How has Harden's defense looked to you guys? I think he has turned into a good off-ball defender (Doesn't take too many steps away from his man). His man defense seems average (Still an improvement from last year). His biggest problem still to me on defense is fighting over picks though. If he can continue playing AT LEAST average defense, he is easily a top 5-6 player this upcoming season (Controversial to many fans outside of Houston, many think he's 7-12 range).
Its impossible to judge from some preseason games. Defensive lapses for him is mostly about effort. So the question is can he sustain that effort-level for 30+ minutes a game over an 82 game schedule. Remains to be seen.
I voted based on last season and preseason games because I interpreted "so far" means from last year to now. I still have the opinion that he has great defense as shown in his OKC days but just isn't conditioned and experienced well enough to do it as a high usg% starter.
Agreed, he loves to go to that spin move in the pick which is generally a pretty bad idea. However, he can improve his defense by like 3x just by trying to stay with his man and not ball watching this season. Looks much improved this year.
The answer to this question likely depends on his minutes. I think if they limit him to 33~35mpg, he'll be able to sustain this. I'm really hoping that the team keeps him under 35mpg. Hopefully Lin and Howard can pick up the slack on offense. Also, Harden seems to be emulating Curry a bit in the sense that he jacks up a 3 at every opportunity. To me this is very good for energy conservation during the season. Maybe lowers his efficiency over the long haul, but definitely less stress on the body.
His 3 point percentage so far this pre-season is off the charts too. He is not only one of the leaders in 3PT attempts (ranked 10th), but no other leader in 3PT attempts even close to James Harden efficiency from behind the line (currently at 55%) Still, it's only pre-season, but the Harden would be so much more dangerous as a player if he keeps up a relatively high percentage from 3.
I don't know what was with his defensive consistency with us. He was a good defender (where he was actually in the plus) when he was the sole offensive option with the Magic. Harden was a better defender with us in his first year than T-Mac was with us in his first year by a decent margin (Looking at xRAPM among other things) but Tracy's high and lows were just weird. James has looked good, by that I mean that he is showing a lot more effort and helping one pass away (the most annoying thing you can do BY FAR and it doesn't help anyone) a lot less.
why are people saying below average? he was below average last year but this preseason he has picked up the slack. Dwight Effect!
I wonder if yall know that Tmac was drafted as a defensive specialist. Do people really forget the '05 playoff series against Dallas that quickly?
this poll is a bit biased you have ELITE which is above the "above average" option but nothing below the "below average" option which should be horrible the frustrating part of this is not just Harden is a horrible defender but he HAS the ability to be good in mind opinion. I see flashes of it from time time every game. Just that it is not consistant. harden is strong, has good footwork and is still young so there should be no problm to be good at defense. alot of it is probably effort
Outside of the 4, our bench is pretty deep. Hopefully, we can save Harden on minutes this year and he wont' have to conserve energy on defensive end.
agreed offense was never the teams problem as we scored a ton last year but defense was and as we all know, defense wins championships the league now has a ton of good wing players now so I much rather have Harden score 21 pts and hold his guy to 13 instead of having him score 25 and his guy goes off for 20 lastly, as Harden wants to be a leader, then he needs to lead by example. cant just roam around and shoot 3s all day and not play defense and expect his team mates to do all the dirty work. Basketball is a team game and everyone should contribute on both ends of the floor
