Are Harden's off court activities hurting his play?

The problem is guaranteed contracts.... he's gonna get paid - regardless...

 

He sat out of a couple of games because of the foot injuries. I would think that is the reason he is playing bad. I doubt he just started sucking or is out doing whatever at night and not caring about his game.

Did you see the spring in his step and how well he was moving in the preseason? I think he has been hurt the whole season. He started the season with a back or neck injury, turned his ankle the 2nd or 3rd game, then has been dealing with foot problems since. The coaching staff needs to sit him until he is all the way better.

 

nah the foot's good enough on offense to drop 37 the other day.
If the foot is a nagging issue then he needs to drop some weight.

Look at Kevin Love, he was putting up great stats, but his knees were bothering him, he went out dropped some weight and now he's even more of a beast and he learned how to shoot the three.

 

Lame excuse. They are ballers not some divas in the making.

 

This style of plays from Harden needs to be stopped and needs to be stopped right away,chucking up shots like he has no team mates, making other players play like a superstars for not playing defense,it's just pathetic.Yes he score a bunch but he will give up more points against opponents w/ his matador defense, and give up the ball like candies for his TO's leading to fast breaks.There is no excuse for this kind of players making up a max contract,Dwight is starting to whine already and for sure this is directed towards him,if this can't be fixed right away,it's just a matter of time for the locker room to explode and we are in a brink of doomsday in Rocketsland.If Mchale can't fixed this problem somebody needs to step up!!!

 

So ship him to a dark place like Utah, Torotno or Charlotte next season if he doesn't prove he can play D and involve teammates...I know you hurt the team for at least one season, but with Harden you hurt the team until end of his contract if he doesn't get his act together.

 

Agreed if these stories are true, then he needs to start being a professional. However, for some perspective he is now a millionaire at the age of 24. This is where we need some vets on this team.

I think we need to pull of an Asik trade just to get another vet who has been there and done that to be a positive influence.

This rhetoric that Harden is some ball hog just chucking up shots is ridiculous. PJ Tucker did an almost perfect defensive job on Harden. Their entire defense played well.

I need to repeat again about turnovers...the entire team has a problem controlling the ball. If Harden has a low turnover game, it is Lin with the TO's, if Lin looks after the ball it i s Dwight with heaps of turnovers.

People are also suggesting that Howard is whining. I expect Howard to come out and say what he said...when the effort isn't there it is time to call the team out. Howard wasn't saying his teammates were the only people with this issue. He talked about how WE have to learn, WE need to work hard, WE WE WE.

Also, his defense issues are technical. Positioning is so important and if you are not in defense position when your man has the ball, that guy is going to be gone with no chance to stopping him. So it looks like Harden doesn't care and just swats at the ball. He gets in horrible defensive positioning. It is just as big an issue as if it was no effort, but it can be fixed.

Go watch the Basketball Breakdown videos of OKC when harden was there. Durant and Westbrook had the same defensive issues.

When he is in defensive position before his opponent gets the ball, he can stay in front of guys. Coaches in this league are smart and it only takes one coach (Doc Rivers in LAC this year) to expose those weaknesses. So Doc would get him on the weakside and find his man once he gets in bad position (where he can only see the ball and not the man), run him around multiple screens, run the pnr through his man etc.

Next game watch when he is on the weakside and see how high he is compared to his man. The ball is in front of him, but his man is half a step below him. So he can't see his man. The coaching staff should if they have not already points this out to him and get him to drop down lower.

So basically he needs to start being more of a professional and stop hitting the clubs so much and get in the gym and watch some film and FIX IT!

Seriously we could pick apart the game of every player and find issues with their games. There is no need act like the world is over. The Timberwolves are under .500, Miami has lost to 4 teams under .500. Brooklyn is a disaster, New York is a disaster. We are 2 games out of 2nd spot right now.

If there is any time for Harden to turn things around on that end of the floor it is now. We have Golden State twice, Portland, Dallas, Spurs and OKC. If we lose these games we will drop, but if we can win them we can separate ourselves.

 

It's easy to get on harden's case, but McHale is the one who wants him to play point guard and has put Lin, the playmaking point guard, on the bench and Beverly in the starting line up to cover Harden's deficiencies.

If we get a coach that can hold Harden more accountable on defense and insist he plays off the ball more, taking good shots then we can see the monster Harden from the beginning of last season again. If Mchale won't do it, someone else has to.

Though I am worried that Mchale's poor coaching has given Harden a very entitled attitude and that it is going to be hard to change that now. The other option is to get another ball dominant superstar, like Rondo, which will force Harden to defer a little more.

Either that or we pray Harden grows up sometime soon because it looks like Dwight is getting frustrated as well.

 

What were YOU doing there?

 

social research

 

If Lin can focus, so should Harden.

 

That don't mean anything. I know plenty of NBA players that drink heavily and can still play at a professional level. Not everyone is like Vijn Baker. everyone has different bodytypes.

 

That is a perfect comparison. I just hope the guns stay out of the locker room!

Harden seems like he's just in it for the fame and what comes along with that. He's still young, so I hope he matures and starts to take his game a little more seriously. That just seems so out of place with the rest of the guys in the locker room so maybe it can be handled internally.

Something needs to change soon. I'll never bail on my team, but for the first time ever, I woke up this morning and the thought of watching them on Friday night didn't sound appealing.

 

I'm guessing naked women had something to do with it.

 

plenty of nba legens had the wear and tear of the nightly grind and still managed to perform on all three ends, on the court and off. Harden isn't all that if he can't handle a couple of strippers at night.

 

It's amazing the highs and lows of being a fan.

 

Serious question, not trolling... just wondering if it is possible that Harden's lower effort on D is actually a combined management/coaching/player choice, with the idea being that he is surrounded by players who pick up his share of defensive effort so that he focuses being the marquee offensive player?

 

nobody was complaining about his off court activity when he was sharp and playing at a high level.

 

Cocaine's one hell of a drug!

 

rofl i highly doubt that, that would be the worst coaching/management decision ever if that was true. but for sure harden concentrates on scoring rather than defending. saves all his energy on that end of the court. need a defensive minded coach, and start to play from there rather than offense.

which coaches are good defense coaches in the league left to hire?