James Harden impressing the USA Coaching staff with his defense

If anyone believes we're better off without harden, their not Rockets fans period.

Hardens already the 3rd best offensive weapon in the game behind KD and lebron. No team is better off without a player like harden.

 

oh my, have the LOFs been replaced now with Harden Only Haters? That'd be a sight...always something...

 

I'm also annoyed that arguably our best player plays zero defense. Hopefully he improves but I still have my doubts. U'd think the guy would have enough pride to start making an effort on that side of the floor.

 

better than advertised?? the general consensus is that you'd be better off with a 6 foot slice of swiss cheese on the court than harden (defensively). I'd hope he's playing better than his rep.

Also, people who point out that harden isn't great at defense aren't "haters." so chill

 

At his lvl of athleticism it's not about technique, it's all about effort-so in essence you are right… But it's more about his growth and maturity

 

James Harden will win DPOY.

 

I like what I am hearing, but I will have to see it to believe it. Harden was pretty impressive last preseason at defense. Then he got worse and worse as the season went on.

 

He's always been capable of good D. He fell into bad habits whether due to injury, lack of focus, saving himself for offense, coaching, or whatever.

My guess is that losing in the first round and hearing his defense (or lack thereof) constantly bemoaned and ridiculed stings him more than we think. He is not immune to it and you know these guys Google themselves.

I hope he makes it a matter of pride to maintain the defensive focus and become a more complete player. As others have said, nothing would have a bigger impact on Rocket success than him taking this next step.

 

Secondary title: james harden plays with a real pg, doesnt have to spend 40 minutes a night handling, scoring, and playing d. Also he dpesnt have a coach whose best contributiob to the team is the best befuddled look ive ever seen.

 

Just posting here. I know it is BR but they really bring up some good points esp with tables and numbers showing how potent Harden is offensively. Didn't want to start another Harden thread. Not worth it for BR.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...must-improve-to-become-truly-elite-in-2014-15

 

Lots of great stats in there.

6th fewest shots in league history for a player who scored 25 per.

Only Harden, Durant and Dantley have had a season with a TS% of .618 with usage % of 27.8 before the age of 25.

One of the best in the league at getting to the line and making them.

Morey and his crazy ideas at it again.

 

Would have been disappointing if he didn't impress those coaches. Now, lets see him carry that into the regular season, and i don't mean that by just one game here and there after some *insert no all star name here* gets a career high on him.

 

To be honest, I think Harden might come out with defense this next season. It's a thought.

 

Everyone knows Harden's talent on the offensive end is elite. If they don't by now then no table, pie chart or data is going to sway their thinking.

As for being "Truly elite"...wtf does that even mean? During Ray Allen's prime years in Seattle his defense, statistically speaking, was atrocious yet he was a Top 10 player at the time. So Harden's elite now but he's just falsely elite?

As long as Harden can play some semblance of defense rather than the garbage he's played the past two years he'll be a top 5 player.

 

Just what I said before. He is a good defender, but he just don't try. That is what ticks me off. If he just suck I would feel better about all those lay ups and open jumpers he give away, but he just don't give any effort.

 

The Beard looked very good in limited minutes for Team USA the other night at the scrimmage. He was absolutely playing shut down defense.

There is no doubt in my mind that he can play great defense. I have seen it with my own eyes. The issue is the Rockets' poor execution in team defense and the amount of time James Harden has to handle the ball on offense.

 

dude you cant ask a guy to run an offense, handle the ball, create and initiate, score, finish plays, and be a frigging all star on defense. Unless the guy is Lebron, he is not gonna be able to do all 3 on a high level. So he spends more energy on defense, guess what, less drives to the basket. Less drives=less chances for other players because noones breaking defense down. It's too much to ask of one player.

 

But this begs the question, how has management made it any easier for James to devote more energy on defense this season? With the lack of depth, he will be expected to carry the same if not more of an offensive load this season. I we his defense improving, but it won't be as good until we can get some bench players to lighten his load.

 

Nobody says Harden was incapable of playing D. It does, however, appear that you are incapable of reading.

What I've said is that the cause for concern is that Harden does not appear to care about playing D given that he showed crappy defensive effort and focus even in his 5th year and even during the playoffs and this after Kelvin Sampson went "back and forth" with Harden about his defense all season.

Effort, concentration, stamina-- whatever the reason, we saw Harden playing bad defense last season. Kelvin Sampson said so, RAPM said so, commentators like Zach Lowe also said so.

We'll see if he actually cares this season-- if the first round exit and being a league-wide joke on the defensive end doesn't motivate him, most likely nothing will. The team is not going anywhere with a star giving the kind of pathetic defensive effort that Harden gave last season.

It's not up to McHale or Dwight or Morey to motivate him. It's up to Harde, a grown as man and a 6th year veteran in the NBA, to decide whether he's happy being just the way he was.

 

My only worry about Harden is that he said last summer he wanted to be the guy that guarded other teams #1 scoring option.