There are always defensive-minded coaches and assistant coaches. Why do you think there are 8 names thrown out as "defensive minded" options for the Rockets head coaching position? Defensive is mainly about trusting your teammate and system and giving all your effort. Does anyone expect Harden to do that if the defensive-minded coach cannot implement a successful offensive system? However, there are only a few offensively advanced coaches. If you get Harden to buy into the coaches offensive system and trusting his teammate there, I think it is an easier sell to get him and the rest of the team to do so on defense.
I would be happy with either Dave or Frank. As long as we get one of them. This is a good off season to be without a coach.
I don't necessarily agree with this but part of me would love to see the rockets hire a great offensive coach, put harden in charge of a historically good offense where everyone puts up gaudy numbers. We would challenge the prevailing wisdom that you need a good offense and a good defense to win and just try and win it all with a crazy good offense and mediocre defense. Free agents will start to gravitate to Houston because who doesn't enjoy scoring in bunches?
You misconstruing my argument. I'm not saying play terrible defense with great offense a la the Nash Suns. I'm saying it is harder to find a great offense coach than a defensive coach, and both aspects of this team need to be improved. So if we can find a great offensive head coach and then pair him with a defensive guru as an assistant, that would work well. The biggest thing to change for the Rockets defensively was our opponent's 3 point shooting. It jumped from ~32% in 14-15 to ~36% last year. As result, teams started to shoot them more and get more assists, which opened up the interior somewhat. That is mainly on knowing your rotations, effort to close out, and IQ to not just cheat the passing lanes. It doesn't require instituting some amazing new defensive strategy. It just requires trusting the one in place (and maybe having players who will.) Yes, improving the horrible defensive rebounding, poor transition defense, and poor ball pressure on wing players would be great, but that has been constant over the past few years.
LOL this is a great recipe to get destroyed by golden state and San Antonio repeatedly in the playoffs.
Probably the biggest part about defensive success and one of the biggest responsibilities of a Head Coach is not defensive schemes but buy-in and effort. There are posters here on CF who can get the x's and o%s right. It's having the credibility and relationships with the players where a head coach should deliver. JBB was one of these defensive minded assistant coaches you speak of and we sucked ass on defense
But that is my point. Everyone wants a defensive minded head coach, but most tend to be strict and old-school. My argument is if you get an offensive-minded head coach that gets Harden and the team to buy into an offense system that makes the game fun and successful, it would be easier to get them to buy in on defense.
Another element I failed to mention is that success is largely the result of building the right habits. The team might have been busting their ass in the playoffs but not building the right habits in pre-season had already doomed them. An offensive-minded coach may not prioritize defense enough to ensure those habits are constantly enforced. Someone said the Hawks spend 90% of their practice time on defense.. When Rudy T took over, all he preached was defense. We have Harden + some players who can make open shots, and I'm comfortable with our offense. Maybe work on turnovers some. But the defense is an absolute sh#t show, and that should be THE priority
You think it's some mere coincidence that there is a near unanimous consensus that the Rockets need a defensive coach? You think that you trying to pioneer this contrarian fix the horrendous defense with more offensive scenario means it is the best thing to do? Offense hasn't been the problem, but you're out here trying to fix something that is not as broken as the defense is... Wow...
Lowry, Dragic, Parsons, K-Mart, Scola, PPatt...yeah, he had nothing to work with. And yet was he able to make the Playoffs?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kings' pursuit of Joerger is strong, but he will wait until Rockets can put a potential package together. Pacers could be in mix, too.</p>— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) <a href="https://twitter.com/daldridgetnt/status/729001741610409984">May 7, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dave Joerger recently asked for permission to interview for Kings coach opening, source told <a href="https://twitter.com/TheUndefeated">@TheUndefeated</a>. Kings didn't seek permission.</p>— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcJSpearsESPN/status/728956738595000320">May 7, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I'm not being contrarian. I'm being honest. Everyone is acting like if we '"fix the defense back to last year, we will be fine." The 14-15 Rockets were not good enough to win a title. They were 15 minutes from being destroyed by a Clippers team with an injured Chris Paul. They were not in the same league as the Warriors, and never would have beaten the Spurs or Cavs in a playoffs series. I want this team to be good enough to win a title, not just be a 3-6 seed every year. Just fixing the defense and ignoring the issues on offense would ignore those basic flaws underlying this team. It easier to add defensive intensity after adding some offensive creativity.
A complete lack of transition defense understanding is different than defensive intensity. As a team that liked to run a lot, having horrendous transition defense is twice as crippling..
Not misconstruing, I get what you mean, didn't think this is what you are arguing for. Your comments kinda just made me think of this. Unfortunately I agree with what others have said, all o and no d probably a recipe for disaster. What you propose is more realistic and I could be talked into it. That being said, which offensive mind would you target then? D'antoni? Finch? Who else qualifies? Any of the college coaches?
