Ultimate "James Harden Doesn't Play Defense" Video

Harden has been nothing short of spectacular on both sides of the ball.

 

Can we make a "Harden Defensive Improvement" video?..Im sick of everyone hating on harden. I've noticed that all his haters are kobe lovers. smh. Yeah the Kobe that allowed 32 form harden..22 from jamal crawford and 41 POINTS to Klay Thompson.. The Lakers have the most idiotic fanbase.

 

Just to clarify, Kobe barely guarded Harden

 

HMMHMM will, I hope

 

When The lakers play the rockets ..its really HARDEN vs KOBE..whether they guard each other or not.

 

Though the narrative from the media will be how the roxs got worse losing 3 starting caliber players, the improvement of our young players and especially a defensively focused a Harden is difficult to quantify and can be easily overlooked. Yet a major step by Harden in this area and the addition of key players like ariza Kostas, an improved Bev, and hopefully jones could be a bigger net effect than losing those players. I hope these guys prove the media wrong and shut them up. And for the record I'm ok with this video of harden. If anything I hope it lit a fire under him to actually hold him accountable.

 

Yea, can't wait till his body gets used to playing both sides of the ball and he will not be winded at much.

 

Spectacular is stretching it, but he's been much better thus far, no doubt. Still a few lowlight moments every now and then, but old habits die hard and the effort has been significantly improved.

I probably won't -- you don't get get a video for doing something you're supposed to do -- but if he keeps it up and the national media doesn't pick up on it, I'll be sure to spread the word on twitter.

 

http://gfycat.com/AbsoluteLazyIbis

Anyway he has really improved as a team defender, this is more credit to Wiggins than basing Harden.

 

I saw supposed "Experts" out there in the blogasphere last night jump on this play to make jokes, get retweets, or whatever. Its sad. Its addicting to these guys to jump on Harden's defense at every chance they get for whatever reason.


The mix-up on this play was how they wanted to play their help interior defense. Dwight and James weren't on the same page. It was obvious to me that Harden was shading him in order to try and force him to go baseline. obviously he thought Dwight was there to detour him. He wasn't.

It was a mix up, and happens all the time. If it didn't NBA games wouldn't feature teams scoring 100 points per game. I don't know why people get off on creating gifs and clips after every damn defensive mishap that Harden is involved in.

The guy falls asleep sometimes, but he's been much improved this year, and the fact is, the guy completely dominated last night and conducted a offensive symphony out there on the court. Geez... did Bulls fans in the 90's complain about Jordan being too selfish too? No player is perfect 100% of the time. Lets move on please.

 

...the only "what was Harden thinking" moment I had so far in this young season was the Mo Williams to Corey Brewer inside pass(I think it was in the 2nd quarter or early in the 3rd) in last night's game. Brewer looked like he was going into the paint to screen and Harden was looking across the floor for the guy who would be running through the screen and Mo just fired a pass to an open Brewer at the rim.

Fast forward to about 15 seconds to see the play I'm talking about.
http://on.nba.com/11ldjQW

 

And like everyone else on the team, he stepped up on defense in the 2nd half.

 

I'm pretty sure even the best defenders already have a what he blank thinking moment this season

 

Has anyone seen any Memphis games this year and noticed Tony Allen's defense? Why isn't anyone making gifs of his defensive lapses?

 

Hey don't shoot the messenger - I think Harden has been at least average if not an above average defender this year. All I'm saying is, that play would have made the infamous youtube clip had it been last year.

 

Popular opinion always lags 2-3 seasons behind current performance. Kobe was on the All NBA defensive team before his injuries despite overwhelming proof that he had slipped significantly. I wouldn't be surprised if he nearly makes it again this year...that how behind the times sports writers are.

 

an identical play from a his and wiggins standpoint occurred in the 2nd half, only dwight sent it into the stands

 

What do you expect, guards a lot of times are forcing players to their shot blockers. Wiggins is rather athletic, i doubt that lock down defenders can stay in front of their man 100% of the time.

 

Harden made a couple of nice defensive stands against Wiggins. You could tell he took it personally when Wiggins schooled him a few times earlier in the game.

If you go to BleacherReport though of course, you'll only see his defensive mishaps.

 

I think your referring to this one:
http://on.nba.com/1GSWw81

....video doesn't capture it in real time, but Wiggins in an ISO definitely made Harden look like he was in slow motion.

Embarrassing admission - I didn't realize until last night that Wiggin's dad was ex-Rocket Mitchell Wiggins. I was watching junior play and I kept thinking there was something really familiar about him and I think it's because I remember Wiggins play as a Rocket. There is some quirk about their facial expressions that are very similar.