It’s no secret that the Brooklyn Nets have one of the worst defenses in the league as currently constructed. While any team would be lucky to bring in James Harden, concerns about the Nets defense only skyrocketed from there, especially after losing Jarrett Allen.
Kevin Durant recently expressed that Harden’s defense is actually underrated, however, explaining that the offensive load the 6’5″ guard had to carry in Houston significantly took away from his energy on the other side of the ball.
“Coming in with James his rookie year, we asked him to guard guys, the best players off the bench, so he knows exactly what he needs to do on the defensive side of the ball,” Durant said. “When he [went] to Houston, he had to control the offense so much that it’s compromising on who you want to guard and what type of defense you want to play, but he’s always been good at getting steals and playing post defense, using his strength, so he’s an all-around defender.”
“If we ask him to guard somebody, he can go out there and do his job. I think that’s the underrated part of his game.”
Does KD have a point? Well, when you look at the fact that Harden sported a usage rate that was consistently at the top of the league as well as the number of times he got to the free-throw line in addition to how many more shot attempts that he took in comparison to the rest of the players in the league, it’s hard not to see how much of a toll he was taking on a nightly basis; especially when he also had to take on the role of running the offense as a point guard.
Furthermore, Harden has consistently been at the top of the league in drives per game, as he has averaged over 15 drives per game over the past few seasons with a high percentage of his shot attempts coming within five feet of the rim.
Some people will say that Harden flops in order to get calls his way, and while that can sometimes be true, there are still plenty of instances where he’s had to take cold hard contact in order to earn a trip to the free-throw line. All of the contact he took in addition to the offensive responsibilities he’s had to take on is going to take its toll physically and mentally, so when you consider all of that, it can be totally understood how his effort on the defensive end can take a hit.
In Durant’s comments, he also made sure to point out that an area of strength in “The Beard’s” defensive game is his ability to defend in the post and using his strength. A deeper look into the numbers back that up, as Harden allowed just 33.7 percent of post-up shot attempts he defended to go in last season while also allowing 0.68 points per possession. Harden was also the only player to have over 100 possessions he defended on post-up opportunities, as his all-around efforts landed him in the 87.5th percentile in the league.
Those numbers show that opposing offenses will try to take Harden’s post defense to task, but when you also look at the frame of the former MVP, he’s built like an ox, so I personally wouldn’t try and exploit his lack of weakness in that area of his defense.
If you take a look at that video, you will notice how well Harden guarded Kawhi Leonard in the post during Brooklyn’s recent victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
In the last play in that clip, which happened at a time the Nets desperately needed a stop, Harden took on Leonard at the right elbow and absorbed a couple of aggressive pushes like a brick wall and stuck with the determined Leonard to force him into a very difficult fadeaway jumper with the shot clock winding down.
Harden’s strength was on full display in that particular play, as it is not easy to absorb contact from Leonard like that nor is it easy to force the two-time Finals MVP into a difficult shot.
With Harden now being able to take a significant step back on the offensive end, the Nets should look to run more zone defenses and position Harden to be in a position where he can take on guys who are a threat to score the ball on post-ups inside. Harden will never be in contention for Defensive Player of the Year let alone an All-Defensive team, but if they can bring out this side of the offensive-gifted guard on defense more consistently, then that’ll go a long way in patching up a lot of their holes on defense.
