James Haren strikes again! I think if Harden was a high school girl, he would've committed suicide by now with how much hate videos/comments he gets on the internets.
Harden is fools gold. He doesn't make his teammates better period. He handles the ball so much and doesn't really get his teammates involved, especially Dwight. His pocket passes and side passes are so predictable. He is a good player but not a superstar. And don't even make me start with his defense… although he's been trying lately despite that 1 play in the video, I admit.
Someone flashed a bottle of A-1 steak sauce which caught Harden off guard. They were simply exploiting his weakness for the A-1 sauce.
I do not consider Steve Nash a superstar. A star for sure. He made his teammates better, and the system did so too. You don't have to be a superstar to elevate the game of the whole team Harden is an individual superstar, a high volume scorer, FT attempter, high end ball handler, mediocre shooter, not a worthy of a mention defender. He would have been better in another era, this era it is all about Stephen Curry I am afraid.
You obviously haven't watched GSW. Dude is always playing with bend knees on defense. One thing I learned in middle school basketball practices, that you ALWAYS keep your knees bend on defense. Harden? Not even once. Curry? Always. Curry is superior to Harden in all aspects of the game. Comparing Harden to Curry in any way is a insult to basketball.
Harden doesn't even have defensive fundamentals. Even if he wanted to play defense, he wouldn't know where to begin.
Defence is almost all about effort. Anyone who even hustles can be respectable as a defender. Harden does have a huge offensive workload but he is so defensively inept, it is hard to defend.
I honestly think Harden has an attention problem. He can't focus on anything but the ball when he doesn't have the ball, whether on offense or defense. When he has the ball he's fine. That's the real distinction with Harden. He can't focus his attention when he doesn't have the ball. The upside is that he's insanely good at what he does with the ball.
Yes even including the 4-5 turnovers, he's making miracles on offense. Teams can't stop him from scoring tons of points efficiently.
Miracles? Really? He has 4-5 turnovers on a good day. He has 8 or more every other day. Shoots 0-7 or 1-9 from three every other night. Doesn't play defense every time. Miracle is that people chose to ignore it, just because he'll put up efficient game once in a while. Doesn't matter how much he sucks, he's getting all the minutes he wants. No one even dares to complain about him, because he has unlimited power. The kind of power he has on this team is ridiculous. No accountability whatsoever. He fooled me last season, I really though he is something special. He's not. He's overrated. All those who praise his game can only show volume numbers to prove their point. Everything else leads to realization, that this guy is not that great at basketball. Team game.
Harden still playing like he would at the Y. Absolutely ineffective without the ball on offense and defense. On offense he stands around rooted to one position demanding the ball. No back door cuts, coming off screens etc. On defense he directs traffic again rooted to one position and the typical swipe once the guy has blown past oyu
Guys, guys - let's stop complaining about Harden's defense. Instead, let's complain about his shot selection and his passing to the other team.
