[Chro.]Adelman: Defense's role will not be significantly diminished in the new season

The point forward initiates the defense. duh.

 

What?

 

Too bad T-Mac isn't one.

 

ahhahahahahahahhahahaha yesssss

 

i think i missed where this whole point-forward thing came from. it's probably for the best though.

 

trust me on this

it is



re:article

Im pleased that they are planning on tryin to keep the defensive effort up.
It doesnt help much to score more with a uptempo when you cant stop the other teams.

We do have a lot of guys that are at least "good" defenders, adn a few that are damn near great ones.

 

If we win a championship this year, i will start a thread dedicated to JVG and how his defensive principles help this team in the playoffs.

 

there is a 4 page thread on it in the Feedback section.... but yeah you're probably better off not knowing.

 

I think this is what everyone on the bbs is a little concerned with regarding the defense. You can criticise JVG all you want, but the transition d was awesome last year, and you wont find many teams in the playoffs that give up easy points. At least none that last very long.

I mean, pick and roll will be a concern as well(esp when Yao is involved in it), but that's also the case for pretty much every team in the league.

 

So, what's the verdict - is Rafer a good defender or not?

Some people are adamant that he's a terrible perimeter defender. But you got JVG and Adelman, guys who know a thing or two about the game, saying he is a very good defender.

Who's right?

 

I think a lot of people just look at his build and the boxscores and assume he's a bad defender.

In truth, he's a very good team defender(good rotations, good funneling), and a solid one on one defender. But he isn't really a game changer with his d.

 

Some people no longer hate JVG for his lies.

 

No matter what...this Rockets team definitely will play better defense than the Kings because we have Yao and Battier and Scola. The Kings don't have any one that play great defense other than Christie...they allow many easy layups and too easy penetration. WIth Yao's presence inside...it's not going to happen. So even if they don't adopt the JVG's defensive philosophy, i still think they're a good defensive team.

So because of great offense and great defense...i predict there are games Rockets are going to blow out opponents....just because the Kings score so easily and yet play somewhat terrible D.

 

Like Adelman said, the great transition defense had a lot to do with the offense. It's much easier to play transition defense when you have 3 stationary guys on offense.

This is a case of defense-offense trade off. You can't have the best of both worlds. What you want is the right balance, boosting up one end without sacrificing too much on the other end.

JVG is great on defense. But he probably sacrifices too much offense doing that. Let's see if Adelman sacrifices too much defense trying to boost up the offense.

 

I think he only mentioned Rafer and Chuck because they were starters last year. Deke played pretty good defense last year too, but got no mention. People can rave all they want about Chuck's defense, but there's a darn good chance that Scola takes the starting PF spot by the season opener. Rafer's spot is up for grabs too, though I'm amazed that he's in a position to take a starting role after an offseason of trying to move him.

Yao had better get some damn superstar treatment from the refs this time. Cause they were calling some BS before.

 

"The most noticeable difference will be with Yao no longer trapping on the perimeter. Several years ago, when Van Gundy kept Yao in the lane, penetrating guards would draw fouls on him, helping to prompt the change to Van Gundy's preferred style. But Yao said he is a smarter defender than he was then."

I remember there was a big debate about whether Yao should show on the pick and roll or stay back in the lane. I guess this answers our question.

 

not hard to play transition D with 3 out of 5 players standing at the 3 point line on offense.

 

what's with no mention of StevO in the article???

 

Its nice that they are talking about D, but what are they doing about it? One thing the Rockets did in the past was drill and work on defense religiously in practice. That's why they were so dam good. We have the tools to have a good D this year, in fact, we actually have more weapons to help out defensively, but they better stress defense in practices....it's something they need to continually learn no matter how many good defenders we have. I did notice that we have an added element of speed and hustle this year. James, Francis, Bonzi, Brooks are all flying to the ball this year.....and Scola seems to be all over the court making plays (taking charges, getting steals, etc).