i read some scouting and alot of fan's opinion on this board. erratically extreme opposite opinion on Scola's defense. some believe Scola is a tough good defender, while some claim Scola sucks at defense. well, he's not good at shot blocking for sure... considering his size and play forward/center. but can he at least play good team defense or keep himself in front of his man? I'm curious to see the % of Clutchfans' opinion on our starting PF's defense skill. i vote about average as i think he's mediocre at on-ball defense but plays OK team defense and also will box out for defensive rebound.
Above average man-to-man defense. Mediocre help defenese. He's much better defender at PF with Yao than as a PF/C hybrid with Landry/Hayes/Hill.
Probably one of the worst starting defending PF's in the league. He gets muscled around way too easy, but Yao should be able to help a little with that this year.
It depends on who he's guarding. He's smart and active so when defending softies he can do a decent job. When defending physical players he really has no chance, the size is usually too much for him. Overall average but it's more like mediocre or poor some days and above average others.
He gives good effort, but not nearly the same effort as on offense. He's a terible defender all the way around. His help is ok as far as charges and since rebonding is part of defense, he's cool there, but he provides little resistance to the opponet.. He tries though, so its hard to say he's killing the team.
That only seems to be the case because it's generally harder to find guys who can anchor the paint than man-defenders. Guys like Bogut, Dwight Howard, or Prizbilla would not play better with Yao. I'm surprised at the Scola hate for his defense. Further proof that regular fans never care about man-to-man defense(unless it's pointed out to them repeatedly ala Chuck Hayes). On court performance with Scola at PF vs Center At Power Forward 08-09: Plus/Minus: +281. On court per 48 minutes the Rockets score 98.9pts. Give up 92pts. 09-10: Plus/Minus: +11. On court per 48 minutes the Rockets score 99.3pts. Give up 99pts. At Center 08-09: Plus/Minus: -70. On court per 48 minutes the Rockets score 96 pts. Give up 102 pts. 09-10: Plus/Minus: -69. On court per 48 minutes the Rockets score 102 pts. Give up 105 pts. The idea that Scola can't guard "bigger players" is because he's not a center. Hence centers push him around. When he's just guarding opposing power forwards, he performs quite well. 13% -70 96.9 103.1 -6.2 26 35 42%
I'd have to say average. He does give the effort and that we can appreciate. But he is not a glorified defender like Battier.
Luis is below average when on an island versus quick footed opponents, largely because his lack of lateral quickness and mobility. This gets compounded by his lack of vertical, which does not allow him to "cheat" and recover with a blocked or altered shot. As leeb mentioned already, his rebounding does compensate somewhat, as I rank him as an above average boarder (actually an excellent, technically sound one, considering his MasterCard hops). Squared up, he shows poor reaction time regarding understanding of angles necessary to limit a big who prefers going to the rack. Most bigs are going to take a 45 degree angle, aiming at or just around the defender's outside shoulder. A select few may "flatten out" (going on the same plane as the basket) before pulling up or penetrating, but more often than not, almost all will end up shooting towards that 45 angle. I don't think it is so much that Scola doesn't understand this, but more that he just doesn't read his man's tendencies quickly enough to properly utilize these concepts. Against longer posts, looking to take Luis off the blocks, his footwork is better, as he ddoes not frequently overplay one side or the other. His hands are reasonably quick, definitely no Chuck Hayes , but not embarrassingly slow either. I would like to see him get into his opponent's hip further than he currently does, though. He's never going to be a shot blocker, so there's no reason to play space. Plus his slow reaction time invites men to take him in space. He'd be better served closing that space, putting an elbow on his man's hip, and utilizing his own low center of gravity and leg strength to push his man further out of their comfort zone. On help defense, he's above average. He's a bonafied flopper, and I want to smack every flopper I see, but it's part of the defensive game now and he is quite adept at it. This is where it shows that intelligence wise, he understands the angles of bball. Given a split second longer to react and go help his recently toasted teammates, and he's very good. He just can't react that quickly with his own man. Hope that helps...
Loved seeing the stats in print. It is as clear an example of the effect Yao has had not only on the Rockets team defense, but the individual defense of Rockets players. During 08-09, with Yao playing the vast majority of regular season games, Scola is very effective. The next year, a year which was an excellent year for Scola, enabled Landry to be traded for Martin, saw Luis's minutes increased in reaction to the trade, and earned him his lucrative contract, we see a distinct downgrade in his defensive stats. I don't think anyone here would say it was because of a lack of effort on Scola's part from one season to the next. If anything, if it's possible for the guy, his effort increased. What changed was Yao missing the season. Luis is a striking example of the impact the big fella has on our overall team defense as well as individual defensive effectiveness.
Poor 1-on-1 defender. Good defensive rebounder. All out hustle every possession makes up for deficiencies in strength/quickness, to an extent. Playing next to a 7-footer this season will help him quite a bit.
average defender at best, but with a lot of hustle...also, the poll results look like they're giving us the finger lol, thought that was funny.
This, but also it's important to mention Scola's hustle factor tends to be very grating on the other opponents. Rightfully people on other teams despise him and psychologically Scola is able to cause greener players to pick up fouls or ruin offensive schemes out of frustration. So Scola doesn't have much in terms of athleticism but his guile is really more than enough to make him a pretty good defender. And in cases where he's in trouble, we got CHUCKWAGON.
Going to have to go with the......depends on the 7'6 player. Let me remind folks, ever since Yao has joined the Rockets (played in the season) the Rockets have been Top 5 in FG% allowed. (if not Top 8, i think 1 year we were top 8). Too lazy to go to the stat sites.
