I remember that last season, when Cato was injured for few games, we lost most fo them. Are we gonna miss cato and mobley specially on defense,are our new players gonna be enough, specially howard and taylor in the PF position, and lue in the PG pos?
Honestly...that's a question I have been asking myself alot lately...I think that we were more athletic last year...I mean Francis, Mobely, Cato are alot to lose on the defensive end...well not so much Francis... I hope McGrady becomes a great defensive player....and Yao...he needs to be more aggressive at times during games...ala Hakeem...
i think they will. As long as you got yao in the middle everything will be ok. Francis and cat couldn't play Defense worth a lick until van gundy came. T-mac used to guard the best man when he was playing with vince. everything will be ok.
i think we will at be much better at the Guards and Small Forward spots.....but the loss of Cato is definitely gonna hurt us as it has shown (remember there's a time when Cato went down, and we lost many games as we gave up many points).
I think the Rockets are going to have a considerably worse defense this year. Why? Let's count the reasons. *Will T-Mac want to play D? His D is good when he tries, but will he play hard on the defensive end for 82 games, especially given his back problems? *Cato, as previously stated, was one of the Rocket's best defenders last year. He provided intensity, D, and rebounding off the bench. Howard and Mo-T will be great on offense, but the Rockets have no replacement for Cato as of yet. *Yao is gonna keep wearing down; not until after he's been in the league for a couple more years will he even begin to start developing some stamina. Once again, we won't have a quality defender to come occupy the paint while he is on the bench. *Mobley was fantastic. He was, in my mind, one of the better defenders in the league. He shut down the other teams best player numerous times during his tenure with the Rockets. Hopefully, T-Mac can make up for his departure. All that said, though, Jeff Van Gundy is arguably the best defensive coach in the NBA. The Rockets will most likely be one of the better defensive teams this year, but the question was will they be as good. With JVG at the helm, I'd like to think they could, but at this point (not including future additions), it doesn't look like they will be.
Since our defense really doesn't focus on man-to-man or individuals to stop one particular player, but more swarming double teams, I think we will be at that same level. In those games last year, Yao didn't stop Shaq, the Rockets stopped Shaq. All those quick double and tripple teams worked wonders on Shaq, and of course the fact that Yao was 7'6" didn't hurt either. When ever Steve looked good on defense, it wasn't that he was shutting down anyone, it was that he had the right timing for his helping defense. T-Mac, Howard, and Lue should be able to do the same things. In the end we do not need singular players who can play defense, rather we need to work as a team defensivly.
It remains to be seen, but I have this to add..... BEFORE JVG got here, we complained about Francis' Taylor's, Cato's and even Mobley's defense to a certain extent. But just being in JVG's system made them better defenders. Who is to say that that same aspect wont happen to Tmac and Howard? My guess is Tmac will turn into a LOCK DOWN defender on the perimeter. He wont have to carry the load as much on offense so he can spend energy on defense. I feel that Howard will surprise a lot of people at PF on defense with Yao next to him. Clearly we are missing a bruiser backup PF/C and perhaps individually we dont have the best defensive players but as a TEAM, a UNIT this team could be very good!
We'll be fine on defense. As previously stated, JVG teaches team defense. Yes, Cato provided low post defense and shot blocking, but he also struggled against mobile PFs. Anytime that he had to step out on the perimeter, he wasn't very effective. So, we lose a little of our ability to play straight up defense in the post, but we do a better job against mobile 4s. Our choice for a starting PG also has the opportunity to improve our defense. Lue is a small, but he's a better defender than any PG that we had last season. Now if we acquire Antonio Daniels, then we'd have much better size and defense at the point. Either way I'm not too worried about defense at the PG position. Even when Lue is in the game, there's no way that JVG lets bigger guards consistently post him up (not that there are that many bigger guards that could post him up). As for McGrady, everyone seems to agree that he's a very good defender when he puts in the effort. Well, who's ever played for Van Gundy and not put in effort on defense? Even Francis increased his effort on defense greatly last season. The problem was that even with the increased effort, he's not a very good defender.
Clearly, as the roster stands, we won't be as good defensively as last year. Lue is no better than Francis, T-Mac still has to show he can defend, JJ is the same, Yao is the same, and Howard is much worse than Cato defensively. So assuming T-Mac's defense is as good as Mobley, then the difference in our defense is the difference between Howard and Cato. Clearly, T-Mac can be better than Mobley, but he needs to expend his energy in so many areas that there's only such much energy he can offer on defense. However, as a whole, we're a much better team. Our scoring will go up at PF, C and SG. It will stay the same or improve at SF (depending on Boki's production). Which leaves the PG position. Francis averaged 7 more ppg than Lue last year, but think about how Lue will create ONE more scoring opportunity because he turns the ball over less, and think about Francis' FG% versus Lue's FG%. Now imagine Pike bounces back from his poor season. Also, imagine we add Antonio Daniels and Keon Clark to the roster. Yao/Clark ---------------------> Yao/Cato Howard/MoT/Clark ----------> Cato/MoT/Spoon JJ/Boki/AG ---------------------> JJ/Pike/Boki T-Mac/Pike --------------------> Mobley/Francis/Pike Lue/Daniels -------------------> Francis/Mark Jackson/Wilks Assuming Yao's minutes go up and he improves his stamina, the first team would wipe the floor with the second.
Francis is a FINE defender, you don't have one of the top defensive teams in the league without a major contribution from your PG and the Rockets obviously got that. Did any of you guys see the voting for the All NBA Defensive Teams? Well, Francis received 1 first place vote, ie. some head coach out there thought he was one of the top 2 defensive guards in the league, and 1 second place vote, ie. another head coach in the league thought he was one of the top 4 defensive guards in the league. The only problem Francis has on defense is guarding the post, besides that he does a pretty good job on defense.
Look at the sample size! 2/29 coaches...that's about 6-7 frickn percent!? Give it up with this argument already. He's just an ok defender when he tries. Imagine an east coach who have not seen him but only twice and you know how Stevie plays well against the east. Imagine maybe he plays great defensively in one of those games against their sucky pointguards and dominated them. From that, the opposing coach votes for steve thinking he's the best defender ever. It's possible. This is not really relevant, but just to keep things in perspective...Ross frickn Perot got 8+ percent of votes for president.
as long as yao is in the middle, we will continue to have one of the better defenses in the league. combine that with the perimeter length of tmac, and maybe a point like daniels, or james, and thats more defense at the 1 than weve had in years. cat played solid d the last couple years, mcgrady hasnt, but in terms of defensive capability, his ceiling is much higher than cats. and theres no reason to think that van gundy wont get that out of him.
the only guarantee is Van Gundy will be just as demanding about defense this season as last season. so hopefully TMac is good with Van Gundy The coach is a defensive fanatic, he hates giving up baskets Ugly ball is beautiful to him So I think alot depends on getting another good post defender to replace Cato, a hard physical rebounder to enforce the paint behind Yao would be nice. I think we will have the same intensity on the perimeter. Cat was lock down last season, I know Van Gundy will demand the same from TMac
The sample size? Look at the sample size of PG's that did NOT get votes, he was one of the few. They'll only see hime twice? No game film? It's possible that I'll win the lottery tonight too, but highly unlikely. It's not really relevant? 2 NBA coaches opinion is not really relevant?
Sorry I watched more Rox games than certain coaches. I think Francis and at times Cato were the weakest link in our defense.
