The media agenda regarding James Harden's "defense"

It's an agenda.

Harden is good at defense.

 

No agenda, only endless footage of Harden embarrassing himself while pretending to play defense.

FWIW, he did have a nice defensive possession last night resulting in him blocking Speights' jumper.

 

He deserves it. When you don't attempt to move your feet, you deserve to be laughed at.

 

When was the last time Harden drew a charge on defense?

 

Harden needs to give a few VERY HARD FOULS
reverse that rep

"Man, James will put you i nthe third row!"

James HARD FOUL HArden

Rocket River

 

Ken Berger:

Has Harden checked out with his effort level defensively or is that just who he is?

Latter. There's video evidence about Harden not caring about defense, going all the way back to October. He'll never be a great defender. That's not who he is. You gotta put forth a little bit of effort and be connected on defense. That's been an issue for the Rockets all year. I still have nightmares of Dwight with the Lakers. All I remember is them getting beat in transition and Dwight pointing out to 3 players why they didn't do their job. If you do your job, you become better defensively.

How toxic is Harden? Uncoachable? Score a lot of points & never win anything?

We can't say that yet. Scott Brooks coached him when he was third fiddle in OKC. Now he's the lead guy in Houston. That takes on a whole different level of responsibility. It's too young, too early in his career to put a Stephon Marbury label on him. It's fair to say he's warranting the criticism he receives.

 

I think about 3 months ago.

 

WELL DESERVED !!

 

I've been wondering a lot about this lately. In Phil Jackson's book about the Lakers, he famously called Kobe Bryant "uncoachable." The two disliked each other intensely, I remember Jackson saying somewhere he could "feel the hate" coming from Kobe while on the floor during games.

And yet somehow they managed to patch things up, sort of, and continue to win after they each adjusted to the other one. Took years.

But is Harden similarly "uncoachable"? hard to say right now. Sure looks that way.

Can Harden be rehabilitated (along the lines of how Kobe changed). Also hard to say. That's the big question. Harden is still young, but many of us suspect that he lacks the drive and the pride of Kobe to make those kinds of necessary changes. Kobe did change because he realized he had to change if he wanted to win it all again.

Not sure Harden has that in him. It would take a special coach to pull that out of him.

 

He's already getting into foul trouble with dumb fouls - he would have to cut down on those first.