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[Chron] Early defensive woes not a concern for Rockets

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by devin23, Oct 20, 2008.

  1. devin23

    devin23 Member

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    Hopefully, our defensive pickup when our defensive anchor battier comes back. Nice compliment by Artest on Battier, who like he said should deserve at least 1 DPOY.


    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6067655.html

    For weeks, Rick Adelman had pointed toward this day with plans the preseason schedule had forced him to delay.

    On the flights and busses, in the arenas from New Hampshire to Tulsa, he knew that when he finally had his chance, he would lock his team on the Toyota Center practice court for a long practice, heavy on scrimmaging, and with an emphasis on defense and more defense.

    A few hours later, a team that ranked second in defense last season returned to its belief that if it is not as good this season, it will be because it is better.

    “Oh, I think it’s definitely our strength,” Adelman said. “We have to rely on that. I think we can be one of the better defensive teams again and adding Ron (Artest) should really help us.”

    Asked what he expected of the Rockets’ defense this season, Tracy McGrady said, “To be if not at the point we were the last couple years, to be better.

    “We have the talent. We’re definitely going to be a good defensive team. If we’re going to be better, I don’t know, but we’ll be good.”

    Substandard effort
    They have not been good in the preseason, much less by last season’s standards, to the point that the Sacramento Kings’ dreadful shooting on Friday brought the Rockets little satisfaction. In the previous three games, Boston made 49.3 percent of its shots, Memphis 48.6 percent and Oklahoma City 48.2 percent.

    “We were really out of sync covering for one another,” McGrady said. “When a guy drives (the question is) who to sink, who to fill, those things. We weren’t there. That’s all we’ve been working on the last two days. It really showed.”

    Opponents made just 43.3 percent of their shots last season. Only the Celtics held opponents to a worse shooting percentage. The 92.03 points the Rockets allowed was the fourth-fewest, with the Rockets becoming much stingier in the second half of the season.

    Adelman, however, said he was not worried. Other than the daily pick-and-roll defensive drills, he had postponed most defensive work for this week.

    “I wasn’t that concerned with it,” Adelman said. “We mostly just worked on pick-and-roll defense. I knew I had these practices to really get back on (working on) penetration, and being where we want to be as a team, where we want to be as individuals. It was disappointing some of the things we do, but we had no practice time and with the injuries, I was just trying to look at people. By the time we get through with these two weeks, we’ll be fine.

    “We haven’t been anticipating what’s been going on. We haven’t been on the right spot on the court. We’ve been a step late the whole preseason. That’s going to shore up every day if we keep drilling. We’re going to drill every day on it until we get to be where we need to be.”

    Missing Battier
    The other problem has been the absence of Shane Battier. As much as Artest is also one of the league’s best defenders, Battier helped guide the Rockets’ defense during games, often barking orders like a quarterback at the line of scrimmage.

    “I’m a talker,” Battier said. “My job is I try to make the coaches explain everything as clearly as possible so that no one has any questions about their responsibilities on the defensive end. I make the coaches work. In walkthroughs and practices, I’m constantly questioning them.

    “That’s the foundation of every defense. You have to have communication. You have to have familiarity. During the streak last year, we were so locked in defensively. It was a beautiful thing because everyone moved as one unit on defense. With the new pieces, it’s important we get everyone on the same page. Brent (Barry) has been around forever so he knows. Ron is a former defensive player of the year. So they know defense. It’s a matter of getting everyone on the same page and with one frame of mind.”

    Battier was second to Kevin Garnett last season in the Defensive Player of the Year balloting. Artest won in 2004 and said he would have won it since if not for his suspension and off-court issues.

    “I got one and Shane deserves one,” Artest said. “I’m supposed to have three or four of them, but I got in a lot of trouble.

    “It’s going to be someone over here, hopefully.”

    Return to form
    That would, however, require a complete return to defensive form. The Rockets are not worried. With Adelman planning to drill the defense until he gets it right and Battier potentially back by the end of the week, they are certain their defensive will be among league’s elite again. Less clear is whether it will even be better.

    “I expect us to be just as good,” Artest said. “And when we get Shane Battier back, we’ll be even better. We got to wait and see. We had two days of defense. We didn’t integrate Shane into yet. Once we get him back, we’ll see how far we can take it.”
     
  2. Shroopy2

    Shroopy2 Member

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    Just shows how much people like talking about offense more than defense if it takes 2 hours for the 1st response :)

    I don't expect much lockdown defensive efforts out the gate for the regular season. McGrady' might not be healthy enough to dig in hard on D, and Battier will need to round back himself back into form. Artest gets used to his teammates, get Mutombo back possibly and the D should be okay.
     
  3. Seven

    Seven Member

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    Man, Artest is so damn funny. The guy is extremely personable and with him on our team, we'll have plenty of classic quotes.
     
  4. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    all up for Big D
     
  5. KiwiRocket

    KiwiRocket Member

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    Like most on here I cant wait to see how good this defense is gona go with Batman and RonRon spearheading it. Potentially some serious issues for opposing teams!!!
    I cant wait for this season to start already!! :D
     
  6. TracywtFacy

    TracywtFacy Member

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    co-DPOY this season - Battier and Ron :)
     
  7. TTRocket

    TTRocket Member

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  8. Hayesfan

    Hayesfan Member

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    I am going to be most curious on how Adelman will use both Artest and Shane defensively.

    Together with the second unit they will be very good. But what about the defense of the starters.

    Shane barking out orders on defense is nice, but him doing it from the bench isn't going to help the starters much.

    It is going to be an interesting study of plus and minus to see how Adelman and the coaching staff configure the rotation on defense... not to mention at the same time balancing the offense.
     
  9. flamingdts

    flamingdts Member

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    Battier IMO is our floor general. He literally holds our defenses together, and I honestly think Battier teaches the team defense instead of Adelman.
     
  10. v3.0

    v3.0 Member

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    Do they even do the switching man D anymore where they have similar sized players on the floor? seems they have the perfect personnel now to do it.

    tmac
    artest
    battier
    scola
    landry

    all are similar sized, perfect for the switching man D
     
  11. Hayesfan

    Hayesfan Member

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    Something I also noticed was on a help and recover they are switching a lot down low.

    Say Chuck's man goes to set a screen and roll on Brooks. Chuck slows the ball on the screen, Scola covers the big guy on the roll, Aaron comes around to recover on the guard and then Chuck has to go down across the paint and find the other big man that Scola has left.

    It's caused some major confusion on the defensive end.

    When Yao is in the game it's a different story as he's basically staying close inside and not pulling out with the screener as much to slow down the guard on the pick. So there isn't as much space that he has to make up to recover.

    Does anyone understand what I mean though? I am not explaining it very well.
     
  12. Mack

    Mack Member

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    Hayesfan,

    I think I noticed that in the Celtics game. This is what I wrote in the game thread:

    Have you seen this in other pre-season games? I haven't seen much of the others.
     
  13. durvasa

    durvasa Member

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    A lot of people are assuming that the Rockets defense should only get better with Artest joining the team.

    But I see another factor -- we're one more year removed from the "JVG era". If our defensive prowess last year had to do with what JVG instilled in the team, is it possible some of that teaching/conditioning could wear off this year?
     
  14. ronnymac

    ronnymac Member

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    The basics that gundy put forward here is'nt gonna be erased in one or two years.
     
  15. devin23

    devin23 Member

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    True that. And we have pretty much the same core players that were in JVG's era. Its all good.
     
  16. blender

    blender Member

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    Battier's going to make a great coach one day.
     
  17. Hayesfan

    Hayesfan Member

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    Yes they were doing it most all of the time. Landry, Chuck, Dorsey and Scola. Sometimes Artest as well.

    I didn't notice it as much with the guards, but the "bigs" were definitely doing it
     

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