For people crying about the obvious. (James Harden speaks on his defense)

Have trouble focusing?

 

fake hustle.

 

I think he is just not motivated to play basketball unless he has the ball.

One thing rarely mentioned is that Harden likes going for the defensive rebound a lot more than playing defense. If you don't believe me, watch some tape. He just loves having the ball.

 

This means nothing. In his exit interview last year Harden promised the exact same thing, talking about improving his defense and adding more facet to his simplistic/gimmicky offense. The guy is gully aware of what is wrong in his game but is just not arsed enough to do **** about it.
One interesting factor that may eventually force Harden to change his ways this time around is that there is no BS "best SG in the game" hype going around for him (said hype actually grew in the last offseason when predictably no bball was being played), no stans saying how Beverly and Howard will be able to hide his ass on D. The guy has been fully exposed, he can't even use the excuse about carrying an enormous offensive load as if he was Atlas shouldering the globe. He either walks the walk or GTFO.

 

Not buying it until I see a difference.

Harden was a certified chump defensively this season. Thought he'd step it up in the playoffs, but to no avail.

 

What about getting bigger balls come playoff time! Stop with the strippers and put in some work? Kd and russ aint there to carry you. Stfu, man up and step ur game up!

 

I'll see it when I believe it.

 

lol i think you got that the wrong way round...

 

Focus? Dude is jus LAZY! On both ends... that's why he's always chucking up these step back jumpers from distance or driving for a foul call... too lazy to work through to a good shot...

I wish it weren't true...

I wish James would apply himself and take us to the promised land...

but until he shows something to the contrary on an ongoing basis, dude is fool's gold - LAZY fool's gold....

jus my opinion...

and sorry to all those posters who believe if you criticize a player, then you're not a real fan... Well I've been cheering for the Rox since before James Harden WAS BORN... and I will hold him accountable - even if his coach won't!

 

Honestly, I'm done with Harden. Harden, Lin and Asik (if he doesn't want to be in Houston) can be packaged for a good return.

 

yup, that's why he loses his player all the time when his player is on the inside corners. he'll slowly creep into the paint instead of staying on his man to get the rebound. If his man is on the outside, he'll just kind of stand still there and then leak out.

I don't know if it's the heavy load on him, he's selfish (accumulating stats), conditioning or what, but he plays so lazy.

on offense he doesn't get the ball, he'll stand near the half court circle and not do a damn thing. we all know about defense.

really hope he can get his head straight and play on both ends even if he doesn't have the ball

 

you can be grateful for a player being on your team yet still call out his flaws.

harden has a limited gimmicky offensive style that gets shut down in the playoffs and he's absolutely terrible on defense and doesn't give much effort. it's just the truth.

the same thing some posters said about him last year but gave him a pass because it was his first year and he didn't have another superstar on his team at that time.

but now is the turning point. does harden want to just be an all-star caliber player getting paid millions of dollars but being labeled overrated or does he truly want to be great?

does he want to be joe johnson or kobe bryant?

that's the question only harden can answer.

 

For THAT package, we better be getting Bron! LOL...

Really, I think all those pieces SHOULD hold significant value - even Lin...

Harden - I don't think everyone realizes his deficiencies yet and he has solid value...
Asik - If whatever team he's getting traded to works out an agreement for an extension beforehand, then he's gotta have some real worth... even with the extra 7-8M Asik is scheduled to get over and above his cap number next year, divide that over a new 4-5 year contract and an extra 1.5-2M/yr for a center of Asks ability is nothing...
Lin - 15M in real money vs dividends to be garnered from overseas markets... no brainer... You just need a team that is more interested in making money than winning... at least a few options....

 

Poor man's Carmelo Anthony?

 

So I guess the OP is trying to say that since, for the first time in 2 seasons he takes responsibility by admiting he is a defensive liability (truth is abomination) known as O'Haren, so we shouldn't have complained about him at all because we should have predicted that 2 years later he would finally admit this and he just might work on this?

 

amen. Nobody is above criticism.

 

Last season, everything was nice. We lost in 6, everyone was happy because we tried hard against OKC. In the exit interviews the players were happy and positive. Now we will have a summer of self pity, attack our players,lower our expectations(that's good), every idiot is out for blood(Harden this year, Lin every year, Parsons was a BIG liability but no one is talking about him,). Maybe Howard made a mistake and came here, this team wasn't ready, i prefer to see Harden in his prime with another star. It's very early for Harden, He needs to fail first and then learn some things. Howard wants to win now and this team cannot.

 

His all talk. As mentally weak as they come.

 

Its hard to be a lockdown defender and a superstar offensively, but he has another superstar to shoulder the load and a good TEAM, that **** comes down to coaching man. A good coach knows how to divvy up and play to strengths.

 

His defense would improve tremendously if he would stop ball watching and pay attention to his man.