FVV is an incredibly impactful defensive player despite his size

the Rockets had a 116.8 defensive rating the last 5 games he played in which would rank 28th in the league

going back to the last 10 games he was in, the defense rating was 114.7 which would rank 23rd

he may be impactul, but seems to me the defense has been falling off for awhile regardless

either teams just know how to attack us better or they are no longer able to maintain the level of hustle and effort that they used to…maybe a combo of both

 

First it was we miss Bari! Now Bari’s back our defense is still bad. So now it becomes we miss FVV.

What if our defense is still bad after FVV is back? Maybe the truth is we simply overachieved, and it wasn’t sustainable?

 

In FVV's last 5 full games the team beat Cleveland twice, Boston, Atlanta and lost a road game to Memphis in the last second. We were playing extremely well by any measure.

We lost to Brooklyn in the game he went out and then lost 4 consecutive games to mostly mediocre teams.

I get that most of this board hates giving FVV any credit, but that sure is a mighty big coincidence. To go from handling the best of the best to struggling to beat literally any team we play in the span of one game. He probably isn't as important as that makes him seem, but he's obviously extremely important to what this team was doing when they were winning.

 

POA defense: he can keep his guy in front of him; teams have been destroying us in the paint.

 

Fit is important. The Rockets are playing different lineup combos. If it was hustle only or teams adjusting (or a combo of only those 2 factors), it should be a factor in a lot of lineup combos (especially ones used in the past more often if other teams are adjusting) instead of particular lineup combos that are being played more frequently with Amen starting (well prior to FVV's injury).

To me, it looks like Rockets have decided on offense and upside, and they hope defense gets fixed through chemistry developed by playing together more. Maybe a slight tweak in personal fixes things, too (i.e., JSJ for Brooks).

Caveat: The defensive collapse has made me jaded. I see a trio of players not working well together. I have a strong preference for playing a particular 2 together without the third even though I don't expect Ime to change it this season.

 

I agree, but he is not the biggest reason.

With Jabari: 107.7
Without Jabari: 116

That gap (+8.3) is over 2 times what we have there for FVV (+3.4). Amen is +2.6.

We're only +1.5 points better with Brooks on the floor. *Cough*

 

FVV brings a competitive stamina, focus, and intensity to this team that is necessary for us to be successful.

When Alpi, Jalen, and even Amen are our leaders by themselves we too often are just going up and back “taking turns” with the other team. Our guys get numbers, but so do theirs.

Tbh most NBA teams play this way.

But we’re not talented enough to win like that. We have to be a team that lives and dies with every possession. FVV does that.

 

There’s a reason why most teams play this way. You think other teams are stupid? If they can fight for every possession every game for 82 games, why wouldn’t they do it?

Because it’s not sustainable.

 

If fvv is required for this to be a good defensive team, then this is not a good defensive team. The general sentiment among fans is that Amen is all world defender, Tari and Jabari very good defenders, Brooks, Jalen, Sengun all capable defenders. If that's true then they shouldnt need fvv to not make the tanking Jazz look like the Cavs on offense.

 

Completely agree. Would getting Bari and FVV back help our defense? Of course it would. They’re above average defenders. But they are not going to be the deciding factors of whether we’re a good defensive team or not.

Playing all out defense like we did earlier in the season is gonna be taxing. I think the boys are feeling the pain right now. Whether they can regroup and start to play top defense again remains to be seen. But Jabari isn’t the savior. Nor is FVV

 

He really is. Leader. Defender. And for his own good, I don't want him playing 90 minutes in 48 minute
game.

 

the team being this reliant on a player of FVV’s caliber is honestly very concerning and makes me question how good the “core 7” really is

 

He’s absolutely solid, but Ime has lacked strategy and adaptive skills. We relied on hustle too much and it’s showing.

 

Defense was starting to go south before Jabari + Fred injuries + the half court offense failings in clutch time (giving up double digit leads at end of games) was prevalent from the first game of the season. Other teams got healthier, traded for better players, made lineup/scheme adjustments + ramped up their efforts leading up to ASB. Rockets stayed status quo.

 

The defensive slippage happened last year too, but it was less obvious because of that schedule in March where they only played tanking teams for nearly the entire month. I thought this year would be more sustainable because of Tari's availability and Amen playing more. And it looked like that would be the case for half the year. But when injuries started piling up that disappeared pretty quickly.

It's too early to tell obviously, and TBF Udoka also did this with the Celtics and they went to the finals. But I'm really getting some of that old JVG vibes where the hard nosed defense gets to 50 wins and then sputter out in the first round.

 

Correct. We have the black JVG.