You may be right, but I'm still holding onto that one game Ennis had against James Harden when he locked him down on defense and was draining 3s in the Rockets faces for a full game. Only Roberson played that kind of D on Harden.
Ariza was and apparently still OVERRATED. Go pull up the stats when he didn't play and go look at the stats defending elite scorers.
he made a couple threes that game and those were actually the only ones he made against us all season
funny. look at your own post "elite" anyone who understands what true defense is, knows you don't solely judge it off stats bc it can't be measured once again for the 1000 time. "overrated" is used as a gimmick excuse
Right. Because Ariza could have gotten a breakaway layup anytime he wanted to, but we just didn't do that because its "not the system". If a system gave you wide open breakaways every time that would be the greatest system ever, no one would turn that down. It has nothing to do with system and everything to do with personnel. Have you ever seen Ariza try to dribble the ball on a break? Even if he did cherry pick a couple of baskets we did not have the personnel to get out in transition. And stop trying to twist my words, we still don't have the personnel because Ennis alone won't change that. All I said was they will run more than last year because they have 1 guy to do it now compared to 0, and that transition is an actual strength of Ennis. That doesn't make us a run and gun team all of a sudden.
it has everything to do with the system. it seems you just dont understand or grasp what the rockets do and how they play. You seem to not watch the rockets enough to notice "fast breaks" that dont end in layups but more often than not open shots on the perimeter. They're going to run just as much as they did last year if not less bc they also added melo who obviously doesn't play fast. they didn't sign ennis to get in transition. they signed him to play defense and hit open 3's. again, if he doesn't become a contributor in that fashion primarily then yeah he's going to struggle
bro i've been one of people here maligning ariza over the years, particularly on the defensive end. my post was not so much overhyping ariza as much as tempering expectations for ennis. and i've been a fan of ennis for a long time. i just don't expect elite D from him. even in the game that Dreamshook referenced above, after having re-watched that game earlier this summer my impression was more that harden had an off night shooting and the refs let him get mauled, than ennis really locking him down. ennis plays a physical-leaning style of D up top that i fear is going to get him into foul trouble quite often. instead of moving his feet he uses his forearms.
From what I've seen of Ennis... he is slow laterally and gets beat off the dribble a lot and in order to catch up he makes a lot of contact with his body/arm... and gets called for fouls a lot because of it. What he did in this clip is not a rarity.
yeah we were regularly able to put ariza and luc on point guards trying to slow them down with length, but it seems we won't have that option with ennis. hopefully MCW can drain enough open 3's and reduce his mental mistakes enough in order to play him in the rotation
You seem to be great at twisting words, and not so great at understanding basketball. No one said they signed Ennis to get in transition. I said that was a strength of his, which if you watched any basketball you would know is a fact. Also you don't seem to understand basic basketball. Transition offense is THE most efficient form of offense in basketball. If that was an option, no team would turn it down and make it harder on themselves. However, it is dependent on personnel, not system like you think(the system is based on personnel). Transition is risk and reward. Turnovers go up, fatigue goes up, but IF you have good finishers you get the best quality shots in basketball. If you don't have the personnel for it, runners and finishers, then it is just risk and not so much reward. The Rockets did not have the personnel for it last year, so no sense running pointlessly, you save energy and lessen turnovers. They STILL don't have the personnel for it, stop twisting my words, but Ennis will help.
I've seen those highlights and I'm going to be honest... the first time I saw that video I was not particularly impressed. He didn't do much of anything. Most of the video was of him getting screened and Harden making a mistake on his own.
A strength of gerald green is transition, I wonder why anyone barely saw any of that. Capela is also just fine in transition. You're stuck on this belief about lack of personnel. It's because it's not something they hang their hat on so it doesn't matter. If a wide open layup is there, great take it. Especially when it comes to the playoffs, its not part of what they do. You're confusing system which you dont get w/ personnel. Their pace is gonna be just about the same as its been before regardless of ennis
why is everyone saying Ennis defense in that clip was bad? that was just great offense by cp3. Ennis is going to be fine.
Rockets gonna be great guys, chill. Something big is happening in that practice facility in Lake Charles. I ain't talking MVP's dinner plate at the all you can eat buffet either.
How people can draw conclusion from 1 play that's like 5 seconds from a intagram practice video is beyond me. That said, I think Ennis will be like Beverley, very tough in your face defender but will probably foul a lot because of lack of lateral speed, and defensive discipline. Ariza actually is not quick at all laterally, he gets blown by a lot by quicker guards and wings, but he has the length and discipline to bother bigger and taller wings like Durant or even Lebron. I still don't know why we got rid of Luc, He had the IQ and quickness.
I think the shoulder may have played into the decision. He didn't get it operated on, as far as I know, and after what happened after he injured it, I would be hesitant to bring him back myself, and I liked the guy.
