned from it. like i said, imo, he's been much, much better than expected this year all things considered. next year will be a big year for the team. i expect top 4 in western conference even with the current players.
It wasn't a role that he held for long and even so to play the minutes he played that game was not the minutes of a 6th man. I think any player that thinks he's a great player would complain in a situation where they played seemingly limited minutes and were healthy. We saw it from Pau earlier in the year and from all accounts he's a selfless player...but he's not going to sit aruond content while the coach benches him for too long.
like i said... that's another fair way to look at it. and makes total sense if the team ends up losing but after winning a huge game 1 of the finals?? and he probably didn't get that many minutes because he wasn't playing well, 'cause like you said, he normally gets 30min a game and in this game he got 20 (not small, btw) and most of all, 5 shots. getting 20min as a sixth man in a winning game shouldn't be an issue and cause to complain. can't compare to pau because it was after many LOSING games that pau started to voice his displeasure. in harden's case it was one game, a winning game, where he didn't get as many minutes/shots/points as he had wanted. simple as that.
That's you though. People like to think "Well I'd be happy." but maybe he wouldn't? Iverson a extremely competitive player isn't willing to play some bench role to get a championship. Kobe said the same thing and I'm sure Jordan could have went out playing as some guy who comes in knocks down a few jumpers and be a 'contributor' but that's not for everyone. Harden realizes that a player his caliber should be playing more than that...and hey even Lin can seem frustrated when he's not finishing games. It's really not that big a deal, all it says is he wants to play and be out there. It's like the people that got on Marcus Morris for sulking and sending out tweets about his lack of PT the first year. I said it then too "Would rather want a guy who WANTS to play than be content and happy on the bench...like Thabeet."
Defensive is all about "desire". In High School you didn't play if you didn't play D in practice and you definitely didn't play on the black top if you didn't D up and rebound. The older guys took all of the shots and you maybe played in 1 or 2 games over 3 hours. Not this generation, everyone is hooked on the AAU style of D. U score I score, if u miss that's ur fault and you can't start playing D on me. That is James Harden to a T. He has to be rated the easiest 2 guard to score on in the L. Doesn't hustle for long defensive rebounds and does that reach around ish that drives u nuts. Has the ability to stay in front of his man but doesn't do it consistently and freakish long arms to block shots. He needs a head coach to get in that A and remove him when his D suffers. Period end of story. Rather watch Rockets lose playing better D than Harden go for 40 and Rockets lose. If he's the max player we think he is, then I know D came with the job description. I look forward to Kelvin Sampson running this team and making Lin and Harden play acceptable D.
I don't think Defense is about effort much. Some of it is...but you have to want to do anything to do it at all any ways. Scola and D-mo surely go out and put effort on defense...that doesn't always help. Nash...a 2x MVP has been a horrible defender and he still gives effort. That's why I think Harden...a below average to average defender is a superstar player...because Nash won 2 MVPs not playing any defense at all. Dirk has always been a superstar despite his sometimes just average defense. I don't know why people think Harden has to be Lebron James to just be a superstar player. Because if he becomes a great defender then he literally would be just like Lebron James but in a SGs body. I mean offensively he's a mini-Lebron. His shot isn't always on like Lebron. He bullies his way into the paint like Lebron. He creates for others just like Lebron. On defense though Lebron could be DPOY and that's a big difference between Harden and Lebron. That's alright though, because he still does a TON for the team and it's silly to throw it all out the window because he's not great at everything like Lebron is.
i don't think anybody is saying to throw it out the window. and nobody as expecting him to be lebron. people are asking for harden to at least not be a liability on D, and make his teammates play 4 on 5, and that's what is happening right now. he gives up on virtually any transition D, and it's the most frustrating thing to see. he seems to have the tools to play decent D but doesn't give the effort and it's obvious. exert some energy on D; with the offensive talent on this team, he doesn't have to try to carry the offensive for the whole 48 minutes.
