Am I missing something? Aren't the Rockets 3rd in the league in rebounding? Maybe they arent as good as they were before I guess, but how can rebounding possibly be a "glaring weakness"?
They're 1st in offensive rebounding, but middle of the pack in defensive rebounding. The main reason is Dwight goes for that weakside block too often, and leaves his man wide open for the putback. Not saying he shouldn't go for it, be he should be more judicious.
Yeah, it's so messed up that a second-year guy who's started all of a half dozen games hasn't yet mastered the art of blocking out. Fire McHale!!! :grin:
Not to be too hard on the guy, since I think hes playing very very well at the moment, but it was a knock on him and part of the reason he was sent down to Hidalgo so frequently last season.
Already discussed a few days ago: Having the league's best rebounder and being among the league's worst rebounding teams? Last year we were #2 @ 75.2%. This year 16 games into the season which included 7.5 games with the failed TT experiment and 3.25 games(1/2 PHI,NYK,DEN,3/4 BOS) w/o Asik we are @ 72.4% which is 25th. The last 4 games with Asik back we're @ 74.4%. Just for perspective: If we didn't allow 2 long/random offensive rebounds per game we'd have a better dreb% than last year.
This is a very very serious problem, we have lost too many defensive rebounds; McHale must find the solution to protect our defensive rebound, this is why McHale play Asik in the 4th qtr.
The Rockets give up a lot of offensive rebounds to their opponent. The most of any team in the league. It's hard to stop teams from scoring when you are giving them multiple shots on many possessions.
Reasons why: 1. Dwight goes to block shots and leaves his man for offensive rbs ; ok since i would rather have him challenge/intimidate than have a layup drill. Our guys arent used to this and can learn to anticipate and rotate to box out. 2. Our defense encourages players to take long jumpers which equals long rebounds. Our guards and wings need to help out. 3. We tend to leak out to speed up the game. We shouldn't depend on dwight and asik to do all the board work.
This just reminds me of how PERFECT Kevin Love would be on this team. We would be the best rebounding team in the NBA by far and it wouldn't matter that Dwight goes for the weak side block
Also, bad perimeter defense means Dwight has to over-help to block shots... which leaves him out of position for the rebound. Better perimeter D would also fix some of the rebounding issues.
The team managed to defensive rebound with basically the same group of perimeter guys and Asik+ one of Patterson, Morris, DMo or Smith last season. The team also played at a fast pace and ran fast break often. Asik is just better than Howard at challenging shots while still being in position to block out and rebound the ball. Also, last season's PFs did a better job blocking out.
Asik isn't much of a shot blocker. Dwight gets way out of position to help and challenge shots instead of giving up the bucket. Asik would stay home more and give the shot up. He'd challenge a little, but mostly focus on the rebound. The offensive guy is more likely to score when Asik is in. When Dwight is in, the offensive guy is more likely to miss, but he's more likely to give up an offensive rebound which may or may not lead to a score anyway.
This would imply that Asik alters shots inside just as well as Dwight. I don't agree with it. Rockets allowed 48.4% inside the arc last year. This year, the Rockets are giving up 43.4%. I do understand that when Asik sat last year we sucked on the inside. But Asik was playing like crap for much of this year too. So the difference wouldn't be that much. Just based on the eye test, Howard successfully challenges a lot more shots than Asik. You can argue whether or not this is the correct philosophy as opposed to Asik's more passive approach. But there's no question that Howard deters more shots inside than Asik.
The problem is long/random rebounds. I counted 77 offensive rebounds (4.8 per game) by opponent guards or small forwards. As I said earlier eliminate 2 per game and the dreb% is better than last year. The first 8 games with TT the opponent offensive rebounds by guards or small forwards was 6 per game, the last 8 games without TT it is down to 3.6 per game. Small sample size and everything but we've also had a number of games against teams with very good offensive rebounding centers and/or power forwards. You can't really stop those guys so you have to stop the guards and SF from crashing the offensive boards.
It's a trade off. Howard probably has a bigger defensive impact than Asik. But his style also gives up more offensive rebound. The most important defensive stat for the team is PPP allowed, not FG% allowed or any other defensive stat. Last season we were 106.1, ranked #16. This season so far, we are 104.9, ranked #14. It's not that much of an improvement. And I don't agree that Asik has been totally crap. He performed quite the same except for the few games after the TT was abandoned. So SOME defensive improvement should be expected because we now have either Howard or Asik on the floor at all time. I still maintain that replacing Asik with Howard does not make much of an overall upgrade on defense. Howard is a better shot blocker. Asik is a better defensive rebounder. Howard is better at recovering from blown defensive assignment both of teammates or himself. Asik is better at defending the PnR. Of course, Howard is miles ahead of Asik on offense. So I am not complaining.
