Rox are the third on average opponent point per game and FG%. But are really a good defensive team? We are 27th at Rebound, 24th at blocking, and 26th at stealing. Our oppenent usually score less point because of our slow tempo basket ball and got less FG% because of, maybe, Yao. Since Yao is there, there is no team to get closer to basket easily and it causes less FG%.(this is my personal analysis) While we can enjoy less opponent FG%, we also have very poor rebound. That means we easily give away one more chance for our opponent and maybe we might give them third chance, too. We can keep our opponent's FG% and PPG lower while we can't even get the chance to score. Also, without blocking and stealing, we usually have less chance to get more offensive chance. Are we really a good defensive team? To be a good defensive team, Rox must make more offense chance from that defensive effort. That's what I believe.
I was going to start a thread just like this. I really think our defensive stats are a bit misleading. Teams never score over 100 on us but I think it has more to do with the slowdown offense than our great defense. Other teams just don't get as many possessions and hence don't score as much. What troubles me is that we seem to be rotating so hard towards the ball that we're leaving guys WIDE OPEN away from the ball. All the opponent has to do is make 1 extra pass, and someone gets a WIDE OPEN look. I was at the game tonight and I was watching a lot of the action away from the ball. That's why the Nuggets got so many dunks and wide open looks. I've seen this happen a lot this year. A lot more than last year.
JVG is a strong defensive-oriented coach. Our team members are not defensive minded players. What an un-harmonic situation is! I think this is time to decide what direction we will go. Go for defensive team? We need get more defensive and hard worker type players. Go for offensive team? We need to fire JVG!
RM95 always gets mad when I make fun of our Longhorns but I couldn't help but think of this when seeing this thread title. Lance on the Morning Show on 610 was talking to an Oklahoma guy after UT lost in the Final Four a couple of years ago. The guy was saying whenever he gave his Longhorn buddies a hard time about losing the basketball game, they would say "yeah, but we're a football school". He said he would reply, "but are you a good football school". Sorry, thought that was funny.
Our rebounding is atrocious. I do not understand professional players making millions of dollars and they don't understand the concept of boxing out. Watch the Rockets. When the shot goes up, we have 4 guys standing there watching the thing arc through through the air towards the bucket. None of them move, or look to get on their man and box out. Yao tries to figure out where the ball is going to bounce and he goes lumbering to that spot on the floor passing up an opponent or two on the way to that magic spot, the spot where the ball bounces on 1 shot of about 20. The rest of the time it bounces the complete opposite direction usually towards MoT who himself is being boxed out by his man instead of the other way around. Every once in a while, Yao will look around for an opponent to get on, and he will run over to that player and kinda lean on him a little bit. Most of the time when he does this, his back is to the basket, so the opposing team's player has to grab the ball, just to protect Yao from getting hit in the noggin with it. When our rebounders do get the ball, they stand there doing the victory dance with it and look around frantically as if they are color blind and can't tell which uniform color is the same as theirs. I go about 240 and I am pretty sure I could box out MoT even though I give away about 8 inches to him. For Van Gundy to be such an outstanding coach, he sure hasn't taught these professionals the first thing about rebounding.
Yes, we are a good defensive team, all JVG teams have been. But it doesn't account for much when are offense can't outscore the other team, even if they just score 82points. It doesn't account for much when we get outrebounded every game and get killed in fast break points. I hate to sound like a broken record. But how much can this team improve under JVG? The stats we are looking at right now are exact replicas of JVG teams, the only difference is that this is a much different league and much different conference than when JVG was enjoying his success.
Ok...think about this. One person shoots the ball and misses it His team gets a rebound and shoot it again. and misses. Another player comes and gets another rebound. Shoot it and make it. This team will get 33.3% of FG% and got only 2 points for 1 minute. Defending team will get no chance to score while they have less opponent FG% and lower opponent point. Isn't this farmilliar?
Yes, we are a good defensive team. Block shots don't matter too much because a block shot is like a missed shot, and they get accounted for in FG%. The opponents points per game doesn't matter because of style, but you can't argue with the FG %. Anyhow, the Rocks are not a great defensive team because even though they have a good concept of closing in on defenders and forcing contested shots, they are terrible at pressuring ball handlers, hitting the passing lanes, stripping big men, etc...all the things that force turnovers. This is due to their lack of overall team quickness, and leads to the Rockets being like 27th out of 30th in forcing turnovers. I'm glad the Rocks are only 15th or around there in commiting turnovers...but forcing them, they suck at it. And of course, they're like one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, so that just negates good defense so much of the time.
No. Until this team can grab a frickin' rebound (see signature) then we wont be a good defensive team. Because no matter how good our FG% Against is, it doesn't mean spit if the other team gets 10-20 more shots at the basket. Evtually that team will score more than us, even if they shoot a worse percentage. The main problem is our team is too slow. We have no lateral quickness. Our defenders are too SLOW to play good team defense and hence cause fouls or get caught out of position. Our defenders are too slow to grab rebounds which allows the other team offensive rebounds and easy second chance points. Our players are too slow that we have to run back on defense without even considering our OWN potential offensive rebounds. This team DESPERATELY needs a quick, athletic energy guy at the PF spot. Someone that isnt afraid of doing the dirty work and will hustle and give 100% every night. If we got someone like that along with Sura coming back I think that would do a world of difference for this team.
The only reason we hold our opponent to a low field goal percentage is the type of game that is play. Until we can stop someone on a pick and roll, grab a rebound, and block some shots (remember, for at least 42 minutes a game there is at least a 7'2" guy in the game) we are not a good defensive team. We are a SLOW team.
I agree. A master chef can work wonders with a few ingredients because he knows what works with what. A master chef doesn't try to bake a cake when he has no sugar.
With Yao on the team this will never be a good defensive team. Yao is way too slow to move like a defensive player should. He is way too soft to block shots and not give up offensive rebounds. As a defensive team, you got to intimidate your opponents and they have to be afraid to take the rock to the hole. With Yao's softness, they will never be afraid.
