For people crying about the obvious. (James Harden speaks on his defense)

Take the ball out of his hands and make him earn his shots. That's pretty much the only way he's going to change.

 

I think it's because on the offensive end, he gets motivated when he's in control of the action. If the offensive doesn't flow through him, he'd be disinterested and unfocused as well. On defense he loses focus when the action isn't on him. He'll watch the ball where the action is happening. He's got to be able to focus on his man defense and team defense even if his participation isn't critical at that moment.

 

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. We can think, reason, and act.

 

For the problems that Harden has, it's more effort and not instinct. He gives up on plays so easily, letting his man drive by him. It's one thing if he's trying to move his feet and his opponent is just quicker. This is a different issue. We don't need Harden to be a lock-down defender, but if he was able to at least provide some resistance, it would help this team a lot.

 

OKC knew what they were doing letting him go. Can you imagine if the Rox had a chance of retaining Ibaka or Harden at this very moment? Which direction would you go? Can somebody make a poll? Somebody with sufficient privileges?

 

Hahaha, seriously? The Rockets would take Harden over Ibaka every single time.

 

Could be that he needs more structure from the coaching staff. A stronger hand at the tiller, as it were. Can anyone imagine James Harden dogging it on defense with Pop as his coach? I'm a big fan of Harden's. I'm just not delusional, which someone would have to be to not recognize that James has a huge problem with his defense. What's really frustrating is that he has the tools, and the brains, to be a good defender. He just doesn't seem to have the "want to" most of the time. Does anyone doubt that James would sit if he were lackadaisical on that end of the court with Pop as the head coach? If McHale is going to remain head coach of the Rockets, he needs an assistant focusing on defense, and it has to be an assistant who has the power to sit a player when necessary in order to send a message. Someone both a good communicator and a strong hand, if needed, and it wouldn't hurt if he could step in as head coach at some point in the future. I know this is a tired idea, but can you imagine Jeff Van Gundy sitting on the bench next to McHale? Handling our defense? Were that to somehow happen (and I know it won't), I'd party for a week and be looking at a deep playoff run next season, in my humble opinion.

 

That's just stupid. We wouldn't be in the playoffs if we had Ibaka instead of Harden. Damn. You guys are such overreacting whiners. And the choice was between Perkins (who could have been amnestied) and Harden. The worst GM decision I am aware of. Why don't you just become an OKC fan?

 

He has been doing it all season, and you guys worship him.

 

Scoring is about focusing on what you are doing. Defense is about focusing on what other people are doing.

 

I love Harden, I do. But he said the same thing last year, soooo... yeah. Time to show and prove.

 

He always says stuff like this.

Like he's worried about our defense, always makes statements about defense, then he goes in there and becomes a liability.

 

I don't think it's that simple. On offense you still have to see what they give you and Harden spends a lot of time reading the defender, as he tries to make a move. On defense, one has to pay attention to their own positioning to be successful.

 

He needs to worry about the ball getting sticky just as much as defense.

Learn to move without the ball.

 

For a athlete Harden is little overweight. Losing weight can also help him on the defensive end. Imagine a super in shape harden? Beast!

 

Players can talk all day because they got time on their hands once gone fishing

lol

 

What do you guys want him to say, lay down a list of every one of his faults and then an outline of every minute he's going to spend this summer dedicated to fixing them? He knows he needs to step up on the defensive end and while words only mean so much, that's all we can get from him until October.

Harden deserves criticism but good grief some of you guys make it sound like we'd be better off without him which is r****ded.

 

i thought harden would be a top 4 player in the league when he arrived here. My thinking was he'd would put the same defensive effort he did against kobe and even bodying up artest. but nooooo, he got here and just went kevin martin on us. hopefully the refs don't create the harden rule and stop calling fouls like they did with Martin.

 

Bs. Like my friend says when Harden play defense, he wanders off chasing the butterfly. He's the human version if Patrick.

 

The only thing that will make Harden play defense is hatred at seeing the opposing team, and his assignment in particular, score. It's really that simple. It's about being a competitor. If you want to play "I got mine" and ISO and run into traffic for foul shots, you'll never play defense or any kind of team oriented action. You have to hate to lose so bad that you can't live with yourself letting the other guy score.