You've got to be kidding. He's constantly trailing his man. There's a reason why his ass as been on the bench for so long during the games, and it's not just his horrific shooting.
Yet the Rockets defense jumped from 14th to 5th in one year going from Rudy to JVG. While I respect Jerry West, he's also the person who thought it was a fair deal to trade Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, a scrub backup PG, and a recent 2nd round pick of that year.
The defense isn't going to change over night. The Rockets were a bad defensive team last year, and they're trying to revamp it pretty much on the fly without a proper training camp and very little practice time. They should be improved defensively, but it will take time.
Take time and maybe different personnel. The Rockets starters just aren't that good defensively minus Lowry.
When we don't have individual defensive players, then we have to play team defense. Defense is mostly effort and hustle. Being in the right place, moving the feet, lateral movement etc. So each each player have to make that commitment to hustle and play with a lot of effort on the defensive end.
It looks like he regressed on defense from last season. Not good signs early on. He is just not ready to start, but we have no one else.