The Rockets had the 29th worst team defense in 22-23. After hiring Udoka who's known for Defense and the additions of VV and Brooks, where do you predict we end up at seasons end?
Top 10. Brooks is going to have a lot to do with it but our roster now features a slew of guys that should be positive defenders. FVV, Amen, Brooks, Tate, Tari, Smith and hopefully Sengun is locked in too. Udoka is not going to let weak effort and lapses slide. Top 10 for sure.
Coach is not going to let this happen! What if it does happen? Is he going to throw a towel at the other team like Guy V Lewis in 1983? People are ascribing magical powers to Ime Udoka. Luckily for him the team improved their personnel. Unluckily for him it's still way beneath the situation he inherited and then ceded in Boston in 21-22. If it looks ugly at times - it's not necessarily his fault. Putting in 2 plus defenders is good but there's a lot of minuses out there.
I’m not sure what makes up the team Defense stat. Is it opponents ppg and shooting% only, or does it factor in stats like steals and blocks?
I seem them somewhere between 8 and 14. We have a lot of good defenders on this team. If we had acquired more of a rim protecting backup C I would have placed us top 10. FVV and Brooks are going to guard the two biggest perimeter threats every night and they will captain the defense under Udoka. Jabari is going to be a good defender. I don't anticipate any issues with getting Green and Sengun to give full effort on every play. Eason, Amen, Tate and Landale all viable defensive options off the bench. Teams are not going to enjoy playing against us and Udoka will ensure we always play defense that way.
If, WHEN it happens it's up to coach to stand by his statements. Playing time isn't a given, if Porter/Green don't show the effort Amen (a good defender by the looks of it) is going to be right there to eat up their minutes. "A lot of minuses" got traded/salary dumped. No reason to believe this team isn't primed for a huge step forward on defense.
So much depends on how well the young guys buy in and develop. Adding FVV and Brooks automatically gets us out of the basement on defense, but two guys does not a great defense make, if everyone else sucks. In particular, I'm going to be scrutinizing Green, KPJ, and Sengun to see what kind of steps forward they take (if any). If all three of those guys can get close to average, and Amen is as disruptive as advertised with his motor and tools, we will have a legitimately good defense, top 10 in the league. Anything short of that, and I think we'll be somewhere in the mediocre-to-decent range.
People are that impatient. It will take a couple years but they will get there and it is not just because of short VVleet and Villain Brooks.
I voted 15-20 but honestly I don't really know. Because I don't know if Sengun is an adequate defender who couldn't handle all the bad defense around him or if he's just a bad defender plain and simple. If it's the former I would say this is an above average defense. But if he is a problem inside then our defense is not going to be good with him playing 30mpg.
Love the optimism. I'm thinking mid tier 16 - 20. If they move into 6 - 10 territory, they're most definitely in the post season. Gonna be fun to watch!
If they are in 6-10 category Ime is instantly getting coach of the year which then means he will get fired in two years because it seems like every coach of the year gets fired a few seasons later.
I think they will be improved with a little experience and better coaching, but it might take a while for it to come together. I don't expect for them to be good, but definitely better.
Dang you don’t think having fvv and brooks can make a big impact? Brooks is an all nba defender who was locking down superstars last year and fvv is no slouch. I would hope those two additions could at least get us out of the bottom 5.
