I think that Jeff is a great defensive coach and he does have the Rockets clicking. However, there are times when I feel a zone is more appropriate. Lately, I am witnessing more and more of the opposing team's big men drawing Yao out of the paint so their guards can penetrate. This pretty much puts him on the spot: on one hand, he gives up the lane, on the other hand, he gives up the open shot some of the time. Nowhere was this more obvious than the Memphis and the Phoenix games. Pau Gasol was doing it and today, Marion and Amare was doing the high post PnR. Of course, there's also that last shot in OT in which Yao came to help on the top of the key and basically rotated on Joe Johnson. Granted, we were missing Mo and Spoon. However, I think with the zone, we would have stopped that play.
Rox need to run more zone D. Especially against poor shooting teams like the Suns. It takes less effort which will leave more energy for Francis and Mobley on offense to dribble out the shotclo...uh um uh um maybe they should just stick to man-2-man.
There's no need to learn a zone. Van Gundy's man to man uses the exact same principle and doesn't expose itself to the zone's Achilles' heel...poor rebounding position and not knowing who to box out. Do yourself a favor the next time you watch a Rockets' game. Observe how every attempt at dribble penetration is immediately confronted with a soft trap designed to stop the penetration and force the dribbler to give up the ball....exactly like a zone. This is most effective when the other defensive players know their rotations and it is generally a perimeter weakside player who is left open...exactly as it it were a zone. If Van Gundy ran a zone, you guys would be screaming how poor a defensive rebounding team the Rockets were.
