Harden says he plays too much to maintain defensive focus

Harden is the guard version of Kevin Love. He sags off his man and gets a lot of defensive rebounds. A lot of times when Harden grabs a defensive rebound close to the basket, I wondered, "What is our SG doing playing under our own basket so much?"

 

was reading some non-rockets related nba stuff online, trying to catch up a little w/ other teams' stories. came cross the following. thought i'd leave them here.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/jam...ass-for-his-shockingly-poor-effort-on-defense

http://www.slamonline.com/nba/james-harden-blames-heavy-minutes-for-bad-defense/#l7ZsChE8e4BzTOG5.97
(this one basically has no commentary, but the reader comments were interesting.)

 

It's also a competitive thing within yourself. " I am not going to let this joker score on me". (Jordan and Pippen taking it upon themselves to completely shut Tony K down in the Olympics)

Or I'm the best player on this court so I be damned if I let this scrub or Rookie score on me.

 

I haven't paid that much attention to his defensive effort. The Rockets defense as a whole has been so much different from last year's that it can't be just one person's fault

If his effort is halfhearted, that can definitely affect those around him. A lot of players are known to not be very good defensively, but still get time because they can score or rebound. I'm sure that bothers teammates on any team, but it gets magnified if a "star" player slacks on defense. Everyone agrees his defense last year was better than the year before. So what changed?

 

Have Lawson handle the ball almost half the time, then Harden spends less energy on offense and then has no excuse defensively (not that this is a good excuse anyway).

 

I have to admit, I thought the addition of Lawson and Thornton would allow Harden to play at least a few fewer minutes per game.

 

Hard to get why he does that unless it's to pad his stats, because I've seen him play good one-on-one defense when he has a mind to.

 

Not sure of Harden's minutes/game since JB, but we all know McHale is, let's say, less than smart.

come on guys... clap... clap... come clap

You got it easily

It's called "playing for yourself" and "not playing for each other"..... "not being a leader"

 

He can sit on the bench more. I would like that.