Because it is not a per minute stat. It is not a stat based on speed of game either. It is not a stat that fails to account for who is on the floor with a said player and against a said player. They are advanced stats that have formulas built in for pace of game, quality of opponent, players on court, amount of minutes played, every variable you can think of the formulas have been computed already. Believe it or not many people have actually already written complex formulas to account for all this while you are still thinking you know a lot about the game just because you figured out stats are reflected by many things. Keep bragging on your knowledge and rolling your eyes. Don't even bother to pm me and be taught something. Don't even bother to ask me to teach you and infinitely make you more knowledgeable about the game. Don't try to learn something that will make you way more versed in things on the game than anyone else here. Instead act like a know it all and mock things you don't even comprehend. It's always endearing when rather than trying to learn knew things people just act like end all be alls.
PUSH indivdiually - better team wise - worst I think their more talented players on the roster defensively, but JVG concept of defense will be gone...so it won't get any better and will probably get a little bit worst....still top 10 in ppa (95.5 - 98.5) and fg%. But in the process, the offense could end up being one of the best in the league. So balances out.
Exactly. But what I am saying is in the playoffs they will be better because that is when the poor individual defense like Howard or the mis-match like Head or the bad match up like Yao/Boozer gets exposed. Head and Howard will not be on the floor for huge minutes and Adelman will be more creative than Yao-Boozer. So just what you said for the regular season, but what I am saying here will be the difference of improvement in the playoffs.
You're cracking me up here. Please keep acting like you're the ONLY person here in this forum capable of understanding the complexities of statistical basketball analysis. Really, unfounded arrogance is going to get you real far in this forum! My point is legitimate whether you want to admit it or not. Playing in garbage time against weaker competition in meaningless game scenarios is NOT the same as playing in actual meaningful game scenarios. If you've actually watched the games as those appalled that you classify V-Span and Bonzi as good defenders have, then you would understand why your logic is so faulty to the rest of us.
Right...and that's why V-Span is gone and Bonzi is lucky the Rockets even considered bringing him back after his showing last year. Let me ask you: Do you watch the games? I'm not trying to be a prick but based upon what i've read from you, I get the impression that you don't. If that's the case, how can objectively judge basketball talent without actually watching the players perform? I'm sorry but that bothers me. If you're going sit here and seriosuly continue to argue that Bonzi and V-Span had good defensive years while ignoring their blatent inadequecies on the court then I have no choice but to question your logic and dismiss it.
pillage are u a bucs fan? if you are then that's awesome cuz im a bucs and rockets fan. Hard to find another person with the same combination like that.
With our depth of talent, our starters should not be over played as they were in the JVG era. This means that we can play at a high standard through out the whole game. What we loose on the swings we can more than make up for on the roundabouts. More wins! Bigger margin of victory! When we beat up on Dallas and San Antonio we will know that Morey made the right moves and Caoch A is doing his job!
Automatically from van Gundy to Adelman the answer is that no, we have not improved in defense. As in, we won't be spending 80% of practice making sure we can rotate perfectly. But, I think that where gaping sieves in our defense existed last year, we will have an improvement. For example, we lost all our games I think to the Hornets, and Deron Williams burned us throughout the playoffs, so to counter that we got the flighty Aaron Brooks, someone that could actually keep up with the faster smaller guards in the league. Also, as many have mentioned, we won't be declining in BOTH offense and defense when the Yao-Chuck tandem get replaced by Deke-Juwanathan, since Deke-Juwanathan will most likely be Deke-Scola (with Scola and Hayes splitting minutes with Yao), a duo that could probably equal if not surpass the defensive prowess of Yao-Chuck. So, yeah we will allow more points, but we will also score much more, hopefully. And in the cases where we just got flat-out burned last year to the point where we had no chance of winning, we will have a better chance this time.
I think that the Rockets still can do a good job on defense. However, we will put more effort on our offesive game. In average, the defense will be worse than last year. In critical time, our defence will be much better than last year.
I can't fathom how Rockets Dynasty/B-ball Scientist can portray V-span as a good defender when he himself admitted he couldn't hack it in NBA defense.
Can any statistic experts post some of the defensive ratings of Francis when he was with the Rockets and in his career....I remember he was pretty darn good that one year under Van Gundy. He has the physical tools, just needed to be taught. Same with James when he was with Detroit...and Bonzi at some point was pretty good at least with steals and rebounds. So, if any of you have the advanced stats for this can you show them.... I would like to see what Morey is seeing. I thought our defense was good, but due to the physical limitations of some of our players, it would eventually get exposed by a very good coach who has a disciplined team that picks it apart. Juwan was terrible and some of our guards were getting overwhelmed. It's quite noticeable that the weak links in our defense have been shipped out or are not in our future plans. I'm really glad that Morey has his eye on the ball because I felt that Juwan Howard was compromising our defense. Also, our defense was compromised when we had trouble scoring...because we would start pressing and end up turning the ball over leading to easy scores going the other way. Hopefully, our new offense will be more efficient per possession. We were 27th out of 30th in field goal percentage last year....that's abominable....I don't think a team can win in the playoffs having one of the 4 worst field goal percentages on offense. Morey must have looked at this and made his changes accordingly.
You always mention stats but do you watch the games? I am just curious and not attacking you. I agree mostly with your list (using only my eyes and understanding of basketball) except but I would put it: Great: Mutombo (but declining due to age) Battier (but much better as a team defender) Very Good: YM McGrady (when he wants to be) Hayes Average - Good: Alston (erratic - started worse but definitely got better as the year progressed) Bad: VSpan (he was a pest and could get some steals but he seemed to have no concept of staying in front of his man individually or switching in a team concept. Many times he ran over in a switch but would stop short and allow his man to drive past him) Wells (average when healthy and good in the past but last year he was too out of shape to be considered anything better) Snyder (I agree - he got abused way too often to be considered anything close to good...but he has the ability and was average in past years) Horrid: everyone else
I think Francis was about the 3rd best guard and 7th best player statistically in the league that year if I remember. But his offense suffered quite a bit from actually having tried on defense.
The Rockets under Van Gundy (by design) had a huge weakness...athleticism. You can get under-sized and slower-footed players to learn complex rotations to keep every game close. However, quicker, taller, longer-armed players don't need quantum physics level rotations to play solid team defense. Adelman's defenses will be more than adequate given that James, Francis, an in-shape Wells, Scola and Butler ALL have enough athleticism and physical stature to get the job done...whether the job is closing out on the 3-line or boxing out for boards or weakside help. IMHO, the athleticism upgrade equates to no less than equal to last years' D.
You obviously nevr watched any Rockets games when we had Steve Francis here the last time. His defense is not just suspect but more like non exiistent...
We have essentially replaced Rafer, Luther, and Juwan with Francis, James, Bonzi, and Scola. The first batch are simply terrible defensively, everyone of them is toast and Rafer's only saving grace is grabbing a couple steals here and there. Scola, while not a good defender, cannot possibly be worse down in the blocks than Juwan. And Francis, James, and Bonzi are a serious upgrade defensively from Rafer and Luther. The only think I am a little concerned about defensively is scheme in close, halfcourt games. This was Van Gundy's forte and I don't think anyone can match him in those situations where you need a halfcourt stop near the end of the game. However, with Adelman, we will get more ops for breakouts with guys in the backcourt leaking out for the easy ones that we could never get under Van Gundy because he had everybody packed in so tight. To me, a breakout the other way after a bucket against is almost the next best thing to a defensive stop. And we will get plenty of those under Adelman.
I hope you are right but I doubt it. My thinking is a much improved offense plus more talent and depth will make this year's team better than last year. Plus, the way the Jazz shredded our defense in game 7 looms in my mind. That was an effort and energy problem more than scheme. Hopefully new players + new coach will take care of that problem in the playoffs and our players won't be "tired".
I have stong feelings about the accuracy of my statement. IMHO, the Jazz shredded VG's defense because Sloan took advantage of VG's primary defensive weaknesses....slower players rotating to the 3 line and the weakside. This was a trade-off VG made deliberately. Hayes, Battier and Alston are all sub-par athletically, footspeed and size wise. But they were smart enough to play VG's complex defensive schemes. Turning that upside down. It was no surprise to me the Rockets shot poorly from the arc vs the Jazz. The Jazz had tall, quick players rotating to close out on 3pt shooters. Battier, Head and Alston basically padded their season long stats vs poor defensive teams. All Adelman has to do is get the Rockets to mentally play defense as good as Utah does. The Rockets don't need to be of the defensive caliber of the Spurs or Pistons to be dangerous. For a change, the Rockets have depth. And when tired, the D is the first to go.
