Everybody is excited about the Rox improvements this summer, and rightly so. With MoT, Rice, and Franchise coming back at full strength, the emergence of Eddie, and the new additions of Ming and Nachbar, we have guys who can put the ball in the bucket at every position. However, I think most of you will concede that DEFENSIVELY, we still have a long way to go. As much as we all love the highlights and high scoring games, we also know it takes defense to win in the playoffs and win championships. Last year, the T-Wolves were one of the few teams to take advantage of the rule changes and actually play a zone defense. It worked pretty well for them, due largely in part to the long-armed frontcourt of Joe Smith, KG, and Rasho. What do you guys think about the Rockets implementing a zone defense package into their defensive scheme this year? Here are my reasons for this: 1. Poor individual defenders: Our team is almost wholly made of below-average one-on-one defenders. Francis and Mobley are matadors out there. Rice is stuck in concrete. MoT doesn't like to use his 260 lb frame to body up inside or rebound. Cato, maybe our most natural defender, only gets interested once in awhile. KT tries hard at the 4, but he's obviously undersized and often overmatched. Nachbar's a Euro rookie who needs to prove himself. Even Eddie, our best shot-blocker last year, needs to bulk up to deal with the good PFs in the West night in and night out. Ming has potential, but he's coming from the other side of the world where the b-ball is not nearly as physical, and he's likely to get bullied around initially. A zone defense allows you to hide weak individual defenders (to an extent). Also, players like Francis and Mobley (both quick and decent ball thieves) can roam the passing lanes a bit more, opening up the possibilities of more turnovers and fast breaks. 2. Long frontcourt: Ming's skinny, but he's 7'6". Eddie's skinny, but he's 6'10-11" with long arms. Both are good shot-blockers and would probably be much more effective doing so from the weakside. You can easily see how those two guys could form a formidable wall in the paint, especially if they don't have to stick with one guy. In the future, a 6'9" Nachbar (or Lewis) + Ming & Eddie could make it pretty tough to get shots or passes off in the paint. 3. The game today: Classically, what's the best way to beat a zone d? good passing and outside shooting. What are two of the weakest fundamental features of the NBA game today? good passing and outside shooting! In this day and age of phenomenal one-on-one players dominating the game, the art of jump-shooting has faded away. And very few teams have contagious passing (Sac, Dallas, NJ). I'm much more willing to dare a team to beat us from the outside than try to hold their best players one-on-one. 4. Change of pace: I am not advocating for us to play zone d full-time. However, it would be a great change of pace. It would make others teams alter their gameplan around what we're doing instead of vice versa. We could easily use it with certain favorable lineups and then revert back to man d the other times. Granted, this would not be easy to implement or execeute. It requires learning a whole new system and a total team dedication. But the way I see it, it could really pay off in our run to the playoffs and make us a team to reckon with..on both ends! How 'bout it Rudy?
Zone D, it's an okay idea. but it's like watching high school ball it's gets boring no excitement we'll be seeing a lot of jump shots.
Boring is perfectly fine when WE'RE playing defense. There'll be plenty of excitement on the other end. And remember, the object is to WIN!
i like that post. It had several good points. I will admit. That if we play better D we would have a much better record. Zone D? I say use if if we have to. I woud'nt mind seeing jump shot all day, as long as hey go in. Last year we had NO outside shooters, now we have great shooting at every postion. I just hope we use all our weapons on a day to day bases. We have a Good shooting Center. Dood shooting PF's (Mo EG) good shooting sf's Rice boki, and 1 good shooting sg, and 2 points that can shoot. All we have to do is let francis and mobley create, then if we get doubled kick it to one of our shooters, and the move the ball some more cause the D will be out of postion. I hope we also have a low post presence so we can do the same thing going inside out. Just imagine if ming or griff are doubled, who would the D ldoun;e off of. Rice?Cat?SF?Boki?mabe Lewis??????? Griff? Yao? Well who ever is being doubled down low can kick it out to any wide open shooter and nail it. Man that sounds like our 93-95 offense. Its like hakeem all over again, buit this time hakeem has two all star guards to help him out. ( I hope you guys see my point, because if you don't......You are DUMB!!!
I think the idea of maximizing your talent to deal with whatever rules the league throws at you is just common sense. The league passed that "no touch" on the hand-guarding rule to free up the faster ball handlers and so we got Stevie. Now, with the zone rules, we can "caugh" legally play the same defense that Utah has been employing for the last decade. And with our shot blockers, including Cato, we should get some additional fast breaks out of it. This team is built for and with speed, therefore, Rudy should do everything he can to make use of that speed, including lots of picks and passes in the half-court set. Yeah - No More Dribble-Mania
Tariq's in trouble............... Anyway on to the zone. I don't understand the excuse Rudy used last year. Players were hurt, so what. If we are going to use a zone, start using it. Work out the kinks in the system while it doesn't hurt. Why wait till this year, when we are primed for a playoff run, to make a drastic change like this. It doesn't make sense.
Zone defense is TEAM defense. To play team defense you have to have a team. With injuries, you don't really have a stable team to make your team defense work. Most people know the importance of chemistry in offense. But chemistry is as importance in defense. Injuries ruin chemistry.
It would be like fixing a car but only having square tires. How are you suppose to check if its getting too much gas if you can't measure m/g.
It's not like fixing a car, and we HAD a team. Was it the team we'll use this year, no. That shouldn't have mattered. If we try to use a zone this year, there will be problems with it. Does this trap work? Does this press do anything? Those are things that could have been worked out last year so that this team could be a little further along than it will be. As it is, last year was completely wasted in regards to defensive development.
Rockets R Us Thank you!! It's true we win this season if Dribble Mania is ended and Rudy T insists on Team Basketball. We must have a point Guard who plays the role of Point Guard.
