Martin, Hill, JJ, CBud -- we haven't seen any of these guys play with Yao yet. Safe to say their D will assuredly look better with a 300 lb 7'6'' all star behind them. I'm just hoping Yao is watching Hayes' outlet passes. I'll be tickled if Yao brings that to the table next year.
I wish people would stop thinking JVG = defense. It's as if a coach preaches something other than defense 50 times a day, then that coach sucks at coaching defense. Adelman(or rather his coaching team that includes Elston Turner) is actually better at teaching defense than JVG. Why? Because he does it without sacrificing offense. Because he manage to have the team play great defense with players not known for them: Peja, Webber, Bibby, etc. Adelman coaches to win. If our team makeup is suited for playing 100+ possessions a game like this year, then that's how Adelman will play it. If our team is more suited for slow pace like last year, then that's how Adelman will play it. In this sense, Adelman really is a true player's coach. One who is willing to suit the style of play to the players available to him.
Ya I don't think so, Yao might protect the paint a little bit, but still I don't think we'll be a defensive team in the future. If you look at Rick Adelman's Resume, his former teams never played defense, none of his former teams were good defensive teams, so I don't think it will change in the future.
Coaches can divise the best defensive schemes in the world but if you don't have the right guys to do it, namely a shotblocker in the middle for the rockets, you will always be looking like the warriors every now and then in a 82-game season......
I'm just glad I don't have to figure out how to make this line up work with Yao. Next season Rick has his work cut out.
And for the better, one towards a balanced approach is always better than the myopic defense only one that was here before Adelman. DD
How so? I think he does help the defense big time especially around the rim. He has issues in space, but thats to be expected. Offensively, the rockets haven't fared better than 15th with yao. This year they're 13th without him.
Maybe true... I am rooting for that non-myopic defensive approach. But did you see that team last year with Yao beat up the Lakers? Who's defensive mindset do you think the players were adopting...still after 2 years? Not RA's. And I don't remember the Rocks scoring 110pts per game either. Show me a great defensive team with average to above average offense and I bet you they are 50+ wins every year. Its not like the Lakers last year or this year are blowing people out with their triangular thingymabob. In baseball....pitching, pitching, pitching. Football, basketball, hockey...defense, defense, defense. Just go back and look it up.
Rockets last year: 108.4 points per 100 possessions. Rockets this year: 107.3 points per 100 possessions. With Yao, the Rockets were a more efficient team on offense despite dealing with Quitter-mac, teardrop Rafer, Ron Ron, and the Jekyll&Hyde young Aaron Brooks. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Yao's a pretty helpful player on offense.
So Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry, Ron Artest, Luis Scola, Carl Landry, and Von Wafer were all adopting the mindset of a coach they had never played for before?
I think Yao is our cure for our defense. There will be less layup drills throughout the game. Having such a huge presence in the middle will always help the defense. The smaller guys have to look over their shoulder for Yao. That split second of time allows helping defense to come over to. There will be a few more mid-range and under the basket shots missed in each game because of Yao. Those 4-6 points in a game could be difference in a lot of games. As we can see in our record this year.
Simple answer - no. DD is right, Yao is what we need as a big presence in the paint to stop the penetration. That being said, guys like Ariza who gamble for steals won't become a liability anymore because Yao will be there to cover his mistakes. Our biggest problem this year was that when they do gamble, the low post defender will be left playing 2 on 1 and get shot over (a la Hayes). It's a lot harder to shoot over a 7'6 center. But Yao won't make us have a top 5 defense. As much as Yao can help, he wont be playing all game, most likely around 30 mins. So that leaves us 18 mins with our current Yao-less defense. In past years, Mutombo would be there to guard the paint and sustain the intensity on defense while Yao sits but this is not the case anymore. Hayes can't do it, they already found a way to render him useless. All we can do is depend on JJ or a developing Hill unless everyone thinks that we will draft a Mutombo-caliber player in the draft (another Thabeet in the draft?). Maybe target Camby in the offseason.
This might sound crazy but maybe the reason we lost our defensive identity because Yao was essentially our defensive identity. IIRC, when he came into the league he took a SF/CM JVGless team and made them top 5 in D. It's must be so awkward to try and get around a road block while you're being funnelled. Anyways, I'm with DD on this one. I think we'll definitely go back to top 5.
