it's obvious there is a big concern in 1- Backcourt defense 2- Closing games in last minutes/seconds when needed i know it's not exactly the same team but 1995 Rockets had no big defender in the backourt: Smith and Cassel were both "small" guards and even Drexler was not a top defender ( i Know he is better than Martin!), though the Rockets handled very well all the teams they faced! offensively, there was no clutch unique player, there was shooters and of course Hakeem drawing the attention of all the defense so we had differents game closers: Horry,Elie, Cassel,Smith, Drexler i know that Yao is not Hakeem... but can't we realistically use the same model? A team defense, and closing games by shooters ? Thoughts?
But, are those two key factors realistically achievable with our current squad? I say from what we've seen so far (2nd half of last year-now), no.
Forget the back court we need our big men to step up and block people from running layup drills on us!
I think everyone is overreacting a bit here. We lost to the world champs on the road and to a Golden State team that was completely on fire on their homecourt. The Rockets will be fine as currently assembled.
Balance is the key. No team has 5 lock down defenders. No team is stopping any team every play. All you can hope for is to make it more difficult. If you have a one sided player (either offense only or defense only player) you can get by with that if he is exceptional at that one thing he does and your team has other players that do the thing he is poor at. Here are my personal ratings of our players (scale 1-10)... Player Off Rtg Def Rtg Brooks 7 2.5^ Martin 8 4^ Scola 7 3 Yao 6^ 6.5^ Battier 2 6 Bench Hayes 1.5 5.5 Lowry 4.5 5 Lee 4^ 6 Miller 4 3.5 Bud 5.5 3.5^ Jeffries 3 5 Hill 4^ 3^ Ppat 3^^ 3^^ *** the ^ means can improve Finally I would add Yao makes it easier to overcome our defensive liabilities. Without Yao they become more glaring. Just getting yao on the court 4 more minutes a game will make us a better team. I know it's only 1 minute a quarter. But it could mean 10 minutes in the 4th if managed right.
We would have won against golden state if hill played because hayes, as much as i love him, cant rebound to save the team. We lost because they kept getting 2nd chance point. Plus we need battier to be traded. My eyes are now opened when ellis lighted him up.
What lay up drills are you talking about? We've played two games this season. One vs. the Lakers and there was no lay-up drills, just players making clutch 3's. The second game we played this season was vs. the Warriors (because you must not have watched). They were making everything from out side? Tell me what a big man could have done to prevent that. The only way a big man could have helped is with rebounding. But whats to rebound when the other team is shooting 50-60% from the field. Jebus. We lose two games and its like the end of the world here.
Your two factors are just symptoms of one problem: horrible coaching/preparation. Team defense is all on the coach. If he doesn't instruct his players well enough on how to defend then the players will have lapses. The mental breakdowns on the 4rth shouldn't just be viewed on the lack of a clutch player, the breakdowns happen because the players weren't prepared enough. Let's take the JVG era Rockets for example. JVG was known for his defense and the way he prepares his players before the games, and it showed everytime. We were as high as 2nd in team defense, and we executed well throughout the game. Times when we lost to scrub teams like the Pacers or Warriors rarely happened, but now we lose a game we should have won like every third game or so.
Lol some people on this board are going to overreact all season after every single loss. One guy on this thread is already predicting a lower seed. I think the biggest problem is going to be trying to play without Yao. No way GS gets as many points in the paint with Yao in underneath as oppose to the wagon
