Here's Harden's answer to Hubie Brown and Kenny Smith's idea that a hipcheck would stop Harden. Don't tell me this isn't a hip check. That's a 220 pound Jaylen Brown just bouncing off of a 6'5 220 pound Harden...yet a 185 pound Derek Harper is supposed to do better. Also keep in mind: After Harden knocks the hipcheck backwards, he bends over to dribble In Yo Face. Now you can't even reach his hip if you tried, when he's bent over facing you. And if you tried, he's going to foul you out by catching you with your hand in the cookie jar. Durant will face you before his dribble and swipe through your hip check for a foul Harden will bend down and face you with his dribble and swipe through your hip check for a foul And once Harden starts his drive, he can Euro-Step through a hip check ... Harper never faced a Euro-Step Harper couldn't guard Harden any better than anyone else, even trying to check him like Jaylen Brown did in the video.
Not to mention the game is faster today - offensive players can change direction so quickly that trying to hip check someone might leave you falling over if you time it incorrectly.
Photo stills of Harden getting hip-checked, just like Hubie Brown demonstrated in that video. He bounces you back like nothing, then faces you. How are you going to hip-check him now, without reaching into the cookie jar.
I honestly think that guys were just conditioned back then to be deterred by defenses putting their hands out. There was a whole weird back it in culture back then that was endemic. Like "keep it safe, give the defender your butt" - which allowed guys to do this without paying as much of a penalty. Guys who reach and lean and put their weight on Harden are already in a blue styrofoam box that says "filet o fish" on it. Not only did they cede their balance..they gave it to him and provide him telemetry in real time. Watch old isiah Thomas highlights to see the exception that proves the rule. When he faced up defenses had lots of trouble. When he backed in, on ovcasion. he would spin off them. Harden and all of today's stars can do all of this in spades. Its ludicrous (but not at all surprising) that the faded egos of the past can't comprehend this.
THIS plus harden is so crafty he would find his way in any era under any rules 100% every year they change the rules to stop him and he prospers even more under the new rules
Then hand-checking aside: Todays guards have to face ICE defense, Dropping bigs, 3 defenders against 2 strongside, a staggered 2 against an ISO, 2.9 help defense ... most all of which were illegal back in the day of Illegal Defense And Today's guards have to face a league who has promoted 3&D players to premium, must have status The Ryan Anderson and Matt Bullard's have been taken off the court Defenses schemes have near full freedom for an out-pouring of new inventions, making it well worth it to replace no-defense shooters with multi-positional defenders who can spot-up.
Hayward has no chance to hand-check Harden while facing him Sooooo....Hayward hand-checks him on the way to the basket Yet, Kenny Smith says this is no longer done in the NBA It doesn't matter, because the tank is already going downhill He barely misses, because of Help Defense, but which led to a clean-up bunny by Capela.
Absolutely. I think a lot of the problem is just rationalizing by the old school egos. Like "yeah we never did that because the rules and defenses didn't let us " is a lot more self-reassuring for Kenny and Charles than saying "**** I wish I'd been smart or good enough to do that" Look at Larry Birds 3 point shooting for a good example of this. He was an elite shooter even by today's standards at over 40% in his prime. and a volume shooter in his era, leading the league with....2 or 3 attempts a game, while shooting 50 from 2. There was not hand checking or anything stopping him from shooting more 3s and being a more efficient scorer, it just.. wasn't the way he (or anyone) had learned to play back then, and so...they didn't. And he was a legendarily smart player. And he was smart to use it as much as he did, even if it wasn't objectively enough. Contrast this with the college and high school games where the 3 pointer became critical rapidly after it was implemented. Inertia. It happens.
Harden still gets handchecked - but hand checking had more impact on drives than anything else. And handchecking would also result in more fouls being called when you have a guy like Harden capable of punishing a defender for handchecking. Today's players are so quick, that handchecking would be too obvious of a foul. Handcheck relies on constant contact and keeping an arm on curry isn't going to be easy. Curry is not Kenny Smith, he wouldn't back Harper down the court, he's just run past him. And handchecks were not meant to impede movement but rather to let the defender track an offensive player - players got away with movement because they were sneaky. I think we can all agree that Curry would do a heck of a lot better than Kenny Smith who was a starting point guard. Oh, and Sam Cassell was pretty small too yet he thrived in the hand checking era. So why wouldn't Curry thrive?
Here's an example of Illegal Defense back in the day, which Harden must face, now. This 3 defenders guarding the PnR effectively stops it. Stockton never had to face this. As soon as Poetl steps up to zone the PnR, he's illegal -- see picture. There was no second count under the rules. Unless you are actively rushing to double team, then you are zoning. And if the ref doesn't call it immediately, then all Harden would have to do is back up and point to Poetl vs use the Pick, and the ref will be obliged to call it.
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry: Rockets' James Harden is 'the best iso player in the world' NEW ORLEANS - As much as Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry adopted from Mike D’Antoni’s offense when they were together with the Suns from 2003-04 through 2007-08, he was not surprised to see D’Antoni take his offense from the passing in those seasons to the one-on-one reliance with the Rockets. Asked what he would have thought 10 years ago if told D’Antoni would be running an offense with such a great emphasis on iso plays, Gentry said, “I’d say he probably had James Harden on his team.” “He’s the best iso player in the world, really,” Gentry said. “I don’t know if there’s anybody you can say is better in the history of this league, really, as far as drawing fouls and making plays in an iso situation.”
In our last installment of "Harden versus Old-Era Illegal Defense", Harden drains a three. In today's episode, Harden drives directly into the illegal zone for a layup.
And again, two defenders on Capela, so Davis can zone Harden going to rim ... but, Step-Back Mid-range.
Again...here Today's Drop Defender, which was Illegal back in the day Harden scores a layup nonetheless
Win a ring and i am ready to call him GOAT. This MF made the league changed the rules like 3 years in a roll and he's still rolling them asssses.
Hip Check Again ... Harden is waayy too strong and scores easily. Kenny Smith -- Hip Checks Never Happen Anymore
