https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/defense Just can't win ball games, dead last in win percentage. Explain....
? According to this they're 22nd in Defensive Rating which is not good... ..... but not dead last. IIRC it's a decent improvement from last year in which they were last (or 29th, i forget)
Keep losing until Silas is fired, the worse the better. Keeping Silas would be so detrimental to the franchise.
This page is default sorted by total wins for some weird reason, so that's why the rockets are showing up as last. They aren't last in defense, as @SamFisher pointed out, they're 22nd.
Yeah our defense is bad. That being said I think many of our player are actually pretty good individual defensive players. However our help defense and rotations are just terrible. Once the initial defender is beaten there is no one who will help. To me that is mainly coaching
The youngest rotation in the league with one of the toughest schedules to start the season and our expected top 2 veteran defenders are Tate (who has barely played) and Gordon (who just wants to go somewhere competitive). Makes complete sense. What did you imagine would happen? These kids are going through boot camp right now. They're trying their hardest and getting punched in the face often, but what's important is that we've been competitive in almost all games. It's a very good sign and these kids have been known to be hard workers off the court. Till the 19th of November it's going to be a real struggle, but we'll reap the benefits for the remainder of the season. It's going to make these kids grow up real fast haha.
If I recall, this season, we were last in defense after the first few games, but then it shot up. Some is also our opponents were beating us, but they sat their star player. So the margin was not super wide. Just keep that in mind; opponents are not bringing their A-game on us every night. side rant: Yes it's kinda insulting, opposing coaches resting their Star(s), and think they can still beat the "lowly" Rockets. Unfortunately with our record, I can't really refute. And I also cringe a bit, when the Rockets media's (under the breath) response is: "well, we were without Bruno or Tate". Don't get me wrong, I like those guys and their contribution, but if a Rockets win / loss hinges on those guys: we've bigger problems. Beginning number of games this year is still a small sample, so things are fluid. Compared to last year (30th) -> (23th), it's actually an encouraging sign. The half court defense has been better. Transitional defense is bad, but that is a smaller slice of the overall pie. Still needs work obviously since 23rd is still below average. If I were to give credit; we can maybe attribute to: 2nd year for several players. Lionel Change of personnel. addition of Garuba (healthy now), Tari and Jabari, and a little Bruno. Subtraction of Wood. The other less talked about is rule change: take foul for example. Celtics' Grant Williams / Marcus Smart use those. Some of the good defensive teams have been shakey at start of the season. All NBA teams are still adjusting. League still favoring offense over defense for rules. ---- rant #2 While I was disappointed (and a little angry) at 30th defensive placement last year, I don't like it when Rockets media/fans say the cliche: "I'm not worried about our offense..." *then proceeds to make a point on needing to improve defense. Yes our defense definitely still needs work, but our offense right now is the same as last year: 26th/27th. Our offense (by the league standard) is not good folks. We should worry about it.
Great post. As an addition to your Rant #2: Certain aspects of the Rocket's troubled offense directly lead to their troubled defense. On the offensive end it is the Rocket's turnovers, for example, that lead to a scrambling and disjointed defensive sequence that frequently turns into points for their opponent.
No surprise that they are defensively poor. Jalen, KPJ are neutral defenders at best. Jabari has the frame of a broomstick, plays timid and needs time to get comfortable. Sengun....enough said. EGo competes but is older than dirt and is vertically challenged.