I would like to switch to a zone with eg, harden, and tucker out on the perimeter and Russ Covington near the paint... we can’t allow their threes and driving so easily.... rivers can sub on the perimeter and green in the paint... I say just give up the mismatch to Adams and let them scores twos... no sense in having harden Eg and tucker boxing out Adams, only to get burnt by a three.
Covington was brought in more because he fit in better than Capella for the run and gun offense. He contributes to the overall help team defense but he's never been an amazing 1 v 1 defender. My issue is that he's not quite there as a spot up 3 point shooter, hell no one in the team excels at that. Everyone is capable of shooting the 3 point shot but no one is able to consistently knock it down. Especially when the game is close. Everyone on the Rockets needs to improve their ability to shoot off the ball this off season.
I was surprised to see CP3 targeting Robert Covington but really he's never been known as a lock down one on one defender. He cheats off of his man and gets steals, deflections, blocks and forces turnovers and he's maybe the best I've ever seen at doing it.
Ariza had a horrible habit of gambling on steals and getting torched. Happened all the time. That's lazy defense.
Perhaps my diagnosis is unfair; inevitably we make these subjective statements based on how we think everyone else perceives the player. Perhaps I bought into a narrative that he's an uber-defender who is great at everything and defending everyone. Maybe I was spoiled by Tucker (who really can guard everybody from CP3 to Adams) and thought Covington was also that type. House is a good-sized wing, and can stay in front of Paul and Schroeder as well. Somehow I watched every single regular season game and never noticed Covington getting consistently burned like this. The thread title is definitely unfair. He's definitely damn good on defense, his weakside shot blocks make me jump out of my seat; he just has a glaring weakness that I wasn't expecting, perhaps because wings like Tucker and House have spoiled me.
