Why is it hard to defend against James Harden?

James Harden is a unique athlete in the NBA. His game revolves around strength, not explosion. He’s well known to create contact to create separation and draw fouls, and uses his strength to his advantage here. He also has a unique solid, but not huge, body. He packs a punch for a guard, and that makes him hard to guard.

On top of being an athlete uniquely suited to his style, he has elite NBA skills. He can shoot in any amount of daylight, has deep deep range, and can shoot off the dribble. So when he creates seperation, he can take advantage of it no matter what the situation is. He makes shots. And because you can’t sit back, he uses his strength even more here, opening driving lanes with force, not grace.

So you’re tasked with giving him a drive or a three, so many teams run him off the line. When you sell out against the three, however, you open driving lanes for him. And when he drives he’s able to get defenders to turn their hips to help in containing him, but this opens the step back.

So basically, because the defenders can never be perfectly on balance due to trying to stop the drive and the shot, they have to over correct when they get beat. And Harden can feel when they turn their hips and he knows that the step back is open.

His euros work basically the same way, except, instead of not knowing drive or shot, you don’t know left or right. You have to wait til he commits, then if he changes you have to react and he uses his physicality to slow you down.

So... what's your opinion?