Haven't really assessed the merits of this thread's title, but if you think about it, so far (super early in the season), it's pretty clear that every team in the league is having a difficult time playing defense, including the Warriors. For one, look at the number of points being scored even by losing teams. The Kings scored 129 points against the Pels and lost by 20! Think about that? If these early trends become the new normal, the NBA will have teams averaging 112 points with negative differentials. Freshly instituted 'freedom of movement' essentially makes it impossible to play defense on most possessions. From an economic standpoint, more scoring will likely grow viewership and popularity of the NBA but at the cost of watering the game down even more. Basically such a trend is taking a league with arguably the best athletes on the planet and turning into a competitive globetrotter league of sorts. Yes, it's a bit silly to compare the NBA to the Globetrotters, but my reasoning for doing so is to show that the game is evolving in a direction where any rule that manifests itself in play that is aesthetically not pleasing is phased out. This started with the initiative to phase out post play, first by removing illegal defense. This allowed multiple smaller defenders to front traditional big men to deny entry into the post. This contributed to more teams abandoning the post, which opened the lanes up for more opportunities to dunk the ball. Moreover, guard play was increasingly emphasized with making hand-checking illegal, allowing perimeter players increased freedom to get to the basket and to keep defenders guessing. Yes this led to more foul calling with certain players (James Harden) but not with the league as a whole. Fast forward to this summer and the decision to add the 'freedom of movement' rule will take offensive prowess to another level. Basically this rule change does for off the ball players what hand checking did for ball handlers. There is so much offensive freedom both individually and team based during a time when defenses were already having to be stretch so thin because of the spacing and emphasis on three point shot. Teams will likely figure out a way to adjust. One strategy might be a pacing strategy where games are kept close and certain defensive sets are using in key moments of the game to get necessary stops...who knows. Again, I'm not sure how I feel about this trend, and was wondering if I'm just being an old man trying to hang on to the past or if a critique against these trends is actually warranted?
Do you also have a problem with Tucker? He's also not averaging 10ppg ? Ennis is currently shooting 3's at 42.9% which is better than any season of Ariza's career. Ariza's best season shooting the 3 as a Rocket was 37.1%.
If Josh is gonna suck on defense, the Rockets are gonna suck on defense. 1) He's Ariza's replacement, 2) we subtracted Luc, and 3) we added Melo.
hes also shooting half the volume. and playing far less minutes bc hes so foul prone. so realistically its more likely he shoots somewhere closer in the range as ariza if hes able to stay on the floor that long
Ennis defense is similar to Corey brewers in my opinion can’t really guard one on one but great at playing the passing lanes
According to NBA.com Opponents are making 83.3% of their shots against Ennis this year. Last year, Opponents made 46.7% of their shots against Ariza. It's fair to say Ennis had been horrible on defense these first 3 games. Pathetic, really. Not even close to Ariza.
Anyone would like to start a poll thread. I am not going to do it. Who is more deserved to be a starter, Melo or Ennis?
Just for fun, I looked up Melo's individual defensive stats... Opponents are making 55.6% of their shots on Melo. Again, opponents are shooting 83.3% on Ennis. HIS DEFENSE IS WORSE THAN MELO'S.
Gary Clark needs to be given an opportunity, MCW, James Ennis, Need to sit. Gary Clark deserves to Start, Mike needs to think about his defense for once.
What the hell, let's see how everyone is playing on defense... Opponents FG% against each Rocket. Paul - 65.0% Harden - 57.8% Ennis - 83.3% Tucker - 34.1% Capela - 41.1% Melo - 55.6% Gordon - 34.8% MCW - 50.0% Green - 50.0% So Tucker, Gordon, and Capela are your best defenders thru 3 games by far. Ennis is the worst.
Go see for yourself. Go to the stats page on NBA.com, search each individual rocket, in the top left corner - click on the defensive dashboard. It will tell you how many shots per game the opponents are shooting against our Rocket and the fg percentage made against that Rocket. Just by looking at the game, you can tell Gordon, Tucker, Capela are giving the most effort on defense. The stats just back up what my eyes tell me.
We are 3 games in, if you really think Ennis is our worst defender than you might be looking only at the on ball defense. Starting Melo is dumb as hell, he is our worst defensive player after Hartenstein.
