After years of seeing the Rockets struggle offensively, especially in crunch time, I am just as excited as everyone else to see the new additions of Brooks, Scola, James, Francis, and Coach Adelman. However, one thing we usually had going for us in the Van Gundy era was our defense. I'm a little worried in that all our new additions are individually average to below-average defenders. In our likely playing rotation, only Battier could be considered an above-average individual defender. Van Gundy was able to mask this in the past with a strong commitment to team defense, but I'm a little worried that Adelman is not gonna be quite up to the task in that arena. I know our offensive versatility is much better now, but if we give those points right back (or can't capture key rebounds), then we aren't going to be much better off than before. What are your thoughts?
That's the only thing I'm worried about. Hopefully the guys use JVG's defense to improve their individual defense no matter how Adelman decides to teach defense.
Hopefully some aspects of JVG's defense is ingrained in Yao, Tmac, Battier, and maybe even Francis and James. That will hopefully give us better defense than what Adelman had in Sacramento. Scola might be a weak point though, but we could put in Hayes for a lineup very similar to last year's except for the PG position. Francis and James are not exactly slackers on defense despite what some people say on this BBS. On Detroit James was one of their best defending guards. Francis was a top ten defensive guard for his first five years in the league. I think we'll be fine on defense. It won't be as good as JVG's, but we won't exactly be porus on defense like Phoenix or the Mavs.
Phoenix, Golden State, the Sonics, and the Raptors have all won championships without defense. Defense is so 1995. Defensive teams like the Spurs are obsolete and that is proof we don't need to play defense. We will simply step aside, leave 4 players on the offensive side of the court, and let the other team score.
Worried about defense? You guys know the Kings were pretty efficient on the defensive side eh? Jeez, #1 in defensive FG is pretty good. Adelman is not Nellie. There's no need to worry about defense. simple as that.
I think we have some potential for better perimeter D with the improved quickness of our new gaurds, but there are no lockdown guys. No great rebounders either (besides Chuck, who figures to get less time). Does anyone know how much zone Adelman used in Sac-town?
Phoenix, Golden State and teh Rapters never won ANY championships and the Sonics did, but that was like 1977. You think the Spurs are obsolete? Where have you been - on Mars? They just won their 4th championship in like 8 years. Defense wins...it's not old fashioned...it's the thing to do if you like winning!
We will have our rebounder because TMAC ordered it, Morey is working on it, and Rafer is ready to scarify himself in a future trade.
like the lakers of their 3peat days - play D when it matters. how can't we not be a good defensive team. we have good individual defenders. good team defenders.
Really? Because the last 4-5 titles have been won by pretty good defensive teams. And most of the teams that were known for offense that have won didn't actually have bad defense either, it was just overshadowed by their offense. If our defense slips out of the top 10, we don't have a shot. Of the 4 teams that made it to the conference finals last year, only Utah wasn't in the top 10 in opponents points per 100 possessions.
Good offense takes a lot of pressure off of our defense, because we know we can outscore our opponents. The problem with last year was that despite the fact that we got a few extra possessions with our defensive stops, none of those possessions led to points on the board.
I imagine we'll slide a bit on defense for a couple of reasons: 1) Van Gundy sacrificed some offense for defense. He'd send a lot of people back after a shot to defend against the break, giving up potential offensive rebounds. He'd also commit rebounders to secure the defensive rebound and sacrifice potential fastbreaks. If Adelman is unwilling to make those sacrifices in the offense, we can expect to slack a bit on defense and rebounding. 2) Van Gundy limited possessions and slowed tempo. If we're going uptempo, expect to see opponents score more. 3) Van Gundy relied on a system for defense, not on individual defenders. Our holdovers may retain some of their defensive intensity, but I expect the system itself will not continue to chug without Van Gundy on the sideline. It'll be replaced by whatever scheme Adelman wants to run. Maybe it'll be better or worse, but it won't be the same.
