Defense is a team game. Not like offense where one player can take over. On defense, you can be the best defender ever and will eventually have to rely on your teammates help. Its a matter of communication and playing together. In time, it will come around. Not saying that is all it is, but people say the offense is needs time to gel, its defense you have to learn together. Lots of guys can take their man one on one or stand in the corner, by but it takes a team effort to play solid defense.
Shooting 30+ threes imo is even a bigger problem than our defense. If we just get quality shots instead of living and dying by the three, we could win more ofter than not.
The Rockets defensive issues can be directly tied into their philosophy, which is push the ball all the time. When the Rockets were under McHale early in the season, our defense was actually top 10 for a bit. Because back then we played a controlled pace. Of course, our offense sucked back then and Parsons/Patterson looked like utter crap on O. But then Sampson came in, had us running and gunning, and all of a sudden players are putting up insane numbers, while opponents did the same. The Rockets are dead last in opponent fast break points. They are also near bottom in terms of opponent points per fast break possession. In half court, they were only slightly below average compared to the league. In essence, they give up more points through their fast pace than they benefit from it. A net negative. But look on the bright side, Patterson is no longer considered worthless, and Parsons no longer considered to be in a sophmore slump like they were earlier in the season. And just in time for the NBA trade season... if you like conspiracy theories.
I'm not seeing the physical and mental effort. Noone draws charges, boxing out has been dismal, lackidaisical close outs, untimely fouls, etc... It cannot get much worse imo.
Too soon to tell but I think we are worse than last year... Last year squad would dominated This squad in a 7 game series, right?
Most are expecting to at least be competitive within our conference. If not, then why are we not giving more time to promising young players on our team. You don't have to 'Free' them but give Morris, Jones, Motiejunas, Smith and heck Machado once he gets called back up from the Vipers a shot at some minutes more regularly. These guys maybe the future but if you don't get them time they are going to stagnate. Even Steve Novak eventually got better once he got steady playing time.
Thibs was responsible for the defense and he's now head coach for the Bulls. The offense came from JVG and that was the ugliest this past decade.
The question is: what is e problem and how do we fix it? Is it coaching? Has McHale a history of bad defensive teams? Is it lack of talent? Is it lack of effort (which could be tied to bad coaching again)? Our players actually have a good reputation on defense. Asik was brought in as someone, who can turn the defense around - Parsons was basically a defensive specialist last season. Patterson is often applauded for his man on man low post defense. Lin as a steal-specialist and at least decent defender - and Harden, who was supposed to be an upgrade on defense over Kevin Martin (although so far Martins defense actually looks to be better...). That's why I guess it has to be a coaching or an effort thing - or both. Tr good news is, both can be corrected... I just hope we can figure it out soon...
The first smart post I've read in 24 hours. It boggles the mind what many posters think. "Patterson is pathetic, our defense is dismal, Lin is lousy, Parsons is playing poorly, coaching is crummy, Asik is abysmal, Harden is a hog, the bench is boring and the rookies are rusting." In other words, my alliteration aside, everything is lousy yet we are in the running for a playoff spot with the youngest team in the league, only three players who were here last season, and a squad that has played 20 games together. The childishness of this board boggles the mind.
Actually a couple of those points are true....we have one of the worst defenses in the entire league. I believe we are ranked 30th. Also, Parson's has been playing poorly lately. I think even today he was something like 5 for 16 and was sucking it up defensively. One more, Patterson is awful in the sense that he can't rebound for his position and can't set screens. He sets weak screens and rolls off almost immediately so that he can get the open shot.
when you play at such a frantically pace, the defense is going to suffer and you reduce omer's purpose. One guard gets all the blame for not playing d but the other one is twice as bad. To me, in the association only a few can lock up on D and play ridiculous on offense. Those guys cost 25 mil a year but even they will get lighten up. It's all about team d and rotations. right now, nobody seems to know where they're supposed to be. it'll come with more experience and better coaching.
Parsons waived him off, because he was guarding Fisher who was on the wing that Chandler would have to leave to double team Mayo. That would be an easy outlet pass. Douglas should have been the guy to trap Mayo, but for some reason he didn't. McHale wanted to foul Mayo and Harden was the closest guy there. He either didn't hear him or was just too fatigued as he didn't make any effort to get in front of Mayo or even chase him down when Chandler waived off the double team. Instead Harden just took some weak poke attempts as Mayo blew by him for the lay up.
Its still the first half of the season. Last season's Portland Trailblazer team is a great example of a young team with a star that gave their team a good stress test the first half of the season to see what the could accomplish, then their motives changed after they fell back enough to fall out of the playoff picture. Marcus Camby, Ray Felton, Jamal Crawford, and Kurt Thomas were all seeing regular rotation minutes the first half of the season. Not saying the Rockets will go full tank job like Portland did, but they will probably be more liberal with the rotations, and guys like Aldrich, Cook, and Douglas will most likely be moved in February since they are not in the teams long term future obviously. Right now, the front office probably really wants those guys to be playing well so they can move them easily in February. If they are buried on the bench behind Morris, Machado, and Jones, nobody will care to trade for them if they can't help the team they are trading them to. Right now this team probably deserves a few month to try to win at all cost like all NBA teams do. After the all-star break, if A. the Rockets are well below .500 and seemingly out of the playoff race, and B. the likes of Douglas and Delfino are getting 30+ minutes a game, then lets revisit this notion.
With a lot of young guys in the team it's obviuos to play fast game trying to outscore opponent in points leaving defense with holes, right?
We lost because the players on our team suck. Our coaches suck. And our front office sucks. Players - we have maybe a few NBA quality players, and a few who are there to fill spots. With regard to Lin, he is Kelvin Cato reincarnated. Wow. What a disaster. Coaches - While I truly sympathize with Coach McHale for what he is going through, he is not the right coach for this team. Coach Adelman was incredibly underrated and his style and leadership are sorely being missed. Front office - Les, you suck. Stop trying to be like Jerry and instead try to be like Bob McNair. He was patient and had a plan. You just like attention grabbing. Daryl, stop trying to act like your the smartest guy in the room. I would have much rather had Dragic than Lin, even before Linsanity. Dragic was consistent and proven over a number of years. Lin had like 30 games. Dude, seriously? And most important, I still can't watch games cause I dont have/refuse to get comcast. We suck and we are doomed. I think I am going to go and watch the replays of our championship years. It will help remind me why I am a rockets fan.
