Should the defense be an area of concern at all? Or are the Rockets gonna be more balanced out? We can now consider this a Rick Adelman team. Like what I see after 1 game. Seen many comments already about the offensive side like Brooks saying sometimes their best defense is their offense, Adelman saying how he can now have 1st & 2nd units run the same more up-tempo approach. That triumphant fist pump by Adelman at the end of the Dallas game was from seeing his philosophy finally run right With Rafer gone & McGrady out & Adelman going with Scola at center instead of Mutombo, Rockets lose length & identity of the the so called Van Gundy principles being carryed over. Lowry does get after it on D. Battier & Artest are reknowned defenders. Yao & Scola are willing. All the other rotation players are a bit shaky on D. Just thinking & typing out loud here.
the defense has been shaky all year. probably due to the multitude of lineup adjustments. they've had to go to a zone which is pretty sad, but they haven't gotten the rotations down yet since they never know who they're playing with. i can't tell you how many times ive seen two guys run out to the same player, leaving someone else wide open... then the scramble begins to matchup. with stability should come greater rotations on defense. now as for the offense... well a chance in the "do nothing" back court was a huge plus. better movement, faster pace, higher fg%. what more can you ask for?
When I saw the Rockets run zone against detroit I threw up in my mouth, ok not really but it was embarrassing for some reason. That Adleman fist-pump got me excited. I think he realized that we can be special with Aaron running the point. The good thing about Aaron. He can hang with the Chris Pauls and Deron Williams, he has even proven he can outplay them with reasonable playing time.
like i said in another thread, i don't know why the Kings were so good. of their starters, only CWebb was a superstar, but after his high ankle sprain in 2000 and additional sprains and knee problems, he was just a shell of himself even in the early 2000s. Bibby and Peja were only borderline all-stars, and have accomplished nothing outside of Sacramento. the other starters were decent, Christie and Divac, and later Brad Miller. the best bench player was Bobby Jackson and then maybe Turkoglu. Gerald Wallace was never used and Pollard was only a Sacramento fan favorite ala Hayes with Houston i guess. none of those guys except for Christie and maybe Bobby Jackson were known for their defense, although CWebb had good block and steals stats. yet the Kings were a top 5 defensive team. i guess it really is easier to defend when you wear out the other team's defense first. the Rockets have 3 excellent defenders in Artest, Battier and Hayes although Hayes won't see too many minutes. Lowry supposedly is a very good defender. Yao has considerable weaknesses defensively, but is still probably their most important defensive cog. that leaves Brooks and Scola, who are about average, but i would put them better than Bibby, Peja or Vlade during the Kings' peak. on offense, Brooks and Lowry need to get Yao and Artest the ball. Scola also needs to expand his offensive role. Battier needs to cut much harder and be more than just a spot up shooter, or at the least be a poor man's Peja, or a rich man's Christie. but if Adelman can take control of this team again, why can't the Rockets take off?
Peja was a 3 time all star, he was second on the MVP ballot in 2004 to kevin garnett who won the MVP that year. He was also second in the league in scoring this year 2nd to T-mac who won the scoring title. Bibby may was the one who was a borderline all star
It was the season where cwebb was out most of the year after his microfracture surgery, so peja had to do all the scoring.
I just checked, he was 4th behind Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal too. It makes you realize that 2004 was a really really long time ago. And that Adelman is one f-ing hoss if he can get Peja into 4th on the MVP balloting.
Peja was a beast then, didn't seem to miss A shot. For some reason it's like he used to be a knockdown shooter and now he's like a streak shooter...really have no clue as to why this happened to the guy... But our defense has been getting better, i'm going to say this. The first rule to playing defense in basketball is to go out and give 100%...this team wasn't doing this because their 'Leader' didn't seem to care about it. Lowry is a defensive player, and as long as this team goes out and plays at 100%, nothing is going to be wrong with their defense. We saw it the past 3 games, this team plays hard they play good defense. For this team it really is that simple. Still though, we will get tore up by the screen and rolls because of Yao not coming out.
I see big time improvement on the defensive end since TMac is not going to play the rest of way, Artest starting, and Battier getting healthier. TMac was killing the team on defensive side of the ball because he could not move under his condition this year with the knee, Artest will be more involved since he likes to be a starter, and Battier when healthy is very good defensively. The rest of the team will improve on the D since they feel more involved in the team since the scheme is more of team oriented pass the ball movement instead of just watching TMac try to take over and impose his will. Yes, Ron does that but not as much since he as been starting.
subtracting tmac is a + for the rockets perimeter defense and help defense overall. alston in my opinion was a poor defender because he never was able to stay in front of his man. and he never was good at closing people out. so i don't know what's to complain about. lowry is a plus at defense and the team is much more willing after tmac being out. defense will improve and that will be the key
This is it right here. With Mcgrady and Ron together, you had two dysfunctional players, Ron vying for McGrady's role and McGrady not working for the good of the team because he doesn't like Adelman's system. On defense, Mcgrady was jacking off and Ron was following suite. Now with McGrady gone, we are seeing the Artest Battier combo for 30 mpg+. Artest is all of a sudden kicking it up a notch defensively after the trade deadline and Battier is doing his normal thing out there. Artest is not having to deal with McGrady taking his touches offensively so he has decided to come play ball. And Brooks is not a defensive liability. He is quick, quick, quick. He is going to bring his own different kind of havoc defensively. The whole key is the defenders will have to realize when he needs a little help and he will get bumped off on the high screen. But on the other end, the pressure that he applies to a defense. When you have to explode fast and get back constantly, it takes the juice out of your legs come the 2nd half. That effects your jump shot. Brooks is going to create a fatigue factor as his man has to defend him straight up or get beat. Then that man has to come back down and try to run the offense on spent legs. Sure, they are all bigger than Brooks. That means they are carrying more weight around, they are going to get tired long before he does. That's why Brooks has to push, push, push the ball at a frenetic pace. And that is why an extra two turnovers that he throws around ain't nothing. We are going to have more possessions with him running the offense. He is going to wear out his defenders. And then we are going to be going up against a tired offensive unit when we defend in the 4th quarter. Our defense is much better today than it was before the trade of Rafer.
Lowry really impressed me by playing held D. every time he was in the game once or twice he ended up in the paint scrapping for the ball, when was the last time we seen Rafer do that with success?
I think the D has picked up over the last few games. The "team effort" is there all of a sudden. I think the injury to Mac has created a greater sense of urgency for the team. Even Shane seems to be playing with more intensity. This team will live and die with their defense. I think they know they must live to see the playoffs, especially with the miserable March schedule.
We've added a good defensive player, though he's young and new to the team, and Artest will hopefully not be in and out of the lineup. McGrady, who's been a poor defensive player, will be replaced by guys more committed on that end, hopefully. I don't think the defense will struggle. Turnovers is the big concern going forward for a number of reasons: 1. We've got young PGs who are being asked to play aggressively 2. We're trying to play a more transition oriented game, which this team isn't used to 3. In the half-court, we're playing around Yao -- historically, that's led to more turnovers as a team.
The defense will continue to get better with more time and consistency. We have alot of young pieces on our team so if we don't go the way of astros and start trading away young players we will be fine. When Brooks, Lowry, Landry, Dorsey ... get more experience we will be a really coherent unit.
i agree with this. rafer's defense was an enigma. he had quick hands, played great positional defense, and always fought over screens, but he was too slow to close out on shooters which is why guards usually had a field day against us. i think lowry can be a much better defender contesting shots wise.
