Harden asked McHale to let him guard Zach Randolph

That's cute. Our little Jimmy is growing up and wants to play with the big kids now.

 

I like it, Harden taking defense seriously and working hard to be a leader for both offense and defense in the team. What more can we ask from our super star.

 

Harden guards Lebron better than most players in this league, so I see some validity in this idea.

 

Interesting idea. Might be worth trying sometime. He has trouble defending quicker players, but maybe slower stronger players might be a good matchup for him.

At least it shows he cares about defense.

 

Were we all watching the same game???

Soon as I realized that McHale had Harden on Zbo, the second my mouth opened to b****, he was responsible for two consecutive defensive stops in a row while guarding him.

 

Absolutely.

 

No, I saw this also - he had a nice block on him - I was favorably impressed. I would just worry with significant minutes guarding any physical 4's he would have not much left for O. dunno.

 

No, but not because of 1 on 1 defense. Harden excels at this when he puts his mind to it.

It's because Harden and the rest of the Rockets have a habit of not boxing out, and ZBo is a beast on the boards. But then again, he would eat everyone not named Dwight or Omer on the boards. We have a weak rebounding team.

 

Rebuffs at your pros:
* How is it a huge upgrade? Harden can't even guard the opposing SGs; how would he be able to guard someone who is bigger and stronger?
* A three guard lineup is fine. One of those guards on their PF? Not fine.
* Perimeter might get better, but our post defense is guaranteed to get worse.
* Dwight will have an even bigger task of guarding the paint. Let's not ask that of Howard.
* A huge mismatch! For us.

 

It would be an even better idea to have him play at 5. 'grin

 

It isn't huge mistmatch potential.

You do realise that us 'playing Harden at the 4' doesnt mean that Harden is going to be the beneficiary of the mismatch, they're still gonna put their best perimeter defender on him, rather it'd be Parsons matched up with the 4 and frankly if all their gonna do is shovel the ball to him rather than running some action to get him open its not as big of an advantage as you think

 

I don't mind the idea because the worst case scenario is Z-Bo getting a 2. I like that scenario than Harden letting his man wander off and getting an easy corner 3.

And if we're facing a team that doesn't use their 4s offensively, it's actually a great idea.

 

this thread can't be real life.

OP is suggesting Harden plays power forward. LOL.

 

Harden guarded Ibaka for much of the last 4 games of the playoffs and was effective. Randolph had no baskets and 1 assist when Harden guarded him in the 3rd quarter. Later in the game Harden guarded Ed Davis and he also didn't score while being guarded by Harden.

If it's such a mismatch against the Rockets then why aren't those power forwards scoring big numbers when Harden is guarding them?

Will it work all the time? Don't know, likely not but it has worked in the times that we've gone to it. It's just another thing to throw at a team when the usual stuff isn't working. Kind of like small-ball...it sometimes works...sometimes it doesn't.

 

Shows he has changed his attitude. He wanted to take the defensive responsibility. However, it is the coaches job to understand even if Harden can guard him 1 on 1, there was no chance he could keep him off the glass.

 

Z-Bo:why not. And thank you McFail!

 

I can't remember if it was Zbo or Al Jefferson. But last season, whenever the big guy had the ball, Jeremy would come over immediately and double. Completely shut them down. Why didn't we do this?

 

Nobody can box out Randolph with the amount of pushing and forearm shivers Zach gets away with.