Why has our defense gotten WORSE as the season has gone by? I mean we can blame Steve and Cat but it seems like they playing the same defense they been playing all year I would like to say we missing Kenny Thomas but . . honestly i don't know if that is the reason [I have not researched to back it up] but what change has happened? Glenn coming back? I don't think he been back long enough I think inserting Posey hurts ONLY in that Hawkins has had his time limited. . . . same with T Mo I think our TEAM defense did not so much come for the starter as much as maybe the subs. . . .and the subs have been the victims of a shortened bench why do you think our Defense has declined? Rocket River
It's simple. The Rockets have just given up on that end of the court. It takes a certain level of effort to sustain that for the entire season, and the Rockets just haven't shown the desire to do that. They certainly have the ability, as the first two months of the season proved to us.
I voted for "other". However, my "other" has a close connection to "not trying". In the early part of the season, the Rox were the beneficiaries of many home games with more days in between to prepare. IMO, many of the teams they played (and beat) were not very good and were rounding into shape. This gave the illusion of playing defense when in reality it was poor offense by the opponent. In the more recent part of the schedule, the Rox are on the road with less time to prep against teams now in "mid-season form". Apart from the physical aspect, playing NBA D is a matter of mindset. It is played 24 seconds at a time for about 75 or 80 half court sets and requires dedication and attentivenesss...unfortunately, many of the Rockets have ADD.
WELL I AM SURPRISED THIS THREAD IS NOT ON FIRE. Cuz this is a very very VERY VERY VERY important issue. In the beginning....our defense was very good. We were one of the best. Now it is dropping. Maybe other teams have different offensive strategies against us. But we need to tell our players to start playing defense again. ONE MAJOR PROBLEM IS STEVE FRANCIS. He allows the crappiest guards ever to penetrate and get past him. Mobley has no problems. He has always played excellent defense. Really. Posey......well he stopped Marion. But he did terrible against MJ. Posey...well I can say that he plays better defense than Glen Rice. Maybe he doesn't.....but Glen is just too slow. Eddie Griffin...one on one defense....is not too bad. He's just too skinny. Mo Taylor tries...looks like.....on defense. But he is just too short. But he does well with Yao. YAO MING. Well he has been abused. People drive at Yao. And Yao has to come out and help....which leaves his guy wide open. And his guys....who usually never score.....are like scoring double digits. They are just making wide open shots. It has to be a curse. Also......teams do pick and rolls. Yao like shows himself....but then leaves the guy there. He has to stay longer. And he has to contest the shots. He doesn't even stick out his arms. But of course he is tired as hell. But only if he could be like Cato and just try to block everything. Our defense is still all right. But there are little holes......and we take too many risks. We like rotate and leave players wide open. We gamble...... I wish our defense was like the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics. I like their aggressive and good help defense. WE HAVE RECENTLY TRIED ZONE DEFENSE. Doesn't look too great. For example.......JERRY STACKHOUSE GOING RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE AND DUNKING.
I think the defense may be suffering from the fact that the Rockets have about a billion things that they are working on right now, or know they need to work on. The biggest thing they're struggling with currently is of course how to mold Yao and Francis into a compatible offensive tandem, harnessing the talent of both into an unstoppable duo. Of course, as is well, well documented on this board, they have a jillion other concerns right now, too. Essentially, they're just going to have to get better by going out and playing hard and learning each game. If defense was the Rockets' only problem, they could focus on it and improve noticeably from game to game. But, they're working on pretty much every aspect of their game right now. I'm encouraged by the high number of overtime games that we've had recently. Sure, they've had trouble putting them away, but they're staying competitive into the 4th quarter, not giving up. A loss in double overtime still sucks, but at least they're keeping hope alive. And hope is what we're gonna need for a few years more. The Rockets aren't going to suddenly drastically improve and go on a tear this season. This season is the START. Defense is one of the many things that the team is going to have to learn the hard way. But, it'll come around. We have the talent, we'll get the experience.
I think Yao did his job well in defense. How many times you saw rox oponents shoot in the low post when Yao was there? Especially lately it has been very hard for him to get blocks because the players in other teams even the centers often shot from the outside when his was on the court. Yes it happened a few times that people dunk on him, which really can be counted using only one hand. He does not like to play physically on his opponents and he is very aware of the foul trouble, but he plays smartly one on one.
Couldn't have said it better. The interior defense has been pourous all year, and the backcourt has always underachieved defensively. This team blocks shots and boards well, but that's about it. The backcourt is also pretty good at creating steals and TOs, but the effort isn't consistent enough.
A huge part of defense is rebounding. Yao is either going for the block or being suckered outside by his man, thus leaving the inside wide open for opposing teams to grab easy putbacks. We know Mo Taylor will never be confused with Mo Malone rebounding-wise and EG is not much better. Cato is on and off (insert Cato joke here). While the season stats may show our rebounding to be around the league average, that can be misleading. It seems like most of our rebounds are long rebounds from long jumpshots. When's the last time anyone on our team (Yao included) has actually been seen FIGHTING for a tough rebound? Then again, when's the last time anyone from ANY team has? Maybe it's a lost art.
"In the more recent part of the schedule, the Rox are on the road with less time to prep against teams now in "mid-season form". " Actually, I was dissapointed that with the time off the Rockets just had theye were NOT better prepared. In fact, Yao was quoted as being dissappointed with how poorly they were prepared to play the game. The Rockets have been getting blown out early in games. And they don't seem to play well coming out of the half. They don't seem to run plays off of timeouts well either. And they still don't seem to go hard aftre loose balls (an earlier observation/gripe I made. I think its part preparation and part effort...
Two words: Eddie Griffin The kid is just not ready and he is just killing us on the defensive end of the floor. He was atrocious in the Washington game and a complete liability in the San Antonio game. In the San Antonio game if Yao Ming was covering Robinson then Duncan scored on Griffin. If Yao Ming moved over to cover Duncan then Robinson scored on Griffin. I remember one time in the second half that Duncan went up for the shot and Yao Ming jumped to block the shot so Duncan passed the ball to Robinson. As soon as Robinson went up for the lay-up Yao Ming tried to block the shot from behind but was just a second too slow. The whole time Eddie was standing flatfooted looking up at Yao Ming, Duncan and Robinson jumping around in the air until the basket was scored for S.A. Eddie is still a year or two away from turning into a real power forward and our defense suffers greatly when he is out on the floor. MoT is no defensive dynamo but he is much better than Eddie at this stage of Eddies career and he is certainly a much better offensive option.
Yeah, it's like the only muscle we have out there is Steve Francis and Kelvin Cato. I think it's safe to say we don't really have a standard power forward. Griffin is pretty unimpressive. Mo T has been showing signs of life offensively. I think it comes back to Cat, personally. He's a non factor and he's not drawing the defensive respect that we need him to. When he get's the ball outside he should be boardering on drawing double teams. He isn't getting close to that.
There are many problems we have on defense. These include our guards sucking on D (Mobley tries, but he's undersized), Griffin being clueless, etc. The biggest change from the early part of the season to now has to be that other teams have done a better job at avoiding Yao. If you'll notice, a lot of the time, someone will penetrate, then go back out if Yao steps up to block the shot. By then, they've usually wreacked enough havock on the helpless Rockets D that they either have an easy jumper... or someone else is open. It's not as nice as being able to make the lay-up. Yao still helps prevent that. But teams aren't taking it at him like they used to.
