[Clutchfans] Dwight: Defensive woes "starts on the perimeter"

It seems like every post I read from you today makes you sound like a HARDEN APOLOGIST trying to deflect blame.

Those last 3-4 plays from Harden lost us the game IMHO.

 

Well Asik is a product of Chicago where intense, focsued team defense is required the whole game otherwise you don't play in crunch time.

The fact that Thibs played Asik over Joakim Noah of all people at the end of numerous games speaks volumes about what he can do.

Can you imagine going from a team where everyone always helps each other on both ends, to this selfish individual mess that is the Rockets. Yeah i'd be unhappy too.

 

Where did I excuse Harden of anything in that post?

I'm not the one making excuses, I'm saying Harden is part of the problem but so is every other PG, SG, and SF that is asked to defend a perimeter player. So is the coach. The team is at fault here, this problem is bigger than Harden.

Again...Tony Wroten and James Anderson had career nights against us and that had NOTHING to do with James Harden.

You guys remember when Burke went off against us? When Calderon got open 3 point shot after open 3 point shot?

When the Lakers had shooting practice against us?

I'm not the one excusing every other player here.

 

Everyone including Bill Worrell (LOL) knows when Dwight and whoever else is talking about perimeter defensive problems, they are talking about HAREN and no-one else.

 

Just admit it. More than any other player on the team, Harden is the biggest defensive liability. But thats not why we lost, we lost because of his 4 bone-headed plays down the stretch. Its a team game but this loss can be directly attributed to Harden.

 

This is a thread about the team's perimeter defense. Not about the last 4 possessions or "How can we put this loss entirely on Harden?" but it seems this is what every thread turns into...which is ironic because people always say a certain player is blamed for everything yet turn around and blame another player for literally anything that goes wrong with the team.

 

Also, on to the topic of this thread.

This will never get fixed, because the team thinks it is mostly about effort...but it is not. They can try as hard as they like but they are usually always in the wrong position.

They are helping on post players that are well defended, they are sometimes literally rotating OFF of a shooter. You will see them just leave a good shooter wide open...sometimes to defend no one...

It is a mess out there, and they will continue to be told that they need to try harder and harder when instead they need to understand what they are doing wrong...

Do we believe that they have never put in the effort? Surely some nights they have given terrific effort...but it never really results into a dominating defensive performance does it? We are still winning games outscoring teams, we are not smothering them...because that's impossible to do when you play bad defense as a team.

 

They need to watch tape and have their mistakes pointed out to them repeatedly. This is where a good coach comes in (which unfortunately this team doesn't have).

 

Rockets are probably afraid that if they start holding Harden accountable he will request for a trade .

 

Dwight spent 5? years with Stan, a coach that explicitly says defense is about coaching, not effort, but coaching. I don't think Dwight even believes what he's saying, but for now, if it helps his post game get better....

 

We've had PG's shut down before this season, by both Bev and Lin. Neither of those you have been consistent defensively this season, but they've been leagues and leagues better than Harden.

 

Someone keeps saying it's not about effort. Guess what? Dwight Howard said defense, "..IS ALL ABOUT EFFORT". So who do you think he was talking about? Hence the reason why one person's name keeps popping up.

 

Oh ok I misunderstood. And yea I agree. But to be fair, IT did take 17 shots to get 16 points, only making 6 shots.

 

Why would/should we? Not making this into Lin vs. Harden but I thought Lin did a decent enough job on D in recent games: Parker (3-of-11), Conley (4-of-14), Holiday (1-of-9). Even Thomas' 17p tonight was much lower than his 23.2p average for his prior 4 games. Of course, to be fair, Lin's D could use some improvement too, like leaving Calderon wide open in the Mavs game, ball watch, etc.

No one is doubting Harden's ability on D. It's his effort (or rather, the lack of) that worries people.

 

YES! James Harden for Kevin Love and Corey Brewer! Get er done Morey.

 

As bad as Harden's defense in the first half was, he didn't really give up anything in the 2nd half, and we led by 6 with 4 minutes left and 3 with a minute and a half, only to watch Isaiah and Demarcus go layup drill. It wasn't like we even made them win the game, we gave it to them.

 

this is what happen when your team lacks athletic players who aren't quick . Lin is decent, chandler isnt quick at all, garcia , casspi, tjones, etc are slow has hell. Athletic ability is something morey doesnt look for in players it seems.

 

Houston rockets need to start playing zone defense. They arent good enough for man to man

 

Agreed. People always say defense is about effort.

I disagree with that. Shane Battier knew that defense was about knowledge...he studied what his opponents liked to do and that prepared him for them. It's no coincidence that players get better defensively as they get older and some of the better defenders in the NBA are usually experienced guys.

To be good at anything you have to put effort in any ways. If people hear JVG when he has anything to say about defense they will/should immediately understand that knowledge is a big part of it.

You don't help your big in the post against a guy with no post up game, you don't go under a pick on a shooter, you don't gamble on the baseline and give your opponent a dunk/layup...etc etc...

I don't think the team has bad defenders, I think they just play bad team defense...and while James is a bad defender, If he turned into a good defender overnight I don't think he'd help our team defense all that much (unless he was a coach on the floor type like KG...) because we added one of the best defenders in the NBA (Dwight) and still have these defensive problems.

The coach is always preaching to play harder and they need to give effort on defense but guys aren't even in position right.

Yeah, I think the effort thing is overblown. Surely it matters but I think knowing HOW to defend your opponent is more important than just giving it your all.

Who cares if the result is the same? They've been better than Harden but guys are still going off on the Rockets, so it it's like what is the point? It's like averaging 20ppg on a crappy team.

The problem is even when Harden is giving effort, he's not in position. Just like A LOT of the players who do a lot of ball watching, gambling, overhelping, and in general confusion on rotating and switching.

I mean...how many times did we watch us SWITCH WITH LIN to get Lin on Dirk? Like 3 times? Do you believe that Lin was NOT giving effort then when Dirk easily scored on such an obvious mismatch?

I tend to rather believe that Dirk scored easier because the team (and coaches) seemed content to not give him help or get the ball out of his hands. They just watched as the Mavs continued to do the same exact thing over and over. A little understanding of the situation would have helped MORE than all out effort. All out effort does NOTHING there.

Because until it is consistent then it is a still a problem.

No one is arguing that Harden is the best defender on the team or close to it. What some of us are saying that (well I am...) is if you take Harden out...the problem is STILL there.

 

Thomas was 4-7 in the second half and 2-3 in the last five minutes after a 2-10 first half. Dude is such a clutch player for Sacramento. He and Cousins really turned it on in the second half.

The King's perimeter players, apart from Gay, had strong second halves.