I am one of those fans that miss defense. That doesn't mean I miss JVG or anything like that, it just drives me crazy when I see opponents putting up 104 points on us. I understand we don't really have defensive stoppers especially with Kevin and Chanse on the team. I am one of those people that think that DEFENSE wins championships. Sure, I know the Rockets have been winning recently, but my point is, we should have been better defensivly this year, even without Yao. We're giving up 2,5 more points per game than we did last year. With our size improving, I don't really see why we can't be better defensivly. We had Chuck hayes last year and now we have HILL instead. Brad is also a poor defender, but you can't teach size. I am not gonna complain. I understand we have an offensiveteam and that's what we do, but still, I miss DEFENSE. Do you?
We have defense, its coming back... More importantly, this team is elite on offense. Elite offenses are pretty hard to come up with. This coupled with the fact that we do have a "growing" defense which is steadily improving before our very eyes, is something we can be optimistic about. The defense needs an anchor, and I think we need to trade for one although Hill is improving into being one.
hmm... I don't care about point totals given up per game, but I feel like we need to be able to play good defense when it counts. As long as we can hang in to the fourth quarter with our good offense, we need to play 5-8 minutes of awesome defense and then I'm happy. The last few games have made me very happy. Let's see us do it against some of the better teams in the league though.
I DO! Defense is the key for the Rockets to compete with the good teams. Without good defense, Rockets is the sub 50% team at the best. That's why we cannot have Brooks and Martin both as starters.
More than about an inside shot-blocking presence, it's more about consistently challenging the outside shot off the pick/screen. Martin and Budinger are bad about it and won't change, but Battier and Lowry have been getting better these past two weeks; as a result, our opponents' 3pt percentages have declined (against GSW it was 7/22 for 31.8%, 4/18 if you don't count Ellis who like Rose just can toss the ball any way he wants and have it go through the hoop when he plays the Rockets). Hopefully as Terrence Williams takes over Budinger's minutes, this trend will continue, and then lightweight defenders like Martin and Brooks will buy into the plan and play their men closer than they currently do. Also, as confidence in the inside shotblocker (Hill is the only one at this point) builds, our perimeter D will be more comfortable allowing penetration in favor of stopping the outside shot.
We weren't always winning when we had defense. I think you're revision of history isn't quite correct. Defense comes when you have a team that has good chemistry and a great deal of experience with each other. Furthermore, defense also comes when players are able to play the position they are meant to play. Jordan Hill is a PF, Chuck Hayes is a PF, and yet, they play the 5 so so often. There are soo many little undersized players here and there. Defense is a team minded task. Until these guys get time together, and we get an appropriate player for the center position, we won't be successful on that end of the court...
Compared to the running in mud, bore you to death brand of basketball that some JVG teams played, no. I would rather see the ball go in the basket than a wrestling contest. However, no defense is frustrating as well. A balance is hopefully where we are headed.
That's a solid response. It's true. The ups and downs are far more entertaining, and the pace is awesome, but the way we always leave the lane open is damn near painful. A balanced approach is best.
Exactly. We have no that protects the basket. Its easy to attack the basket knowing that Battier is the best shot blocker on the court.
Rotational help defense ftw! But thank goodness for Battier, Courtney Lee, Hayes, Lowry and Jordan Hill who can actually put up an effort with man-to-man defense.
Jordan Hill has been doing a bang up job as of late.. He's still learning, but give the man credit. See the Sacramento Kings game of him on Cousins.
We don't have someone to guard the basket and defend the paint the way Yao did. Hill shows flashes and Chuck plays great man defense but we just don't have that erasor on the inside the way Yao was. Even when he was not blocking shots he was altering them.
watching our offense is so much better than watching jvg defense. You forget how low our shooting percentage was and how dreadful it was to watch only tmac be able to put it in the net in quarters of the game. the rockets do make a lot of bad plays on defense but I have seen improvements. If you keep your eyes off kmart on the defensive end it doesn't look to bad :grin:
