Bballbreakdown-Houston Rockets Defense: Both Lucky AND Good

Author is a moron. We leave poor 3 point shooters open and force opponent to shoot more off-rhythm shots.

T. R. Dunn is saving McFail's defense

 

Is it also possible to have another conclusion? Like we are able to execute during crunch time? If there is anything, we really have been unlucky due to injuries not the other way around.

 

Also the Rockets had poor body language the whole time

#haven'treallyimproved

 

Coach Nick blamed Harden for Thompson's defensive mistakes at the world cup, that dude is a full on Klaytheist

 

We have 3 starters and 3 bench sidelines at times. Dont expect blowouts everygame

 

Time will reveal if luck is a factor. It would be nice to experience our full roster (or near full) before trying to discredit the Rockets.

Keep the hate coming.

 

I understand the thing about luck, its just that applies to everyone's defense. Why is it only talked about like that about the Rockets?

 

Exactly - but you are asking the media to think for themselves, and for the most part they just do the least and look at the stats and write their own narrative without consideration for all factors.

DD

 

I wonder how many games the Rockets would have won if we switched out Harden for one of those dudes. Maybe 12-10 instead of 17-5.

 

I'm so sick of the Harden-hating that it doesn't bother me anymore. I used to post a nightly EFF YOU to Disney (ESPN) based mostly on their Klay and Steph are better than Harden narrative. I'm just gonna watch my team and let the game speak for itself.

 

I'm totally confused by this strawman "Harden merits all-Defense consideration" argument, it's the third time I've seen it mentioned this week in the media. Who the hell is actually pushing that narrative?

Look, I don't think the article is really wrong that a bit of luck is involved. But I think Houston is probably allowed a little good luck in a year where collectively their core rotation has missed 61 games and their starters have missed an average of nearly 40% of the season to this point - that is, in any random game the Rockets are missing an average of 2 starters.

 

Generally speaking all defense goes to stars filling defensive stats rather than full time defenders, it's a bit cheap tbh, the star wing will generally never be on the primary wing threat so realistically should never be in the discussion but it doesn't work that way, but at the same time, no one is playing the weak wing help defender role at Harden's level, he's sneaking in everywhere.

 

you make your own luck at a certain point. The analysis was good, but it can never capture everything.

 

[rquoter]The first notion is that Houston is simply selectively leaving bad shooters open. An analysis of who has taken these shots, however, does not fit this explanation. A weighted average of the relevant group of shooters shot 36% from three in 2013-14 on all threes, not just wide open ones, slightly better than league average. So that theory does not work.[/rquoter]

 

I posted about hardens defense being improved this season on other websites, non rockets fans automatically get defensive and tell me he is not elite defensively. I'm not pushing that Harden is elite, I'm always trying to prove hardens D is night and day compared to last year. Everyone thinks rockets fans are pushing harden for MVDP.

 

Some of you people just want to b**** about things on the internet. The article says that the Rockets' defense has been good, but also point out that this outcome likely involved some luck given the opponents abnormally low FG% on open 3s. This is a positive review on the Rockets' performance and yet so many of you people come out to complain and throw around personal attacks against Coach Nick, who isn't even the person writing the article.

 

Just another way to slight Harden's defensive improvements. I too have heard the, "Yeah Harden may have improved defensively, but it's not like he's defensive player of the year."

I really don't know what these people want feom him.

 

The bottom line with the open 3's is this. If the teams had hit those open 3's at an average rate, it would change our scoring margin from +4.0 to +2.6, and our expected win/loss from 14-8 to 13-9.

Our eFG% defense would go from 46.6% to 47.4%, or from 4th to tied for 4th in the league.

 

I recall the championship years, I knew if the game was within 5 points either way, you could book it as a win.

Conversely, I recall the Steve Francis years, the exact opposite was true.

"Luck" is overestimated. Lucky people put themselves in position to take advantage of opportunities. Unlucky people pass up (or don't even see) opportunities that are right in front of them or never are in position for "luck" to happen. If you're down by 15, luck can't help you.

Good teams win close games more often than not. Period.

 

THIS. Not sure how people, especially the ones that play the game, can't understand this. Good defense will wear the players down the stretch. Not only does closing out on shooters will affect the shot but now you have the shooters rushing their shots.