Harden is playing horrible defense. I dont know if this because of habit or injury but either way it is unacceptable. His man-to-man defense is traffic cone like and his rotational defense is non existent. Also, half his turnovers are lackadaisical/lazy passes that turn into easy buckets on the other end. Not being able to feed Dwight in a timely manner when he pins his man deep is also a problem for our guards. We wouldnt need to feed Howard for post ups 15 feet from the basket so often if we can hit him with the ball consistently. Garcia needs to stop with the silly fouls. Aggression is good but I have seen him make 5+ completely rookie-like fouls. Lin needs to stop jumping in the lane without a plan. No more bounce passes in the lane. No more hero ball. the basketball should not be in someone's hands 10+ seconds while everyone else is idle. Ultimately, these are some of the things that players need to be accountable for if we want to be a championship caliber team. Any other things that the team needs to be accountable for?
Dwight needs to make quicker decisions/moves before the the double team comes he gets the ball 3-5 ft from the rim. He needs to stop turning it over so much on post moves. Jeremy needs to stop leaving his man to help in the paint. The big men don't need his help. Everyone needs to learn how to box out better. And IMO, the entire team also needs to learn to move better without the ball as well.
My eye test view on our defence and in particular our backcourt rotation is solid 1v1 defenders who can keep man in front of them or funnel them to tjones Asik or dwight to change the shot. However their off ball defensive is where their reputation of "lazy" comes from as they all (lin, bev, brooks, harden) get lost on the floor at times
Harden's defense last night was the best all year I thought. Maybe the Raptors game was a little bit better. It's amazing what he can do when his legs don't look like Oprah's rear end.
Kind of ironic this thread was made after arguably Harden's best defensive performance this season. Valorita, go home you're drunk.
I think two things would be necessary before you'll be happy on this front: (a) Harden needs to be healthy and then either (b1) he needs to play fewer minutes or (b2) we need to play at a reduced pace. The low post isn't really a natural part of the offense, so I understand not devoting too many practice reps to it. Really, the post touches are probably to keep Howard happy more than anything else. I don't expect that much improvement, here. That's his game. If he were playing 30 minutes a game, it'd be a problem. As an energy guy off the bench ? Not really a huge problem. I think he's improved tremendously since last year with this. Ball security matters, but this is a bit of an overreaction. Sometimes the appropriate pass is the bounce pass. [quote[No more hero ball. the basketball should not be in someone's hands 10+ seconds while everyone else is idle.[/quote] The Rockets have a gorgeous, efficient offense. Every team will play iso at times. Also, this point seems inconsistent with your apparent desire to see Howard fed in the post. Harden hero ball is, I imagine, more efficient than Dwight post-ups.
The Rockets have a gorgeous, efficient offense. Every team will play iso at times. Also, this point seems inconsistent with your apparent desire to see Howard fed in the post. Harden hero ball is, I imagine, more efficient than Dwight post-ups.[/QUOTE] Yes yes, thank your for your reply. Been seeing much better offensive flow in the last 2 games, and a more equivocal spread of minutes and points, so I don't really know what is OP dissatisfied about. Plus, OP should understand that most of what he stated are by-products of the roles the player plays and/or the high octane play style the team has, such as Garcia being the energy and his higher foul rate, same could be said for Bev.
The coaches have to be accountable for preparing the team the best possible way, like having some structure for specific situations, and less reliance on "gut feel". This will go a long way toward making the players less reliant on their own skills and more trusting of the system, and will definitely help them in the long run.
Harden looked decent defensively at the end of last year when he defended Thabo in the corner and when he defended Lebron and other power forwards. Now that the Twin Towers experiment has ended (or has it?) I keep waiting to see McHale change the match ups defensively to allow Harden to slough off on the weakside spot up shooter, either the SF or PF and have Parsons, Jones, and Beverley scramble on the strongest 3 offensive players of the opponent.
I was just going to say he played pretty decent defense last night including his off the ball help defense.
all problems would be solved if dwight could hit 64% from ft line and could hit a baseline turnaround nightmare shake . Agreed with the hero ball. Leave the teen wolf set when we can't buy a basket or harden is having one of those nights were he is making it rain. Garcia looks over the zombie flu and has recovered his shot. Bev needs to not get caught on screens, a guard issue in general. on the brightside, Jones and casspi show hard on screens and make up some of the ground lost by the guard. Coach Mchale, nothing negative. He is improving with each game that goes by. Sometimes he frustrates me but that's only because the fuhrer stole my heart. Brooks, if you're hot, don't pass it. keep shooting. Lin, get back completely healed. Smith, needs to do more shirtless pics! wait, what? Asik, just be Asik. did i miss anyone?
Danny Green will pose a challenge because he moves well off the ball and that is the type of player that he struggles with defensively.
