Are you serious? If Harden is an average defender, then what is everyone else on the team? Harden is terrible defender. He has improved somewhat from the basement levels he was playing at in the beginning the season, but overall he's still the worst defender on this team. Our team is made up of below average defenders. The only defenders on this team that are average or above are Beverley and Dwight..Thats it.
i actually really believe that our defensive woes comes down to coaching. If Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu, Court Lee, and Rashard Lewis +Dwight Howard can be an elite defense, i don't see why this team cannot do the same. Stan Van Gundy had that team prepared to defend, just as Dwight has said in the past. I don't believe McHale knows how to effectively coach defense, and that will be our team's downfall if it doesn't vastly, improve.
Harden's one on one defense is actually better than average. His help defense is awful. Offense is a more individual skill set than what a defensive one is. Harden is a few levels above George in this category.
I think some of this has to do with the 'style' of play we run. We don't have a lot of complicated defensive schemes, and the style of play we incorporate sort of requires us to have players who are good man-on-man defenders. Our wings just aren't amazing at defense. Harden's below avg., Lin is probably right at avg. this season (though lower if we're only considering man-on-man), Parsons is around avg...Bev is above average, esp. on man-on-man defense...Garcia is bad this yr and gets little playing time now and Omri, eh. Brooks is bad on defense too, of course.
'Slumping Paul George -- Last 10 Games: 32.6 FG%/37.2 eFG%. His First 42 Games: 46.4 FG%/53.8 eFG%.' r/nba
His last 30 games are equally atrocious. Shooting less than 41% on the field, 33% from 3, and taking 17 shots to get 20 points. So he basically had a hot start and his stats have been falling ever since.
butbutbut defense Spoiler all harden has to do is become an adequate defender and it isn't even close
That's actually a little misleading. He had a great December. His slump has been January and February, which has only been 23 games (including the last game of December) You'd have a hard time convincing me he was struggling those next 7 games back. I think he's discovering what its like for defenses to realize you exist.
He started struggling in the middle of December, or was beginning to show signs of it. In the first game of that 30 game stretch, he shot 4-11. He followed that up with 2-12, 4-14, 8-16 and 7-16 in his next 4 games. He had a few good shooting nights after that, but after that he just continued struggling. It's possible that defenses have adjusted to him, but I also think he had an unsustainable hot shooting stretch. He was never a good scorer in his career after all.
I like George better: Paul George = superstar who isn't a chuck James Harden = still a basketball Blackhole
George isn't a chuck????? Seriously???? Guy shoots around 40% from the floor taking a ton of shots per game.
Harden takes 16 shots while Paul George take 17.3. Harden also shoots better than Paul George. 44.6% to 43.8%. But LOF gonna LOF I guess.
