Jack-Curry-Klay Paul-Crawford-Barnes Parker-Manu-Leonard Westbrook-Martin-Durant Who should we hide Harden on? He has to guard somebody.
Harden guarded Kobe and Lebron for one or two possessions in a game in the playoffs, right? The task? Maybe we were watching different games?
"When Harden is on the court, Houston gives up 104.2 points per 100 possessions, good for a bottom 10 caliber defense. When he’s off, that number drops to 101.5 (for reference, the Miami Heat are currently allowing 101.4 points per 100 possessions)." Its cool that Clutchfans are not afraid to point out ways that their favorite players can improve their game. I hope the coaching staff does this as well.
He guarded Manu as well. And maybe you where watching different games because Harden averaged well over 30 minutes which meant Him, KD, and Westbrook where on the floor together often and when they where he drew the defensive assignments of the best players a lot more than 1 or 2 possessions and he did it all season long.
A lot of people on this board (myself included) are too easily handing the "Best 2" crown to Harden. This just isn't true until he starts playing some D. The true greats were all great defenders and couldn't stand the idea of their man beating them. It's not a coincidence that guys like Klay Thompson have career nights against us consistently.
The old school players could handcheck it's alot easier for and wing player to score nowadays. It's damn near impossible to be a lock down defender on the perimeter now. The players are to strong and quick to guard without putting your hands on them. I'm Not saying that harden doesn't need to improve on defense but you can't compare players from 15 yrs ago to now when the rules are different. When harden wants to he can lock his guy up he's got the size strength and length plus elite athletism to be one of the best defenders in the game. Iv seen him lock up star players quite often this season he just doesn't do it all the time or very often. This is normal with young players even lebron didn't play good defense his first few years that was the knock on him also now he's the best defender in the game.
Harden my boy but I must admit he is (SUPER) DupeR)) lazy on defense, hopefully he puts some emphasis on getting better at Defense this off-season, seems like his biggest weakness for now...
Ahh now this is an interesting topic. It came up recently because of the Jordan Vs. Lebron thing. The old schoolers say that because of hand-checking it was harder in their day. But illegal defense rules have changed too. Now defenders can cheat off their man and play free-safety. Back in the day you could drag the Center out of the paint but now he can just hang back. It's interesting to watch because teams can do more on D now. Back in the day you could ONLY play man-to-man. There was a GREAT article on Marc Gasol's D at SB Nation last week: http://www.sbnation.com/2013/3/15/4108416/marc-gasol-grizzlies-defensive-player-of-the-year A lot of the stuff Gasol did, would have been illegal D back in the day. So I'm not entirely sold on the idea that it was harder back in the day. Either way, although Harden's man D is bad at times, it's when he loses his guy on the perimeter that gets me. In the Golden state game Thompson was getting open looks all night. Sometimes it's just a good offense and good screens, but sometimes it's just ball-watching and poor awareness. What I am afraid of is that teams are now starting to purposely target Harden, running him through screens and trying to tire him out, or instructing their snipers to shift on every shot. I do think Harden can be a better defender but then the problem is the minutes he plays. Sometimes I have no idea why McHale leaves him in so long, even in blowouts. Priority 1,2 and 3 for the off-season is to find a decent back-up 2, preferably a stopper. I wouldn't mind seeing more of Anderson myself.
He needs to be at least average defensively. Doesn't have to Lebron James on defense. His main job is to put the ball in the bucket. He is our primary scorer that is his job but in order to be a true superstar he needs to be a multi-dimensional player. Otherwise he will be a playoff loser like the one-dimensional Melo. The good thing is he is already better than Melo. More efficient scorer and a good playmaker. Just needs to improve that D.
if Harden concentrate on D he'll get tired and his offense will suffer,but in the long run come play off time this is very helpful to the team.I would let Parson play the 2 and slide him to 3 to cover a ground if they dropped the ball to Harden's man just double team aggressively.Harden is very young, eventually he will develop his defensive skills
Harden's at least at times OK guarding his own man with the ball. He gets lost off ball though and allow too many guys to get free for wide open shots off cuts.
We need another star on the team to take the pressure and the double teaming off of him so he won't tire out as much on offense and he can focus more energy on D.
