Idk if it's just me but to me harden was always good on D. It always pissed me off when people said he sucked or was the worst defender in the nba. Last season harden was awesome at steals and picking the lanes. Now harden was a slacker for sure on the defensive end but he never sucked. To me it was just the worlds way of hating on somebody because that's what we do now days. Just glad he's putting more of an effort but who knows if he will ever be credited if he's not on his game every night.
C'mon man... I'm the biggest Harden homer there is, but he was bad last year. He always had the potential to be good but he just didn't put the effort into it. This year, however, is a revelation.
Good at D =/= gets steals. Yes, he was always solid at playing passing lanes, but when you're regularly getting ravaged on backdoor cuts, down screens and blowbys that counts for absolutely nothing. Harden's cleaned up that garbage and now his ability to grab steals can shine all the more.
He did defend Kobe well a few years ago in the playoffs. It's like T-mac, good defender but only if he wants to.
It’s better to say Harden was never terrible on D the way he’s described. He was never good, but it wasn’t ever bad. Also, Ariza for parsons swap really showed Parsons poor defense which exacerbated the situation.
When you wear a superstar tag you will be expected to keep up with superstar expectations. Harden was terrible defensively last year, not sure which games you watched by I recall him routinely getting burned by the likes of Corey Brewer, Wes Mathews, Nick Young, etc. Hardly all-star caliber players. Brewer put up 50 points on us last year, do you not remember that? Harden has to take ownership of that and its looking like he has so far, as he's a much improved defender this year, as far as effort goes. He's still not an elite defender but people can't rail on him this year they way they could last year.
I'll say this much: Harden was a very good defender at OKC when he put his mind to it. The turning point came when Eric Maynor blew out his knee early during Harden's final season at OKC. From then on, Harden totally dominated the ball on their 2nd unit, stopped moving without the ball, everything became iso and he pretty much stopped defending while pouring everything into scoring. He, Maynor and Nick Collison had a special chemistry off the bench that was beautiful to watch and it went out the window. When he came to Houston and became "iso man" that played no D, I knew he could do better. It's good to see it finally happening. The next step is for the Rockets to get a PG that can play-make (at least a little) and run an offense with other willing passers on the floor. When that happens, we will see Harden start moving more without ball and scoring easier points off back-door cuts, spot up 3s off the catch, etc.
Whoever he defended last year according to player tracking shot like 6-8% lower than their regular average.
It's not his on-ball defense people really criticized. It's the off-ball defense. He ball watches and gambles. He's still doing mostly the same thing...and getting away with it more. He's putting a lot more effort on on-ball defense and is playing even better in those situations. I hope he keeps focus off ball and doesn't lose his man as much as he did last year.
I'm not a pessimist or a hater or w/e but I just think it's funny that the commentators and clutchfans jump to defend hardens defense when he hasn't really fixed the main problem from last year. Both defensive plays from the kings game that are on CF as highlights involve him ball watching...no eyes on his man...well before his rotation needed to be made (especially on the cousins block play). Simple cutting and crisp passing, which better teams will probably do, would result in open 3s, and will come back to haunt harden if he doesn't show a bit more discipline on the defensive end.
His defense last year certainly wasn't as bad as his reputation suggested. He had about one or two plays a game last season where he would totally lose his man though, and that made the viral clips. His focus is a lot better this season, and he's a good defender. He was merely an average/mediocre team defender last season, so far this season, he's almost been elite.
his defense was always good in the 4th quarter, but he's now actually playing both sides in those first 3 You realise he was leaving his man for Boogie by design right? you know why right? As good as Boogie was, he almost had double the turnovers of the entire rockets team...lol
His off-ball defense was a little sub par last year. He wasn't "bad", but when you compare his offensive game with his D, the contrast was huge. When you excel at one thing, people will expect you to be good at everything. Enter Harden 2014-2015.
I agree. I never thought he sucked, but he played bad on defense because he was playing lazy. I said it his first year here that in OKC he played good on defense because it was demanded of him to do so. This is what made it more depressing for me and made me upset with him, is because I knew he could do better.
Anyone with half a brain knew he wasn't as bad as he was. There is a huge difference between being bad at D and playing bad D. We all knew he was capable of much more, due to the D he shown at OKC. That was why it was so infuriating to see him play bad D game in and game out. It was always about effort and focus for Harden on D. Losing your man while ball watching is about focus. Letting a man rush by you and pathetically trying to rip him as a last resort from behind is about effort. Harden is capable of playing D, he just didn't.
I actually didn't watch this game so yea that could definitely be the case. It's just how he positions himself on those defensive rotations...where he basically turns his back to his man. I feel like he should put himself in a position to see both players (his original man and his rotation). It just seems reminiscent of every play you see him get back door'd on.
