How come no one ever praises Rudy T as a great defensive coach?

For what its worth I agree with you. Rudy is a great defensive minded coach, and if the team executes the game plan, not a bad offensive one either (ie last two games). Won't find much support for those thoughts on this board though.

 

Everytime someone mentions our offense's poor ranking, I try to add perspective and mention our defense but it never generates a response.

 

Our defense was CRAP the past 2 seasons before Yao Ming arrived.

 

Take away the intimidation from Yao, you have a below average defensive team with terrible individual defenders.

 

The Rockets had a great defense with Hakeem. They now have a great defense with Yao. It's hardly Rocket science to see the connection. Shotblocking centers who erase mistakes make great defensive coaches where they wouldn't otherwise exist.

 

It helps when the guards start STOPPING, or at least SLOWING, the point of attack.

Add JPo. Don't forget that EG is ALWAYS working at the D. TMo comes in and gets dirty work done. KC is rebounding well off the bench.

Coach Rudy has the team hustling most of the time. Props to Rudy, props to the Rox.

 

Because he's not one.

 

What makes a great defensive team, coaching or players? This has been debated for years.

So, which is it players or coaches or a little of both. It is the scheme and coaching that makes you competitive, but it is the players that get it done. There is no doubt that Rudy preaches D first, but the past 3-4 years we have not gotten it done, because the personnel has not gotten it done. This team would be average today, were it not for the blocking and prescence of Ming and Griffin. Posey has also changed our overall schemes too. The guards are still making the drives too easy on this team, but we have a backstop now, so it is easy to dismiss it.


I think Rudy provides a decent scheme, but he has not architected anything that will change the way the game is played. He is incorporating a scheme that other teams use. I guess what I am saying is that Horray for Rudy for being a defensive minded coach. I am glad for that. At the same time, labeling him a great defensive coach would be exaggerating a bit. There is no doubt that he puts them in position, but so the other teams, especially the 5 other ahead of us in points allowed.

 

Rudy isn't recognized as a defensive coach largely because of the perception of his personality, imo. Defensive coaches are supposed to be tough, disciplinary guys (the Pat Riley type).

Rudy's perceived style is that he is a nice guy, a players coach. Lack of discipline is supposed to be his weakness. So it's hard to perceive him as a defensive coach.

I doubt that there is a coach out there that doesn't preach the D. The difference is how to get the players to do it. The conventional wisdom is that you need discipline to play D, so you need a disciplinary coach to get the team to play D. Well, tough discipline is certainly a way to do it. But other styles of motivation may also be good. Phil Jackson might be an example of the motivational type. Both his Bulls and Lakers are great defensive teams.

Rudy might be closer to Jackson than to Riley in this regard. Having the right players helps too, of course.

BTW, until the abolition of illegal defense last year (and most teams hadn't got it until this year), defensive strategy was a negligible factor in defensive performance. It was largely individual player skills and motivation/discipline.

 

thank you for the reality check haven.

i belive this team is 2nd or 3rd in the league in blocked shots. and you don't coach blocked shots.

 

Are we good defensively or is it we slow the tempo down alot? We don't allow many points because we use up the shot clock a lot of times. We are dead last in the NBA in forcing turnovers, yet we are at the top in blocked shots. There are many categories to judge defense. With Rudy, we've been pretty good at blocking shots, but we don't force many turnovers, and guards seem to score a lot on us.

 

This team reminds me of the TEXANS. The defense is what has been winning the games. The blocks for the Rocks.

Great defense with the big man in the middle.

 

Take away the intimidation from Shaq, you have a below average defensive team with terrible individual defenders. This is based on what they put up at the start of the season.

Give a guard an intimidating centre/PF, and they can do more on the defensive end. They can apply pressure knowing if their man gets past them, they have some backup to block/stop/change the shot.

To answer the original question, have you heard of the "tall poppy syndrome", or is it an Aussie-only saying? It is way easier to knock someone down than to build them up, and it makes "small" people feel better about themselves.

My two cents...

 

I don't praise him but he has done pretty good on defense. Yao has also been a factor. But our defense is very good this year. The Rudy haters just always have excuses.

 

Unless you're Chuck Daly, it doesn't really matter how good of a 'defensive coach' you are. Championships are won on the offensive end. If you don't have that unstoppable guy on the offensive side, it doesn't matter if you have the best defense in the league. If you do have that unstoppable guy, your defense just has to be 'good enough'.

 

TAMPA BAY BUCS?

OAKLAND RAIDERS?

Defense won.

BUT YOU ARE RIGHT. Although Detroit has an excellent record and are the 3rd best team in the East, they will never win the championship. They have great defense, but they can't possibly hold Dallas or Sacramento or Los Angeles for long.

OUR OFFENSE WILL DEVELOP. IF WE CONTINUE TO PLAY WELL ON DEFENSE, OUR OFFENSE WILL COME. IT HAS BEEN LOOKING GOOD AT BOTH SIDES OF THE COURT RECENTLY. I expect a losing streak...

 

Rudy has perhaps the WORST defensive play on the the pick and roll in the league. Rockets must rank last in p&R defense. Yes, the guards have always been horrible defenders, but Rudy exacerbates that with his pigheaded insistence on stopping the pick and allowing the set up man freee shots.

 

Thanks Robbie.

Haven is dead on. Our defenses over the years are based on indivudual play and not on defensive schemes. Same goes for our offense. Hakeem literally CARRIED our defense over the years to cover up for other player's and Rudy's mistakes. If it wasn't for Yao changing shots, we'd really suck defensively.

Rudy's an extrmely slow adjuster in game situations, especially on defense. I've seen one to many times opposing point guards over the years create havoc penetrating and dishing out against us. I really don't know if Rudy's ever done anything to try to fix this during the game. How about try Cat on stephan marbury (or any other point guards for that matter who killed us) to cool em off? The first two games in Dallas when Nash was killing us, why not try Cat on him? The third game against dallas he did that in the first half and Nash played like crap. He stopped that in the second half and dallas went insane. Why not try trapping their guards when they are red hot to get it out of their hands and try to create some turnovers and change the momentum of the ball game? Why not try fronting bigmen and put pressure at the entry pass and deny them the ball when they are scoring at will? I've never seen Rudy do any of this. I can go on and on.....IMO, Great coaches adjust to all kinds of situations and Rudy is very slow in that department. While I'm 'bashing' Rudy, I might as well bash the players while I'm at it. Some of our players are the same exact way. When they set their minds in passing, they'll pass even if they are wide open. If they have their minds on shooting, they shoot with 5 guys on him even though there are open players.