Firstly the Rockets have no defence, everyone is aware of that. Part of the reason is because of personal whilst the rest is the change in culture that comes with the overhaul in personal. Great teams have a constant they can rely on such as defence and controlling the tempo when their shots aren't falling. On the other hand the only constant the Rockets rely on is their shooting... which is very flawed. Its because of this reason that we are rarely able to put teams away. Currently midway through the second quarter they are doing very well and sticking with the Hawks cause they are shooting lights out. This is just false sense of security because it is very athestically pleasing but it doesn't give us a constant to win because when they go on a cold stretch the other team will always pull away because the Rockets simply don't have the defence. This is highlighted especially by Budinger, sure last few games he has shot the ball really well, but his still a huge liability on defence. I honestly think this is a HUGE HUGE problem and can only be changed by a change in culture and personal with more emphasise on 2 way players. Budinger should be taken out of the rotation completely for Williams and I'd dangle Scola to see what kind of young defensive centre we can get and then insert Patterson. Right now Hayes and Battier are incredibly valuable and should not be traded because of my reasoning above. There's a reason good teams such as Boston always stress defence, atleast if you go cold you can still limit them to scoring so when your shot comes back you will still have a chance to win. Unless the rockets consistently shoot 50-55% tonigth they will not win because they will have a cold stretch in the second half. It doesn't matter if you don't score as long as they don't score.
In my opinion, I would say so because it would be consistent over the long run. Shooting just doesn't last over "long" periods, they might get hot for a nice stretch of a few games but in the playoffs this problem will be even more exposed. The reason we always collapse in the 4th is because opponents step up their defence while Rockets don't and continue to rely on their shot.
Please stop making trends about defense when we don't even have a center. You can start making these threads again once we get a center and still play poor defense. Thanks.
Yes so we should stop worrying about defence and just practise shooting 55% over long periods We're basically identical to the Warriors the last few years and that just doesn't get you anywhere. Our defensive problems won't be solved by just acquiring a great centre, we have too many 1 way offensive players in the rotation for our TEAM defense to be consitently up there. Your always going to have a few 1 way players in your rotation but in my opinion I would rather they be defensive like Hayes and Battier, then offensive like Budinger and Scola.
I still would not want to go back to the running in mud, dreadfully boring JVG era ever. Just a bit more defense please, like a 7 footer who can block shots. I love seeing the ball go through the hoop instead of bounce off the rim a hundred times a game.
It would be very nice to have the Brooks we had tonight every game. Unfortunately, whether he is still rusty or whether there is some other reason, he seems to only be showing up every third game or so.
Fair enough, depends on difference of opinions and satisfaction. But for me seeing great team defense and stops gets me excited knowing that if we can't score atleast we still have some hope of getting a stop and coming back for another try on offense.
Only 3 playoff teams currently give up more than 98 points a game, Denver, NY and OKC. Which coincides with having the worst opponent FG% of playoff teams at and an overall 17th, 19th and 23rd in the entire league respectively.
I agree with the OP. The Rockets needs to get defensive stoppers like Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu, JJ Redick, and Jameer Nelson. I mean, Morey already missed his chance to get such aweomse defensive-stoppers like Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis. We can't give up on getting awesome Orlando defensive stalwarts!
If the Rockets had Howard instead of Hill or Scola we would be as good as Orlando. I know this reinforces other points that a great defensive centre will help but its not exactly easy to find a once in a decade defensive centre like Howard. A better example might be chicago in that they have a good defensive centre like Noah, but even then its because they have a great defensive system with a defensive minded coach like Thibs. The only 1 way players in their rotation is probably Korver, and Boozer to an extent. But their team mentality is entirely different to ours with the way they stress team defense.
It's nearly impossible for one player to control the game defensively unless they are an absolute stud and even then it still requires great overall defensive awareness for the team to become consistently great on D.
