The All Time Best Defensive Team in Rocket History: C: Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon[/COLOR PF: Larry "Mr. Mean" Smith SF:Robert Horry SG:Vernon "Mad Max" Maxwell PG:Calvin Murphy I miss the fighting in the NBA! This group would have some attitude!
Best defensive team? No, not by a long shot! Larry was mean on the board but he was not that great a defender. Too short, and avg lateral movement. Calvin? Defense? In the same sentence? He will laugh at that himself!! Best fighing squad? Yes. Any team with Mad Max would be the best fighting team!
Robert Reid always did a good job on Magic defensively. YOu know, at PF, I think you have resurrect the twin towers and put Ralph in there.
At PF-Caldwell Jones, when he played next to Mo Malone. At C-Dream of course At SF-Pippen At G Maxwell and Newland Calvin was a surprisingly good defender for his size. If you want a real point guard, maybe Al Leavell he was pretty scrappy. j
u have got to be kidding right??? he was VERY overrated as a Rockets defender, anyone watched the games that season knows that. He was a good help defender, but one on one, he was just awful at times
This is tough, especially the guards. Newlin and Maxwell are deserving. Two who were scrappy as hell defensively were Dunleavy and Brooks, but both could be badly over matched. Dunleavy made you wince when he ran head-first into picks that caused a lot of offensive fouls to be called, and was huge in our '81 run to the finals. Scotty made you laugh until his persisitence paid off and made some big plays defensively late in games. So while not necessarily great defensively, they could both be at times terribly disruptive to an offense. These were just some of the memories that came to me. Er, ignore this post.
Your'e gonna throw Pip in there? I wouldn't say he was at that point in his career. When he was with the Rockets, he had a 25-letter alphabet with a letter missing between C and E.
Mad Max was the best athlete of this bunch but no one can deny the other 3 for their hearts and hustles. Newlin with his face and beard scraping the hardwood diving after loose balls. Dunleavy with loose screws in his head for running thru those picks. And Scotty Brooks taking elbows to his chin for playing up in the face defense on opp. 6" taller than himself.
Otis thorpe wasn't a shotblocker, but was a good position defender. PF's always had to work to get position on the very strong OT.
OT was the man! Strong is exactly the way to describe him. If I remember correctly, he had guns that would rival DRob's.
