[Feigen] Upon further review, MDA not giving up on Switching Defense

We lost 5 in a row last year. No panic is necessary. We will be top 4 by the end of November.

 

Then what are they? Expired balogna?

 

This is going to be a long season.

 

lost 5 in a row after winning 20 of 21 and having a record of 25-4

Rockets had already established themselves

 

I personally think you're over-exaggerating the complexities of a switching defense.

Indeed, it does ultimately come down to communication and effort (clap, clap).

To me, the Switch-Everything is that zone-esque style easy for players to understand defense. Except apparently it isn't for this team... which I said previously is a comment on their effort and communication, not their bball IQ necessarily.

Definitely the Switch-Anythign as you've described it has more complexity and was something they did fairly well last year, recognizing instantaneously especially when off action when to not switch, or which of the 3 defenders off action should switch onto what player.

The only complexity to the switch everything beyond just communicating, constantly, is figuring out help defense when you are off action and required to rotate. But even that's not that hard. Or at least not harder than non-switch everything defense.

The difficult part is figuring out why these players aren't capable of just yelling out "switch" and/or if it's fixable. I do think it's a mentality, and losing Jeff B. who I guess was the figurehead from which the defensive mentality flowed downward, has had an impact.

It's like any business, really. Corporate culture flows top down.

 

i don't know if you've heard but we happen to have an opening at defensive coach.

We don't have much to work with in terms of defensive talent but the position pays well.

 

I'm just curious about this, so looking at this play in particular, I'd rather have the ball on the wing then in the center of the court... which is generally true if we're ignoring the particular players involved. But even moreso in this case, because Tucker stretching out there basically takes him out of any defense for the rest of the play.

What's the theory here, ignoring who it is

Well... yes, fair enough!

 

I'm glad we aren't switching up the switching defense.

Haven't felt like it's the problem, but rather a lot of the players miscommunication. There has been a LOT of cuts and a LOT of slips and it's been killing us.

Our rotations and communication just hasn't been there.

What was the motto last year? Yell it, touch it, switch it?

Seems a lot like we haven't meshed well so far and the new guys are still getting acclimated.

Our offense has been bad also, which hasn't helped our defense at all and has actually put more stress on it.

Hopefully the couple of practices has helped everyone get together on a similar page.

 

Duh.

It wasn't realistic for the Rockets to completely change their defensive system during the season.

What was concerning to me was that MDA ever even said that he was going to.... it just reeked of someone over reacting.

The Rockets have not had their complete team for almost the entire season.

Could the Rockets have just added players that are too stupid to adjust in MCW, Ennis and Anthony? It is possible, but it isn't likely that all three are not capable of properly communicating.

Most likely this issue can be fixed if the players want it to be fixed. A player or two that cannot communicate likely will fall out of the rotation.

Luc had an extremely high aptitude defensively on switches, so he is a loss but he did not play for periods of time and the defense was still quite good.

That leaves Ariza, who is very important but he can be replaced by someone like Butler.

 

This group hasn't spent a lot of time together...... there is still some hangover from last year and they haven't really been on the court together. A lot of this will get better with time.

Having said that, I know that the players love Roy Rogers, but I really wish that we had brought in someone else with a lot of experience defensively to help. I know because we switch so much, there are not a lot of really experienced defensive coaches available (most have a history of man defense) but we still could use some additional input.

 

I agree with all of that. This team first needed to understand that they weren't going to magically be good defensively just because last year's team was. I think these first 5 games have successfully made that point and everyone's now aware how much work there is to be done.

Regarding Roy Rogers, I know he was on Lawrence Frank's staff for years. I'm not sure what that means for him as a defensive coach, but just like the new players have to get up to speed, I imagine that Roy wouldn't instantly become a defensive maestro just because he was given the reins when Biglydick quit. He's likely got to ramp it now as well.

 

lmao just end me. I give up on this season already

 

MCW didn't tell Tucker there was a pick and also sometimes they will fight through picks like these if they are "half-assed". The defender behind the play needs to react to Tucker on whether Tucker will switch or fight through the "pick".

 

Solution is clear. Trade Tucker and promote MCW to starter.

 

You sure about that? I hear the Tilman is in financial trouble...

 

That wasn't a switchable situation. Plenty of space. MCW should have jumped out.