NBA.COM: Jeff Van Gundy has turned Houston into the NBA's top stopper

If Van Gundy was using their strengths, people wouldn't be saying Yao is soft and Steve is stupid. I wouldn't want anyone to call me soft or stupid if I were doing something out of my skillset.

 

It seems to me that while we are a good defensive team (and with two big men in the post, it would be a shame if we weren't) most of our "defense" comes from our anemic offense.

Watching the Kings, you can see they play good D, even though they allow 97 points per game. They allow so many points because there are so many more posessions during their games since they go downcourt and run a play quickly, without first waiting 15 seconds standing around watching someone dribble.

With so few possesions in Rockets games the opponents often end up slowing their games to match the Rockets. (teams like Sac and Dallas who never slow down, make us look awful on D). Also, players don't get "hot" as often when they have to wait a minute between shots, which lowers FG%.

We shouldn't concentrate (or be happy with) holding teams to low point totals, or low FG%, when we only score 2.9 pts more a game on average than our opponent. The really good teams, Sacramento, and San Antonio, both score 8 pts more on average than their opponents. (and Indiana scores 5 more, Minn scores 6 more.)

In fact if you check the last good teams we played (Detroit, Indiana, Minnesota, and San Antonio twice) we never scored more than 75 pts versus any of them while allowing them to score anywhere from 71 to 92 points and we lost all 5 games). Are these signs of a team that is great at defense, or the signs of a team that just slows the game down to a crawl to hide their inability to score?

 

This inconsistency in the offensive gameplan puzzles me. Even from half to half, the offense may look totally different. Doc Rivers even mentioned this during the 2nd half of the Lakers game. Van Gundy is an odd coach on offense at times.

 

I want to see a team be number in defense and offense. Imagine allowing 70 points per game, while scoring over 100 per game. Guess that's not realistic as every game would be a blowout.

 

Part of a perimeter defender's role is to at least recognize that a pick is somewhere around there. The defender must adjust to the pick. Defender shouldn't just run into the screen like a blind man into a wall.

 

Back in his heyday, Gary Payton usually put the shutdown defensive clamp on John Stockton even with the vaunted pick and roll in the Jazz offense.

 

Excellent point.

 

The goal of a pick is to provide separation, even if for just a split-second, to open up a shot for either of the two offensive players involved. You can run around the pick, but it still creates an open shot for a player. You can try to go through it, but you often end up fouling the ballhandler. If you can stay with the handler, he can dish it off to the other offensive player, who may have been able to separate himself from his defender. It's a very tough play to defend; there's a reason Utah, which runs picks better than probably any other team in the league, has been able to compete despite often having marginal players talentwise.

Well, first of all, you're talking about Gary Payton, the best PG defensively in the 90's. He was in another class in his prime. Even if Francis improved his defense drastically, he still probably wouldn't be close. Second of all, Seattle didn't exactly dominate Utah during that time period either. And I can guarantee GP didn't shut down the PnR by himself. To properly defend it requires a team effort.

 

Toall,
I just wanted to thank everyone that posted in this thread. Lately, I generally have been ignoring most threads/posts because of the infantile attitude/maturity of some of the new posters. This is the only thread that I have taken the time to read from beginning to end in quite some time. I completely enjoyed every post. The points were extremely intelligent, salient and lucid. This is what I used to expect when on the site.

When DOD, Gator or ima post more than once, that usually says alot about the quality of the conversation.

Again, thanks to all.

Now to the point at hand.

Agreed with most that has been said. Just a couple of points. The real issue with the Rockets that I have is fundamentals - primarily offensive. None of these guys can shoot! The NY game was clearly more the aberation than the norm. I went to the Indy game. Let me tell you that and the Detroit game are what we can expect for quite some time. That is the norm. The problem is not the offensive philosophy - IT WORKS! We get wide open jumpers every game. How many can you honestly expect to miss in a game and still win? Arguably, Jackson is the best PURE shooter on the team. We won the NY game primarily because his opponent chose not to guard him in the beginning. That is about the most open he has been all season and he burned NY for it. That alone set the tempo for that game. They were forced to shut him down and that opened it up for everyone else.

Have we ever seen that response to Mobley or Francis for simple jump shooting? Not likely! Occasionally if Mobley is "hot" during a game. But, rarely does he become the defensive key for another team. Again, fundamentals. I would love to know how offen these guys practice alone just hitting the 13 - 17 ft jumper a day.

Just another random thought. Pike actually is a good shooter. The only problem is that guy needs pt to get hot. He never has been an off the bench for one set blow the game open guy. This is not a slam on his game. I just don't know how we get him more pt so he can do his thing. I am not sure if he really is the guy we need.

Anyway, thanks to all again.

ROCKET!!!

 

Am sorry, but this one right here is a ridiculous stat! what do stats of games through the same date of each year prove anyway?

 

Your suggesting that there is no proof whatever that determines whether the Rockets or any NBA team has improved from one point in time to another? Why would any one set personal or team goals if they didn't compare it to a target?

The fact that most game scouting reports are 30-40 pages in length and packed with stats would dictate that your opinion is not shared by coaches.

 

heh...somebody....thanks id2k...

 

The defense is slightly better, comparatively, while the offense is loads worse.