Daryl, Please Hire Thomas Joseph Thibodeau, Jr. ASAP!

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Name me 5 good Rockets defenders.

 

Capela
Ariza
Howard
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Donatus
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um
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Did I already mention Capela?

Maybe Thibs would stop playing Brewer and see if McDaniels could provide some defense. I know Jeff "Ryan Bowen is my favorite player in the world" Van Gundy would do so.

 

James Harden could be a lockdown defender if he actually cared

 

You can't teach tenacity.

 

Thibs doesn't even know you are supposed to play basketball on the offensive end of the court. Great defensive mind and great disciple of JVG. But just like JVG his whole approach to offense is walk it up the court, don't turn the ball over, use every bit of the shot clock and then take a shot and hustle back on defense.

Who knows, as bad as the Western Conference is right now that just might get you into the play-offs but it certainly will not get you past the Spurs or Warriors.

 

It's kind of hard to go off of this seasons performance but based on previous seasons history I can give you more than 5.

Dwight
Capela
Donatas Motiejunas
Ariza
Brewer
KJ McDaniels
Pat Beverly

Granted Capela is more based on this season but I'm including him. Brewer has always been more of a feast of famine type of defender because he takes a lot of chances but up until this season has always been considered a good defender. KJ McDaniels is going to be special on defense if he ever gets in the right system.

The problem with the Rockets defense IMO is their philosophy. They take too damn many chances and chase the damn ball too much. They don't hold James accountable when he just lolligags on defense and then couple that with TJones still not knowing where to be a lot of times and the Rockets just look lost most of the time.

There is no question that Thibs would absolutely help this team on defense and bring in much needed discipline. Unfortunately the Rockets would very likely be a very bad offense IMO. Maybe Thibs would demand more low post touches for DMo, Dwight and Capela which would be a good thing but there would likely be a lot more of Harden forcing last second shots as well which would lead to wasted possessions and freezing out the rest of the team which is a bad thing.

 

No reason we can't do what the Warriors did. Hire Thibs, then find the greatest offensive mind available as an assistant and have a two man team.

 

I mean, players like Nate Robinson, DJ Augustine, Mike Dunleavey, Mike James and Carlos Boozer got plenty of time when they were with the Bulls under Thibs and none of those guys are plus defenders.

Defense is definitely a team and system concept. If the team is playing together or if the system is strong, a team can have a very good defense. We need a system on defense right now. Last year, we survived on playing as a team but a good defensive system will take this team to where it needs to be.

 

You don't hire Thibs coaching staff or dictate to him the type of offense he will run. Thibs would not go for it much like RA would go for Morey meddling in his coaching staff and much like JVG would not go for any of that. Both JVG and Thibs are micromanagers, its one reason their defenses are so good be also one reason their offenses are typically so bad.

 

Ariza
Bev
Brewer
Clint
Dwight
Kj
Harrell

All have the body, motor,.ability to be EXTREMELY good defenders. Youre kidding if you don't think its an effort/strategy thinf

 

Yes Crash this isn't for this year. We can't name someone a good defender from years prior (in some cases even two years ago..).
Bev is not a good defender anymore Dmo doesn't play, Brew was never a good defender and Capella isn't a good defender -yet. (he is very promising don't get me wrong but he has a long way to go to become a true good defender for center. He makes a lot of mistakes.).
So basically you are left with Dwight and Ariza. And Kj. (his advanced stats for a wing defnder are off the charts. Interesting to see if he can guard pgs tho.).

There's a reason. Thibs has to consent. Coaches choose their own assistants there is no coach in the league who allows the team to hire assistans for him. Do you know how offended Thibs was when the Bulls fired his assistant?
There's zero chance he agrees to take this job and lets someone else pick assistants for him.

Scumleavy isn't a bad help defender. He makes a lot of dirty little ****ty things and also takes charges.
And Thibs was able to hide ONE bad defender like Boozer as a starter. (let's not put backup pgs in this because almost every backup pg is very bad defensively. It's usually bad defence from pg vs bad defence from pg in bench units).
But when you have to hide multiple bad defenders that more importantly play both next to each other in the perimeter it becomes very difficult.
Now it isnt' impossible but you can't become elite either.
And our half court defence if anyone hasnt' noticed stat wise right now is average. (I think no.14 or no.15).
I want to know how anyone proposes that even a genious like Thibs will improve our achilles heel the transitional defence, when it's the job of the wings and the guards to do it and almost everyone from our perimeter players is godawful in that.

 

Capela
Dwight
Dmo
Ariza
Bev at times...

 

I don't recall DMo being a good defender. I think some of you are taking your love for DMo way too far.

 

It's a mental block. Guy went through hell to even get fit enough to play basketball. He was a chubby guy with asthma growing up.. Think about that. Most ballers are frail thin guys that struggled to add some muscle mass to play in the NBA, Harden was the opposite.

 

The more I think about it, I don't remember DMo doing anything great defensively. No shot blocking, no double figure rebounding or anything like that. I would like to know how DMo is so good defensively. Anyone?

 

Did you watch him? He's not a one on one defensive stopper. But the team defense concept he is pretty good. He switches well and recovers back to his guy pretty well too. He moves his feet laterally well too for a 7 footer. We are deff better defensively with Dmo in there than with TJones. Blocks and steals don't equate to being a good defender.

 

Rockets were actually almost 4 pts better on defense with Dmo in the game then with TJones in the game last year. Can't teach height.

 

TEam defense coach, team defense.