i agree for the most part, but there were some plays where brooks was giving him wayy too much space and was actually picking off his own man, who was ready to cut off Ford if needed. Another problem was Murphy ability to shoot, took one big away from the rim.
Every good defensive team in the league has bigs that can make up for the mistakes of the perimeter defenders. The rule changes have made it such that almost every perimeter player in the league can get by their perimeter defender. I'm not saying that perimeter defense is irrelevant. It's important but of secondary importance. Interior defense is far more important than perimeter defense and this should be ABSOLUTELY clear to people when you look at the dropoff this team has had defensively with Yao Ming not in the lineup. Battier and Ariza are considered two of the better perimeter defenders in the league and they get torched regularly this season, often just as badly as a poor defensive player like Brooks. This is true even with Lowry in the lineup. Interior defense is far, far, far more important than perimeter defense in today's game. I'll take a strong interior defense and an average or below average perimeter defense over the opposite any day of the week.
Why don't you wait until you actually see it? I mean, honestly, how many games have you seen him play this season?
There's only one guy who's flamed out due to significant injuries at 27 and he currently plays for the Knicks. In a year where he missed 20 games, he still averaged 46% shooting. Again, the childishness of your posts is getting awfully tiring. But I'm just calling it like I see it.
Just one. He shot 19%. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt though and assuming he returns to his early season "glory" of shooting just under 40%.
WOW! Some of you guys need to relax! This team just need to gel with the new guys & this team need to rediscover da D! I would have like to see Jared J. play the PF position instead of Battier @ times to try to slow Granger!
Oh well on to the next game. I am hoping for a better game from KM and I hope RA plays the new bigs for the team.
I agree 100% though, I think the main reason our defense was this bad because of Shane and Scola playing out of position, then we had Andersen out there who is a horrible defender. I bet Chuck had a good +/- out there. Even though he doesn't block shots, he makes smart decisions and closing lanes and making the shot just a little bit harder. I'd rather put Jeffries out there at Center and Scola at PF in the 4th than have Scola and Battier as your big men.
I agree, especially if we can develop one of the new bigs. The only 5 in the rotation now is Anderson, and he sucks defensively. Even playing strictly to win and not to develop players, best case is a 7 or 8 seed and a first round exit.
I honestly think the Rockets desperately need Kyle Lowry back. When the offense just kinda stands around, shoots jump-shots and they aren't going in, Lowry comes in really handy. At least you got a guy who can put his head down run the break change the tempo and get to the line.
The sad thing is, when we had Yao, many people criticized him for his defense. Even after Morey said that the Rockets would miss him defensively after his injury, there were bunch of non-believers.
because it would be unheard of for him to go back to a % prior to this season right? Because NBa players always put up increasing stats every year, peak, and then decline the same way....a line graph of every player's career stats would be a perfect upside down V, right?
I didn't read every single post in this thread because they fill up so fast but the general consensus I get is why didn't we play the other taller players. While they may turn out to be solid role players, Armstrong and Jeffries are not known to be stud players or they wouldn't have been on so many teams. Ask anyone on New Orleans or Sac (or at least the homers I have talked to) and they have said Armstrong is not a defensive presence or scorer and only good for a rebound here and there. He was mainly filler on this trade. He was good in college (Im a Hoya and Big East homer) but has not translated to the NBA yet. He is only getting opportunity more than others because of height and still being young. Decent backup is his ceiling IMO, and anything of a positive you get from him should be icing. Anderson, albeit soft, is a better backup for now and the future. He's no stud and is still transitioning, and shouldn't be anything more than a backup. My expectations are low for him as he was the best available and low risk potentially medium reward player. And my second argument for both Armstrong and Jeffries is something someone else mentioned, they have only been here for a day and do not know the system at all. When you play a fast tempo offense like we normally do and you are not a stellar athlete or talent (ie Stoudamire, etc) it is more obvious on how lost you are out there, and will be more of a burden than help. You want to put these guys in an opportunity when they have a chance to succeed, and not when they are no doubtedly (is that a word?) are going to fail. Martin got minutes because he knows RA's system and is more of the superstar type that can play his game and wing it with the others around them. I do not expect anything in one game or a couple. Its going to take time. Height did not cost them this game. Defense and turnovers did. Im excited to watch how the rest of the season unfolds and then next year with hopefully a healthy Yao.
wtf how many more home games are we gonna keep losing.. hopefully Martin steps up tomorrow and get a W in new Orleans! Landry we miss u
Notes from tonights game: Martin: aggressive. Liked that he wasnt afraid to take shots even when he was off. Got to the freethrow line plenty of times. Brooks: Just one of those nights where he got dominated because of size. Shouldnt worry about it. He'll bounce back Absence of Landry: Rebounding suffered tremendously not worried about the rockets at all. It was one game and after a few more practices theyll be one the same page. I hope Adelman keeps playing temple and tries to get in Jeffries and Hill
Very nice post. I couldn't agree more, its been a layup drill this season and I hope at some point Adelman uses some of those bigs the rockets aquired to help protect the rim. I am tired of Morey ect. talking about how effective the rockets smaller lineups are, all the really good teams in the league have tons of size down low.
