Harden is a bad defender. There's a reason he guards opposing PFs.....he's too slow to guard opposing perimeter players. Irving/Harden is one of the worst defensive backcourts I've ever seen.
Maybe you should go read a book or something......work on that reading comprehension. If you have trouble understanding what you've read, then maybe you also have trouble understanding what you've seen.
LMAO, your lack of Bball IQ and facts behind you is astounding. I can have grammar errors all day but that doesnt change the fact that your knowledge of basketball is absolutely piss poor. And back to ignore you go.
Sure. Harden is a bad defender. He's too slow to guard opposing perimeter players. You continually disagree with this obvious truth.
Harden needs to stop being a cuck and start shooting or driving every time he has the ball while Kd is out. He’s by far the best and most efficient scorer without Kd. Kyrie can kick rocks harden brings the ball up so he has a choice. Pass to kyrie and he’s never getting that ball back
Harden is a good defender when he tries. His defensive metrics have him as a pretty significant positive the past three years. This year its been bad because well(a lof of the time he hasnt been trying, especially in Houston). But he's the only person on Brooklyn who has been trying consistently on defense(besides KD and Brown). Against good teams you especially see his effort go up and how much of a positive he can be(the Clippers game being an example). When it matters he's a good defender. The problem is your "truth" is a simple, black and white answer without any context or nuance behind it.
Harden isn't that bad of a perimeter defender, he's just lazy at times. When he actually tries, he's not bad at all.
Harde might be laterally not...quick, it's hard to explain since obviously he's laterally very quick on offense but defensive reaction time might not be the best but he makes up for it with strength. I think if there were handchecking Harden might actually be one of the better defensive players in the NBA...but since the NBA has made it so you can't do much but stay in front of guys on the perimeter then yeah... The thing is as said, in the playoffs, he's not bad at all but people will get on him if elite guards torch him because elite guards torch everyone in the league. No handchecking means even elite perimeter guys like Kawhi, Smart, whoever, can get burned on a nightly basis...esepcially if its a playoff match up against the likes of Dame/CJ or Curry/Klay Nets defense stinks but it's not because of Harden, it's because they have a way past his prime Jordan being the anchor there and most of their guys aren't good. Harris, Irving, those other dudes whose names I forget right now... Durant might be the best defensive player on the team and while Durant is a good defender you really don't want him being the best defensive player on the team.
The problem is, you don't understand the context. Why do you think he's had good defensive metrics the past few years? It's because Morey constructed rosters of plus defenders who could hide him on defense. That strategy only works on rosters custom built around Harden. Tonight, it seemed like Harden's marks were consistently getting open looks at the basket. Tomorrow, I'll go through nba.com's play by play and provide examples. You'll be able to see video footage of the events.
So when I say Harden is too slow to guard opposing perimeter players, you argue. But when someone else says Harden is too slow to guard opposing perimeter players, your response is "exactly this"? Seriously?
I'm only saying that yes, he is slow when guarding elite guards, but there is no stopping elite guards when they are on one. Period. Even MJ would get torched by Curry with the rules today because he couldn't touch him or check him. Back then, you could do all that and nothing stopped you from someone getting under your shot other than an ordinary foul shot and maybe a fight. Even so, Harden still makes up for it with strength, something Irving can't do, which is why he's doubly bad because he could get bodied out of the way on a drive and that's not happening on Harden unless he doesn't care (regular season) or he's in foul trouble. Harden isn't the reason the Nets defense is bad I think is the point. Harden and Durant are good enough defensively to be championship players, the rest of the guys, literally everyone else on that squad...isn't. Kyrie can be decent in spots though. IIRC someone had stats from earlier that the Nets play better defensively with Harden? I mean d metrics are sloppy but still, watching him from years in the playoffs it wasn't his defense I worried about. It was if he would have one of those odd Spurs/LAC kind of games where it looks like the Monstars stole his talent. That elite guards torch him, well, that's just how the league is, it's guard dominated. We've seen Harden make mince meat out of elite perimeter guys all the time. I remember he was doing up Kawhi even last season on the Clippers and it's not Kawhi's fault, you can't touch these guys anymore.
I do. LMAO, the metrics I have been using are not dependent on lineups so try again. We were also not a good defensive teams the last two years(until we went small) so Harden being a positive on that end stands out even more. I Save this crap. I dont want examples from someone who can't read the game, I wont be looking at them.
Harden actually did look weirdly bad on defense tonight, somebody here pointed out that he wasn't get his hands up the other day, and somebody else said that was to prevent 3-point shooters from driving, but even in the paint he wasn't getting his hands up. Normally I think he's serviceable, and actually good in the post. But not only are the Nets screwed because Jordan is their defensive anchor, Nash likes to play lineups without Jordan, so their defensive anchor then becomes ??? Making things worse, Durant has not looked that great on defense this season either. Bottom line is, like tons of people have said, this roster is just screwed as currently constructed. I don't think anybody could be swapped out with Harden to save it, because they would need to be an elite playmaker and a defensive anchor. Maybe Lebron, but at this stage of his career he likely would just sit out a season instead of playing on a team with TLC and Brown getting major minutes.
