Hope I do this right... http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/teams/rockets/ Sorry if I got it wrong, or am being redundant... Like the Kiki comparison, and hadn't heard the Walton outlet pass comment...The question asked at the end, re: offensive gameplan is, IMO, THE question of this offseason now that personel has been taken care of...
The best perimeter defense is the threat of a monster roaming the interior to devour your shot or impede your progress, and with Griffin and Ming, we have a two-headed beast of mythical proportions.
no, the mythological beast is that great perimeter defender that does not have an eraser behind him. there is no such thing as a "great perimeter defender". just watch, mobley and francis' defense will suddenly become above average once they have ming and griff erasing their mistakes. having that erase behind you enables you to take more gambles on steals, body up your man a little more, ya know? cause if you f*** it up, your eraser will make them pay....
Egg zackly what I was trying to say. The 94 and 95 Rockets were a great defensive team because they had that Hakeem guy in the paint. You were forced to say "i can blow by Kenny because Lord knows this boy has no lateral movement on his defense, but damn, look what's waiting for me... uh, i'll pass the ball instead".
The Rockets actually have 3 erasers, Ming, Griffin and Cato. As long as everybody is healthy I think the defense will be fine.
Dr of Dunk, etal, I agree with your premise that a good "eraser" makes the peremiter defenders better. But the championship teams had great one on one defenders. Especially the first championship. I don't remember playing much rotation defense. It was all man on man, and they couldn't get past us. Thorpe held his own against some of the best power forwards of all time. Horry, always a solid defender is at his best playing the three. Maxwell, mad though he was, was one of the best belly to belly defenders. Smith/ Cassell, ok I'm busted there. Drexler, clearly a great defender, I think hurt our overall defense because he moved Horry to the PF. Yea Olajuan freed them all up, but thew were all stellar defenders with or with out the "eraser".
I have to disagree Pat. Horry' defense at power forward was one of the keys to the Rocket's championship runs. His weak side shot blocking and excellent rotation allowed Hakeem to be aggressive on defense. Also, remember how effective Horry was guarding Barkley one on one? Barkley's entire game was forcing the other team to double him so he could find the open man. Horry disrupted the Sun's entire offense. I see EG doing the same thing for us during the next championship run.
I agree fully with Pat. Thats my main reservation right now with this team. Whether or not this team becomes real good defensively will be predicated on Eddie Griffin being able to play solid position defense against the top tier 4s in the NBA. You can have amazing shot blocking ability, but if you cant prevent the opposing 4 from gettng great position on the block everytime, the shot blocking wont matter. Do you honestly think that if Elton Brand, Tim Duncan, Chris Webber, etc receive the ball easily in their comfort zones on frequent occassions, the shotblocking will matter? Sure the guard defense will get better with shotblockers behind them but being a good defensive team has a lot to do with being able to defend in the trenches. It will be very important for Griffin to develop this aspect of his game via bulking up or what not. This is something Cato has not developed; he gives up position big time on the block b/c he does not have the heart or desire to deny position. Defense has a lot more to do with having the desire to move players out of their comfort zones than being a long athlete that can block shots. The master or position denial imo was Dennis Rodman; opposing PFs had a difficult time finding a consistent comfort zone against him.
Personally, I think people give Horry and some of those players to much cradit on defense. Elliot and those other guys used to drag Horry over the court. The only way Horry and some of those players looked good defensively is because Hakeem was behind them. Once Horry went to Phoenix, he was torched. The so called Jordan stopper Maxwell gave up a double nickel when he went to philly alone. Elie was a good defender and thorpe was a good post defender but other than that they're very average. Horry when Shaq isn't in the game, their defense gets very porous and the teams like the nets attack the basket and expose their other players. He gave up 21,35 and 26 pts to a very limited Martin. Great defensive player i guess.
"there is no such thing as a "great perimeter defender". just watch, mobley and francis' defense will suddenly become above average once they have ming and griff erasing their mistakes. having that erase behind you enables you to take more gambles on steals, body up your man a little more, ya know? cause if you f*** it up, your eraser will make them pay...." I agree that Ming and Griffin will improve our overall defense, but I disagree with the "no such thing as a good perimeter defender". Kobe Payton Tmac Christie The best examples would be Jordan and Pippen when they were winning..........oh yeah.....throw in Ron Harper for his work on PGs and SGs.
