OP is on point. We've seen this play out now for most of this season and dating back to last year's playoffs. This team is best served when Harden is defending 3's or 4's. And this team struggles when Harden is defending smalls. No question about it.
Well, Jon Barry quoted Doc Rivers last night in calling Harden "Paul pierce as a 2 guard", so the OP has a point about Harden's strength and skill-set. However, I would have to agree that matching Harden up against bigger players may neutralize some of his natural advantages at guard.
I guess I mostly meant on offense, where Harden could have a harder time bullying his way to the basket against a bigger guy. Admittedly, this is speculation.
I guarantee you our Harden, Parsons big lineups will get exposed in the Playoffs. In this game, they basically had Beverly's man play free safety to disrupt Harden, put a small(Collison) on him, and then put Harden in a Pick and Roll with Collison, open shots every time. On the other end, Harden can't take advantage of the mismatch because of the hard double. The Beverly, Harden, Parsons backcourt is gonna get exposed in the playoffs. I'd get prepared for this in the regular season by experimenting with Harden at the 3 and 4 spots in small lineups. The key is Lin's ability to defend 2s, and he's gotta get his offense back. In the playoffs you have to find a way to get your best players on the floor together, and the key is to find a way to get a Beverly, Lin backcourt working so Harden doesn't have to defend a small.
LOL McHale doesn't decide what defenders the opponent plays on Harden. The opponent does. That is out of our hands. The only thing we can do about Harden's defenders is to set screens and see if we can get switches. LOL
Harden's strength is not bullying weaker players, look at his poor outings, it's mostly against quicker smaller guards who can anticipate his steps. He feasts on bigger guys because he uses his footwork to bait them into bad positions. The only bullying he does is in transition where he deliberately runs into people to get foul calls.
lol @ people thinking there's actually any difference. He plays on the wing, doesn't matter what you call it, the match ups will be the same
There's a massive difference. If Harden was guarding Matt Barnes instead of Darren Collison,we probably would've won today.
Trugoy has an excellent point, but with Harden why do I feel like it's about desire and effort on D? He seems to be taking it easy on D so that he can get his points.
Interesting point. Collision is a good player but Lin had him pretty much wrapped up and Harden really couldn't deal with him at all. I think all the foot injuries have limited his quickness to deal with smaller players. He is perfect as a playmaking, ball handling 3.
He's guarding out of position, if he guarded 3s and 4s, I think his defense would be above average. I've never seen him abused like he does when he guards 2s
Collison is not even a 2. And McHale just left Harden out there on him. Sorry, I'm not anti-McHale. Like the guy. Never said anything negative about him up until now. But that was coaching foolishness right there. McHale had his head up his butt. Didn't see post game interviews. Did anybody ask him why he left Harden on Collison?
He's giving his guys a shot, the starters have a longer leash. I understand it, but the game was lost in the third quarter when he didn't bench Parsons and TJones immediately after the first 3 minutes. The clippers played terrible in the third quarter and we didn't take advantage because the horses were not there. I think if DMO and Jham started the 2nd half, this could've been a blowout win for the Rockets. You don't want to get too creative rotation wise in the regular season and Mchale gave his starters a chance to play through it.
When Harden is facing the defender, it's called "isolation." When he is back into the basket, it's posting up. Harden only posts up in less than 4% in offensive plays. He isolates around 23%.
Hardens defensive ability isnt the problem. Its his defensive awarness. The best defenders get beat occasionaly, but I rarely see him get burned one on one. Hardens problem is that he overcommits on help defense. Hes always playing the passing lanes. But he overcommits, leaving his matchup wide open. He has to run back as fast as he can just to get a hand in his mans face. By this time to late.
With the emergence of Hamilton, it looks like they're seeing if they can phase JLin out and replace those minutes on the floor with PB&J with PB&...H???
