A few Battier types would be great, but its not that they are lacking intangibles that is the only problem. It all starts from the fundamentals of perimeter & team defense IMO. The intangibles come after you have the fundamentals down. Beverley does some great things defensively & on the boards, but offensively is lacking enough to really impact the game for 40 minutes a night. Lin is the complete opposite. He is great offensively (besides the turnover bug that happens occasionally), but really, really struggles to keep guards from having their way on him night after night. Harden has the tools to be very good defensively, its just his mental approach at that end that needs adjusting. Parsons has become one of the biggest offenders on the team. His close-outs have been slow as molasses & he doesn't force players into bad shots anymore like he did his rookie year. I think his back is seriously bothering him this year, and it might be a good idea to get him some rest the next week or two. I'm all for bringing in a Battier type to provide a more steady hand to this roster but the fact is, its going to be at the cost of somebody's development. You bring in Battier, Parsons role is diminished. You bring in Tony Allen.. is he supposed to take Harden's minutes??... etc. etc. Point is, you are riding or dying with this current group as is unless you want to significantly blow up the core of this team. The hard answer is this group just really.... REALLY needs to get better at the defensive end, or they aren't going anywhere, and Morey will be forced at some point to blow up the team except for Harden and Howard.... which might be inevitable at some point. Also, last nights game is a pretty good indication that the PF position might not be as important as people make it out to be. Even with a great performance by Jones on both ends, there is very little difference it makes on the upside if the perimeter defense is as bad as it has been. In this system the PF isn't going to be a huge scoring threat anyways, and defensively, the PF and C can only do so much if the guards on the opposing team are having their way with the Rockets.
Parsons plays like a guy who thinks he is better than he is. He needs a reality check. Should be an intangibles guy, like he was his rookie year.
