Do the Rockets even have a defensive coach? Does not appear so after the Lakers game. Bunch of old scrubs and Lebron running layup drills on us. Also, nice effort by Christian Wood on defending the WIDE open 3 by Melo after getting outjumped by 37 year old Lebron at the critical junction of the game. Even when healthy he’s just an injury waiting to happen.
Hi This is a team of very young players. Expecting good defense (or even adequate) is not a reasonable expectation.
We won every metric in this game except getting killed on the glass. They had almost 10 more shots than us because of that and more FTs. These facets of the game don't get fixed in one season with minnows. We suck for a reason and should abandon silly visions of BS win streaks and just focus on incrementally getting better every time out with effort and technique to build consistency. If you want 3rd year Ja Morant you have to be in your 3rd year. Wall, EGo, and Wood need to be gone from this team by season end. Get something good for them and continue to build.
“Lucas and Will Dunn generally handle the defense while Silas, Jeff Hornacek and DeSagana Diop run the offense.”
My gawd, when will u morons stop b*tching about every little thing? news flash, 1 of the worst teams in the league isn’t gonna be good defensively here’s another gem I’ll give for crybaby ass OP free of charge…1 of the worst teams in the league won’t be good offensively either be happy last night’s game was entertaining and competitive, because more often than not, 1 of the worst teams in the league won’t even be able to manage that class is now dismissed
If we just hired a shooting coach, a defensive coordinator, replaced brain dead Silas and ditched the loser tanking mentality this group could be a contender.
We need a legitimate defensive coach. John Lucas and Will Weaver are not defensively talented and are miscast in that role.
How come we don't see any Jeff Hornacek effect? Is it OK for Hornacek to watch a team which has no winning mentality. What about training them instead of watching. Or Hornacek is only on payroll like John Wall, another fraud?
Before the season started the expectation was a prolific offense with exciting young scorers and terrible defense. Thanks to Silas and the double big lineup we received terrible offense and okay defense resulting in 15 consecutive losses. Now we’re seeing more of what we were expecting we’d see. I honestly want to see them get good offensively and be consistent on that end of the floor. Develop an identity. Focus on being good at something. Then they can start focusing on really fixing the defense later. At least they’re fun to watch now. Being mediocre to bad on both ends of the floor like they were earlier this year was just not enjoyable to watch in any way. They weren’t even competitive most of the time.
Why not aim for both a good offense and a semi-decent defense? Did you not watch the 16 game losing streak….defense wasn’t “ok” it was awful. The coaches have made strides with the offense, but the defense still sucks and we need to hire someone who knows how to coach the defensive side of the game. Lucas and Weaver are probably fine offensively but are not known for their defensive prowess.
Your question may be rhetorical, but for the thread title: it appears to be John Lucas and video coordinator: Will Dunn. There was a recent article posted here by JR. (think it was Feigen in the Chronicle). And yes defense was bad. The offensive rebound differential, it's not just Wood's low rebound numbers. I can live with low numbers if he was boxing out. But if he was boxing out, they Lakers wouldn't have gotten so many 2nd point chances. The boards responsibility goes to other guys too. Gordon (33 min) Nwaba (33 min) Wood (32 min) KPJ (34 min) Green (38 min) Brooks (25 min) Christopher (27 min) Sengun (15 min) It's funny because when Lakers play the rest of the league, one of the things those teams look forward to Westbrook's near basket misses. Teams can get a quick transition basket, if they secure the defensive rebound fast enough. Other teams can do this, but not us. LAL was grabbing the offensive boards from Russ' miss. Their Lebron center line up was doing this. Their lead OREB were Lebron - 4 Avery Bradley - 2 Westbrook - 4 Anthony - 3 Nwaba had Lebron as an assignment, touch match up sure, did he box out lebron after a shot is taken. If he was boxing, then Wood should be grabbing the board. Both Dave and Christian should get some of the blame here. Carmelo got 3 also, that's on Wood and Sengun. Bradley and Westbrook were Gordon/JC/Green/KPJ's man. So the guards gets a good chunk of the blame here. I'd blame coaching, but it's really not. really it's players that played that game. As far as other defense, like the LAL's cutters ...etc, Theis, Tate are the defensive talkers, but if they're not there, Wood (and others) should be communicating on the court. This Lakers team that thought they turn the corner by beating us, lost to the Grizz next night. LAL is not a good team. Be it Turner/Plumlee/Lebron, doesn't matter if it's small center or big center. It's not a match up thing, it's us. Between Rockets and Hornets, we're bottom in DEF team ratings right now.
This is a shiny psychological trick fans often fall into, overvaluing the players they know the most about and thinking that their limitations are due to coaching. Might be true in NBA 2K where you can be their brains. In no way is this team mature or intelligent enough to be a contender, across the board.
Yeah I know. My post was meant to be sarcasm/a way to see who needed to be added to the ignore list by actually agreeing with it.
