It seems that the team is playing much better defence as a whole this year. Boxing out for rebounds, less vulnerable on the back door, better on the perimeter. Yet when looking at defensive efficiency we still rank on the bottom 3rd of the league. Can someone explain how teams shoot in such high percentage against us? Is it just bad luck or something is wrong with the defensive scheme? Can it be improved at all with the current roster? I believe that without having a top 15 defense we won't be able to have any success this year.
With the return of Beverley, the defense definitely improves, but I feel like we need to make a move or 2 to solidify this team defensively. Whether it be a wing or a big man.
After some terrible showings early, the team as a whole has been playing good defense over the last couple of weeks. If the offense would have done anything at all in the last 7 minutes against OKC, we would be on a 5-1 run. Anderson kills us and is every bit as bad as advertised. Having that big a defensive liability in the front court is gonna hold us back all year. But with Harden back to giving good effort defensively, our defensive personnel doesn't look nearly as abysmal as it did entering the season. Team offenses will get better as the year goes on, so we'll see if we can maintain this recent good play.
So my eyes were misleading me and they're actually playing horrible defense? Never saw so much difference between what I see and what the numbers are saying.
its a mix of personnel and game plan here are a few problems we're facing: 1) rim protection - capela is a league leader in FGM in the paint against him. while nene is a league leader in OppFG% against him, the man he's guarding makes 55% of his shots. in fact, we allow teams shoot an extra 6% better from <6ft than their average. capela i can forgive since many of those makes are him trying to cover for someone else, but we need another rim protector. nene isn't cutting it. 2) teams are targeting ryno and harden - both of them are among the league leaders in FGA against them. this could/should be solved with some help/trapping/switching/etc... 3) we are on the bottom 3rd of the league in defending the 3pt shot - again, our offensive identity is 3s & layups, and our defensive identity is to defense 3s & layups. but what we're seeing is that we are actually middle of the league in defending 2s, and piss poor at defending 3s & layups. i think our problems can be solved by adding a quality rim protector. that will solve the points in the paint issue, but will also allow the perimeter defenders to play more aggressively without worrying if they get beat its an automatic score. afterall, we do have the personnel to compete defensively on the perimeter with ariza, bev, brew, KJ, and even dekker. secondly, i'd like to see less 1:1 defense for ryno and harden. however, helping on defense opens up the perimeter, so this will have to be used depending on matchup, but we can still use an uptick in helping them on defense.
Defense is all about effort and unlike last year, now we are actually trying on defense, but even with that we're a bottom 5 defense. Sucks, but you can't be upset as long guys are trying. Also, if Capela doesn't protect the rim, what is he doing on the court? Rim protectors aren't cheap these days, look how much Howard got, even Mozgov, Mahinmi. We don't have that kind of money.
Yeah, dude's a beast. Watched Mavs-Memphis game the other day and he was doing EVERYTHING on the court, playmaking, scoring, blocking and contesting EVERYTHING near the paint, rebounding. But he's on the doesn't like Houston list, so...
Our team is 20th in defensive rating, and we were 29th after the 5th game. Our defense has been playing much better and the numbers show it. Time will tell if it sticks.
Thanks, great answer. I don't get one thing though, Harden you say is one of the worst in the leauge in FG% against him, but in Harden's Defense thread I've seen that he actually defends quite well with -4.2% on FG% against him. So which is the correct statement? As for your reccomendation of a rim protector, I'm not sure if that will solve anything because then you will have to play him instead of Capella which is actually playing really well with Harden. I would like to see more Mach up zone defense, some more sophisticated defense to allow hiding lack of good one on one defenders, like we see a lot in Europe. Problem is these kind of defence takes time to master and need to be a buy in from the stars which I'm not sure we have. I can see somewhat of Zone to hide Harden but would like to see more
The Rockets' defense is ranked 10th in the NBA over the past 6 games. So they certainly have been playing much better defense lately.
I rewatched the Portland game, and man our 3rd quarter defense was amazing. for the most part, everyone made the right rotations, the defense was all in sync...thats the most important thing. Even if you have individual defenders that may be somehwat of a liability (to a certain extent), if you work hard and are in the right position at the right time...an nba body is an nba body...and your defense still has a good chance of getting a stop. Last season we were never in the right place at the right time, no communication, nothing. This year, we are doing all of that, and having Bev/Capela/Ariza definitely makes up for any liability that ryno/harden may cause individually
Disagree with Anderson. Harden hurts more the team than Anderson, stop the hate with the whity shooting PF... He's not that bad defensevely, he competes, he rotates, he blocks out, se plays solid positional defense, and he's 6-10, 240. Sure he has his limitations, but I'm very glad of having him instead of the Josh Smith/T-Jones of life, whom you never knew what to expect.
