Houston Rockets small forward Corey Brewer joined ESPN’s SportsNation, and they tried to bait him into talking negatively about his team’s franchise player, James Harden. They showed Brewer Clips of Harden’s lackadaisical defense. Brewer admitted that the Beard’s defense wasn’t great last year, but said that he believes that Harden will step up on that end this season, saying:
“This is the future Rockets, man. James [Harden] is going to play defense this year.”
Harden carries the hell out of the Rockets on offense, but if the team’s going to win, he needs to play two-way basketball. We know that Harden is capable of playing sound defense, because he did so in 2014-15, and look where it got them; the Rockets won 56 games and made the Western Conference Finals despite a roster that was riddled with injuries. Harden has also stated that he intends to play defense with more intensity this season.
Brewer isn’t the only Rocket who has high expectations for Harden’s 2016-17 season; point guard Patrick Beverly recently told Basketball Insider’s Oliver Maroney that he expects Harden to win MVP and lead Houston to the NBA finals.
