Why the Rockets 'team' defense has not improved much this year

This is a discussion of why, in my opinion, the Rockets team defense has not improved much this year despite the addition of Dwight Howard.

Disclaimer: No stats to back this up. This is merely conjecture based on my playing experience and observations. So it is open to criticism.

Caveat: I won't go into individual player dissing, so if you cannot handle anyone on the Rockets team other than Jeremy Lin being criticized, you can still safely read, imo. The coaching staff, however, will be criticized to a certain extent, because this is talking about 'team' defense.

Ok, so let's get started.

I had my first concern about how the Rockets team defense would be this season when I first read on Rockets.com Kelvin Sampson's interview about playing difference defenses depending on whether Dwight or Omer was manning the middle. Sampson said they would like to funnel opposition penetration into Dwight as he is a better shot blocker and more intimidating defensive presence inside, while they like to play to position-hedging game with Asik by crowding the paint and getting the ball out of it.

On face value, this made sense. But professional basketball at the NBA level is played at a ferocious speed where a split-milli-second could mean the difference between a good shot and a contested shot, or even a shot that's blocked. I had my doubts whether playing essentially two types of defenses could work.

If we look at elite teams like the Spurs, given how they manage the stars' minutes and how they really don't have any elite defensive rim protectors anymore (Duncan at this stage is still solid to good, but no longer elite), it seems obvious. They play one core defensive scheme, and no matter which five players are playing, they stick to it. Even if Duncan is replaced by Matt Bonner. And Leonard is substituted by an ageing Manu. They don't try to let Kwahi Leonard's presence dictate what type of defense the team plays. Obviously some times you decide to go over screens for elite 3 point shooters while you almost always go under the screens for Jamal Tinsley, the nature of the defense doesn't change much.

On the Rockets, it isn't just Dwight vs Asik. The other inconsistency is the difference in defensive style play between Beverley and Lin. Lin is mostly defending from the 3pt line (or defending from the 3pt shot onwards), while frequently Beverley can be seen pressuring the ball and hustling all the way 3-5 feet outside the 3pt line. Team defense, in these cases, are quite different. Lin plays more positional defense, leaving a bit of opening for penetration, and positions the opponent to dribble into help defense. This was quite effective last year with Asik. Beverley, with his faster defensive lateral speed, will hustle and go for the steal more often (Lin gets his steals from the passing lanes more), and while he sometimes gets the steal frequently he also gets beat leaving the help defense a bigger hole to defend.

Neither Lin or Beverley's style is wrong or one better than the other. But just like it's hard for the perimeter defenders to make split second decisions on how to defend based on who is behind them, it is also difficult for the rim protectors and help defense to anticipate how to help if the PGs play different types of defense.

The other issue is that it doesn't help when Harden and Parsons are playing 38+ minutes most games carrying injuries, and the Rockets play at one of the fastest paces in the NBA. And that Harden isn't a very good defender while Parsons hasn't recaptured his rookie year defensive game.

In my opinion, on the PGs issue, if we were to play the hustle game, then everybody needs to play the hustle game. At least the perimeter defenders (and the PF if the opponent plays a stretch 4). We can't have one person hustling by himself with the others playing defense looser because they know they have to pace themselves for 40 minutes. The way McHale handles the minutes for Harden and Parsons, it's hard for the Rockets to play an all-out full-team hustle game that best utilizes Beverley. That's why the likes of George Karl on Denver play a big rotation when the play a hustling/all-out type of defense. You need depth, which I argue the Rockets have. But you also need the coaches to trust the bench. And you need the players playing big minutes to buy in to that effort, even if it means they end up playing 5 less minutes a game.

I think the way Harden (and the perimeter players in Parsons and Lin) play defense, we're better off trying to play the positional 'team' defense like we did last season with Asik. But this requires Dwight adjusting his defense to be playing more like Asik did last year.

I know this sounds stupid (and it could well be) to ask the NBA's best defensive center to adjust his game to the team's perimeter players and not the other way around. But I think it's easier for Dwight to adjust to cover the weaknesses in Lin, Harden and Parsons, than the other way around. Not that playing positional defense is essentially a weakness. But you get what I mean.

In any case, while obviously our defense should mix it up and have different coverages for different situations, I think we need to have a core defense that everybody buys into and plays all the time (except when we purposely mix it up). Then everybody knows what to do in that split-second.

I think this will help our 'team' defense a lot. More so than trying to utilize the strengths of our better defenders (namely Beverley and Dwight) by playing a scheme (in their own ways), while suited for them, does not necessarily fit in with what's best for the team.

In my opinion, McHale or Sampson needs to see that while offensively you can argue (to a certain extent only) that you can let the star players carry you, or you can tailor the offense to a certain player's talents (Harden's playmaking out of SG position or Dwight being able to draw double and triple teams any time he's within 5 feet of the basket with the ball), defensively it's more of a team game.


Long post over. Feel free to share thoughts. Don't think this was particularly rude or biased towards any player or coach.

 

No stats better than kindergarten stats.