Josh Smith was a big loss. I loved the idea of throwing him on Blake and the Wests PF stars. We need help on this position, especially with DMo coming off injury.
Let's let practice decide who starts TyL or Mr. 94ft. I do think TyL will make the other PG's in the WCF work harder to defend him, which should take away from their offense. We make Mr. 94ft stay in a corner and shoot defended 3's. Other PG's are basically resting on defense (curry, paul, conley, parker, etc..)
Bev-Harden-Ariza-Dwight-DMo (likely starters) 3 good to great defenders, 1 mediocre defender, 1 average defender Lawson, McDaniels, Brewer, Capela, HarrellorDekker (likely backups) 2 good to great defenders, 1 good defender (Brewer), 1 unknown defender(PF), 1 mediocre to poor defender Without another upgrade the key is going to be Capela's growth and the 4th big's defensive ability. So, it really comes down to our bigs outside of Dwight. I'm not convinced Capela is the stud that many people think he is. I think he could get exposed this coming season if he hasn't put on some significant muscle mass. So, I'd really like to see a big, big rim protector added just in case Capela regresses and in case we get to playing these ultra-big teams in the West (along with the Cavs) and we need the extra big body.
I just don't think they took a chance on Lawson to have him back up Bev. I think Lawson starts outside of him being locked up or suspended by the league. Maybe Harden and Lawson can hold it down defensively based on the two of them taking pressure off one another on the offensive end, but I worry about constant blow by's that keep our bigs in foul trouble.
Harden will play around 32 minutes. Lawson will get the 16 minutes Harden is not on-court. From there, it'll depend on Lawson's defense as to how many minutes he gets alongside Harden. Starting doesn't matter. It's minutes. Your concern is how many minutes are we going to be running Harden and Lawson out there together and them getting walked through like water through a sieve. Realistically they'll only be on court together for a maximum of around 14 minutes or around 30% of the time. I think a good coaching staff can analyze and dissect opponents for optimum moments when you put out your offensive lineup. You play high octance offense for example against Memphis when they run Tony Allen out there. Allen is one of the best defenders in the NBA (and a serious headache for Harden) but he can't do a thing offensively. So when he's in the game, the perfect counter is to have Lawson and Harden run together. Allen can't defend both of them. Sure Conley is out there on Lawson. But even Conley won't be able to shut Lawson down when they iso. You might want to consider who our coach is. McHale has proven that he's not going to run guys out there that don't defend. There's no question in my mind at least that he'll bench Lawson if Lawson doesn't bring defensive effort. So, while Lawson is the far superior talent to Beverley I'm not convinced he'll start. And I for sure think McHale will stagger Lawson's and Harden's minutes as much as possible in favor of more defense on the floor around each man. Lawson is a role player.
**** people will complain about anything. he'll be fine defensively. Hes short and short (height/wingspan) but he can stay in front of his man and actually make defenses work and take the scoring load off Harden.
As far as worring about PF defense, Capela can be a beast. I'm not sure why folks think that he can only defend centers.
He's already shown he can switch out and defend smalls. I'm more worried about him getting banged around by big 5's than I am him being able to defend 4's and perimeter guys.
Ty Lawson may not be known as a good defender. But he is still MUCH MUCH better than than the two grandpas that took us to the WCF.
Everyone on our roster besides Harden, TJ and Lawson are elite to pretty darn good defenders. People forget how good our D was when DMo was healthy. He's a classic P & R and help defender and will fit in perfectly with Dwight. Smith was actually a pretty bone headed defender. The key will be how the coaching staff implements the D. For some god awful reason, they went to that crazy switching D in the playoffs. Maybe it was to cover for chemistry issues or the aging PGs but that was ugly. Hopefully we revert back to our early year defensive schemes where we guarded the P & R great, rotated on 3s, and straight up shut down the paint, even without Dwight.
Can't say enough about what a healthy Dwight, Motiejunas and Beverley will do defensively. Of course, the entire roster won't stay healthy all season (unless you're the 2015 Warriors) but we're still gaining good defensive players due to good health.
Watching Capela defend the perimeter in the playoffs was a thing of beauty. Kid has so much potential.
I actually think we'll be a better defensive team next year than last. Clint will see the floor more, and hopefully KJ will get some run to burn out the elite guards we face in the West.
We have an above average defense PLUS our fast, aggressive, push the ball offense will add to our defense. We are so deep even or maybe especially our 2nd string players that other teams need to worry about their defense way more than than the Rockets. If we are not one of the top 3 offences in the west I will be shocked. We will be better at the rim, we will be better at mid range and we will be dramatically better at the three point point line. I have not been this optimistic about the Rockets in a very long time. We are absolutely young and stacked folks.
In addition with his length he gave Blake Griffin some trouble also. We will miss Josh's passing, and streaky conscienceless three point shooting, but we can largely replace his interior defense.
