.....they look very defensively flawed. Franchise is an excellent defender. Cuttino is very good when the moment moves him. Mo Taylor is average, at best. Griffin, as talented as he is, will struggle guarding 4s due to lack of strength and quick rookie whistle and won't have the foot speed and "know how" to play most SFs. Cato, will have some very good moments, especially blocking shots, off the ball, but is a bonehead, in general, when it comes to positioning and I won't even bring up the effort thing. Rice is, well, Rice, an excellent shooter who sees defense as a thing you HAVE to do until you get to shoot again. Walt Williams is better defensively than Rice, but he essentially is Rice lite. Moochie is a nice on the ball defender who can pressure the PG and milk important minutes off the shot clock and with the new 8 second rule, could be even more valuable. I, admittedly, don't know enough about KT or other bench players to make an assessment. Overall, Houston seems very soft defensively and will have to try to outscore teams, which is fun to watch during the regular season for peripheral (sp?) and casual fans, but makes for early outs, in the playoffs. Not trying to start an argument, but that is what it looks like from a my point of view, not being a Rocket fan, but a fan of this BBS.
You're forgetting about Shandon. Whenever we have to play the Knicks we will hold them to no more than 70 pts.
Maybe, he is better in that he will at least yell at the guy as he blows by him, whereas Rice just watches. It is funny the initial response to this post are that I was too kind in the assessment and I thought there would be a vibe that they were actually better than I stated. Who is the Rockets best defender???????????
"Who is the Rockets best defender???????????" That could be the biggest question this year. We lost our best 2 defenders in Dream & Shandon. My bet would be KT. Good news is a few of our guys are young and athletic enough to become better. Stevie, Cat (he is not so young but he played well defensively his rookie year), Langhi, Griff all fall in this category. Cato has shown flashes, but it's tough to play D from the IR. Griff is the key in the future. A great shot-vlocker can make your teammates look much better. But a couple of the above mentioned guys need to pick up their defesive intensity. I still argue that most NBA players are capable of being decent defenders, but many don't try or don't try all the time.
the appropriate question is: who is most likely to outplay their man? if you're truly talking "best defender" the answer is kelvin cato or eddie griffin - the shotblockers/rebounders/intimidators. 6'6 & under defensive stoppers are myths like pegasus. i mean, does it matter if i hold kobe to 28 if i only put up 9? not really, you still lost that matchup. so, who is most likely to have a net gain in their respective matchup? my guess is cuttino. steve is a VERY CLOSE second. he scores and gives up a lot of points, but his rebounding and assists are huge. still, i don't care for the way his man walks right into the paint. damnit steve, at least make his prove he can hit a shot first!! motay won't get the # of touches necessary to match his man. rice...maybe, depending on the matchup. but cuttino has the ability to go point for point, shot for shot with ANYONE - BAR NONE. cuttino has the best ability to outplay his man for the duration of the game.
I think Franchise as the ability to be a pretty good defender, but i don't think he concentrates on it enough. In the few games i saw last year it seemed like he tried to make his offense his defense. And that kinda defense can only take you so far
It seems that Rudy tomajanovich has steered away from defense. This is kind of surprising since he was one of the strongest supporters of defensive philosophy in early 90s which led to Rockets championships. Here's how I would feel when watching those Rockets, especially in playoffs.... Ok the Rocets are hanging in there but defense will come through in the end. Hakeem and co. will turn up their defense another notch to win the game. There were so many times that in the last 5-10 mins Hakeem was just a monster on the defensive boards, blocks and even steals. And to top it off he was supported with defense from Horry, Maxwell, Thorpe, and Elie. When you know that you can stop the other team from scoring if you step it up a level, you automatically gain confidence. I am afraid this Rocket team does not have that ability or even something close to it. They are a collection of average to poor defenders and it is very unrealistic to think that they will all turn it up this year or become good defensive team because of zone rules. Most of the Rocket fans are already putting a lot of pressure on a 19 year Griffin. That's the last thing he needs. Let him develop his game without pressure. Dont throw him into the wolf-pack this early.
But what if it took Kobe 30 shots and 8 free throws to score 28 points (which makes that @33% FGM) while you only 5 shots and 1 free throw to score 9 points (@80% FGM)? This is the problem with the whole "winning your matchup" theory. It doesn't take into account factors like making your man work for the points he scores and (more importantly) how well a TEAM plays. Obviously nobody is going to shut down Kobe, but if you (individual player or team) can make Kobe work extra hard for his points, there are several benefits. First, Kobe's teammates (like Fisher and that big guy - whatzisname) are less likely to be able to get there points. There are only so many possessions per game, and if one of the star players is taking more shots/touches than usual, that mean his teammates are getting less shots/touches than normal. And even if you're Shaq, you're probably not going to going to score 30 if you only get the ball 12 times. Good defense, especially on a star player, is the best way to beat a team because it throws off their offensive plan. And a good defender with limited offensive skills won't detract from his team's offense as long as he makes good on his few touches and more importantly, gets the ball to those teammates who are good scorers. Second, good defense on Kobe will wear him out as the game progresses. This could be crucial down the stretch - if Kobe (or any star player) is faced with having to hit a game winning shot after 3 and a half quarters of sold D, he won't have as much energy to pull it off. Also, good D can frustrate players, thus causing them to make stupid decisions. We see this in Cuttino, and the same goes for any other player. Keep them from scoring, and often they'll start jacking up really stupid shots in order to force themselves to score. Stupid shots equals lower FGM% and lower FGM% usually means less points and a loss. The thing is, basketball is a team game. It's nice to "win" a matchup but that won't give you a W in the box scores. So the idea is to have a balance between efficient offense and solid defense. Obviously, if you can only play D and can't put the ball in the basket, you won't win. 0 points is 0 points. But on the other hand, if you have players who just watch the opposing team go to the basket, then you essentially turn the game into one of chance. Teams that have no D simply have to hope that more of their shots fall than the other team's - they have no control over the game. But a balanced team (which the Rockets are most definitely NOT at this point) can put the ball in the basket while making the other team work for their shots. They have the most control over the game and can adjust their focus depending on the team.
