Rockets Need to Build an Identity

They do know. They know we play no defense for most of the game. We score alot for three quarters and then fade in the fourth quarter when Rick Adelman starts to tinker with the lineups and experiement. They save their run and ratchet up the defense in the fourth quarter on us. They pull their backups before we put in our starters because they know Adelman wont adjust and put back in his. Because he is on a time limit for his players with set rotations. So they run up the lead until Adelman finally puts in his starters late into the fourth quarter after the run. Then we try to come back and all they have to do is hold us off. Same formula every night for every team. Easy scouting.

 

I've never been in favor to bench AB, but the way we've played defensively so far, once Lowry's back to 100% and AB's back from his injury, we're going to need to move in another direction in the starting 5.

Right now, we dont really have a "scoring punch" off the bench.

We need to insert Lowry, and possibly Courtney Lee into the starting 5 and move Battier and Brooks to the bench. This would give us a nice balance all around defensively, and offensively.

We also need to use Chuck as little as possible. I love Chuck as much as the next "ClutchFan", but his size and lack of offense definitely holds us back.

Starting 5:
Lowry
Martin
Lee
Scola
Yao

Off the Bench:
Brooks
Budinger
Battier
Hill
Miller

These lineups give us a good mix of defense and scoring in both lineups. Brooks can play the "Jason Terry" role and come off the bench for a scoring punch while keeping up with the defense with Battier and Hill. Same with the starting 5... while Lee is a bit under-sized for the 3, I think he's quick enough to be able to defend the 3.

Miller - while old and slow, knows this system well enough to be beneficial. If he doesn't workout, insert Hayes into PF and move Hill to C. That would make our defense off the bench that much better as well.