Agreed that Yao is no Hakeem. I was more concerned that Martin and Miller's addition have killed the team's chemistry and scrappiness. Martin just does not play D, at all, and neither does Miller, they rest on D to have energy for O. It is like the most meaningless 23 points in an NBA game ever.... Sometimes it would be better to have a guy score 15pts and play defense than one who scores 23 efficiently, but gives up a lot more on the defensive end... DD
THis is pure gold, my dear friend, please remember to bookmark this post, and when Brooks is sent packing this year or next, read it to yourself while sobbing in a dark room.
So the question is, did getting Kevin Martin, destroy the "fight" that this team had in previous seasons? Even with injuries you could always count on the ROckets competing, but not this year, too often they go meekly without much effort. Kevin is worth his contract of $10 million, but IMO, he is no more than a 3rd option at best. And signing Miller....while great offensively is another dud regarding defense. DD
Screeeeeeech! Now, replace Martin's name with Brooks and what do you have? Brooks just does not play D, at all, and neither does Miller, they rest on D to have energy for O. It is like the most meaningless 23 points in an NBA game ever.... Sometimes it would be better to have a guy score 15pts and play defense than one who scores 23 INEFFICIENTLY, but gives up a lot more on the defensive end... Once again, I reiterate. If we are depending on Brooks as our go-to guy, then we are nothing but a mediocre playoff team. Brooks is not efficient enough to be a go-to guy and he does not see the floor well enough to make a play for his teammates in crunch time. This is why I maintain we are better off if we can bring in Melo as our go-to guy, a guy that can get his shot off against anybody and has enough bball savvy to see the whole floor when he's got the ball and to make great decisions with it. That's not Brooks. Brooks is your guy against mediocre teams that you can iso on at the end of games. You can't do that against the Lakers, Spurs, and Jazz.
Jop, Brooks plays defense much better than Kmart, it is disengenious of you to compare the two. Brooks has been on a team that had a very good defense, Kevin Martin has not. Let's not change the conversation to fit some anti-Brooks agenda you have. This thread is about whether Kmart and Miller have changed the culture of the team. If you wan to start another thread about Brooks and his defense, feel free. Thanks, DD
I have no clue how you posted this and didn't realize how hypocritical it is or that you were about to get an avalanche of responses calling you out for it. I don't even get the point of this thread. The Rockets won at the same clip AFTER the Martin trade last season and the team even got the injury bug shortly after Martin arrived.
I don't think Miller has change the culture in a negative way. He's never been a good defender, but its not for lack of trying. Miller helps the offense as much as he hurts the defense, and you can live with that from your role players. Martin's lack of defense bothers me much more.
Because Dave, I don't see a relationship in lack of effort on Kmart's part to anyone else on the Rockets other than Miller. It is unique, he doesn't even try out there, it is amazing in his lack of effort on defense. DD
He knew exactly that that would happen, even if he is too dumb to see it. If that makes any sense. It's even more ridiculous when you go back and read big boy's posts from the annual stand-pat offseason jizzfest saying the team was WCF-bound since they now "get to have a full season with Kevin Martin"
But Miller just grabs guys instead of even moving his feet or trying to block a shot. But you are right Kmart is much worse. DD
I agree with DD. While i was glad the T-Mac saga was over, I was not happy with Martin coming to Houston. All this started when Les got involved. I think i remember hearing something about the owner wanting this change. He wanted to play at a faster pace like the Suns. Since then we got Adelman and the teams defense declined.
Hey DD sometimes you say hilarious stuff man.... and not only that, every time someone says something as hilarious as you, you act like people are crazy, or anti-someone... you just asked: "So the question is, did getting Kevin Martin, destroy the "fight" that this team had in previous seasons?" I mean are you serious??? 1 guy destroys something that was a usual on Houston teams for years??? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Where was Kevin Martin after the Feb. trade deadline last year??? Was the team not fight back then??? You call people Anti Brooks, but you are as Anti Martin as them, so don´t act like people are saying non-sense about your guy Brooks, when you almost justify our pathetic season, on Martin and Miller.... OH, and another thing, just because I played on a good defense team, doesn´t make me a good defender, I could be a wing baller with pathetic D, and if I have a guy like Howard on a team, he will automatically make my pathetic D "look" like decent, because he will protect that paint when my guys runs by me, without transforming my D on nothing more then atrocious PeAcE
That's because he can't move his feet and he can't block shots. So he prefers to give up a foul instead of the sure-fire two. Contrast that with Scola, who can't move his feet or block shots either. Similar results, but I suppose Scola appears to be hustling more.
Of course that is why I asked the question. Sure, do you understand how one guy can do that? He is 20% of the people on the floor and if he is not committed to doing his job then it can hurt the entire rest of the team and attitude can permeate from one guy to the next. I am not anti anyone, just asking whether or not KMart's lackidasical attitude has hurt the team's chemistry. Yes, we all know that having a rim protector is key, thus the reason a lot of us would like to see Jordan Hill starting, warts and all. DD
I have only read a page or two, but I believe he was telling the poster not to bring up Brooks' D because that wasn't what the thread is about. Brooks' defense is bad because he is small, but I don't think he gets beat by other PGs, in fact I am surprised when other teams don't take advantage of his size down on the block. Kmart just doesn't try, he ball watches, loses his man, doesn't fight over picks, goes under picks when guarding guys like stephen jackson who can hit from the outside (just an ex. fresh off my head from the game the other night). He leaks out for fast breaks way too often and although it gets us some points it has cost us a lot because we don't seem to be a good rebounding team. I'm not basing this off of anything but pure observation. What this team needs is Gerald Wallace. I would pretty much send anyone for him, because I feel with our role players and a star combo of Yao and Wallace we would be much much better defensively and still not have problems with defense. I just don't see them trading Wallace, I don't see anyone trading any star to our team, our players stock has declined this season with our abysmal play. In the starting line up we have a great post defender in Hayes, a hustler and a fighter (who's d has dramatically improved since entering the league) in Scola, an aging, but crafty defender in Battier, and a decent defender in Lowry Our best defenders, minus Jeffries and Yao are in the starting line up right now, but the problem is most of the points in this league come from the SG position and Kmart is getting destroyed nightly. I think it is time Jeffries got some more PT
Week by week Hill looks better and more comfortable, but I still don't think he is ready for that starting job yet, his rebounding still needs work.
In general, I agree, but I'd still say Brooks is the better player. He's quicker, a much better ball handler, and can finish inside without being bailed out by the refs (When the refs decide not to call Martin's tiger knee a blocking foul he ALWAYS has a bad game). Brooks is a poor playmaker for a PG, not for an nba player. He's probably better suited coming off the bench as a 6th man like Jason Terry but I just don't see a role for a guy like Martin on a contender. Ideally, you'd have the ball in the hands of your playmakers, which would take away many of Martin's free throw attempts. Reducing his role to spot up shooter is really not acceptable either because he doesn't hustle on either side of the ball. Basically, he'd become an extremely overpaid Kyle Korver. I know people like to compare him to guys like Reggie Miller and Ray Allen but they have proven themselves by being the best player on 50 win teams. Also, I don't think of defense the way most people seem to (either a defender is good or bad), there's many levels. On a scale of 1-10, if 7 is average, I'd give Brooks a 5 and Martin a 1. His rare combination of disinterest and physical limitations really hurts us. It isn't affecting our chemistry as DD believes, it just forces the entire team to scramble and sometimes play 4 on 5 defense. You can't even measure his negative defensive impact simply by looking at the opposing teams' SG. The opponent will often swing the ball around and as our team rotates to cover for Martin's mistakes some other player gets an easy layup.
I'm at a bit of a loss here, durvasa. So you are essentially saying that Scola and Miller are equally "bad" defenders? I don't see that at all. I see a Miller who's still trying to work himself into shape, or as good a shape as a 35 year old center with his physique can get, and a Scola who's five years younger, in far better shape, and plays within his limitations... plays as well as he can on a team that is in a constant state of flux due to injuries. I don't see them as being the same at all, except for struggling on defense against athletic bigs. Scola compensates by making his counterpoint on the other team work his ass off on defense. Miller knows he's a 5 coming off the bench for limited minutes, where his fouls shouldn't matter much during the course of a game. That he's been forced to play more minutes than expected, while still trying to get into shape, is bad luck both for Miller and for the Rockets. This idea that both have combined to ruin the Rockets defensive chemistry is, with all due respect to DD, simply rediculous, at least in my opinion.
Why is everyone blaming Martin? Yao is the one that can't stay healthy. Imagine this board if Yao were McGrady right now. "Is McGrady Fools Gold?" "McGrady from an Orlando Resident."
It's the art of scapegoating. Notice certain players are blame free from the whole poor defence argument?
