[2015-2016] James Harden the return of the defensive juggernaut

Your stats actually show that Smith, DMo, and Capella were better defenders than Dwight (though I don't know if that accounts for their competition, with Capella and Smith especially getting more minutes against the other teams B squad) and that Harden is a better defender than Terry, Brewer, and PBev. Other than Harden defending better than PBev, that all seems to check out. It doesn't make Harden a better defender than Howard though.

 

I would trade him for Westbrook in a second

 

I'm not saying Harden is a better defender than Dwight, but I think Dwight had much more negative influence on this team defensively than people realize. It's usually the big guys who can impact the game defensively, not the little guards as you can see here :



So, how your defensive big man performs is much more important than how your PG or SG performs defensively.

Dwight ranks 40 out of 77 Centers in DRPM whereas Harden ranks 47 out of 98 SGs. Harden actually did better than Dwight relative to his position. Dwight's defensive numbers are pretty bad if you consider that he's a Center and does have that ability to impact the game more defensively.

 

yes, but Capela and Josh Smith also shares heavy minutes with inferior defenders such as Terry, Brewer, T-Jones, Beasley, etc. As the opponent's B squad offensive talent goes down, so does our defensive talent, so I think that factor kinda cancels itself out.

and I'm not saying Harden is a better defender than Dwight, but I do think people don't realize just how much Howard has hurt this team defensively. It's usually the big guys that have larger defensive impact on the game, not little guys at PG or SG position, as you can see here :



so, how your Center performs defensively is MUCH more important than how well your wing players defend, especially if he's the defensive anchor of your team. In DRPM, Howard ranked 40th out of 77 Centers, whereas Harden was 47th out of 98 SGs. Harden actually did better relative to his position. And the narrative that Howard's defense took a hit due to Harden's influence is nonsense because replace Harden with any of our guards and Howard's defensive rating actually gets worse. Conversely, Harden's defensive rating improves when he is teamed up with any of our big guys (Capela, D-mo, J-smoove, etc.) other than Dwight, except Beasely who is known to be a horrible defender.

I think there's a very strong case to be made that Howard was at the center of our defensive woes this season. At least the numbers do suggest that.

 

If you center has to constantly be out of position because your wing players are turnstyles for the other teams perimeter players, OF COURSE he is gonna look bad because his man will have easy offensive rebounds or dunks off assist. You guys need to stop with the stat whoring and start actually watching the games. That harden video shows why every big gets a bad wrap. If that garbage defending "star" player cant do his job, the defense falls apart. Even glass joe curry with two bad ankles tries harder

 

man, our guards really suffer defensively when playing with Howard.

Howard-Beverly Drtg 105.1

Howard-Harden Drtg 104.8

Howard-Terry Drtg 107.2

Howard-Brewer Drtg 104.7


Replace Howard with Capela,

Capela-Beverly Drtg 101.7

Capela-Harden Drtg 104.1

Capela-Terry Drtg 104.9

Capela-Brewer Drtg 99.4


All of our guards perform better defensively with Capela than with Dwight.

Coincidence?

and as I said, Capela also shares more time with inferior defenders from the bench than Dwight, so I think facing lesser offensive opponent is not much of a factor.

 

Howard, Capela and D-Mo all post better defensive rating playing with Harden than with any of our guards, including Beverly. There is no evidence to suggest that playing with Harden hurts our big guys' defensive performance. But there seems to be a pattern that playing with Howard negatively impacts our guard's defense. Go figure.

 

theres only one person that is completely lost within all this and that's evident with all his spam thats been posted

 

does the fact bother you?

 

only thing that puzzles me is how fast you ran like Deandre Jordan with a tail between their legs back to the Clippers from Dallas when I called you out on a post to see how much you really believe in the garbage that comes out from you. Your answer proved enough to be someone not to be taken with any credibility.

You should really look into starting a team of your own or get into the business for a great laugh

 

all of our guard's defense deteriorates when playing with Howard. most of our big guys do better or as usual when sharing court with Harden. these are just facts whether you like it or not.

 

Your own post contradicts this. Howard has better Drtg with Brewer and Capela has better Drtg with Bev and Brewer. Of course Harden is a better defender than Jason Terry, Terry is the only guy on the team born when Jimmy Carter was President.

 

yeah, I missed the Capela part, but out of 4 guards Howard has better Drtg with Brewer > Harden > Beverly > Terry and D-Mo has better Drtg with Harden > Beverly > Brewer > Terry. There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern here, except that Terry is our worst perimeter defender.

The point is, there is no evidence that indicates Harden is a defensive liability to the extent that some people claim he is. Some of our bigs do better with Harden and some don't, but the difference isn't significant, and most importantly there isn't a clear pattern where your defensive numbers go down playing with Harden, but there IS a clear pattern in which all of our guards do worse defensively when paired with Howard.

 

If we include Ariza into the mix, the order becomes

Howard : Brewer > Harden > Beverly > Ariza > Terry

D-Mo : Harden > Beverly > Brewer > Ariza > Terry

Capela : Brewer > Beverly > Harden > Terry > Ariza

 

Defense was just one of many issues the Rockets had last year, but wasn't the sole reason for the demise.

The offense was garbage, poor ball movement, too many 3's taken by guys who shouldn't be shooting 3's which lead to easy transition buckets for the other team. The Rockets took almost as many 3's as Golden State, yet they only have one player who can make them at a decent clip, Beverly.

Turnovers. It's hard to play good defense when you turn the ball over as much as the Rockets did.

Lack of effort and just general poor play is what the root of the problem is. You can't blame James Hardens defense for what happened.

How many times this season did you take a look at the Box Score at halftime and see the Rockets shooting 30% as a team? Dozens of times. You're not going to win games in the NBA shooting 30% as a team, I don't care if you play defense like the 96 Bulls. It won't matter.

I agree with the posters who say that the Rockets will never win a championship as long as James Harden is the primary ball handler. This is a failed experiment. Rockets need to clean up this mess, they need to bring in a real PG and James needs to be a SG and not the guy dribbling the air out of the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Rockets tried this same offense back when we had T-Mac, it didn't work there either and got exposed when we faced real opponents with decent coaching staffs.

Which is why I'm so surprised people around here are actually clamoring for JVG to come back to this team. His offense was all hero ball and it just doesn't work in todays NBA.

 

james harden can be a better defender - he's proven that. but he definitely regressed this season in that area. but carrying a team offensively every freaking night????

if i only have 6 fouls... i HAVE to carry the team every night offensively... i'm length challenged compared to plenty of other guards/forwards in the NBA... DWIGHT is the second best player on the team by a long shot... my coach got fired 11 games into the season... i got some KK tail... DWIGHT is the second best player on the team... by a freakin long shot! ... JBB played some weird lineups... GSW are on fire playing my style of ball... adidas left DWIGHT for me... **** got lame in the locker room...

i'd not play defense sometimes too. my body only lasts for so many years... at least you got me younger than t-mac.

 

Harden's beard singlehandedly ruining multiple ninjas in this thread wow. This is the most dominant performance I've seen all year.

Watch our Defense magically improve next year once the cancer's gone.

 

Harden may already plan for LA

 

How can someone take the pressure off your hands on offense if your game is so predicated on you having the ball? YOu saw how JLin took pressure off of Kemba and helped win the 3 games they did over Miami.

Ty Lawson was supposed to be that guy, was averaging about 17/10 last year, all of a sudden he comes here and can't play? Like Lin he can't thrive in this offense, the system has to change and Harden has to learn to be more effective off the ball.Someone try to make an 8 minute video of him passing the ball and making a hard cut,is there enough material?

That obviously didn't work in Houston. Would Dwight have been more effective if he got more consistent touches? Maybe, it was only 2 years ago when he was carrying this team vs POrtland averaging 26/14. THis isn't football, he should still be able to do that at 31 if his head's straight.