You forgot the part about us being horrible at defending the 3. The eye test says teams can’t miss from 3 against us. And if don’t defend the rim and we don’t defend the 3, how exactly are we a good defensive team? Is Reed propping up the stats with stocks?
On the defense, I think the big parts of the perception problem are: 1) The defense this year gives up more plays that just look bad, but not fouling often is just something most people don't pick up on. 2) I think the defense is more steady this year even if it doesn't feel like it. FVV + 3 of Brooks, Amen, JSJ, and Tari+ center just played higher level defense more often than many of the current lineups. Conversely, there were some really bad* lineups with Green last season with bench players. *bad relative to other Rocket lineups.
Teams are hitting 34.9% from 3 against the Rockets, that's below the median for most teams. IIRC that is one of the harder stats to attribute to non-random/stochastic factors.
I would hazard they hit most of those threes against the zone, which is designed to give up long shots....and is also weak on defensive rebounding and why the double big doesn't work as a consistent force. We are what, 1-3 when starting the double big.....11-1 when starting Okogie..... I believe that most of what I am talking about is simply effort, and desire to play defense. The only players I see that consistently give that effort are Okogie and Thompson - the rest are intermediary....and I think most are putting their effort into offense and coasting on D. DD
"From AI" lol. Why would you waste your time asking AI about this. Here, from nba.com, we are 6th best in the league on opponents points in the paint. So we defend the paint better than 24 of the other 30 teams. https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/misc?dir=A&sort=OPP_PTS_PAINT
Just from watching game highlights...the Rocket's defense is predicated on allowing the opposing player drive into the lane and then trying to block or steal the ball from behind and have the help side defense try force a difficult shot or pass. With this type of defense, Rockets will always give up a high number of points in the paint. Biggest culprits from what I can see is Sengun, Sheppard and Durant. Something else to notice, after the opposing team scores on these drives, Rockets are pretty quick to inbound the ball and push the ball up.
But we don't give up a high number of points in the paint. We actually give up a very low number of points in the paint. This is verifiable yall, you can just google it! We don't need to guess about these things based on our eye tests.
Well I watched the entire game so I don't need to go back and watch the highlights. Anyway, are you saying made this entire thread to complain about one bad half of basketball? Last night in that game we gave up 46 points in the paint, you can see this number in any box score app like espn, nba, or whatever. And that number is right on our season average of 45.9 points. Which, again, is 6th best in the league. We only gave up 48 points against Utah in the loss. If you want to adjust your complaint, and maybe the thread title, then you could say something like "we have inconsistent effort at rim defense" or "we don't try very hard against bad teams for long stretches." But it's wrong to say that we have terrible rim defense.
I don't think you are reading those stats right. Opposing teams are deciding to take fewer shots against the Rockets at the rim because it is incredibly inefficient to score inside on the Rockets except on the shots currently being taken.
I don't know the stats (others in this thread seem to suggest it's wrong) but the eye tests suggest this. We are playing a sort of 'matador' defense where we dare guys to make shots - even bunnies. I haven't seen a ton of physical 1:1 defense, maybe as an effort to reduce fouling and rely on rebounding. Reed and Holiday also get beat off of the dribble enough that there is a funnel and most blocks come off a weak side close out.
This does bare out statistically. Sengun as the lone center (no Adams/Capela) has a drtg of 115. With Adams he's 108. With Capela he's 116. When Sengun is off the court, Capela and Adams have 107 and 101 drtg respectively. Granted, Sengun is just almost never off the court because Udoka plays his starters to the ground, so there's matchup bias here. But basic gist is that while he's improved, he's still not a plus defender.
A good post backed up by factual data. Nice job. Here is a nice visualization of the number's you're describing, with a few more added:
Should we bench Sengun and start Adams for defensive purposes? No offense to Sengun but defense wins championships.
Good info! Personally, i think Ime is trying to get Sengun into more of a stretch 4 position (much to the disdain of folks that want him in the post)... so that he can run him with Adams wo clogging the offensive paint... Sengun is great in the paint when he can be the bully... not so much when he is being outmuscled... on both ends... its a match-up thing... Imo having both Adams and Sengun available to slide into the paint on d to pick-up the blow-by is essential - esp when playing the zone.. but the defender who just got beat needs to get onto the guy that the center just left - or they get the dump off and typically have a wide open baseline to our centers back...
I’m reading as the FG% against is bottom 10 (meaning teams are making those shots at a high rate) and for some reason teams are deciding to NOT take those shots against us. If I was an opposing coach, I’d certainly be exploiting that. Of course, I’m not looking at the actual numbers.
Honestly, thats the very thought ive been toying with in my head... It sounds crazy not to start Sengun - since he does have so many skills... but imo, if u got Reed on the floor, u almost gotta have Steven out there too... to mitigate his defensive liability... Maybe u start Adams and Reed so u set the tempo in the paint early... Then u bring in Sengun and double big until u rest starters and then let Sengun be the main attraction against back-up defenders... idk... thats why i was amused that the debate was starting Adams or Reed... when i think u gotta run those 2 guys together...
