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One of James Harden's teammates promises he'll play defense this season
The world knows a few things about James Harden above all others — he has a beard, he gets to the foul line, he scores a lot, and he displays some of the most embarrassing defense in the NBA. That last bit has proven to be especially damning to Houston Rockets star’s reputation. Despite making four straight All-Star teams and scoring at an elite level for a team that made the Western Conference Finals just 15 months ago, Harden is known as a player with effort issues and the sort of temperament that might not be suited to leading a contender. A massively disappointing, often infuriating 2015-16 season for the Rockets certainly didn’t help matters.
Luckily, this upcoming season offers a fresh opportunity for Harden and the Rockets to win over the hearts and minds of basketball fans. Dwight Howard is gone, free agents Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon are around to provide help, and Mike D’Antoni is in as head coach.
But the fun won’t stop there. If one of Harden’s teammates is to be believed, the four-time All-Star is going to commit himself to excelling at the defense end this season. Here’s what veteran wing Corey Brewer said during an appearance on ESPN (via PBT):
“I think this year he’s going to play better defense, We’re going to let the past be in the past. It’s the future of the Rockets, man. James is going to play defense this year.”
We know that Brewer is just trying to stick up for a teammate, but this doesn’t come across as the strongest endorsement around. Saying that Harden is going to play defense this year implies that he hasn’t in the past, which is off-message for the Rockets this offseason. Just read these quotes from a recent article by Oliver Maroney of Basketball Insiders:
“He’s only a polarizing figure to people who don’t watch,” [general manager Daryl] Morey told Basketball Insiders. “Players voted him MVP [in 2014-15] for a reason. He’s had a winning team every season of his career, with multiple Conference Finals appearances.” […]
[Point guard Patrick] Beverley also said that Harden’s mentality and approach seems to have changed since last season.
“Yes it has,” Beverley said. “James is like a brother to me, so I’ve seen him improve each year in [regards to] him being a leader.”
Brewer’s comments are too far off those examples, but they suggest some kind of change in the way Harden will approach this season rather than the gradual growth indicated by Morey and Beverley. The difference is minimal but important nonetheless. In Brewer’s construction, Harden has to prove his dependability and fit to be a leader.
On the other hand, it’s possible that focusing on whether Harden commits himself to defense misses a greater issue with this season’s Rockets. Put simply, Morey has constructed a team that does not appear inclined to defend even if Harden steps up his effort. With Howard out of town, the Rockets will ask 22-year-old center Clint Capela to serve as their primary interior defender. Capela is a terrific athlete and served as a capable backup last season, but he’s still raw, has never averaged 20 minutes per game, and figures to become a regular target of intentional fouling tactics just like Howard has been for several seasons.
Those issues might not seem like a huge deal if not for the facts that Capela has no great backup — most other big men on the roster are undersized for the five — and that the rest of the team doesn’t exactly scream “defense-first.” Beverley is a tenacious defender, but Harden, Anderson, Gordon, Donatas Motiejunas, and many others are looking to score.
Plus, it’s hard to imagine that a Mike D’Antoni team won’t be excessively focused on its performance at the offensive end. To give just one example, it’s easy to imagine him playing the defensive sieve Anderson as a stretch five if Capela gets fouled enough to slow down the offensive flow. Such lineups will score plenty of points and make plenty of sense given the available options. But they’re not going to stop the opposition from scoring.
It’s hard to imagine that Harden’s defensive effort will make a huge difference apart from setting the tone for his teammates. For that matter, he will likely have his hands full again as the lead scorer and facilitator in the Rockets’ offense — he speaks of playing like Steve Nash, a guy who never played much defense for D’Antoni, in that same Basketball Insiders article. Would the Rockets even benefit from Harden putting a lot of effort into playing defense if his offense suffers?
The point here isn’t that Harden should give up on improving his defense. It’s that working harder at that end might not be an answer for everything, both because defense relies on a lot besides effort and, more crucially, because the Rockets could have defensive issues that one shooting guard cannot change. Harden’s defensive work rate surely matters, especially in his role as Houston’s leader. But the discussion around his effort increasingly looks more like a matter of public relations and messaging than it does an investigation into his value.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
