Film Study: Rockets Switch Happy Defense

too bad the season is over

 

It's due to our ingenious strategy of letting the opponent score on their first attempt.

 

You misspelled crappy defense.

 

This is an absolutely insane stat

 

a few takeaways I have:

2 years ago when we were a good rebounding team we almost won a championship. now we're back to not rebounding and allowing too many and too easy shots in the paint.

micro-ball offense is even better than small ball offense but not enough to make up for the deficiency in the paint and at the rim on defense. I think we need a capela type center who can rebound and also switch if we want to be a championship team. someone like Tristan Thompson as a FA would be cheaper than capela but fit the bill. I posted about a gordon for Nance trade as well.

also rivers is basically only there to play defense and has been very average at best. I wouldn't be surprised if he were replaced next offseason with another vet min PG. not many solid defenders at on the vet min PG market, especially none that can switch onto larger opponents, but it wouldn't surprise me if they went with offense and shooting to compensate. someone like Augustine, reggie Jackson, mudiay,

I know this is blasphemy but tucker is slowing down. he's a great defender but we're running him into the ground. if we want him to remain elite we need to manage his minutes or we will see him slip from 12/20 on defending at least 75 iso's to 20th of 20 on defensing 75 iso's. with friend legs he'd be top 3 in that stat any day. again this is why I think gordon for nance or aminu makes so much sense.

 

The opponent field goal % being decent shocks me. I seem to remember us getting lit up by mediocre guys going unconscious. Maybe I'm crazy.

 

Doesn't bode well for the Lakers... far more perilous against the Clippers.

 

I knew playing 5-men out would work. Holic and I posted about it often last season.

Covington has only been with the Rockets 14 games this season and I believe the Rockets were dogging it
during the 4-game losing streak in the final 5 games as a means of matching up with Jokic (Nuggets).
Both (Nuggets/Jokic) knew it as well.......reason Jokic lost some weight during the lay-off..

Covington first game was a victory over the Lakers followed by loss to Suns in B2B (without Westbrook)
Eric Gordon soon came back and had to knock off some rust around that time. So start of small-ball
wasn’t perfect; but got better.

I’m a believer D Carroll and Caboclo were not healthy then.......will be ready now.

Sure to be a great run!! Go Rockets!!

 

I heard that Chris Clemons grew a foot over the break and is our new X-factor in the switch everything defense.

 

Who? I dont remember anyone by that name.

 

You know that silly guy who liked Thon Maker but not Capela and who like Cousins but not Embiid.

Carbon copies of each other but Capela was far stronger than Maker and Embiid far better at defense than Cousins.

 

Pretty telling stat, and probably reinforced the decision to go small. Hopefully combo of (1) better defense at the 3 point line, and (2) chasing guys off the 3 point line more, while (3) the other team just tries to go inside more just because they think they "should".

On his game Covington was a revelation, to me. Basically game 1 against the Lakers Covington. He was the most "impactful" player for the Rockets that game. I mean, sure, without Russ playing great they wouldn't have had a chance, but you know what I mean.

That said, he's not quite good enough to be that every game.

Not that this is possible, and not that he's quite as good defensively as Covington yet, but imagine someone like Tatum on this squad. There's a reason the best Rockets team of this generation, and best regular season Rockets team every, came when they played a TON of small-ball, while having Trevor Ariza still performing very well.

FORWARDS!!!

I've been beating this dead horse for half a decade now.

It's not just that Harden would be best paired with a dominant swing forward, its that that's the most valuable position, at its best, in the league in 2020.

Interesting, wouldn't have guessed that.

This speaks well to the Rockets ability to play the best version of small ball in the league. Not that the Celtics were thought to be the best at it, but its basically what they do as well, and do well.

Still, the Clippers small ball is probably the most scary.

Not that surprising. He's not exactly known as a solid defender. Speaks to if he isn't providing scoring punch relatively quick, get a different sub in there.

Not that surprising. He's usually at a disadvantage one on one in some way. Its his versatility that is best defensively, then he holds his own fairly well.

That said probably helpful to look deeper at this stat. Jokic is third. Gallinari is 6th, and apparently at the highest frequency of any of the top 16 guys on the list.

The last part of the stat is somewhat confusing. What were they before I wonder? Wouldn't you think that they'd be giving up a much higher % of shots in the restricted area? Wouldn't we actually want this, anyway?

 

I watched the video of his recent trial training with the Rockets, and he gained some weight... The speed is also slow... I think he's only 60% of what he was two years ago

 

He does look like he has gained a few pounds, but he doesn't look overweight. This might even help him guard in the post.