Honestly, the thing that is frustrating with Harden is that you see everyone else giving some sort of effort. Howard and Beverley are always giving 100%. Lin, admits his gambles and mistakes, always seems to be the guy that has to scramble the whole perimeter. Parsons, while does get a lazy, more or less plays a consistent defensive game. So it looks even worst when one person on the floor isn't giving at least minimal effort some plays. And the thing is that when Harden wants, he plays slightly above average defense. Whenever we played a real good team, except the Thunder, Harden's defense was good for most, if not all, of the game. But giving up career nights, game winners and all star like numbers to players like Corey Brewer, James Anderson, Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks is totally unacceptable.
Only shoots top of the key 3s? Really? Here's Harden's shot chart. He actually takes more shots from the right side than he does from straight away. Here's Westbrook's shot chart: Here's Westbrook's shot chart: The biggest difference between the two guys is that the area where Westbrook shoots the most 3 pointer is the area where he shoots the worst. Harden shoots the least number of 3 pointers from the area where he shoots the worst. BTW you do realize that if you do something and you're really efficient at it then it's ok to do it a lot, right? Shaq had a pretty limited variety of ways that he scored but he was really efficient at what he did. Do you think it was a bad thing that he basically only scored at the rim?
Is the article biased? Without a doubt! Does he deserve All NBA 1st team selection? Debatable, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT PISSES ME OFF! What pisses me off is the fact that this moron is able to use what we already know (Harden stinks on D) and none of us can actually say he's wrong! He is as bipolar on the basketball court as a player can get! GREAT offensive asset, piss poor defensive liability! I'm hoping, like many on this board, that next season Harden will finally grow a pair, and stop acting like he's guarding Freddy Krueger! It's sad to see him intentionally hide in the bushes and not guard his man!... ....... ....... .......
Taking my homer glasses off, i can't say i disagree with most of what the writer says. Harden's defensive lapses frustrate not only us average fans, but to a greater extent his own teammates on the court. It's comically bad because often times he shows little to no desire to defend. He also seems rather lazy on the offensive end, only getting involved when the ball swings his way.
I'm sure that's how you remember it but again this is a case of perception vs reality. Corey Brewer - Harden wasn't guarding Brewer. Brewer scored 2 baskets with Harden on him, both in transition. http://on.nba.com/1kRVxs5 Meeks - Harden wasn't guarding Meeks either. Meeks scored 1 basket with Harden guarding him. Also that game was a blowout and Meeks played the entire game and scored quite a few baskets in garbage time against the end of our bench. http://on.nba.com/1rOeKCr Anderson - Harden missed the 1st Philly game so you can't really blame him for bad defense in a game that he didn't play in. http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?id=400488985 Blake - On Blake's game winner Harden was guarding Wesley Johnson and was on the other side of the court and wasn't involved in the play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDbgNF8cWQg
that's his total shot attempts for the season. For example 148 out of his 1205 total shots came on straight away 3's...so it's shown as 148/1205.
I dont think anyone in their right mind would make a case for Harden's defense (it stunk more or less), but that's not really the point. The point is.... if people are b****ing and complaining about Harden being 1st team, are you trying to say that Harden ISN'T the best 2 guard in the league despite his poor defense? What are you trying to say? Harden is going to continue to be judged alongside his peers like Curry, George, Dragic (as of recently) etc. and there is going to be debate all across the board because all of these players are very different from each other & any one can make a case either way because of those differences. Obviously the folks voting on this were voting for more than just player deficiencies, and think overall Harden was the most productive 2 guard. No where on the vote ballet does it say to be a 1st teamer you have to be a perfect player in the essence of Michael Jordan. It is merely a vote of who is the best at their position.
Sure in the regular season. Disappeared in the playoffs. I don't think he deserved first team. Needs to be on 2nd team to motivate him to play harder.
You could make a similar video just from the playoff series. I distinctly remember several plays when Harden looked almost disinterested in playing defense. I remember several times when he let his guy go past him and then lazily (and unsuccessfully) tried to poke the ball out from behind. I love James Harden. I do. What he has done in his two seasons here has sometimes been frustrating, but a lot of times been amazing. His first season here, he took a team that was projected to finish near the bottom of the Western Conference to the playoffs. His second season, we finished with the fifth most wins ever in a season for a Rockets team. As far as first team All-NBA, it's nice and I think he deserves it. If Curry was first and Harden was second, I wouldn't argue too much about that. I feel like you could make a case either way. I honestly feel like Noah over Howard is a much bigger 'errant selection' than anyone else on the first team. However, the past three years going back to his OKC days has me concerned about James Harden in the playoffs. He had a bad series when OKC played Miami in the finals. Had a bad series against OKC last year and a bad series against Portland this year. It's not enough for me to think that we should trade him or anything, but it is enough for me to be concerned. I don't care where he ranks on the MVP voting list, or if he comes close to leading the league in scoring. I don't care if he makes first team or second team All-NBA. I do care if he is a good enough player to lead us to post season success. I do care if he is able to step his game up when it matters the most. At 24, we don't have a conclusion on that yet. Hopefully he, and the Rockets, can get the right combination of maturing internally as well as finding the right complimenting other pieces to make it work.
I think this is a very fair post. I agree with pretty much all of it. I wanted to note the 12 minute video because its taken from mostly early season games when he had the foot injury. Not that its an excuse, but Youtube compilations (good and bad) should always be taken with a grain of salt. Pretty much any Joe Schmo nowadays is an expert at campaigning through edits with YouTube. What has me irked more than anything is that supposed "Rockets fans" are incredibly bothered by Harden making it but yet almost nobody has caused a stink about Dwight getting snubbed for Noah. Its arguable to compare Curry to Harden... Its not even close with Dwight vs. Noah when talking about production last year. Just a little bothered by the local support here, but I'll get off my soapbox.
Another argument in Curry's favor is the talent disparity in the players they're guarding. The point guard position is the deepest in the NBA but Curry still got a better defensive rating then Harden who guards the weakest talent pool in the NBA.
No agenda... I think CF's very own "HMMMHMM" is the creator of that video. Bunch of cool clips on his youtube channel and he does a great job of analyzing Rockets' offense
I was taking the article seriously and agreeing with most of it until about 60% of the way in. Hate because of lack of style and watch-ability? Writing from the Bay Area? Criticism of flopping/raking to draw fouls? Ok, grain of salt taken. As for the rest, some of the criticism is well deserved and some is totally unfounded. Here's a few that stood out: 1) People referencing the playoff poor shooting and at times worse defense. * Regular season award, irrelevant. 2) Lack of competition at SG. * Isn't this award from a pool of ALL guards? That was my understanding, please correct me if this is wrong. 3) "Disinterest", "Lack of effort", "Apathetic" and my favorite, "Poor body language". * Mostly subjective. This reminds me SO much about the complaints about T-Mac not caring because he looked "sleepy" all the time. 4) The Youtube video. * Highlights (lowlights) are the most misleading things ever. Yes, we know Harden had stretches of awful, joke like defense. We also know he played hurt for quite a while. People need to factor in all the things that can spin an opinion one way or another. Don't get me wrong, I get very frustrated when Harden has those defensive lapses or when he looks lost without the ball on offense. But I don't try to associate that with claims about his effort or devotion to the game. But maybe he IS thinking about the stripper he took home the night before. Or maybe he's thinking about what he's going to do on offense while he's getting back cut on defense. Hell, maybe he lost a huge bet and has a gambling debt he's concerned about. Or maybe he was just tired. Occam's Razor folks.
I think HMMHMM is a great poster here with great insight, but when you make a video dedicated to pulling together the worst clips of Harden on defense, that's pretty much the definition of an agenda. Not even criticizing HMMHMM's agenda in this case, but people just need to realize that at the end of the day that 12 minute clips isn't everything there his to know about James Harden's tenure as a Houston Rockets & his future with the team. I think even HMMHMM would point that out. I do think that Harden does need to be called out, and criticized for the poor defense. Good for him. But an agenda, is an agenda, is an agenda. The purpose was to compile poor defensive possessions by James Harden. We all took noticed, and even Morey noticed (commented about 12 minute Youtube videos the other day on the radio). Job well done. However that 12 minute clip is not the end-all-be-all of James Harden's future with the Rockets & what he has accomplished in his first two seasons thus far. Just wanted to point that out. Sorry.
to much defending hardens one sided play in here. If you have a bad player CALL HIM OUT EVEN IF YOU ARE A FAN OF THE TEAM. Harden was inconsistent all season going long stretches of taking garbage shots and shooting below 37% from the field. Its truely sad that many choose to ignore defiecienceis as long as the player scores 20+ points a night. No matter if it takes 25 shots to get that 25 points
