The Basketball Jones brought up his lackluster D this morning on their podcast at 26:25 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YElmEUBhCPE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> they also talk about the Jazz win about halfway in
Probably why he isn't a superstar in the league yet. I don't think Harden will be a superstar in the league either. He can score, but to me he doesn't seem like he has the intangles, like Lebron, Kobe, and Durant. To me he's 2nd tier. But then again, everyone is 2nd tier to Lebron, Kobe, and Durant.
The funniest part is calling Parsons "serial gambler." I have only heard of "compulsive gambler" and "serial killer" but never serial gambler.
Defense is somewhat overrated for elite scorers. Ideally, obviously you want a Micheal Jordan or Lebron James as your superstar wing player who can impact both sides of the floor. But in less than ideal situations with less than ideal players, a team can certainly make do with one of their wing being below average in this regards. It's much easier to find your Bruce Bowens, Shane Battiers, Tony Allens of the world than it is to find a James Harden. The key is to make sure the other guy can defend opposing Kobes and Durants. And have Harden play against the other guy. Even the championship Bulls teams had Jordan defend the weakest opposing perimeter while assigning tougher assignments to Harper and Pippen. It's just smart basketball. Harden basically need to stay in front of shooters, put his hands up, understand the rotations, and in general just play smart. He's already so much better now than he was at the beginning of the season. I have no doubt he can improve enough where this is minimized.
I think Harden has some positive attributes on defense. I think he would improve a ton in the playoffs.
Yea I am. The dude is a Legend. He's a superstar still. He's a got a brand new team and a coach to deal with. The guy can straight up play ball. Even with his crappy team, I still put him above Harden as the #1 shooting guard. He's not just a scorer like Harden is. To me right now, Harden is just a scorer. He hasn't shown leadership qualities this whole season IMO. That's why I said he isn't a superstar yet. I don't know if he'll ever be a superstar like Kobe, Lebron, Durant, Jordan etc. Harden is great, but won't be in that tier. He'll need another anchor to win a final or might not win one his career. It's hard to win a championship in the NBA. If he stuck in OKC I think he might have won one.
He's right. Harden & Parsons seem to have regressed defensively, and a lot of it is they are gambling a lot.
Same thing happened to T-Mac. Harden was considered a good defender coming out of college and T-Mac was a defensive stopper in Toronto. Doesn't mean they are incapable of being good defenders when they want to be again.
LOL, you are the one started this whole non-sense with while most other people seemly agree that Harden has a flawed D. get a live and stop being a troll.
with the set up of current Rockets team, Asik is the guy. We may need more D sets to channel offense players to Asik. But unfortunately set plays are not strongest skills of our coaching stuffs.
As a Harden Only Fan I'm shocked that Clutch hasn't closed this thread. Clutch obviously is a Harden-doubter and hates him.
You know that was sarcasm right? Not surprised you don't though, you can't even tell the difference between "non-sense" and "nonsense". How do I get a "live" again?
Off with his HEAD! Thou shall not point out the obvious flaws of King James. In all seriousness though, it's true. Im certainly not asking him to be a lock down defender, I just want a little more hustle like not giving up so easily on plays, fighting thru screens, actually stopping easy dunks when he's right there.. But Im not even mildly concerned, he's just 23. A very smart young player who I have no doubt will work on improving his defense...as will the rest of the guys who also need improvement (minus Asik obviously)
