Ship Record: Collins joins to reduce the burden on Harden, and the latter no longer needs to compete for rebounds with players like Gordon

Goden Gordon made up the first round of the playoffs this year, and defeated the Clippers

Clippers reporter Lakhani wrote an article today to point out that John Collins' joining can reduce the burden on Harden. The following is all.

In the NBA, most point guards are mainly responsible for defending the opponent's backcourt players, which is the regular way of playing the game. However, tall defenders like LaMelo Ball and Luca Doncic are usually defended by wingers who can balance the inside and outside.

The Los Angeles Clippers did not adopt the traditional position defense strategy last season. Chris Dunn and Derek Jones Jr. take turns defending the opponent's superstars, while Ivica Zubac has only one mission: block the inside.

This strategy forced James Harden to face some players who are better at certain fields than him, such as rebounding. A classic example is the 11-time All-Star player was forced to stay on the court to prevent Aaron Gordon from having a tip-off in Game 4 against the Denver Nuggets. Although Harden is 6 feet 5 inches (about 1.96 meters) tall and weighs 220 pounds (about 99.8 kg), it is still a certain risk to let him try to snatch a big man with extremely athletic ability like Gordon on the defensive end. Everyone already knows the result at that time.

Nevertheless, the Clippers still had a chance to win the series after that game, but this discomfort in Harden forced the team's president Lawrence Frank to bring in a top-notch backcourt rebounder. John Collins became the lucky choice, and he averaged 8.1 rebounds in 472 games, which greatly helped Harden, the former MVP, perform on the defensive end.

With John Collins in the inside, James Harden will be more comfortable to defend players of his size and strength next season. While Harden is stronger than most point guards, he is not suitable to stop power forwards from playing their specialties. Aaron Gordon's last-minute patch indirectly prompted the Los Angeles Clippers to introduce John Collins from the Utah Jazz. If Collins was on the court at the time, he would directly capture Nikola Jokic's three-nos and secure a victory that determines the direction of the series. Unfortunately, Harden let the famous slam dunk contestant succeed at that time.

After Collins enters the starting lineup, Harden can stay in the first half of Tyron Lou's regional defense, such as 2-3 joint defense. That's exactly what he has to do, the NBA guard who recently made the third-ranked team can easily interfere with opponent shooting, while Collins, a top Wake Forest student, can focus on fighting for every rebound.

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