I love the rockets, I really like the lineup, but let`s not pretend that Harden and Lawson suddenly are great defenders. Steals are not neccesarily an indicator of the complete defense. We have a lot of steals because we play the passing lanes, that´s the roster we built, and we did build it with that in mind. Harden and Lawson are great at steals, but I want to see them as isolated defenders at the low post before calling them + defenders. And this is something that is going to happen a lot, specially with Lawson.
If you want to talk about isolated, low post....or post up defense. Then my friend, Harden is not only a great defender. Harden is an ELITE post-up defender. Harden ended last year in the top 10 in defensive win shares. At the start of the season he was leading, and a leader in defensive rating. But all the injuries, especially Howard's absence, forced him to focus more on offense. But he never let up on d to where he was back to being a - defender that you had to "hide". There is a difference between hiding a guy, and letting your 2 better defenders guard the hardest defensive assignments. Beverley and Ariza saving energy on the defensive side is not going to translate on the offensive side any where near Harden. Last year we saw Harden do some incredible things on the defensive side, and not just against SGs....against Dirk, Boogie, Randolph, etc. He's tough enough to guard 1 thru 4. And you can't tell me that Lawson isn't an improvement against a "deer in the headlights" rook like Johsnon, or the sloth-slow Grampa duo of Terry-Prigs.
Harden always seems to do pretty well playing defense in the post. IE Against Randolph and Griffin last year if I remember correctly. But that's from the eye test, numbers probably don't back it up.
Yep these guys are battle tested for sure. We've got two guys with rings and played important roles and a guy who was the best player of his team during their lone finals appearance and another guy who stepped up his game in the playoffs to help catapult his team to their only finals appearance
Did I read that right "emerge" ? The team played in the WCF with two starters out...and just now we have emerged? LOL.
I`m going to slightly disagree on some parts and accept your poins on others Lawson is a size disadvantage clearly. I have no expectations here to shut down people, and that´s not the reason he is here. I`m fine with him playing the lanes, but remember please that one of the issues from our PGs last year was their failure to avoid penetration. That´s my biggest fear. Now, Harden, I believe you guys are right, last year when guarding the 4s he had to sometimes he was great. But again, his go to movement was swiping at the ball, something he is very good at, as showed by his steals numbers. I want to see fundamentals too. What I`m really worried now is about the combination of both. I´m not really worried about the 3 position, not even when we use Ariza at the 4. We will have Brewer to cover there. Now, let´s put in ourselves in a situation where Ariza is guarding the rival´s main perimeter player. Then you have to take care of the other 2 between Lawson and Harden. I guess what I`m trying to say is that we will have some matchups where this really worries me. OKC: Ariza goes with Durant, who stays with Westbrook? Cleveland: same thing with Kyrie.
No one can stop those two And less than a handful can slow them down At least Lawson can almost match them on offense and make then work as well hopefully get then to commit more fouls than usual
I'm banking on the Spurs self destructing or crying in the playoffs falling short Spurs...they really didn't own us..couple losses were by a few points coulda gone either way and we had injuries OKC...well there are an anomaly but we beat them last season and what happens when our bench faces their bench
It wasn't until last season, they essentially have the same team as the previous year and we used to destroy them. Remember this? http://www.si.com/nba/point-forward/2013/02/06/mark-jackson-intentionally-foul-warriors-rockets-three-pointers-record
Lawson played poorly on defense last year but he has shown in the past that he is a good defender. Lawson requires motivation and drive to play good defense and not take off. Winning teams create extra motivation through win streaks, improved seating, etc. that affects the players. Lawson will play better defense this year. Curry is the worst defending PG in the league and is visibly slower when he has to defend great players. Still incredible but instead of 30 with 50% shooting, its more like 23 with 41% shooting. Little things add up and Lawson is a huge addition. Warriors are due for an ACL tear.
putting the gsw hate to the side, this is not true at all. he's not the best but he actually has made strides in this area and gives significant effort on this end.
