Anytime I watch a Rockets game this season, for the most part I've been listening to the opposing team's broadcast team. I don't know about you, but I personally like this. Its nice to hear what "the other side" thinks of our guys. One thing that I continually hear from them is that the Rockets like to outscore teams, but they don't play defense. The stat usually cited is points yielded per game, for which we're currently second to last. I contend that the Rockets being a very poor defensive team is actually a myth. Some facts: Rockets are 25th in eFG% allowed, 17th TOV% forced, 4th in DRB%, and 2nd in free throws made per FGA allowed. Taken together, these are commonly referred to as the "4 Factors" of NBA defense. People that have attended Toyota Center may have seen the 4 Factors displayed on the giant scoreboard. Collectively, they cover all that's important in stopping the other team. One can of course boil down the 4 Factors into another stat -- points allowed per possession. By this measure, we're 16th in the league. Not great, especially relative to other playoff teams, but not exactly terrible either. If we examine our performance game to game based on points allowed per possession (or DRTG), we see the following: This isn't adjusting in any way for the opposing team's strength or who was in/out of the game. And the numbers at the beginning of the year should be taken with a grain of salt, because typically all teams are still trying to figure their offense out and efficiency will be lower in general. But the trend looks to be that we were struggling on defense mid-way through the schedule but things have generally improved of late (hence the recent wins -- its not just about the offense). If we want to adjust for the strength of the opposing team's offense, currently basketball-reference.com says we are 13th in defense. Combined with an adjusted offensive ranking of 6th, that puts us in the category of teams that are ranked in the top half of the league in both (adjusted) offense and defense. These teams are: OKC, LAC, SAS, HOU, DEN, GSW, MEM, ATL. In sum, we are a more balanced team, in terms of offense-defense, then we get credit for. I think because of the pace we play at many people (especially outside Houston) have the wrong impression about the team's strength/weaknesses. We are a high scoring team, but we can still struggle in half-court situations and don't have any sort of post presence, so I wouldn't say we're elite on the offensive end. Defensively, we do some things really well (keep teams off the free throw line and defensive rebound), but we also give up a lot of 3s and transition points. This is a fun team, and I think if we can tighten up a few things on defense while continuing to push the pace we should sustain our current run of success and make the playoffs.
Would rep if I could, but I've repped so many of your posts it won't let me. I think people probably get caught up in the first stat, the 25th in eFG% (and get sucked into focusing on some specific easy shots given up) without focusing on the other 3 prongs. Also, we're 31st in opposing points per game. Most people don't realize what a flawed stat that is. Announcers latch on to the easily understood statistics when making their calls, hence the defensive reputation we have.
Were also number one in free throw defense. We just intimidate the hell out of the free throw shooter . lol
Would like to point out that McHale left for games 7 through 20; since then, the team's been holding steady or getting a bit better. Personally I think it's because Sampson was busy being Head Coach that he didn't have enough time/energy to fulfill his duties as assistant coach in charge of defense, plus you don't have a HOF/DPOY yelling at the team to tighten up on defense.
To those who has seen the Rockets live, do we communicate a lot defensively ala Shane Battier cornerbacking the defense?
Asik is surprisingly good at defending the paint and not mercilessly hacking at people and picking up the foul in his increased minutes. Good form.
The Rockets may struggle at times on defense but trust me, they do play defense. The reason why the Rockets were able to get on the fast break so many times and play at such a high pace offensive game is because they pressure on defense and force a lot of turnovers. I forgot who the Rockets were playing against but that game, the Rockets were forcing the other team to commit tons of turnovers and they would get the ball and start pushing it. But some times the Rockets have gaping holes in their defense as well because they are young and at times inexperience. But I think to many people outside of Houston who doesn't watch the Rockets every night thinks the Rockets only tries to outscored their opponents when they actually play decent defense... Oh yea, it helps a lot with Asik grabbing tons of defensive rebounds and throwing the outlet passes.
I also wonder how our defense is negatively impacted by our turnovers. Quite a few of those lead directly to fast break points for the opposing team, which has to hurt our stats quite a bit (although to what level I don't know). If the turnovers eventually come back down to the league average (or at least not be of the careless cross court pass or top of the key slopiness that leads to easy layups on the other end), it would certainly help our eFG% and even TOV%.
Thanks for the write-up! I had been thinking that with the way our backcourt is relatively active on defense, and with Parsons & Patterson who have been applauded for their D, and especially with Asik affecting shots in the middle, how is it possible that we could have a bottom tier defense? I figured some of it is likely due to the pace factor. Your analysis is informative.
Our fast pace and style of play can be a double-edged sword. We're really good at turning good defensive possessions into quick scores on offense. At the same time, in trying push the pace we can be sloppy with the ball, which allows teams to burn us on the other end. Our shot selection (an abundance of 3s, which means more long rebounds) can also hurt us. According to TeamRankings.com, we're 1st in the league in fast break points per game, and 4th in efficiency on the fast break. However, we're 28th in fast break points allowed per game, and 17th in fast break efficiency allowed. By comparison, Denver (who Morey has mentioned as a team we are trying to emulate) is 2nd in fast break points and 2nd in efficiency. Defensively, they are 11th in fast break points allowed and 4th (!) in fast break efficiency allowed. How do the Nuggets manage to be so good defending the fast break despite their similarly breakneck pace? Well, they're only 11th in TOV% versus us being 28th. They also shoot far less threes (18th in the league in attempts per game, we're 2nd), which means there are less long rebounds that can jump start the other team's fast break.
By that measure, an off-season of everyone (coughespeciallyLINcoughcough) working their butt off on hitting that 3pt shot means not only less long rebounds for the other team, but also forcing the other defense to spread more which means more driving lanes. ...or a good offense is the best defense? :grin:
I never EVER thought the Rockets have a terrible defense. In fact, i thought they play tenacious team defense and it's one of the reason we're blowing out teams. Individual defense, they might not be as good, but collectively they're pretty darn good i would say. They rotate quickly and try to bother shooters that think they're open for a bit. I think the reason they label Rockets defense as terrible is because of the amount of possessions we give up. When you lead the lead in possession and shots and PPG, of course that allow the opponents to shoot just as much...but that doesn't translate into bad defense. Defense should be rank as not PPG giving up, but PPG/possession.
Better 3-point shooting in general and reducing turnovers will go a long way in making us a more effective defensive team. And, yeah, Jeremy Lin probably has the most to improve in that regard (not to take away from his defensive effort in half-court situations, which has been very good).
