Hardens Defence

I will come to hardens defence here his defense isn’t all that bad. You see what I did there lol 

 He has all the tools except a brain to play good defense

 Harden is of the mindset that his offense is his defense.  You may score on him, but he’s most likely going to outscore you.  Although D’antoni has said there will be a renewed focus on defense with this team, I think he’s also of the "my offense is my defense" mindset

 I’ve never seen a guy who is completely uninterested in playing defense than James Harden.  He shows 0 effort on the defensive end,  If he actually cared or put in some effort he could be an average defender.  He’s obviously never had a coach hold him accountable on that end probably since he’s so talented offensively and Dantoni won’t be that guy.

 I mean this is a sport where many players have many different playstyles and skills. The dude is an offensive juggernaut and I think the factor that his team would be piss poor and literal trash offensively without him is under valued. He’s the only star in the NBA who practically plays for a team where he is the only one he can create for them selves. LeBron has Kyrie, CP3 has Blake and Jamal, Curry has Thompson, Westbrook had KD. Only person I can think Harden had was Parsons, and we never had anything about his defence then, Carrying a bunch of catch and shoot players and finishers will make you not want to play defence. If he played a high volume of defensive minutes I don’t think he’d be durable enough to carry his team + play defence. As sad as it sounds, it’s very true he will not play defence until he has some of the load offensively taken off him.

Hes no Dante Exum on defense.

Single handedly won the game for the Jazz with his Defense tonight.

Im calling it now….Exum will be as good as Iguodala on D.

He_gets_buckets needs to come clean for previous comments about Exums lack of lockdown potential.

 D’Antonio wants the fastest pace possible. On defense, he’ll probably ask Harden to get get out of the way. You don’t have to ask Harden twice. 

 Harden can be a pretty good defender when engaged. He has quick hands, and good instincts. I’ve seen him play solid one on one defense at times in the past but he just falls asleep away from the ball and goes  through lapses where it just seems like he’s either trying not to foul, conserve his energy or just doesn’t care. I thought he made real strides 2 yrs ago but he fell off a cliff last year. 

To be fair, it would be difficult for harden to go all out on defense for an entire game or season considering the load he has to shoulder offensively. Kobe was a lazy and disinterested defender for a large portion of his career, but he could always turn it on and play fantastic defense when he wanted to. The rockets don’t need harden to be their primary lock down defender. They just need him to be more aware and engaged on that end.