Theory: Defense was so bad last season specifically b/c of Dwight and his impact on others.

He has the power to give garbage effort and get the coach fired. That's true of any star

 

Its funny how people who are trying to blame it on Harden totally disagree when you blame it on Dwight under the same context. Dwight admitted to not playing D on purpose so its not hard to conceive others would just give up as well. Keep in mind that we won plenty of games in years past with Harden's bad defense the drop this year could not have been on Harden.

 

That's funny because the stats say capela was actually better than howard as a rim protector this year so by your logic we might be better.

 

Harden gave far less effort on defense than Howard. Harden was the issue.

 

I agree with all this except the harden part. I think after the Warriors game on new years that guy went into im trying to win every game mode. He really wanted to win bad you could just tell. I mean he played 45min a game and the whole 2nd half of games the last 20 games of the season just so we could get in the playoffs as an 8th seed. I don't know if it was pride or what be he is a winner Forsure the guy cares a lot about winning as has been stated by a lot of coaches and media ppl he just needs to go about the process differently.

The games we played well in he was getting up tye fourt fast and creating easy looks for his shooters. Now he has some shooters a center that wants to run and play pick and roll this is hardens time to shine and show everyone how great of a leader and player he really is.

My guess is the rockets will surprise everyone this year but it won't be enough because that team in Oakland prob won't lose more than 5 games all year including the playoffs.

I don't wish injury at all but I won't lose sleep if curry or kD tear an acl and miss the whole year.

 

Thats definitely not true when you watch the video. Dwight would just swipe at people and not defend and he admitted as much I don't understand the need to rewrite history.We can argue who gave less effort but the point is Harden has never been good a D and we still won so the discrepancy was with Dwight whose job is to anchor the defense.

 

Last year was 1 big cluster(bleep)...starting with the 4-7 start and the firing of McHale all the way thru getting trounced in he 1st round. It was just one of "those" years where everything is upside down. Dwight isn't specifically to blame, there's enough to go around. But I believe that last year was the exception to the rule, more that it was the norm.

 

Absolutely wrong. Similar to Kobe, Harden wanted to win as long as it was on his terms. You can't alienate the 2nd best player and be a guy who "really wanted to win bad". It just doesn't work like that.

 

Maybe the bad chemistry between the two was the issue? The presence of each caused the other to dog it on D, it seems.

Hopefully having a group that actually don't hate each other helps.

 

Dwight didn't play D because he wasn't getting offensive touches in the post. It was Harden's decision to not give him touches in the post. So that's why I blame Harden. Sure, the idea probably came from Morey/JB, but everyone caters to Harden. Had Harden insisted that Dwight get post touches, Dwight would've gotten post touches.

 

That would be a good start, yes. BTW, I'd like your take on something that concerns me. Specifically, I am of the opinion that in order to take full advantage of MDA's philosophy you need a set of players with specific skillsets. Since his system is so heavily slanted to the offensive side of the game, those players will not be the type of players you need to have an impact on the defensive side of the game. We've already seen them begin to get the offensive players MDA needs with the signings of Anderson & Gordon but so far the defensive side looks to be an afterthought. Your thoughts?