Harden is a winner and tough guy, he will play through injuries cuz that is his mentality. It is one of the reasons he became one of the world's best players. Oth Dumbtoni is one of the worst possible coaches for him cuz Dumbtoni can't see past his next game. Rather than keeping his health in mind Dumbtoni will just egg him on further to burn up by midseason. 10 man rotation? What's that? We going 8 man rotation vs lotto team gotta get that W. Whatever it takes!!! Midget ball, 43 mpg man we dont care whatever it takes!!!!!! Thats why we always get a mix of Harden peaking in regular season and flaming out in the playoffs. Now PJ Tucker is run down to the ground and I guess Harden is too. Brodie better be taking his vitamins cuz he up next.
He is actually stupid in this regard. As Hakeem always used to say, "Look at the big picture." Hakeem would pace himself during regular season and used it to prep for playoffs. If Harden were smart, he would do the same. However, he runs himself to the ground in the regular season.
Uh..in his 2 MVP caliber seasons (93 and 94) he was 2nd and 3rd in minutes played....the next year was fewer due to injury, but still 39 a game. Load managing was not a thing then.
Should have been. Minutes are adding up each season and with him on the wrong side of 30 now. I would rather see a fresh Harden in the playoffs with fewer minutes logged into the regular season than a beat up Harden with extended mileage.
He doesn't verbally makes excuses. He makes them through the expression of physical action or the lack there of on simple things such as transition defense. The type of rhetoric some Harden stans propagate here makes it sound like Harden is some sort of high motor Energizer Bunny who dives for loose balls constantly, keeps his head down and never complains to refs. No, he puts his effort in the glamour part of basketball and that's iso scoring. Outside of that endeavor, he doesn't show much work ethic. Iso scoring is fun to Harden. He enjoys it. The problem with Harden is putting in effort and practice on aspects of the game that aren't fun for him.
Yeah, if he's still hurt he needs to sit and heal, as well as reduce his minutes afterward so he's healthy long term. Then focus all your time on fully recovering, there's plenty of technology available to help in this era, hyperbaric chambers, normatec etc. LeBron spends millions on it, wouldn't hurt Harden to try if he hasn't already for his longevity. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/le...-on-his-body-every-year-still-gets-decent-roi
I agree. I don't remember Hakeem taking breaks during a regular season, and I pretty much watched 95% of his games back in the day.
Lmao did you just interpret Hardens transition defense into his way of complaining?!? Wtf kinda backwards Dr. Phil crap is that?? I think anyone who understands the game knows what Harden is. If you’re looking for Rip Hamilton type of running from James then sorry. It’s hard to see when he’s putting effort defending when your have hate in your eyes. I can tell you don’t watch many other teams. Every other star complains to the refs. That’s just silly, you honestly don’t think he’s gotten better defensively? Now you’re judging him while injured and wondering why he’s not sprinting down the court in transition lol. I’ll say this, he affects the game more by being a super elite offensive player than he would by being a lockdown defender. He’s never gonna be that player and he doesn’t have to be, he just has to be average with statically he is.
Him being "better at defense" was the coaching staff realizing that using Harden's core strength and his laziness in terms of moving his feet on defense means that he's more suited for post defense than perimeter switch defense.
So if you lack foot speed then it’s obviously laziness lol! You can’t blame physical limitations on character. I mean YOU can but it’s extremely foolish.
Except that Harden is one of the shiftiest sgs in NBA history. Do you see how violently he can move laterally especially with his euro step? His shiftiness doesn't translate on the defensive end because of effort.
Being shifty and lateral speed are two completely different attributes Harden is 6’5” 220# you expect him to have the lateral speed of Beverly? Again you continue to blame physical shortcomings to mental make up. You could have said 3-4 years ago and you would have had a point. But even with full effort Harden can’t stay in front of a SG or PG. I can rattle off top tier defenders who get got on the perimeter often as well.
I don't expect Harden to be Beverly. I expect Harden to do the bare minimum and make an attempt in moving his feet on defense. How many times have we seen Harden still underneath the basket on the offensive end yelling at refs while the opposing team already is at the rim finishing a fast break attempt? Harden doesn't need to be a top tier defender. But if he wants to be in the conversation of the likes of LeBron, Kobe, Wade, Jordan etc who most posters here believe he should be in that tier, I expect better defense from him.
Beard is not hurt, but being overused which makes him slow on defense. I love Harden for having baller mentality, playing every day and not taking days off. But to win championship(s), you have to be smart. Michael Jordan will tell you physical skill doesn't win trophy, being smart is the 1st thing. Any team that gives player a day off are better in the long-run. And Harden doesn't want to rest, but he should take some nights off. It doesn't help that when we have big leads in the 4th quarter, he goes in again when he could have rested for the next game. Think about this shoot 35 attempts a night and play defense then play another game next night, it is tiring just writing it.
Fchowd going for the high post count in yet another complaint about Harden thread. Who woulda guessed it?
Imagine the aneurisms Hakeems fasting would’ve caused now days. “What a selfish prick” hell when he got hurt and almost got traded people called Dream a liar and faker. Funny how no one remembers that.
Why would he be selfish? His lack of load management didn't effect any aspect of his game. He didn't take shortcuts and played as one of the best defenses of all time and still was a prolific offensive force. Like I said before, Harden is a hard worker on one aspect of the game of basketball and that's iso face up scoring. He load manages in different ways than guys like Kawhi load manage. It's seen as selfish for Harden because at times it seems like it's for the purpose of personal accolades such as attempting to maintain historic scoring averages hence why he tends to play late in games during large leads compared to other stars and conveniently sits down as soon as he reaches some arbitrary threshold such as 50 pts or a triple double.
Because he's been one of the greatest, and most CONSISTENT scorers in NBA history for the last 3-4 years and it is very rare that he has stretches like this.
