We've obviously done very very well this year so far, and our defense is stellar in terms of effort and intensity, however there are some holes in our D which I have noticed for a while and it'sbeen bothering me., The Jazz game just put me over the top. I've watched too many games where we get lit up by an opposing PG who has no business even being on the same floor. We also get torched on a regular basis by PFs, but thats something I can overlook because of the amount of talent at that position specially in the West. My take on why PGs kill us, consequences and how we can stop it. 1) Why do quick PGs kill us all the time? - JVG's unwillingness to double team anyone largely plays a role in this as anyone in the NBA is almost always gonna be faster going forward with the ball than moving backwards and side to side trying to read the guy with the ball. Without the double team or some sort of midlevel guy (Battier fills this role nicely sometimes), the PG basically has to make only one move to blow past Skip (who is just not that quick on D laterally). - Soft interior D. I've harped on this many many many times before, but we have noone to strike fear into anyone who gets into the lane. You know Yao's not gonna physically try to make you think twice about going in there. And while Chuck plays good D, he doesn't make hard fouls, just silly fouls. So you get 6 feet guys running into the lane with no fear. - flaw in the basic defensive plan because of the weak interior D. our defense tries to overlook the first flaw (lack of double teaming) by funneling the penetrator into the lane, which would work cept for our second flaw (SOFT interior D). By letting them into the paint, we allow the opposing PG to go EXACTLY where he wants to go. Because he knows noone is gonna body up on him, it increase his chances of taking it straight to the basket or putting up a floater or kicking it out. Steve Nash is the perfect example of the PG who exploits this, but there are much much lesser PGs out there who do this who have no business doing it! Consequences of PGs killing us - the defense on the PG is essentially the frontline defense. Once he gets by the guy up top, combined with the soft interior Defense, our D can break down and everything else opens up for the opposing team. This is a very obvious bad consequence for us. How to stop it - 2-1-2 zone every once in a while with Shane manning the middle as he is the smartest defender we have. This opens us up to 3 pters, but frankly i think our defensive rotation is good enough that we wont allow that to happen too much. With shane manning the middle, even if the PG blows past Skip, Shane will just step up to take the charge. Skip and TMax have to recognize that since the PG is gonna either run into or by Shane, they should rotate out to the guys on the wing to protect against the 3 Pt shot. -get tapes of Mad Max, Hakeem, Laimbeer and make Yao watch it eevry day so that he knows that it's ok to make a hard foul every once in a while. when 6 feet guys are challenging you, you shoudl know you need to make them think twice. I'm not advocating thuggery on the court, just some good legal hard fouls. thoughts?
Yao has never committed the hard foul. If you can make him commit a hard foul for roughly a couple of times, I think he will get over it. That's like for criminal who has not killed anybody, once they have made the first kill, they will become serial killers.
There is no problem with the Rockets' interior defense. If you have a problem with the Rockets' interior defense, you have problems. The reluctance to double the ballhandler is a philosophy issue. JVG would rather let a player beat him single-teamed from the outside than to overcommit and give someone an open look. It works more often than not, but it doesn't always. It would take a change of philosophy to do differently.
Man...this post started off well. And then he starts talking about soft interior D and I'm like ... what kinda crack is he smoking, and then he goes "Yao is not going to physically make you think twice about going into the lane" and the answer hit me: This is some PREMIUM GRADE CRACK. Dang Gina. Where did you buy it from?
i'm ok with not doubling the man on the perimeter. I think a 2-1-2 defense once in a while would be effective since we won't have to double up and there will be a guy in the middle to cut off the PG when he gets past the guards. i dont have that big a problem with our interior D, it works much more often than it doesn't. i just don't think anyone is scared to come into the paint. it's more of a finesse interior D.
Mmm...watching some Steve Nash highlight clips, and LO AND BEHOLD, caught some Rockets cameos. It looks like we enjoy doubling him with Rafer and Yao. Um? Um. You wonder why we fail against the Suns.
Thats the wrong doubling, it probaly comes as a result of the high pick and roll that almost all teams use to force yao to the perimeter.
We did an unbelievable job on PG Deron Williams and PF Carlos Boozer yesterday. We're not going to suddenly change our scheme to something completely different like a zone, and there's absolutely no need to. I'm completely happy with our defensive scheme. Fatigue is what killed us, starting with Yao. We gave up 27 points in the 4th. They were running the same damn plays, and finally our fatigue allowed them to execute them for once at the very end. Another thing that will kill us is bad offensive possessions and turnovers. T-Mac/Rafer forcing up perimeter shots ---> long rebounds ---> fast breaks. Yao and T-Mac have the ball in their hands a lot, but they still need to cut down on their turnovers. I'm shocked that after such a pitiful offensive performance, someone would make a thread criticizing our defense. That's what kept us in the game the whole time. If T-Mac and Alston can shoot decently, and Head returns and hits threes along with Battier, we will beat the Jazz in a 7-game series regardless of who has home-court.
Looked more like Yao was trapping to me, since he lingered and left his man (Diaw) open under the basket, trying to trap Nash in the corner. Twice. Btw, OT, but if anyone feels like knocking some Suns homers on thier asses for defending the notion that Amare is better then Yao, feel free. http://www.******************/viewtopic.php?t=639941
bumping this thread to advocate the 2-1-2 zone which in my opinion would be effective in neutralizing a PnR.
shrug you can bump it all you want, it aint happening some could argue that the switching help oriented defense we play is similar in aspects to a zone, but the D you see now is the D you will see inthe playoffs the philosophy is good, but the execution is slow sometimes...especially on PGs that can do what Paul does...which thankfully is a short list. btw...your original post was flawed....I hear Worrell say often about how Yao changes shots...Ive seen many a time when someone will attempt to penetrate only to turn back when Yao looms large...soft interior D?? No fear of the middle??? poppycock
Yao is good inside and does force people to worry about him blocking shots bigtime. Buit if they draw him away from the hoop on the pick and roll, it is over. Yao is very, very bad liabilty on the pick and roll. He is too slow to get back to his man and you can go right around him and he can easily pick up fouls if you run it at him. As long as Yao is on this team we are going to suck at defending pick and rolls.
It seems the problem often starts at the P'N'R... Rafer gets picked off relatively easily, so Yao either has to jump that pick and roll or lay back and guard the PG with some help... a PG with good floor vision and handles like Nash and Paul (hell, even Dan Dickau did it a bit) can probe around with the Rockets scrambling on D and throw a pass to the open man. It's not a problem there yet... unless the opposing team has multiple good shooter so Rocket can't strategically leave one guy alone.. But with a team like PHX, this **** is deadly.
hey now i get a poppycock??? I just dont see it. yeah yao alters a lot of shots, but he doesnt intimidate anyone with the thought that hey I might really get hit hard if I go in there. The fear of the altered shot is one thing, but if you add in the fear of Yao might hurt me, it brings it to a whole new level. And you're right, this is the D we stuck with, I'm just concrned about Deron Williams, who while aint that quick, is fearless and smart decision maker. I know they gonna PnR us with Okur who has much better range than Jackson rtonight, and if we don't come up with a way to stop this, we're gonna have a real tough time dealing with Utah.,
Rockets play best interior defense in the league. 2pt defense of this team is amazing. 3pt defense is not so good, but that's the philosophy of our defense- JVG would rather be beaten by outside shots than inside. Rudy was often the same way. On the PnR Rudy would always take a Stockton jumper instead of a Malone slam. (But that was enough to beat us. ) Criticizing Rockets interior D is ridiculous. If you think Yao doesn't alter shots of guys going to our basket then you aren't watching the games. You seem to think that because Yao isn't knocking every single guy to the floor, they aren't "afraid." Watch the games. Do we get ripped apart by Chris Paul, D Williams, and Nash? Uh, yeah. So does everybody.
I do watch the games. LP costs me too much for me to not watch tomorrow night, if Barbosa doesnt go straight to the rim without any worry of Yao, then ok maybe I overreacted. I just see it consistently with our Defense that everytime u get a quick PG, even not so great ones sometimes, they just run roughshod over our defense without fear of any consequences of atacking the rim.
