For the love of GOD can the Rockets stop running switch defense!!!

Switching defense is not the problem. Playing soft is the problem. Our guards never fight the screen and go under every possessions, that always lead to a wide open three point shots. Compare how the Raptors players fight the screen and how us fight the screen, you'll see the difference.

 

The Rockets have run a lot less switching this year - watch the first few games especially where Stephen Adams screened them into absolute oblivion while Ja made his MVP candidacy.

I didn't really notice tonight, but there's articles and interviews about why they changed up from last month

 

Robert Covington blocked shots.

 

Toronto runs lots of different things but:

 

The 2018 defense was one of the best NBA defenses of all time... Exclusive switching.

 

The players have to learn so how right?

Why do you care? We aren’t trying to win games but developers young players.

 

That's because they aren't talking on the floor. If you want to switch, call out to switch. And we don't have defensive floor general to lead them.

 

The swith defense was used to combat the Warriors, as it was effective against them.

I'd hazard a guess and say coaches who don't have the brains on the defensive side of house, think that because it gave you your best chance against the Warriors, it will give you your best chance against every team. Which is wrong.

Oh, and it's also used in an attempt to minimise the terrible on ball defense the guards play, so in that sense it isn't going away.

The irony - as you pointed out - is there are holes/people out of place in the switch defense. Because it requires the people on the court to have a high IQ and knowing where their teammates are going to go pending on where the ball is moving. The Rockets don't have many high IQ players to run it effectively.

 

Our frontline is incomplete due to youth and needing more personnel. Again, we'll score a lot of points with the offense going through Alperen right now, but we'll often be giving up more. Overall , this is a young team...Some are expecting too much. The Rockets are implenting an offensive system dependent on Sengun maturing (and he is) Patience. We'll get there....We have numerous players who will play BIG D..just relax. Both ends are a lot to lay down immediately.

 

I wish we could @Fultron (run what Toronto runs defensively)

If you can watch the Rockets vs Orlando two games back.....you will see
the Magic target Sengun defensively on his drop back coverage which was
poor. Magic ran PnR and lobbed over the top easily to Wendell Carter, Banchero,
Bamba

This is why I want Sengun to succeed, but I'm not a fan of Sengun.
Rockets have to help Sengun defensively which leaves 3-pt shooters
open.

When facing the Bucks you take away Giannis points which are
points in the paint.....or the 3-point shooting. You can't let the Bucks
get both. Giannis scores 44 and 51.6% from 3.
Giannis made 2 three-pointers (6 of his 44 points)

Going back to the the Magic game.....points in the paint:
Magic 52
Rockets 40

It's a personnel issue

 

The switch defense would run better if we have many high IQ players, as other post pointed out. That being said, effort is also important. The only thing the bird did well was vigorously fought through the screen and he drew a decent amount of offensive fouls. The reason is, once you fight the screen harder, you are giving your teammates more time to react. You will still give up the open three if the opponents make three or four passes after that, but the difficulties increase as the accuracy decrease. Also, you can choose to give up 45 degree 3 pointers or the corner 3. For instance, if PJ Tucker was the shooter, you'd be more willing to give up the 45 degree than the corner. Of course, that's not perfect, as our team is still very young. The truth is, We don't need to play perfect defense, but a little effort will make a huge difference. That's why I have been saying playing soft is the problem. You need to have a good coach to tell the players, that your playing time is depending on these little things and hold them accountable.

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/anybody-and-everybody-can-switch-on-pick-and-rolls-now/

 

I wouldn't say it like that.

The Rockets are full of inexperienced players who don't know/trust each other enough to run it effectively.

To run a switch everything defense effectively, you need 5 big-ish, fast, mobile, familiar, and experienced players. The word "and" is the operative word.

Yao Ming could never successfully contribute to a switch everything defense because he's not fast and mobile enough. For a guy like that, as we saw, you just get that player into a pick-n-roll or isolation situation to expose their lack of mobility on the perimeter.

In modern NBA, flexibility is the name of the game. If you gotta throw out different situational looks or you get buried, ala James Harden's 3s and frees style offense. GSW was built to expose weak perimeter defense. Only way to defend it, and other guard dominant teams, which is most of them now, is with switch everything. Other teams w/ a true center, that won't work. Need to fight fire w/ fire.