Revisiting an Old Article: The Houston Rockets have serious defensive problems

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Spoiler

http://www.sloansportsconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/The%20Dwight%20Effect%20A%20New%20Ensemble%20of%20Interior%20Defense%20Analytics%20for%20the%20NBA.pdf

And that tells you how someone of Dwight's talent helps our defence

 

When you refer to wing player who are you speaking about?

 

Mysteries

Four thoughts from tonight's game:

1. For a professional basketball team, I am amazed at how many open top-of-the-key 3 pointers we allowed on the break. Looks to me as if Rick Carlisle and Mavs read our mail. They knew what we would cover and what would be open. This is attention to detail that we need from our coaches and players.

It's a shame (or is that a coaching failure) that we couldn't find anything like that on our break.

2. Also, I think all our guards need to get the memo about the legitimacy of using a stiff arm. Parsons at least went to the basket and made Carter pay for getting in front of him twice. Check the tape of our opponents from the last two games, its dribble with your right and fend them off with your left. They won't call it. Adapt.

3. I like Chandler Parsons, but he might be the shortest 6' 9" player in the league. He simply fails to take advantage of his height on offense. Almost every finish he makes on a drive barely clears the rim - and he rarely posts up. (It was nice to see him catch Monta Ellis down there tonight.) As heady a player as Parsons is, you'd think he'd live to take guys to the block. Even against Marion, Parson should take half his touches on the block. This creates foul trouble and open shooters. Post entries create another point of creativity.

4. Our team looks like its marking time. I am sure this is a result of our injury woes. We don't really crowd teams out of passing lanes or sets. We let players go wherever they want. It's not enough for us to be great.

 

Our coaching sucks.

DD

 

I second that.

 

Sometimes I miss the old Van Gundy/Adelman rockets who couldn't score to save their lives but never gave an inch defensively.
Plus, those teams put in way more effort, idk whether it was the players or if JVG was just able to get those guys to buy in defensively and Mchale just lacks those motivating skills. Switching properly and rotation aren't rocket science, it just seems like our players never got defense hammered into them last year and just can't incorporate it into the "run 'n gun" identity that characterizes our offense

 

to add some numbers



Dwight is by far the best rim protecter in the game

Dwight when on the court, makes teams shoot the three ball which they do and they knock down a well above average 43%

 

we have no team defense, as easy as that. You can have solid one on one defenders but if they don't understand the concept of team defense your defense is still going to suck

 

A wise man once told me.... As a coach, players react to what I emphasize. If I come into the season constantly talking about ball movement and putting a big emphasis on it, the players are going to move the ball well. If I emphasize defense every day, they will work their tails off on defense.

I get the suspicion that this coaching staff almost never talks about defense. I haven't watched every game, but I've seen quite a few, and every single one I've watched has included a lot of bickering on the defensive side.

Now I don't pretend to be an expert in coaching, not even close, but usually when players bicker a lot like that, it means they don't really know what their expectation is. To me, that says there is no singular voice on the defensive side.

Bad coaching, IMO

 

Our defense has been very inconsistent this season, and I know some stats will show our defense is not that bad (i.e. opponent fg is quite low), but that is probably mainly due to the Howard effect, I really feel our chemistry in the defensive end is not very well oiled at the moment...but if we did take a step back and put it into context I am not surprised at all.

Apart from being a very young and inexperienced team, we have had major line up changes so far in the past 29 games such as the TT experiment, TJones coming into the starting lineup, Asik trade talks and all the injuries we have been getting.

We really need some stability in this team and I really hope we have seen the worst when it comes to injuries.

 

But we've only had one offseason together with Dwight and we have young players.

McHale's excuses sound so hollow when Phoenix have traded away their center, got a new combo point guard, have as their 3rd leading scorer Gerald Green who has shifted in and out of the starting lineup, have lost key players from last season, is starting a center in Plumlee with 50 minutes of NBA experience in total before this season, don't sport any rim protectors, and had a weak defenseless stretch 4 who shot poorly last season.

And they're playing better than us on both ends of the court with a rookie head coach who isn't even a HOF player.

McHale is mediocre.

 

TT was never going to work. Morey alluded to as much pre-season.

Changing up Lin /Beverley was also a decision made by the coaching staff, unnecessarily, when in the first five games with Bev's injury and Lin starting the Rockets were 4-1.

 

I do agree there was a lot of tinkering of the lineups this season...prob due to necessity (I.e. keep asik happy) and an opinion to maximise production of players. But even with this + injuries we are still 18-11...we know the ceiling of this team is high...and we have not come close to our potential yet. At this point we need stability in this team....we are now at the point where we need to start being consistant...and this starts with healthy players and stable lineups

 

That's not quite true. For the coaching to "suck" you first need to have a "coach". McHale is NOT a coach - he's former NBA HOF player turned failed GM turned failed coach (Minny) turned witty TV commentator who THINKS he can coach. That's a far cry from say a Rick Carlisle or Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers or Tom Thibadeau or even a Mark Jackson or a Brian Shaw. Anyway, you get the idea.

 

Yes McHale sucks as a coach but he had ONE job and succeeded - he got Dwight to come to Houston. When his contract is up we will make a replacement and I see it being a defensive minded coach. SVG? JVG? Thibodeau?