We know the Rockets need a shooter in this draft, but perhaps an even bigger need is perimeter defense. With David Wesley's return uncertain, Rafer Alston an average or below average defender, and most of Tmac's effort being expended on the offensive end, the only good perimeter defender is Keith Bogans. List your favorite defensive prospects that are under the radar, we know Rudy Gay is the best perimeter defender available, but our chances of getting him are slim to none. So lets keep it to guys we can get with our picks / unrestriced free agents. I'll get the list started: Bobby Jones, Washington, Senior: He has locked up Dee Brown, Rudy Gay, Marcus Williams, and Rashad Anderson through Washington's tournament run. He was on Rudy Gay for the 1st half of Huskies vs. Huskies, and Rudy put up a goose egg. He was on Rashad Anderson and Marcus Williams in the 2nd half and did a good job slowing those guys down. As soon as he fouled out of the game, Rashad Anderson broke free and started to rain threes. Bobby Jones is a very pesky defender who has a bit of Bruce Bowen in him, he likes to step into the shooter after the shot. Offensively he misses outside jumpers like he plays for us already, but can actually drive, at least against college competition. Corey Brewer, Florida, Sophomore: Locked up Villanova's vaunted backcourt to help Florida cruise to victory. Successfully guarded smaller players with quickness and length.
Bobby Johns is surely a great perimeter defender in college basketball. But unless he can improve his ball-handling ability and some offense weapons, I could see him being the offense liability for most of the time. As for the Rockets' current situation, I'd pick someone has offense weapons more than defense weapons.
Rajon Rondo has All-NBA Defensive team potential. Lightning quick, great instincts and with those long arms...his wingspan is ridiculous for somebody his size.
If I hear anymore about defenders I will scream. It is possible to lose a game 0-2, if you have no offense. .
Carney has pretty good D IMO. He's got pretty long arms and good athleticism, at 6-7, no SG is gonna have a size advantage over him.
If we're talking about someone from Washington, let's talk Brandon Roy. He'll be a stretch to acquire with our (likely) draft position, but he has perimeter defense AND scoring punch. In fact, until his senior season the only thing he was really great at was defense...
Taquan Dean will be a second round pick and he's a great defender. Can hit the three too. Sort of like Luther Head as a player, so I'm not sure he's a fit for the Rockets.
The best defense is a good offense. I'm sick of Van Gundy putting such an artificial premium on defense. We need players that can shoot first and defend second. We don't have the shooters or penetrators to start a Bruce Bowen on this team. Seriously, players that are shutdown defenders and can average 15 points a game are pretty rare. Outside of the Pistons starting five and Ron Artest, we're not going to get a awesome perimeter defender that doesn't have offensive liabilities, and WE CANNOT AFFORD OFFENSIVE LIABILITIES!
I was only answering the question from the original post. Rondo wouldn't be my #1 choice either, although he will end up being better than Alston.
I'm too lazy to look up his name, but I think a good prospect would be, uhm, Mardy Collins (?) of Temple (?). He's 6'6" and defends well and played point guard. Not a great shooter, but adding a passer/defender at the 2 would do us wonders.
Rudy Gay seemes to play some lockdown D when I watched the UConn games. Too bad we wont be able to pick him.
hassan adams is a good defender. Look at how many all star guards came out of arizona. If u do a research, u will be amazed. Also in the draft of 2007, couple guards from UCLA should be good. o yea and that temple guy is good too.
Sure you need offense to win a game, but you need defense too! Remember those high scoring Mav teams? What happened to them in the playoffs? Why did they go in a different direction and start getting defensive players? How about last year's highest scoring team, the Phoenix Suns? Why did they get rid of the best regular season team and bring in those offensive stiffs Kurt Thomas and Raja Bell? This team's offense is going to be fine with Tmac back at Yao's side. Mediocre shooters will suddenly start making shots (just like Raja Bell playing with Nash) when Tmac is playing. But no system or teammate can help RA shut down Parker or Nash or Terry in a big game.
You do know that Raja is not just a medicore shooter. He shoots over 40% from the three for his career and shoots .437 for his career from the field. And if you look at last year, you'll notice that his threes were phenomenal as was his overall shooting and that was on a team without a Steve Nash, but a bunch of backup PGs. We need shooting. Defense is great to have, but we need to score some points more. Our defense already is in the top 10 of the league, while our offense is in the bottom 5. Last year, when T-Mac and Yao were healthy, our defense was top 5, but our offense still didn't measure up. We need more balance. Our offense needs to at least improve to top half of the league before we even think about improving our defense.
