How hard could you play defense if you were leading the league in minutes played? He's averaging 40 minutes a night to keep us in games with his offense (second in the league in scoring by the way) and was coming off an overtime game the night before but hey lets all jump on the bandwagon. Harden never plays defense. Here's a question, why was there no big man in the paint to close the avenue to the rim? And why was Dwight's pass to Lawson so lazy. The more I watvh this team the more evident it becomes, Dwight Howard is the problem, not James
Did you just say Har_en is 2nd in scoring in the NBA? Kobe Bryant is averaging 16 points per game too. That's a great stat to describe how good player is.
What the hell are you talking about? Harden is averaging 29.8 points a game to go with his league leading 39.6 minutes a game. What the hell does Kobe's average in his 19th season have to do with James Harden?
I think Harden will get it together. Maybe his personal life is affecting him, but like anything he'll get over it and will get back to doing what made him successful. I hope it's #soon for the Rockets sake!
real plus minus, nba ranking in parantheses james offense: 6.96 (3) defense: -2.23 (382) total: 4.73 (13) kobe offense: -2.21 (363) defense: -2.17 (380) total: -4.38 (402) james is a baller on offense, but 382nd on defense?
I hope D Mo is the panacea that everybody thinks he is but I've watched the Rockets way too long not to be skeptical. Remember, his forte is post-scoring, and his career highs in shooting (37% 3 pt) require replication before we can assume they are the rule and not the exception. Also, remember that he isn't a very good rebounder either. I think D Mo will be a huge upgrade at the 4, as the people will eventually figure out the Capela/Dwight combos, but I don't see him solving all our problems, like lack of defense, lack of ball movement, huge mental lapses on both ends for long stretches at a time, etc....
He's not just playing lazy defense as the game winds down & he's getting tired, he's playing lazy defense from the very beginning of pretty much every game.
People get so hung up on this stretch 4 nonsense, Dmo will space the floor by shooting 18 footers and free throw line jumpers. He's not the toughest defender but he's 7ft tall, as long as he crashes the boards on shots and keeps his hands up he will be fine. He can operate from the free throw line down so no matter where he catches it he can draw attention, that will bring defenders in opening uo shooters at the wing positions. Ine thing that needs to be implemented quickly though the shooters need to move better without the ball, the only one that consistently comes off screens to catch and shoot is Thornton. That aspect will make Harden an evrn better player
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Creators never follow (their defensive assignment): <a href="https://t.co/57cTPw04Y3">pic.twitter.com/57cTPw04Y3</a></p>— Pro Hoops History (@ProHoopsHistory) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProHoopsHistory/status/672115479302000640">December 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden on his defensive issues: "Playing those amount of minutes (39.7) your going to have some lapses, some mistakes."</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/672106978278150150">December 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
wtf. this is why i've never believed this guy is the guy who can and will lead this team to promiseland. so easy and so quick to find excuses. it's ok if a fan or even someone in the media says it. it's not ok for a team leader to publicly say this. looking at the leader board of minutes played for the last few yrs... so are we supposed to think guys like jimmy butler or lebron james all played defense at the same level of harden? or a 2- or 3-minute difference in p/t makes a huge difference? ***.
no, not at all. cheers for posting the quote. Figured it would quickly derail this thread, though, and potentially get buried amongst other threads, such that others don't see it.
