What will Dwight's effect be on the defense of this team?

I don't think our team is terrible defensively outside of Asik.

Harden, Lin, Parsons, Beverley, Garcia, Jones are all average defenders a least. Smith, Motiejunas are the only below average defenders to me.

 

That's one of my big concerns about trading Asik - we end up being terrible defensively whenever Howard sits.

 

the biggest thing that will help our defense is having some rotations and some cohesiveness. we changed our rotations many times last year and the power for position was the carousel a second-year players and rookies. Dwights post presence gives us the ability to slow down the game with needed we don't have to lead league in possessions now. Also dh is a better shot blocker intimating teams with just his presence on the floor.

 

Consistent rotations

 

I think our poor defense may be due to the pace of our offense rather than truly mediocre defenders. When you're running-and-gunning, you will get stuck into as many bad matchups on defense as you created on offense. Our frantic pace was largely due to our lack of options in the half-court. Thus, the addition of a low-post offensive threat in Howard will likely slow our pace down, allow our defense to be set more often, and thus be an improvement over last year where Asik was a half-court defensive stalwart on a full-court-running team.

 

Whenever Asik sat down, or was in foul trouble, the opposing team would score at will. Greg Smith and D-Mo could not stop anybody, and they were especially bad defending the pick and roll. That forces Lin, Harden, and Parsons to help in the paint, giving up wide open 3's.

This team needs a coach who preaches team defense like Greg Popovich or Frank Vogel. No team defends on a one-on-one basis, in the modern NBA, it's nearly impossible to stop anyone individually without fouling.

 

If you're rating defense on a 1-10 scale, Howard is a 10, Asik is an 8 and Smith is a 2

 

My thinking is that Howard's presence will ultimately help Harden pick it up defensively because the offensive pressure will be a little more spread out. Teams can't just collapse on Harden anymore because it can easily turn into an easy dish to Dwight. Ultimately that gives a little more energy for defense.

 

A bigger factor will be if Harden stops ball watching. Basically my only criticism of his game, but man does it annoy me sometimes.

 

Its going to have to start with Coaching. This offseason Coach McHale and Staff will have to preach defense defense defense and defense. I know that Harden, Lin and Parsons like to gamble a lot for steals. But they need to play solid defense as well. The reason why Asik were in foul trouble in some games is because of those 3 gambling too much.

Yes Howard will make this defense better but the other 4 starters will have to play discipline defense.

 

Agreed, but that goes for Chandler and Lin as well.

 

Yes, especially since he's a first time starter and our offense is so high-octane. It's best for him not to try to do to much so he'll have gas in the tank late season.

 

I don't agree Dwight is a "MUCH BETTER" defensive player than Asik, but I do think he is a slight upgrade on defense for the starting unit.

As already mentioned, sending Asik to the bench crew though... our frontcourt defense is going to be solid all throughout the game now instead of just 30 minutes. (Really, 25 minutes, because Omer got too winded being in longer than that.)

 

Some of the poor defense was by design. At least that's what I took from some of the comments Sampson made during the season. They alluded to how frustrated he would get during bad defensive possessions yet not being able to make changes. Parsons can be a much better defender, remember how he looked 2yrs ago against Durant? He was closing out jump shooters at a near Battier-esque level. Then he regressed.

 

Howard is a huge improvement of Asik defensively! Even if Asik is a top 5 defender, the difference between the 5th best and best defensive player is huge! Dwight could have up to double the defensive impact Asik has.

 

I think it's because he (Parsons) started playing 36+ minutes per game instead of 29. He also took on more of the offensive burden. If he isn't asked to do so much (which hopefully he won't be with Dwight in the middle), then maybe his defense will improve.

I don't think he was a bad defender last season though, just an average one.

 

Uhh no I don't think that the Lakers and Rockets are really similar. Harden like Kobe is a ball dominant guard. However, he has in the past shown he does not need to be ball dominant to play well. More importantly, Harden is in large part a dominant penetrator which opens up many easy shot opportunities for players in the post.

Second, Nash is not remotely like Lin. Jeremy Lin is also largely based on penetration and creating easy shots.

Third, Chandler Parsons is not a lane stuffer like Artest.

Last, Asik will not be a power forward. Parsons, Jones and Motie will be getting most of the minutes at the 4. All of the players listed do not clog the lane.

The spacing between the Rockets and Lakers in the paint cannot be much different.

 

I would put Smith as a -3 on that scale