How do you rate McHale's rating of Brewer? _____ Due to injury, Kevin was forced to play Pablo. Pablo, then, in the playoffs (after already playing poorly in the regular season), shot .333 FG% and .293 3PT% while averaging more fouls than assists Let's not pretend McHale is smart or Pablo was "key".
Just to be clear, I do not HATE Harden, I have higher expectations of his play than some apologists on here. DD
This is really a ridiculous post and doesn't logically connect any one thing to the other. It's like the Sunday dinner rantings of a drunk uncle.
I feel like we all do. We should have high expectations for our main star. I don't think playing proper defense is too much to task for. Heck he should want to be able to play defense and be known as a liability. Until he does learn to play defense we are going to need Howard capella and all our other guys manning two players on the defensive end. It really is not a good situation. Heck even Van gundy got Mcgrady to play some sort of defense. Smart players are great and but I think Harden needs to learn to step up and be that leader to get the other players to do what we need them to do.
or just the reality of two big egos that have been well documented by more than sports reporter that both Dwight and Harden have had their issues both on and off the court and based on that I've made my own speculation like everyone else has made on here including yourself from time to time. Drunk or Sober
Yes our rotations lack hustle and bball IQ. It's like the players don't know who's in the game for the other team and plays the same D no matter who's in the game. The recovery time for big men takes way too long after they've hedged. We also don't mix up our defense based on the current lineup in the game, score, and existing trends. For example, we switch everything on D, creating mismatches all over the court. The big men hedge high on non 3 point shooters. We have to make the offense think are we trapping, switching (over/under), or hedging. It's like JB is afraid that this will cause meltdown to actually think the game.
A lot of this is simply recognizing things in real time.....every team has to adjust to a certain extent on defense, regardless of the system in place. If you can't recognize that a man cutting to the rim for a wide open lay up is a bigger and more immediate threat than the guy you're guarding farther away, then that's a basketball, or even general, lack of IQ issue...it's not a coaching issue, at least not mostly.. Coaching can help, but it's really like Dwight's free throws. Once you're out there, you're on your own.
Simply not true - even crappy teams played better in the beginning of the season against the Rockets' lackadaisical defense. They are now double-teaming more, playing better one-on-one defense by staying in front of their man more and switching faster. I've seen a definite improvement and it's not just because they're playing crappy teams.
Add random double teams on players who do not deserve to be doubled. Sometimes I just scratch my head at who. And as other posters pointed out. Just play some position defense and stay in front of your man. Hands up. force a harder shot. See Brewer ( too aggressive ) . And See Harden ( where is my man again ) I agree the roster is not built to defend at an elite level, even though we have some elite level defenders. Which is why they need to focus on just contesting shots and being in the moment ( see Battier ).
Actually simply true. Defense is still horrible and the same overall. That's evident when ΓΌ play Atleast a decent team. Back to reality. People get way to excited and jump to conclusions when the rockets face mediocre competition.
