The Rockets perimeter defense is horrible, have you guys noticed that whenever we play a team with guards as quick as Steve and Cat, that the other team gets wide open shots. Here is what happens, enemy guards get by our guys into the lane, and Yao or EG, or Cato has to come over to help, the guards kick the ball out to a wide open player who nails a 3, or a mid range jumpshot. This is the rocks problem in a nutshell, yes the turnovers are bad, and yes we need better ball movement, but perimeter defense is just not that hard if you are taught correctly. The Rocks don't play the pick and roll well, and their on the ball defense is horrible. Posey is always trying to crash the passing lanes for a steal, yes it works occasionally, but if he misses, his guy is wide open. Too often he misses. Francis and Cat are terrible defenders, they peek at the ball all the time and their man moves when they are not looking and this causes the domino effect of the other team that leads to a wide open shot. How many wide open shots did Derrick Anderson get because Cat was watching the action, or how many times did Damon Stoudamire get by Francis. I don't think this team will truly improve significantly until our perimeter players learn better one on one defensive skills. Until that time, I am shocked that the coaches do not run more zone.....why not protect against your teams biggest weakness? Total team breakdown in my opinion. DaDakota
I was just about to break my long silence as one of the oldest lurkers on this board to post something very similar to this. Every time I have watched the Rockets this year, I have noticed how poor our perimeter defense is. In fact, I would bet that most of the teams we have lost to this year have strong perimter players as opposed to strong inside players. Steve Francis, Cuttino, Posey, Rice, and Norris are the main culprits here as they either provide help defense when none is needed or they fail to provide help defense when it is needed. And of course the constant playing of passing lanes for steals. Too often I see Francis or Cuttino leave their man in the corner or at the top of the key to provide help defense on a player driving into the trees. Why not let Yao and Eddie take care of this? After all they are there. The guards do not need to leave their man to help defend someone who will have to put up a circus shot to get it over Yao and Eddie. Maybe they do it because they don't want Yao to get dunked on, but for some reason, most of the posterizations of Yao are usually by one of Mobley's, Francis', or Posey's man because Yao had to come over to help because they left their man for who knows why. A lot of the reason why they leave is because Eddie/Mo are such poor defenders. We really need a new PF that can play defense and rebound, but that won't happen this year if ever. You know how high we are on the potential of Eddie. But since this is the case, I would prefer to get beat by the interior players than guards and forwards raining threes on our heads. Glen Rice... Well suffice it to say, he definitely is not paid to play defense. At this stage in his career, he is an area defender at best. Sometimes I wonder if his offense is worth his defense. DaDa, you are absolutely correct about James Posey. I still don't know where he got his reputation as this great defender because I don't see it. Maybe it's from his ability to play the passing lanes. But that's about it. He gambles way too much. Steals as much as I like them can be an overrated statistical category. Steals are usually a combination of an offensive player's mistake and the defender being the right place at the right time. So I don't see steals as a good barometer for defense. I would say play the zone, but have you seen our zone. It is poor. Too many players crowd the inside and don't pay attention to the perimeter at all. I still remember a game when Mo Taylor had to literally be pushed by Yao Ming out to his spot because he was too far into the middle of the zone and not out on the wing. Plus it's way too late in the year to switch defensive schemes, maybe next year. I think I am starting to ramble now. So I think I will quit.
The Rox are just inconsistent... Sometimes there good, most times there bad... I don't see the D improving for the last games... Stick a fork in us...We're done...
You're exactly right. Our guards think that they don't have to play perimeter defense because Yao or Eddie or someone will pick up the slack. Well guess what? When our big guys adjust for your mistakes, the opponents big guys get easy, open shots. Freaking play defense and don't let our opponents' guards blow by you, is that asking too much???
Indeed. Our inside is fine. We got Yao and Eddie and Mo does nice inside as well. AND OF COURSE.....Kelvin Cato.....the man. Anyways...our perimeter defense is horrible. Francis can't prevent anyone from penetrating. BUT HE TRIES. Mobley is a good defender one-on-one. But golly.......when their guard penetrates....because Steve can't stop him......Mobley drifts off his man and is wandering around watching the other player. And they find Mobley's man wide open. And most shooting guards are able to shoot when they're that open. Then Mobley gets all pissed. He never changes. Moochie...well he's just handicap. Hawkins tries his best and occasionally does well....but he doesn't have any experience. He doesn't know how to defend some things..... Then this causes havoc because our big men all get in foul trouble. Our guards too often leave their man open and those MEN get easy baskets. Maurice Taylor is a good defender inside....but on the perimeter. He is horrible. He is always rotating to another man and these people just take wide open shots. It sucks!!!!!! OUR DEFENSE SUCKS. Our defense is like to help out and rotate and crap and gamble and leave one guy open. BUT THAT WON'T WORK AGAINST SEATTLE. Their whole freakin team can shoot. !!! If we play good defense.......then the offense will come. GLEN RICE. HE IS JUST TERRIBLE. He is too old and slow. He's incapable of guarding other small forwards. He screws up way too much. SO BASICALLY...we're screwed. That's why we need Lamar Odom.
What's even more frustrating about our Steve's defense is that they aren't exactly pressing on their man (the way Doug Christie or Bruce Bowen do). Steve usually allows for quite a bit of room between himself and his man, yet he is constantly getting blown by. Consequently, our frontcourt is usually having to support, which as mentioned, leaves their man open for the pass or an offensive rebound. I've also observed that he doesn't really keep his eyes on his man when defending - he always seems to be looking somewhere else out of the corner of his eye. Is this normal and if so, why is Steve so much more obvious about it than any other player? Steve needs to learn to stay in front of his man. I can't believe that he is so much slower than every guard in the league. This summer, he should work on his lateral movement and also learn how to divert his man toward Yao or Eddie (rather than diverting them toward the basket and forcing Yao or Eddie to move over). The rest of our team is barely adequate to poor on D but Steve is the worst by far.
Okay. Francis. Yes. He is always lookin behind him to analyze the play or something.....but he really isn't doing anything. I WISH HE WOULD LOOK AT WHAT HE'S DOING ON OFFENSE THAN PEEKING ON DEFENSE. He makes all these no-look passes to the other team. Francis is always watching the person with the ball...and when the point guard doesn't have the ball...he just easily cuts inside and gets an easy layup or basket. Mobley...he actually kinda knows what he's doing. He tries to help out someone who went to help out someone else and he goes to cover their man. But the problem is he leaves his guy wide open. And he does it repeatedly. He never changes. Posey...well he's just like Francis and Mobley. He leaves his guy all the time.
Yes, I think you're hitting on the core problem with the Rockets. I get so tired of watching the guards get burned by their guys. I think you guys are right on that they give the other guards too much space, peek at the ball, as well as the Rockets overall ability to play the PnR.
Just like on offense, the players are standing around too much on defense. They're too slow to react. The guards need to realize that if Yao, Griffin, or Cato come out to help them, there's going to be someone else open. They need to find them quickly and switch to them instead of just standing there and watching. I remember one play in particular last night where Cato came out and blocked a shot, meanwhile the other 4 Rockets on the court just stood there and watched while Cato's man snatches the ball and puts it in for a layup. Cato looked pissed as hell.
That was really sad.......that play. First that guy just easily got past one of our guards. Cato came out and blocked him. I guess all the Rockets players felt all happy and wanted to go congratulate him. They're too overconfident. We haven't been to the playoffs in 3 years. And they feel they're all great. AND THEN....Cato made that block. And the other guys just stood around. And they just got the ball back and scored easily because Cato was out blocking the shot. Sad....we were actually doing all right in the 2nd quarter.
It's a problem, but it is surely not our biggest problem, and it doesn't even account for 1/3rd of the problems this team has. 1) Perimeter D 2) Not Enough veterans 3) Ball movement 4) Lack of intelligence, I.E. not learning from mistakes 5) Players that don't fit well together 6) Coach that gives too much respect to the players 7) "Role players" thinking they're stars 8) Yao Ming unavailable to the Rockets so he can rest a few months, and then condition himself for the season, as well as go to training camp 9) Lack of continuity in the starting line-up 10) No extra passes = No ball movement = No easy baskets = Wasting too muc henergy for every single point
That is what you are supposed to do. It is called defensive rotation. The problem isn't Cat leaving his man, it is someone blowing there rotation and not picking up Cat's man. To you (and far too many other people on this board), it looks like Cat messing up and letting his man shoot open jumpers, to those of us who really understand team defense, it looks like a breakdown in the rotation, usually caused by Steve releasing his man but trying to recover to the same guy after the rotation instead of going to the open man. Cat wasn't first team all-defense in college because he couldn't understand help defense.
