The Rockets are really small and don't know how to play defense. Other teams have a lay up drill when they play us. Check the shot chart.
Well, in the end you need personell for defense, and players knowing the system and each other helps too. The Rockets already had the rule change affecting their defense on off ball players, bumping and grabbing to slow them down and also can't be as physical on bigs. Rockets have also had a lot of player turnover and missed games, etc. Look at SA, no Murray or Green and replaced by Derozan, etc and they are 24th in Drtg from 3rd last season. I don't think there's any magical fix for Houston. The team needs size and defensive skill. The whole league knows their defensive game plan now, and then without the same level of versatile defenders who can play bigger than their size and teams game planning to punish them inside, it's hard.
We're missing a glue guy. Last year Ariza was that guy, this year we have no one. Danuel House was starting to look like he could be that guy, but of course we couldn't sign him.
Too small. Hard to defend with 4 guards and an undersized center being your most common combination. For that to work, everyone needs to buy in and be laser focused. But that focus can wane when players are mostly uninvolved on offense on possession after possession.
Ay yai yai Not the kjayp and dd goofy argument? Are the role players really getting the ball any less than last year? Paul has been out a lot and Hardens usage is only up 3-4%, that’s only a small fraction of Paul’s general usage. I’d guess last year the combo of Paul and Harden dominated the ball substantially more.
I guessed you missed the sarcasm and have a short memory. I mentioned that in the game thread last night and you preceded to be your usual rude and condescending self.
And? I agreed with you when you said it. Im only rude to you(though I shouldnt be but thats besides the point) because you make knee jerk statements alot . You wanting to put in Hartenstein instead of Faried(which probably wont happen anyways, so id like to see what Faried can do on the bench) doesnt make Dantoni a bum coach. Harty could be worse for all we know, once he gets significant minutes, but I hope he doesn't. Ill try to be less rude and condscending from now, really I will though.
First of all you didn’t agree with me. Secondly I never mentioned the coach in my statement or ever called him a bum coach. I don’t make a lot of knee jerk statements so get your facts straight.
It’s cause Capella ain’t out there. Relax fellas, our full squad about to be back all together and all this negativity will disappear.
You don’t quote me a lot because I hardly interact with you for good reason and I’m not on here 24/7 posting like you. This is a forum for opinions whether you like it or not. You go around acting like you’re the thread police always looking down on people’s comments like you’re always right and you’re rude at that. You don’t have to respond to everything you disagree with. No one gives a damn what you think!
I just am constantly mystified why you can't teach a team to defend better. Not necessarily coming up a specific type of defensive strategy. Just little fundamentals that can make a big difference. "Move your feet like this. Make sure to jump straight up here. Get your hand in this guy's line of sight when he's shooting. Etc." I'm just spitballing; I don't know what all these things are, but there are absolutely little things everyone can improve on. Surely, some professional-level defensive coach DOES know all these things and can analyze each player's performance with video and get them to improve. Even if it's just 1% better per game, that progress builds up. Call it the "kaizen" defense approach if you want. And the NBA is quite different from college ball; there are absolutely fundamental defensive aspects players can and will need to learn to defend in the NBA. There's no way they've got it already figured out coming out of college. Just like anybody that just got out of college has a lot to learn about the specific nature of their actual occupation no matter how many years they spent in school. It almost like once players of any sport hit the professional level, it's taboo to actively go to them and address fundamentals. Like they're above it all, and they can and should just figure it out on their own. Whether it's player ego or coaching timidness or just the way things have always been or whatever, it's stupid. The pro-level sports are entirely different animals. And with regard to basketball defense, it reduces everything down to "We have to get THIS player because this player is good at defense" as if every player is frozen in time and is merely a stat block incapable of improvement. I just don't get it.
In a league of 30 teams, some teams necessarily have to be bad at defense relative for the rest. It doesn’t mean they are bad defenders in some absolute sense. They are playing against the best in the world in a league where the rules are slanted towards promoting efficient offense. So, the Rockets bad D is not a surprise. D’antoni doesn’t preach discipline and favors combinations that will score more easily rather than defend better.
