This is an excerpt from MacMahon's article today on the rockets: According to NBA.com stats, Harden has allowed 0.72 points per possession as an isolation defender this season entering Thursday's win over the San Antonio Spurs, ranking in the league's 82.1 percentile. That makes Harden the stingiest iso defender among the 25 most targeted players this season. By comparison, James and Curry have allowed 1.02 and 1.00 points per possession in isolation, respectively (27.6 and 29.8 percentile). http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22290099/why-lebron-curry-durant-compare-harden-mvp-resume-nba
No way can we put our star player on a dirty player like Draymond. You gotta watch out for his groin kicks.
Fair enough cp3 presence on and off the court has helped harden But I don't think it's a good excuse for his lack of D in the previous years. Their is obvious evidence of him being extremely lazy and was leading in least minutes ran down the court
Sure he can. But since we switch everything it really doesn't matter who starts out guarding whom. The series might come down to Harden against Zaza and Curry against Capela.
You have to neutralize Green defensively but in general you want to make him be the guy who beats you offensively by making plays. You don't want to give him wide open layups and such, but if you can have Draymond taking longer shots because his defender is helping on someone else. Durant, Curry, and Klay can all light you up for 40+ points easily - Draymond, not so much...
If by "making plays" you mean giving Green the three ball, yes. But if "making plays" means Green getting in the paint with the ball and all three options (pass, dribble, shoot) that's a recipe for failure.
i thought we got tuckwagon to deal with donkey. in any case, i don't like leaving james in the paint battling with donkey's elbows for rebounds and at the same time risking his minutes at the fuking referees' whims to call bs loose ball fouls all game and what not
This is a weird thread in my opinion. As stated by many here, Draymond doesn't score a lot of points, and when he does it's when he hits his 3s (shooting only around 30% anyway), or making basket cuts off penetration from his pair of superstars. The only points he does score in the post come from incidental mismatches and a lack of options. I guess it is interesting that against average scorers/offensive players, harden's defense actually is worse than when he knows he has to play d. It's true that his post d is actually pretty good, but I still have memories of draymond scoring on him in the post 1-2x in a couple of games. Doesn't seem like much but they were timely for the warriors. Regardless, I like Tucker on draymond with our other defensive wings guarding their superstars. I've always thought that draymond is free to maximize his strengths when teams simply dont have enough defenders to utilize because they send them all on kd, steph, & klay. I think if you put even a little pressure on draymond's passes, make him work just a little bit, he wont be as effective. I mean, most of his 7 assists/game come from ZERO pressure on passes, to illegally screened superstar shooting. Bang with him in the paint in Tucker, pressure his passes a bit to disrupt his timing, and expect to counter his one crossover at the high key and you're good. The guy doesn't finish exceptionally well one-on-one and when he misses and takes some body, he'll probably get techs at the refs. The only thing you can't do against draymond is let him play with zero pressure on offense.
Harden is a bit limited on defense when he has to move laterally, so maybe Green would try to drive against him.
I worry about him getting hurt or banged up, but yes on the occasional post-up, Harden will be fine. On the perimeter, Green is too slow to ISO him and make anything of the play. Not worried about Green. As someone said above, very worried about the Curry and Durant pick-and-roll. That will be their bread and butter. Arguably the most effective pick-and-roll duo in NBA history. That's going to take a master class in knowing when to fight over the screen, when to switch, when to send help, etc... That matchup is going to be hell for us.
How many points does green actually score from the post. From what I recall from memory he kinda plays the Brad Miller role at high post for dribble hand offs to curry or passing to other cutting players to the rim. Occasionally he shoots the open three here or there but in general I don't think harden guarding him would be an issue.
Negatory little buddy. Harden can't defend Green effectively on a consistent basis in the playoffs. Next question.
