What will Dwight's effect be on the defense of this team?

Dwight over Asik in the starting lineup will likely be a wash defensively, offensively is where our starting group will improve.

Asik to the bench is where the biggest improvement defensively comes from. Frankly it is going to be awesome having 48 minutes of great D at the center spot.

 

Dwight is an improvement defensively. When healthy he's the best defensive player in the league.

 

Parsons is not a mediocre defender.

 

we dont know what his effect will be on the defense, season hasnt started

 

This year, he was pretty average.

 

He spent so much time last year guarding point guards and stuff, especially early on, that his defense looked shaky in those silly stats like RAPM people use. When you're being forced into mismatches because the other option is crap, of course it looks worse than it really is.

 

Actually, this past season, Parsons was sorta a mediocre defender.

 

That or he just spent so much on offense that his defense slipped. I for one am glad to have Garcia back, not only for his 3 pt stroke, but his man on man defense as well.

And how much time did Parsons spend guarding point guards anyways? Just from the eye test, without even looking at his shaky RAPM on defense, he wasn't as successful as he was his rookie season.

 

The defense took a small step forward with the addition of Beverley into the starting line-up during the playoffs. With more time, that will only get better. Now adding Howard and keeping Asik will make this a very good team defensively.

 

Dwight is a slight upgrade over Asik defensively, but much better offensively. Asik is eons better than Smith defensively. Smith as our back up C killed us everytime.

 

Harden: I don't have to play defense - D12's got my back!

 

Dwight'll elevate your defense. He's that good. He's instant post presence like Asik but had better rebounding/blocking stats last year. And that's with a bad back plus Pau and Jordan Hill crowding the paint at times. As opposed to Asik, who had all the paint to himself because the 1-4 usually camp the 3 line.

Offensively, he helps you guys big time. He can score in the post and needs to be doubled. If he's hot he needs to be tripled. So you now got 2-3 guys on the starting lineup who need to be doubled, that opens up all kinds of possibilities. You can play inside out, something you couldn't really do last year. He's also an elite rollman so if you guys wanna do 1-5 or 2-5 pnr, you guys will be way more efficient at it than last year.

To me, the most interesting part of that article is the part talking about McHale. I don't know if people can see it but the Lakers last year and Rockets this year are similarly built. Dominant 2 who alternates between playmaking and wing iso's (Harden, Kobe), a 1 who needs the ball to be effective but defers and is relegated to spot up shooting (Lin, Nash), a 4 that will be forced outside the paint to create space (Asik if he gets moved to the 4, Pau), plus a ball dominant 5 who gets mad if he's not fed in the post. Plus McHale pretty much runs the D'Antoni offense anyway (half-court pnr sets with proper spacing). There are a few intangibles (Chandler Parsons, the Rockets' superior transition game) but unless McHale adapts, Rockets are gonna run into the same problems the Lakers did last year

 

No its not.Howard is a much better defensive player than asik. He's a shotblocker for one and a very good one. So guys will shoot more jumpers. Harden needs to play with more effort defensively. If you're going to be upper echelon,you need to be able to guard your man. Id imagine with howard,they will be much better defensively.