Since trading James Harden, Rockets among NBA's best defenses

Yeah, they are number 1 after the Harden trade, after last night's game I believe.

Either way, that is a great sign...

DD

 

Hard for me to read too much into this. Washington and Portland were extremely short-handed, for example. The article states that our offense has fallen off but our defense has improved; I wouldn't be surprised if that flip-flops at some point.

This season as a whole, it's hard to judge teams or players. This will be the asterisk season.

 

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/adv...ar Season&dir=-1&sort=DEF_RATING&LastNGames=8

#1 in defensive rating
#20 in offensive rating
#4 in net rating

I hope that once Silas has more time to add more offensive sets, our offense will improve.
And I hope Wall and Oladipo can learn to throw some lobs!!

 

There ya go!!!!

I think the chemistry is EASIER to implement on D, and it takes a bit more time in finding where players are effective on O......

Either way the team is fun to watch, even down 20, I told my son, it is better to be down a lot early......because you can come back......

This team's BIGGEST issue is turnovers on offense, and those will come down with time to play together......

DD

 

One reason the offensive rating isn’t good is because Wall and Oladipo have terrible TS% this year.

 

We gotta get the ball to Wood more, whose got a nice 60%+ clip.

 

STONE AGE BABY!

 

Idiots here want to tank when we have the #1 defense in the NBA. Good luck with that

 

i am little worried about his FT shooting... whats his % on the season?

 

Not great, like 68%. He really needs to get it to like 75%. That was his percentage between 2018 and pre-Rockets.

 

Where is JWs neck tattoo???

 

thats funny...............

 

It's always contextual, but still it's a good sign, because while we've had spurts under D'Antoni, I think maybe outside of a long stretch in 2017-18 we were never in the top 3 or 5 defensively. We were in top 10 territory at couple of times, but this is much improved. We have great individual defenders, lots of guys who can stick with offensive players and get their hands in. Let's see after a few games against the big boys, but it's a positive sign regardless. We've had to win with defense against Portland and have made key stops and won due to defense, so if that is our identity from now on: sign me up! Offense first is what I dreaded the most about our identity under MDA.

 

Here is the reason I find this exciting, because sometimes SHOTS DON'T FALL and even if you are 0-27 from 3pts you can compete in other ways to stay in the game.

Last night was a perfect example they were ice cold from 3 in the first half - yet somehow managed to stay in the game.

DD

 

He's not a good shooter, if you look at this form it's a flick at the rim. That's why he's so streaky with jumpshot. Because it has a high enough arc it does go in sometimes but it's not consistent

 

Just goes to show you how versatile coach Silas is... last year the had the best offense and now just for the fun of it he changes to having the best defense!!

Can’t wait to next year when we have BOTH!!

.......
.......
.......

 

Agreed. I think some of the pre-trade data is skewed because Harden got traded after two bad losses to the Lakers and before that the first game outpouring by the Blazers. Some of the upcoming games will be telling. The Pelicans tomorrow should be a good test because they have more offensive talent than the teams we've been up against recently (Zion and Ingram in particular).

 

I like the process and finding diamonds in the rough. Some of my favorite years watching Rockets basketball was before we got Harden and we were just churning assets. Sure it sucks that we don't have a chance at a championship, but only a handful of teams in the league do anyway.

I love the optimism and I like guys playing for each other and really buying into Coach Silas's scheme. In just pure entertainment value, we are so much more fun to watch without Harden controlling everything on offense and behind the scenes. He's amazingly talented but it just wasn't good basketball.

I hope we keep up this great defense!