Rockets have worst defense over last 2 weeks [NBA.com]

When your head coach was in charge of a ****TY defense as an assistant, this is what you get when you promote him.

DD

 

DMo being out is why our rebounding is bad, said no one ever.

It's weird that they Dwight and Capela are listed as the guys who miss the most blockouts

Are they getting blames for not blocking out other dudes guys?

 

4 on 5 dont get the job done...

...although really james has had a few nice defensive efforts of late...

 

It may sound funny, but it's true. You have to understand the concept of team rebounding, if you have 2 bigs who both go for just about every block attempt, there's no one to box out so if the shot is missed, it's really easy for the other team to get an offensive rebound.

The only bigs that really box out worth a damn on the roster are DMo and Harrell and they haven't played much this season. What you are left with is bigs that don't box out. Sure Capela and Dwight are good when it comes to going up and getting rebounds, but you can't do that if you are contesting a shot.

The other factor is that the wings don't help the bigs as much as they should so long rebounds go to the other team WAY too often. Combine no boxing out and 2 bigs that both go for the same block or are just simply out of position with very little help from wings and you get an awful defensive rebounding team.

Adding back a big that will box out would greatly help those numbers even if they didn't have big individual rebounding numbers themselves.

 

James i think has definitely stepped it up defensively. What I've noticed for most of the year (if not the whole year) is that there's very little to no help defense outside of Dwight. Once Dwight leaves his man to help, Dwight's man is usually left open or there's nobody boxing out and an offensive rebound is given up.

This is, in my opinion, has less to do with scheme and more to do with fundamentals, effort, and focus.

 

so no one helps dwight when he goes to help? and this is the most glaring hole of our defense and has made our defense the worst in the league?

if that's the case, then it should be a very easy fix, then. but i doubt it.

 

I'm not sure what you're seeing to say that Hardens D has improved?

In any case I think the article gets to the crux of the issue.

There's a lot of laziness when guys are off the ball. If it isn't affecting their stats, they're just standing there instead of moving, blocking out, helping, etc.

 

Right because when your center has to leave the paint to contest a wide open 3 and his man gets the rebound he was trying hard enough to get that rebound. It has everything to do with scheme. We do r****ded **** on defense that constantly puts our men out of position to get rebounds. We get initial stops but give up 2 many second chance points.

 

how's our 2nd chance pts allowed rank for the whole season? i have no idea.

rebounding is an issue for sure. but technically a rebound is a loose ball.

maybe i should've said defense is FIRST about effort and willingness...

 

The problem is a lot of our offense comes from getting fast break points and getting into a groove that way. Morey himself admitted as such. Our offense (sadly) depends on gambling on defense. Essentially Morey built a screwed up system.

 

Yeah, that has been a beef of mine. Those "fast break points" should be looked as "value add" and not core to the offense. Those things settle down even more in the playoffs when teams play slower. A better, more efficient half court offense would would the defensive transition game greatly.

 

Nicely said, period...and that hunger for steals man ...forget about the rest.

 

Put Harden and D12 in a PnR and watch open shoots materialize all over the court. These 2 don't get along and it shows. The lack of change to our defense (switch, trap, go over/under) is elementary to say the least. We switch everything!

 

1. Rockets are second worst defensive rebounding team in the Association.

2. Rockets have given up more layups than any team in the Association.

3. Rockets have given up the second most dunks (Lakers) in the Association.

4. Rockets have given up the second most second chance points (Lakers) in the Association.

5. The rebounding numbers don't even tell the real story here. We are flat getting killed on the glass. Our real rebounding deficit is H-U-G-E because our opponents are batting the ball off us out of bounds and retaining possession with a "team offensive rebound".




Hate to tell you this but most of our problems come down to rim protection and clearing the glass. And Dwight isn't the problem. The problem is personnel and scheme.

Your golden boy is the first part of the problem. He's simply not ready. He's getting killed in the paint and at the rim. We have had N-O-T-H-I-N-G in the paint to help Dwight until Smoove got here.

The other problem is scheme. We're already weak on the glass and we've got guys flying out as soon as the shot goes up. Our opponents have adjusted. They know we're going to leak out and not seal out. So they're gang-rebounding against us on our defensive end and sticking it back down our throats. That is if they aren't simply beating us off the dribble/cuts for the layup/dunk to start with.

 

Using fallacy isn't the best way to defend Harden. Why does someone attempt this in every thread?

These last few games aren't James' fault. But the team is broken and a superstar is supposed to be a leader.

 

Good post.... but can anyone explain why the coaching staff can't / won't see what casual fans can see?

 

they probably do but then again this comes back to holding everyone accountable. If everyone on the floor is not on the same page defensively and understands what needs to be done as far as defensively you will not have a good defense. Defensive habits are a lot more difficult to maintain with consistency and especially doing so with discipline. Every team has there own ideology of what they want to do on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately for houston, defense isn't as disciplined.

 

I think they can see it. I don't really think our scheme has changed much from last year. That's the problem. We haven't adjusted our scheme as teams have adjusted against us. And we haven't got the right personnel to really execute our defensive scheme.


I have NO PROBLEMS with gambling on the perimeter. None. Provided you've got enough ace defensive bigs to knock down the opponent's efficiency at the rim. I don't remember where we finished last season in rim protection but I do know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Dwight and Smoove were flat-out awesome down the stretch and during our playoff run. They were shutting teams down at the rim. Especially when the two of them were out there together.

But we're jacking around with the small-ball guys now in the lineup. IMO, that stuff is all trade-related. We're trying to play guys in hopes of moving some of them out.

Look at the lineup: Dwight, Ariza, Brewer up front. Dwight is all alone down there. We're playing teams with multiple bigs. They're killing us on the interior. They're beating us off the dribble outside against Harden/Bev and then they can simply throw up trash and go get it because Dwight ain't got no help down there.

We've only recently gotten Smoove back. And he's essentially the backup center and has to play when Dwight sits because Capela has been so bad in the middle defensively. We really need another great defending 4/5 man that can play the ying to Dwight and Smoove's yang as the third big. We simply ain't got that guy as long as DMo is down.

Going back to what I posted weeks ago. The only successful dual big lineup we've had is Dwight/Capela. I'm sure now that we've got Smoove that a Dwight/Smoove lineup will be successful as well. But that leaves us with nothing in the middle off the bench with Capela sucking eggs so badly when he's forced to be the man in the middle. And we're coming up on the trade deadline and trying to create trade value for guys that really shouldn't be playing. There's no other explanation for why JBB keeps running Brewer and Jones out there.

 

Hhhhmmmm. . . . . in the Last 2 weeks . . .what could have caused it

Could it be that the Defensive Anchor was out with a twisted ankle
and then came back and was ejected in two straight games?

NAAAAAA . . that had nothing to do with it

Carry on

Rocket River

 

but at the same time they've had a terrible defense even before all that. But hey that's just a preview of what this team would look like for all the people that want DH gone.