I pretty much agree with kidrock's posts. A press with a little halfcourt trap would be ok, but a constant traping d? No freaking way would that work. Not only do we not have the players for it, but we don't have the right coach to implement that kind of d. Trapping in spurts is fine for a change in pace or if you're behind and need to force something. But trapping for the whole game is a sign that you either can't hang with the other team or that the other team's ball-handlers really suck. With Ming we finally have a team that can establish itself as a legitimate halfcourt d and o. They don't have to resort to cheap gimmicks to stay competitive.
I'd rather see them employ a good zone defensive scheme before they go with a trap. Lots more advantages. Allows players to help each other out better. Especially on a team with new starting players and a historically weak defense. Better to keep guys like Yao, Cato, and EG swarming the lane and doing what they can do best, block shots.
There really is no good base zone defense. The T-Wolves used a zone that worked for the first 2 months last year, when they got off to a hot start. But once teams were able to scout and see more of it, they learned how to beat it. Now, if you mean, the Rockets should play man-to-man, and use the no illegal D rule, to help rotate quicker, or double team quicker, I definitely agree. In summary, a zone defense will not work. Using the new rules to your advantage as far as double teaming and rotating quicker, does work.
I think they should learn to play solid basic team defense first. There will be too many new faces to get fancy right away (MT, Boki, Ming, Rice, Tito). Just good basic man-to-man defense. Ming and Nachbar, should help the overall defense with size and speed. Individually, Rudy needs to really work on a few of the players to improve, or at least hustle and fight on D (Cat, Steve, MT, Cato, Rice). That's 4 of our starting 5 (and maybe is our starting 5) that need a lot of individual and team D improvement. AND, more importantly, you are not going to trap with that line up - even plugging Ming in for Cato. Another problem is that it would wear Steve and Cat down, they get too many minutes (rightfully so). With our back up guards we need them in there most of the time.
Last year I think that it would have been fine, but now we have the big men. For instance you don't see the Lakers trap when they have a guy like Shaq in the middle. If the Rox did trap and Ming wasn't back yet it would really degrade our defense, I do however think that our guards can be a liability in the half-court game.
