[Chron] Crack Back & The Difference between Dwight and Omer

1st. Yup, I did that.

 

what makes howard special is his ability to cover alot of ground on the court...his mobility.

we shouldn't use him like asik...if he can come out and close out on shooters and cause turnovers and break the opposing team's offense..then i'm all for it.

our other players need to come and help cover the man dwight leaves to go help...this will all happen with time.

 

Repetitions is the key IMO and boxing out Dwight's man. When Dwight goes for the shooter, one of our other players to box out Dwight's man. Jones has been getting lost in that end, and our wing players don't consistently come out to box Dwight's man.

 

They should just simplify it and make it Jones every time. We might get burned against 3 PT shooting PFs but there aren't that many of those that play big minutes on good teams. I can live with those results.

 

You might need a coach other than free-lancing style to achieve that.

 

I have noticed that our "help help" defense is pretty non-existent. Good to know they're working on it.

 

Tjones i can understand, but are we really expecting Casspi to implement this defensive philosophy?

 

Rashard Lewis and even Hedo Turkoglu were (more than) adequate during their heyday in Orlando so I don't see why not.

 

I think that it doesn't play to Howard's style to ask him to stay back. He relies on his athleticism and strength to influence the game defensively. He is not a tall slow slug in the middle.

The Rockets will get better at adjusting to how Howard defends, and EVENTUALLY they should be better defensively as a unit with Howard.

What I find interesting is the supposed interest in Anderson Varejo, who comes out from under the basket defensively like Howard.

 

Lowering the opponents FG% is a huge accomplishment. Do not change that, maintain that at all costs. Find another way to protect rebounds. Whether it happens naturally (team gels, coaching) or needs to be addressed through a transaction or lineup alteration.

What we do to the opponent's FG% is hard and a trait of title contenders. No sagging back for Dwight, not if that truly is the reason for the % change.

Right now we need to get to the line more than our opponent and/or make 3's to win. If we can plug the small rebounding leak we have we're set. Small leak in the boat, not a huge hole on a sinking ship, up to Morey or McHale to stick some bubble gum on this and take us home.

 

^Good post.

 

Yes, nice post.

This was true last year as well, but to a much greater degree. I am not sure you can look at one or two metrics for any team, and not say they must do better than their opponent in those areas to win. Which areas those are is what distinguishes one team from another.

 

How we play team defense is on the coaches. They should be making clear to the players how they should approach each situation.

 

In doing that, we need we need other players to box out and go after the rebounds. This means less running ahead and less fast break chances. Good and bad I guess. Problem is, we are trying to run but we cannot secure rebounds first. Multiple times, we see Parsons' man gets the offensive rebounds because Parsons looking to run for the fast break, so he couldn't box out his man. If we decide to go with one way, stick with that. If we do Howard's way, then we need the team to buy in it, we need the players to box out and secure the rebounds, then look for fast break chances.

 

The team defensive strategy is on the coaches. How we play it is on the players.

 

The problem would then be mis matches, we kind of look unorganized. It worked in Orlando because they had Turkeyglue 6ft10, Rashard Lewis 6ft10, Ryan Anderson 6ft10, Marcin Gortat 6ft11

 

Casspi and Jones are 6' 9". Not a big (pun unavoidable) difference.

 

Actually we're #8 in Def rating this season, not 13.

http://stats.nba.com/leagueTeamGene...ode=Totals&sortField=DEF_RATING&sortOrder=ASC

1. Asking Dwight to stop playing like Dwight is not a good idea at all, Jones needs to either be more selective on when he challenges and when he goes for boards, or we need to get someone who does. The reality is we need role players who fit the stars, that's all there is too it. He needs to stop challenging shots in the paint when Dwight is there, it's been causing uncertainty in Dwight as well as to whether he should challenge or not because of the times where they both do and some guy gets an uncontested layup.

2. They'll learn or get replaced, I suspect this is part of why Varejao has become a target, it's a role tailor made to his skillset (he doesn't challenge shots, but he is exceptionally good at sliding back in for the boards).

 

True but the rockets sometimes like to throw Beverly, Lin and Harden with one 6'9 power forward/player(parsons).