Adjustments to Opposing Defenses

The one thing the Rockets must improve upon is adjusting to the style of play we've seen out of everyone except Sacramento so far. Knowing that our point guards are not top tier, that we have a lot of new players making us prone to turnovers and that our center, at times, has trouble holding the ball, teams are playing in-your-face, pressure defense in an attempt to disrupt our offense and cause turnovers.

It's working. The Rockets are averaging 15 turnovers per game. That's not awful until you factor in that they only had 9 against Sacramento. Against their other four opponents, they are averaging 19 turnovers per game. Minus the Sacramento game, they would rank 27th in turnovers per game.

And Sacramento was the exception rather than the rule because they are a poor defensive team that doesn't force turnovers. In fact, the Kings are forcing only 13 turnovers per game tying them with the Rockets at 26th in the league in that category.

Granted, some of the turnovers can be expected. The Rockets have a team loaded with new players trying to learn a new system and each others' tendencies. But, it is more than that.

The Rockets biggest struggle is getting into their offense. Teams have learned that they can have success against the Rockets defensively if they do four things:

1. Pick up the ball 3/4 court.

This is not meant to create a turnover but rather to force the team into its offense later than it wants to. Instead of starting an offensive set with 19 seconds left on the shot clock, the Rockets are getting into their offense with 15 seconds left. This is particularly effective against Van Gundy's offensive sets because they are complex and can take time to develop. He runs multiple screens and decoys in order to get a shot. That often leaves the Rockets taking a shot with under 5 seconds on the clock. JVG generally wants that because his philosophy is to limit possessions, but the defensive pressure often results in the Rockets rushing their offense and not getting everything they can out of each set.

2. Double team the pick and roll.

Despite the Rockets' success with the pick and roll - and it has been very effective at times - teams have seen that one way to exploit the Rockets lack of quickness is to double team the man with the ball on the PNR. The Rockets like to screen and fade as opposed to screen and roll to the basket. Since a big man is doing the fading, teams run their big guy at the guard with the ball forcing him to get it to the big man out high. Because out big men are not particularly quick, defenders can either recover or get rotation over to the big man before he can adjust. When the Rockets are effective, they are taking on the double team and going to the basket, but McGrady is the only guy who really has the ability to do that meaning everyone else is vulnerable.

3. Fronting or, more often, three-quartering the post man.

Teams have employed fronting on our big men, but the most effective defense has been to just shade them to the ball side and get a hand in front of the offensive man. This is meant to disrupt passes into the post while forcing the post man out of position. This does not work on post players who can face up (Garnett, Duncan) or on guys who are very agressive (Shaq) because they can either get the ball on the floor and face up or push his way in front of the defender. For Yao to be effective in the post, he is going to either have to muscle his way around his man or fake to the post and roll across the key looking for a feed from the high post. He doesn't have the speed or agility to face up, so he must rely on his teammates to get him the ball in the position he likes AND he must get more agressive going after the ball.

What is most difficult about this form of defense is that Yao doesn't hold the ball particularly well and has the tendency to go up looking for a foul or attempting a layup. Because of that passiveness, agressive defenders have the edge swatting the ball loose or forcing Yao into a very difficult shot. Late in this last Memphis game, Yao was going to the hole much more agressively and the fronting was much less effective. It isn't all on Yao, but it is on him to establish position, hold onto the ball and make decisive moves when he does get it on the block.

4. Overplaying and playing the passing lanes.

One thing that has traditionally caused the Rockets to struggle is a defense that overplays the ball. It is meant to disrupt the offense and force turnovers. Some defenses like Seattle's in the early 90's did this through extreme pressure on the ball. Some defenses like the Spurs today do this through denying easy passes everywhere on the floor. In reality, teams that press on defense and deny passes can be dimantled with an effective passing attack.

Aggressive defenses in basketball are similar to blitzing defenses in football. A blitz puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback, but it also leaves guys wide open in the secondary or, at worst, in man-to-man coverage. It is up to the offensive line to pick up the blitz and the quarterback to adjust through a pass or a delayed handoff. If they complete a play, it can often go for a lot of yardage because of the overplaying of the defense.

This works exactly the same in basketball. When a team overplays, it is vulnerable to back door passes and guys going to the basket. It wreaks havoc and creates turnovers but it also leaves huge holes in the defense that can be exploited. Right now, the Rockets just don't know each other well enough to have an effective passing attack that will dismantle and overplaying defense.

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The good news is that all of this is correctable. The better news is that when the Rockets do manage to figure it out and learn each others' tendencies, they will be MUCH harder to press defensively. Having a better passing attack will also force teams to re-think the fronting and three-quartering in the post. They'll still do it, but will be up to Yao to make them pay for it by being aggressive and making smart, decisive moves with the ball when he gets it.

Fortunately, the Rockets are managing to win ballgames even with the defensive pressure and turnovers. But, that will not continue as they play against tougher teams with better overall rosters. They will have to adapt on offense to improve.

 

Not really. Yao needs deep position on the block to make any significant impact down there. When you catch the ball on a face up, you usually are out 12 to 15 feet from the basket. Yao needs to be 5 feet at the most.

He's not like Barkley where he could get it anywhere and start backing people in. Yao doesn't have that kind of ball handling skill, not due to lack of ability but mainly because he is so tall the ball has a long way to go to get from his hand to the floor and back. It leaves him vulnerable to steals.

Also, when Yao does dribble, he makes himself smaller to shorten the distance between his hand and the ball and avoid turnovers, but it also negates his height advantage. The less Yao dibbles the ball, the less he will turn it over.

 

Keep in mind that our point guards aren't here to feed the post. In most dominant post offenses, unless the point guard has size on his opponent (Dwayne Wade is doing this is Miami), he is not the initial pass into the post most of the time. It is also common to avoid keeping the point on the same side of the ball as the big man because smaller defenders have a tendency to disrupt post play.

The only exception to that is when the man on the block is ALSO a guard, something we see with McGrady. But that is a different kind of pass because guards don't need the ball as deep on the block as bigs do.

In reality, it is about the angle of the pass and the distance. Whoever is feeding the post has to get the ball around his defender and the post defender from the three point line. For a small player, that is a lot further than for a larger one.

Guys like Robert Horry have made a living feeding the ball into the post because they almost always have size on their opponents. McGrady and Jackson both feed the post well. Charlie Ward did it some last night when he was guarded by the smaller Earl Watson. But, in general, you need big guards and small forwards making that pass.

(I should note that this is from the wing, not from the high post where it is much more common to see a feed from a big man like Taylor)

There are also a number of other things that go into making the right pass...the hand the player prefers to catch the ball with, who the defenders are on the passer and the post player, how the defense is playing the post, where the help side defense is (leaning towards the baseline, in the paint, above the free throw line, etc), what type of pass works best for the post man (bounce, overhead, lob, etc).

In each defensive scheme, there are plays designed to benefit the offensive player, but making multiple adjustments can be difficult particularly in zone defensive schemes. But, probably the two biggest elements that lead to the success of the post up game are the pass from the outside and the aggressiveness of the post player. The more targeted the pass from the outside and the more aggressive the post man is in getting AND HOLDING position will determine the success or failure of a particular play 99 percent of the time.

We have good post passers now. Both Howard and Taylor can pass from the high post. McGrady is the ideal passer from the wing. Jackson is a good passer from the wing. Ward is actually a decent passer from the wing, but, again, point guard passes often depend on matchups. For that matter, pretty much all offensive sets are dependent upon matchups and what the defensive is set up to give you.

The way you outgun teams in that situation is to out-execute and out-hustle them. Yao is gifted, but he still needs to learn that he will have greater success if he attacks defenders aggressively. He will have fewer offensive fouls called on him and he'll turn the ball over less.

 

I agree that the one is not pushing the ball up as quickly, but that could be quickly negated if the rest of the offense set up quickly. This is a team game and it doesn't rest on a single player's shoulders, particularly the guy who is the 5th option on offense.

Our point guards are designed to do two things:

1. Get into the offense.
2. Knock down open shots.

For the most part, they have done that. Of course they could improve, but it isn't the primary reason our offense is struggling because JVG has handed the ball to T-Mac around 70 percent of the time and, even then, the offense has a tendency to bog down despite the ease with which he advances the ball.

If you look around the league, teams are picking up the ball handler 3/4 or full court more often. It is really just designed to slow teams down and allow defenses to get set. And, it is often effective against even the best point guards.

The reality is that our offense struggles, particularly with turnovers, for a wide range of reasons and the talent level at the point guard spot, while it is a problem, isn't really at the top of the list IMO.