Lack of Defense - and the culprit is...???

40 year old Melo sucks dick on both ends

 

The true test is when we have the full team playing golden state
If Melo adds nothing positive then its a bad signing

 

The loss of jeff was our biggest hit. I believe with jeff defense wouldn't have dropped this much. I was hoping jeff was going make Melo a better defender and surprise everyone.

 

As much as the Rockets have clearly struggled to start the season, forward Carmelo Anthony said the issues could be exaggerated because they are compared to the team's aspirations.

"I think it's over-amplified when it's the team that has so much expectations," Anthony said. "Regardless of it's at the beginning of the season, regardless of it's at the end of the season, a team that has this much expectation to not only get to the playoffs, but win a championship, of course this will always be magnified times 100."

Early in the season, however, the Rockets have had difficulties with lineup changes forced by injures to James Harden and James Ennis III and the suspension of Chris Paul compared to changes that come later in the season when players better know one another and their roles.

"This is a learning process for everybody," said Anthony, who has gone from playing as a backup power forward to starting small forward. "This is an experiment for everybody. We've been at this for four, five weeks now. We're still working things out. At the same time, work can carry us over the top. Our work and our energy our mindset, and then everything will fall into place."​

 

melo is a true leader

 

Losing follows Melo where ever he goes. Even OKC underachieved last season.

 

I know, right, Melo? We shouldn't have expected the Rockets to play any better than starting the season 1-4, let alone winning a championship.

 

Check OKCs record so far this year without Anthony. Gonna blame that on him too?

 

I agree that Carmelo is a bad defender, but the culprit is Jeff Bzdelik retiring in September. If it's not for an injury or illness, that's an awful thing to do to a team that is relying on you. If he retired in July a different story. I would love Houston to hire a defensive minded coach to replace Jeff. To me in all honesty, this is as important as trading for Jimmy Butler at least. He is not going to our chaos and playing nice, he will become a cancer in the locker and the Rockets will only need to look in the mirror when it's time to point fingers.

Some may feel this falls into MDA's lap and their is definitely truth to that, but he found out in September. He knows, as we all do that he nor anyone else on his staff is qualified to do this job. If the owner wants to spend money, spend money on a defensive coach/coordinator for the Rockets. This may prove to not be more valuable than Jimmy Butler, but could also be a reason why he stays in Houston vs leaves if we do trade for him.

 

Every teams defence is almost down and every teams offence is sky rocketing. This isn't just about one player who is coming off the bench and we have an unsettled line up with injuries.

 

Damn, my apologies to Melo, well lol at least as far as Iso possessions go.

 

Thanks J.R. That’s has been my interpretation from watching Melo on defense during live action.

I posted his defense on > 15 feet was something like 33.3 (DFG%) from stats.nba.com.

San Antonio and Warriors preach running shooters off the 3-pt line......I don’t mind Melo overplaying on the perimeter;
But players need to step up to cover his back (also called rotate).......and next player (weak side) needs to rotate
to interior player slashing to rim. So I understand D’Antoni saying continue playing longer, harder.

The defensive Melo criticism I do have is when a players is being isolated on the perimeter and Melo doesn’t slide
over soon enough as next man up.......knows he won’t block the shot and doesn’t want to take a charge.
Rather he tries more to get the rebound and prevent second chance points. Some are resulting in easy layups. Melo has to learn to trust someone rotating to his assignment......players need to rotate to
Melos assignment once Melo rotates. D12 stopped trusting teammates to help rotate to his guy.....then
D12 stopped rotating. Ends up terrible defensively.

 

Have we ever figured out why we are so bad on defense?

We aren’t getting any better either.

 

I think we miss Ariza and Luc's consistently steady and least mistakes defense which has a positive impact to team defense

Though Harden & Capela are leading in Drtg at 110 Cp3 with 111, Clark 112, Tuck 113
EG is 118, Green House 116, Ennis 114,

and for BPM, Cap is 1.5, Clark 0.4, Tuck 0.3, JH 0.2
but Cp3 -0.6, Ennis -0.5, House -2.5, Ego & Green -3.5

so more clark, less ennis, and opponents claw back in or build their lead when our 2nd unit is on the floor?

 

How do you fall from 5th in defensive efficiency to 23rd based on two 3 and D players. Neither one who were in the all defensive team. Doesn’t make sense.

 

Combination of losing those super switching perimeter players who were smart and never blew their switch AND teams using news methods to exploit specific players

 

Cp3 lost a 2 steps and tucker lost half a step?

plus those rule changes again

 

it certainly wasn't luc, since our defense was elite in the WCF without him. ennis hasn't been who we thought he would be on D so far. also the average fan vastly underestimates the interconnected-ness of offense and defense in the NBA