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

I wouldn't necessarily call it b****ing my friend... We as fans have the right to hold our SUPERSTAR franchise players to a certain standard. A standard, mind you, that requires they put in the effort on both ends of the court that matches their talent. As its been discussed to death on this board, James has all the talent and physical tools in the world to be an all-world defensive talent. The problem has always been effort and focus. If we as the fans aren't the ones "b****ing" at him and management to improve in that regards... then what good are we as fans? Do we just blindly watch every game and say AW SHUCKS WELL WE WILL HOPEFULLY GET EM NEXT TIME, ITS OK JAMES, SAVE UR ENERGY FOR NEXT SEASON. I don't believe the blame lies on him solely however, he has never been coached to be accountable on that end, he has been molded into this lazy defensive player in a way.

 

Actions speak louder than words. We'll see.

 

i'll believe it when i see it

 

He's not exactly unlazy on offense either. When he doesn't get the ball, he rarely runs around looking for openings, he takes a lot of time just standing around looking disinterested a lot of times on offense as well. Watch the playoffs games when he as gone cold on offense, it's ridiculous how lazy he becomes.

 

Now we know he knew we knew he knew his defense problem when he scrached his head after being blown by during yhe series.

 

This is a quote from his exit interview. Nothing new

 

if there was a way to calculate how many points we're giving up just due to his lazy effort on D, i'm sure it would be at least 4-6 points. Buckets, where, if he just gave a damn, would not have happened. So, yeah, that would make him more of a 20ppg scorer, which doesn't sound so unique and irreplaceable...That's a big problem we have between him and Asik. As good as they are on one end, they give up a few buckets out of pure incompetence or lack of effort (Asik misses point black layups). So these guys may be really good at what they do, but that's not the overall effect we get from them.

 

We've heard Harden's "talk" before... remember last off-season...?

 

Sadly he seems like a capable defender. He's claimed here and before that he's willing. So the questions about whether he CAN defend, I'm over. Questions about whether he knows he DOESN'T defend, I'm over. We just have to see it now.

I wish we could get a 2 or 3 guard who can defend. It would be a much smaller issue if Parsons was an excellent defender. This is why I'm not opposed to using Parsons' inflated value to net another star - because I'm extremely comfortable for us to install a SG/SF who plays defense and know his place on offense. Parsons is a great offensive player, but we don't need a great offensive player at the 3 anymore than we need a starting calibre backup C making $12m.

I think Harden has been embarrassed enough to make the move from horrible defender to mediocre defender. That's not going to solve the whole issue though. We still need a swingman who's bread and butter is defending high scoring SG/SF's, and Parsons doesn't seem to be that guy nor is it likely IMO that he'll become that guy heading into a contract year. Offense makes more $$$.

 

He has at least a bad habit that can easily be corrected. When defending, he needs to focus on the movement of his assigned player rather than putting too much of his attention on the ball. With too much attention on the ball, his man often got wide open looks by spotting up or cutting to the paint.

 

A little less talk and a lot more action...

If his play in these deficient areas improves on the court then the criticisms will cease...simple as that.

 

If sitting at home early for another post-season doesn't motivate him to elevate his game ever further, nothing will. I have faith that this year will be different.

I'm sorry, what are you trying to say here? Lol.

 

Heard it before.

 

Agree. Effort is something he could change at any time. You don't need the offseason to implement that. Like you said, he could have just done it for the playoffs. Hell, he could have just stepped up after we went down 2-0 or 3-1. He did non of the above.

I'll ignore the lip service until he starts doing it on the court.

 

Defense or not I'm grateful for having James Harden in our team. If it wasn't for him coming to this team we would of been the 9th seed these last 2 years and Morey would be still be grasping for that imaginary franchise player. I'm not going to b**** about his weaknesses like some of these fair weather fans, I'm going to keep supporting my boy James Harden.

 

Ibaka's defense and talents as a true PF is greater than this half-ass Harden. Harden didn't show in the post season for OKC nor twice for the Rox.

 

Harden will be fine next year now that Morey got rid of his enabler, Dean Cooper.

 

I rewatched some the best season games and Harden might be a tad overrated in every spectrum there is.

 

WTF does that mean? His enabler?

 

Great talk from him. Who's gonna hold him accountable if he doesn't improve. McHale? Nope. That's probably why he said it.

If he doesnt improve his effort/skill on D, then he better work on his O......score an average 40 ppg rather than 25 ppg.