I wouldn't worry about the turnover defence, since we seem to either block/alter a lot more shots than the majority of the league
Hollinger's stat seems to be in line with NBA's own: http://stats.nba.com/leagueTeamGene...ode=Totals&sortField=DEF_RATING&sortOrder=ASC Basketball Reference's possession number is to my knowledge estimated like this: NBA has its SportsVU system which actually counts the possessions.
There was a sequence in last night's game where one of our bigs got the defensive rebound but it was tipped out of his hands to another Wizards player and Parsons ran full speed for the break (he didn't look back soon enough to see what happened). That Wizards player then swung it to Beal for the wide open 3 which he drained easily. Pretty sure this was in the 4th quarter and it was a crucial play.
A few minor thoughts: The Rockets do run a defensive system. However NBA defenses have become so intricate and complex it is difficult for fans (and players coming out of college) to understand what is happening on the court. One of the easiest NBA defensive schemes to see is the 2.9, which is occasionally used on the weak side by the Rockets. The turnovers look bad, but actually hurt the Rockets less than many other NBA teams. The same goes for opponents points after offensive rebounds. The Rockets give up ~18 points of turnovers a game. The Rockets surrender ~16.5 points after giving up offensive rebounds. The Rockets only lose ~3.8 points a game to opponents in both those categories together. Some people may complain that the TOR has not improved since last season. However the Rockets did sign Howard, a very high usage player who also could be categorized as turn over prone. So realistically the Rockets except for Howard are gradually improving, and I look forward to more improvement in this category as the players gain familiarity with each other. DRR however is much easier to fix. And the Rockets have the needed tool. Omer Asik. Asik last season had mind boggling on-off numbers. The DRR rate was a full 3% higher when Asik was playing. In addition last season the Rockets were a full 6 points better defensively when Asik played. Assuming that Asik can work into 15-18 minutes a game, the Rockets defense could perhaps be a full two points better defensively. One thing that was not mentioned is the improvement in the Rockets corner three defense this season. Opponents are shooting a remarkable 10% less accurately from the corners this season, and that is making a huge difference. The reason for this improvement is that the Rockets are closing out much quicker this season compared to last season. Also on the perimeter they are staying home more frequently this season. While D-Mo and Jones at the 4 and 5 is much better than whatever they threw out last season when Asik was on the bench, getting Asik back will cure many of their defensive ills.
Thanks for breaking it down jtr One question though, how come our centers are often left going 1 on 4 on the offensive end? Is that due to Rockets effort to limit the other teams transition game? Or is it because they are trying to create space in the paint so there is only one big in there most of the time.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2013.html#all_misc_stats I disagree. Last year we were #2 in the league in defensive rebounding with Asik starting. He is an elite defensive rebounder.
Asik won't be starting. We need to figure out how to rebound with Howard on the floor. As for last year, our rebound rate of 75.2% would be 13th this season.
It is an attempt to open driving lanes. Or an attempt to post up Howard where help is not easily available - the teams have to double team him instead of just shading off their defensive assignment.
Harden and Jones are both "good" rebounders in the sense that they grab a fairly high number of rebounds. But they don't do a good job at boxing out their men. I remember Morey once said that individual rebounding numbers are sometimes misleading because when a player grabs a rebound, he does not only take the ball from the opponents, but also from his own teammates. It's the team rebounding numbers that count. I hate to bring up the Patterson dead horse. But when we had the Asik and Patterson front court, we were a very good defensive rebounding team. Patterson is a notoriously weak rebounder. But he is a good fundamental player and is rarely out of position boxing out. Asik was able to gobble up all defensive rebounds.
True. Jones is notoriously bad at boxing out after the first 5 minutes. D-Mo is much better to my eyes, and is constantly surrendering his rebounds to teammates. That does not hurt his status with the coaching staff. But I believe that Jones can and will improve in this area. How much effect does the Rockets wings leaking out for the break have on the Rockets rebounding in your opinion?
I would personally hold off any judgments until after the deadline. Whether Asik remains on the team and/or we trade for a perimeter defender. Currently the Rockets ranking at 9th. Which is slightly below what I predicted at the beginning of the season. But that was on the assumption Asik is the backup center. So the fact that we're 9th without Asik suggest sizable improvement on defense overall, as we were 16th last year. Giving up offensive rebounding is indeed the most maddening thing when watching us play D. I'm curious to see if this is helped by Asik (if not traded) because last year he plays more positional defense and be in better position to grab rebounds. While Dwight goes out and challenge more shots, taking himself out of rebounding position.
2 main things (besides individual effort/skills) effecting our defense are... 1) Offensive rebounds- teams get too easy putbacks and 2nd chance points 2) Turnovers- Careless live ball turnovers lead to fastbreaks.... layups and dunks
It seems we have a major problem rebounding outside of the box. I'm not sure if it is bad luck, or running back too quickly for a fast break, but we never seem to get anything by the free-throw line. Lowry was always great at getting to those longer rebounds.
IMO, the Rockets defense has adjusted well since the beginning of the season. Ie take last night for example... the Rockets played that last defensive sequence really well...Everyone communicated and knew where to go...Dwight was guarding the inbounder, and Jeremy anchored the right side of the key and Garcia followed his man, and forced the Wizards to take a really tough and contested shot...huge change since the last time the Rockets f'd things up... <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ACo-jM1ZiIk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
