The stats don't lie... top 10 in steals. top 5 among guards in blocks. Good rebounder. Defends every position. I nominate James for all defensive 2nd team
"No way Harden belongs on an all-defensive team. Every team he's played against has scored a basket." - Every national media personality
No, just no. Take off the state farm glasses and be honest: he’s still far from great. Create this thread when he: starts to run back on defense after a TO, stops letting guys get easy baskets when he’s the only one back, gets back instead of laying down crying and complaining and last but not least starts to pay more attention on backdoor cuts and the like. Closing out on shooters we’re not the best at as a team but definitely counts for Harden.
Lol no... beard will be mvp.. he’s still not that good of a defender and I don’t care what numbers you throw at me. What he’s not is a bad defender anymore
Nope, this cannot and will not happen. You know how many people from ESPN going to kill themselves not being able to make fun of harden about defense anymore?
He has been about as good defensively as we could have hoped for. Definitely not a minus anymore and less liability than Curry.
Harden's been active, engaged and at times even impactful this season on the defensive end. I love it. Still gets lost off the ball every now and then, but you can see him square up now if he's drawn into an iso and he can hold his own comfortably. To even sniff a defensive team mention he'd need to be a combination of Kawhi and Hakeem. He's got a lot of work to do to work the casual NBA media voter over.
He's elevated himself to above average which is all we need with the plethora of solid to elite defenders that surround him. By no means is he elite on defense which is what you obviously have to be to be considered on an all-defensive team. He's definitely one of the most improved but there isn't an award for most improved defensive player.
Good god no. He's in a defensive system built to hide all his defensive weaknesses at accentuate his strengths, and defensive-minded teammates around him to handle tougher assignments. He's no longer a liability within the scope of what the Rockets run, but that doesn't make him a great defender. It doesn't even make him a good defender. It just means he's no longer a liability on defense. Put him on a bad defensive team and you'll be seeing more of his defense on youtube.
Why are people taking OP’s All-Defense recommendation seriously? He’s obviously joking. Harden’s defense is more like how it was during the 14-15 season...not great, but certainly passable and good enough when u take into account all he does offensively
