Houston Rockets News, Rumors 2014: James Harden to Focus on Defense in New Season
Training camp for the NBA teams have started and fans are already in anticipation on what they are going to see during the camp and after when the 2014-15 NBA season starts. One of the Houston Rockets players, James Harden, is looking to improve and work on his defensive skills after he was put under harsh criticism for his defensive performance last season.
The Rockets were eliminated from the playoffs after Harden was unable to prevent a last-second shot by Portland's Damian Lillard. Even though Harden finished fifth in the league with 25.4 points a game, his lack of defensive skills were pointed out. There was even a YouTube video which featured his subpar defense that almost has 1.5 million views.
On Monday, a day before the start of the Rocket's training camp, Harden addressed his defensive shortcomings and admits that he will have to improve upon it to help out his team for the upcoming season.
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"Obviously at times my defense is pretty bad… I know I have to be better," he says.
Even the Rocket's general manager Daryl Morey admitted that his team needs some defensive adjustments.
"Bottom line is overall we were an average team. We want to be a top-10 team. If we can be top 10 on both sides of the ball, that's the entry card hoping to be a team that can compete for a championship," Morey explained. He also added that if they are going to sign free agents, defensive-minded players would be a priority.
Trevor Ariza, a newcomer, was brought into the team to replace Chandler Parsons. Another reason he was brought in was to bring some much needed perimeter defense.
"I though they were a really good team last year – scored a lot of points, didn't really do a lot on the defensive end but again that takes time. Hopefully we can focus on both ends instead of just one," Ariza said to media Monday.
