Gotcha. Yeah, Dwight definitely doesn't have that "get better at any cost" mentality that Kobe had/has.
Trade his @$$ to get a decent pg and or center. If not just get a the pg and call up Capella to start adjusting to the NBA game right away. He can do it......
What does that have to do with anything related to his health? That's just fundamentally bad defense. When playing defense, you are supposed to do like Teague and step wide when taking off on defense so that you cover ground immediately. If you do like Dwight, you don't move from your spot until your second step and by that time you get beat.
Do you see an offensive player in the video? It's not a game simulation. They're not assessing how they play defense, but how they move laterally. You're assuming I pointed that out because it's seen as a bad defensive slide, but that's a coincidence in this case. In this setting, they would ask them to just move laterally on cue to test that specific movement, away from what the game demands or expects. The fact that Dwight still crossed his legs is likely due to that hitch he has screwing his movement pattern. He basically "tripped" over himself laterally because his lead leg didn't clear out like it should have. Try it yourself. Lead with your back and that's going to leave you feeling like you're stuck to the ground, as you start your movement. Rather than accelerating, you're actually braking. Multiply that by X amount of times done over the season and you can imagine why it would cause a problem.
It's second nature to move laterally like Dwight does until you are taught to move like Teague does. It's natural to bring your legs together when moving laterally until you are coached not to. Once you are coached and do it the right way over and over and over, it becomes natural to do it like Teague does. I remember doing drills every single day in practice to break that habit that everybody has. You'd go up and down the court moving laterally at different angles and drop stepping making sure to keep a wide stance without bringing your feet together. Teague learned how to move that way since he's a guard. Dwight is just showing bad fundamentals there.
In other words... if you would have asked me in middle school to move laterally not in a game situation, I would have done like Dwight. If you asked me in college to move laterally not in a game situation, I would have done like Teague because it was drilled into me for years. Moving with your "outside" leg first from a wide stance to an even wider stance is not natural. It is taught and learned.
Did you stop and think that even if that were true, it would just mean Dwight is stuck in that pattern? They teach it a certain way for a reason. Teach a bad movement pattern that's repeated over a decade and you're going to have problems. I'm not going back and forth with you because you just want to find something to disagree on about this subject again. We already did this last year, when I first tried to explain Dwight had these issues and they could be corrected and lead to improvement, or not, and cause problems. You disagreed then and apparently still do, despite how it's all unraveled this year. I can't help you there..
This just makes me sad. I love Dwight. It is obvious he isn't healthy, he looks slow and honestly scared to hurt himself again. A lot of Rockets fans are beginning to lose faith in him and they do not realize just how bad his injuries were/are. I want us to shut him down for a while. Give him the all star break to recover, and come back and play like he was at the beginning of the season/playoffs last year. I pray that he gets healthy, not just as a rockets fan but for his career in general.
I'm not saying he doesn't have problems. I'm saying him bringing his feet together implies nothing other than that he has bad fundamentals. Coaches don't teach it the way they do as some kind of injury prevention. They teach you to step wide first instead of bringing your feet together because you cover ground immediately and can get in front of the offensive player. If you do it like Dwight, your feet move as they are coming together but you aren't actually gaining any ground. Your body is still in the same spot until you take your second step. It has nothing to do with injuries and everything to do with properly taught and not properly taught defensive slide.
I guess this baby was a stellar NBA defender in their previous life. @4 sec http://youtu.be/VLq3kV55ESw Teague moves that way because he has good mechanics, not just because a coach told him so. That's why the profesionals singled him out. Do you really think no one ever coached Dwight the same? It's basketball 101. If he's doing something different at this point in his career, it's because he can't, not because he failed to learn 6th grade basketball. Stop trolling, whether it's on purpose, or not.
First of all.. that baby had his feet together to start. There is only one direction for either leg to go - outward. So that example doesn't even apply. If I told you or anybody else to get in a stance with your legs a little wider than shoulder width apart and then told you to move laterally to your left, the vast majority of people would not lift their left leg first to make their stance even WIDER and then slide their right foot back to their original shoulder-width stance. That is drilled into basketball players... especially guards. Teague obviously has been taught how to properly defend.
The vast majority of people here are over weight, sedentary, and exhibit dysfunctional movement as early as their teen years. Average and normal aren't synonymous. They're average, not normal. Think about what you're saying. That's a recipe for tripping yourself. Human gait didn't evolve into that over hundreds of years. You see it because people develop bad habits as kids because they are sedentary. The ones who actually tap into their reflexes by being active, adapt to better, or correct movement. Some people try to tap into them too late (or not enough) though and cant overcome/change the bad habits (Dwight).
since when is Teague a good defender?? Defense position is not where you legs are; it's where your hips are. Stepping way wide makes it much, much harder to change directions, if the dribbler does a cross over. You become very susceptible to a cross over. I'm not saying your legs should come together, but splitting them wide is a mistake while moving laterally. It's not how wide you go on each step, it's how fast you can move you feet, and move your frame/hips, without compromising your ability to change directions. Also, Centers really need to move there hips and keep their body in a strong position. They should never go way wide on the first step. They should never do what a poor PG defender like Teague does. But that is beyond the point the RV6 is trying to make. Howard hopping like that can be a sign of someone with pain in one leg, so he is dragging it with him via a hop.
I'm not saying Teague is a good defender. I'm saying his lateral slide is good fundamentals. And you don't keep your stance wide the whole time. Just your first step. It's to get a good jump and gain ground immediately. Dwight's first step he gains no ground... and that makes it easier to get beat off the dribble.
And if you weren't sure what we were referencing, here is the video: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q1y8yANAS6g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Teague has a perfect first step on his slide. That's how you get a good jump defensively. Dwight's first step is wrong. He steps with the wrong foot first. It's extremely common for players to step with the wrong foot first because it is most natural for people. It has to be drilled into players to step like Teague does and not like Dwight does.
Rockets need to trade Dwight while they can still get value. They won't get this opportunity in a couple of years when he is useless. Brook Lopez and a pick from NJ would get it done and give us another injury prone player, but one with more upside.
