Yes. I agree with this. But that #15 could move up depending on how well we learn our offensive system and how well Yao improves offensively. Who knows? 1# defense, with a #9 offense? Is that asking too much of Yao? Heh...
Yes, usually. However, great defense normally creates easy buckets on the other end, which not the case with us. This must be the worse transition team I've ever seen. I seen high schools kids run the break better than the rockets. If we could only run a decent fast break, we would be averaging 95 points a game and be contenders.
the rockets defense is indeed #1 or 2 whether you're looking at ppg or fg% against. but right now the offense is one of the league's worst. we score only more points than the Raptors and the Heat. our FG% is actually okay, but turnover and lack of movement makes our FGAs one of the worst in the league. but... if the recent trend continues and we do get a middle of the pack offense (which is the best we can hope for now) we'll be a force.
It doesn't have to be just Yao. I see talent on the Rockets. Stevie and Cuttino can both score. Maurice can score too. Even JJ is a pretty good shooter nowadays. The Rockets are not lacking for scoring talent. I'm not Mark Jackson, but I think he is licking his chops wanting to make it known that he's got something left in him. I don't think he's ever had an opportunity to pass to so many capable scorers in his entire career. He's an old man by NBA standards, but he has the potential to be the glue that puts all these pieces of the puzzle together at least for this season.
This is a great thread and gave me alot to think about.. I definately see us on the right path.. JVG came in not just to instill a defensive system but to instill discipline. Our defense was not bad last year but from not bad to best is a huge jump. (not bad and we still missed the playoffs and best will certainly get us in there) Im pretty excited about this Rox team.. the Def has been huge this year and our offense has been struggling and were still in playoff contention. Our 2 "stars" have been struggling to fit in and we have a pretty good record in a much tighter division. I said this before and ill repeat it now.. once our offense comes together and SF and Yao finally pull their weight on a consistent basis we will become the team to beat in this league. Just imagine Yao consistently scoring 20pts/ 12rebs/ 2 blks (current 3 game pace) and SF 20pts/ 6 rebs/ 6 assists/ with less TO's and a better FG%. I dont think this is unattainable.. its just a matter of time.. add this to what our team currently has and we have a championship contender. Sf has been struggling with his shot and TO's, Yao has been unable to snare rebounds and not shooting the ball enough. This can and will be corrected and we will become quite a scary team. Alot of team probably feel like I do.. They see the potential to become an elite team. We are not really missing any pieces but it seems to be our mindset and confidence holding us back. Once we build consistency especially from Yao and SF we will be the 3 headed monster people in the league fear. Go Yao! Go Rox! Go Super Duper Backup Bench Brigade! J
Yes. This is a reflection of our guards. They don't know how. This is not because of JVG system. The opportunities are there. They guards are just clueless on how to convert them. They hold the ball too long (shooting withdraws?). Watch Mark Jackson...he'll know how. As Ray Allen once said about Jason Kidd, "He made me open even though I didn't know I was (open)."
amen my thoughts are if JVG can get steve to improve his decision making i the half crt then maybe transition might improve, but really I'm doubtful if it ever will with Steve at the helm, for some reason he just doesn't or can't run transition
On a funny note... Teams hate playing us because we make them look like us! Ok, ok, we not that bad on offense. We're getting better....(fingers crossed)...
Let me say first this is a great thread. My own thoughts on the matter are that yes defense is a priority and that JVG has primarily been trying to get the talent to play with his system. As we all know the goal to winning is to score more than the opponent in basketball, football or any other goal oriented sport. Its always easier to defend while it takes more talent to score. Throwing a 24" Dia. ball through a 10' tall hoop not much wider than the ball is something that many people can't do even if noone is defending them. Therefore its an easier matter to stop the opponent than scoring because the very nature of the sport makes it that way. What defense in terms of the game as a whole does is to increase the opportunity for you to score. Thus if you have marginal offensive talent you can still win by playing good D to give your offense more chances to score than the opponents. This is most evident in baseball where the winning team almost always gets more at bats than the losing the team and in the AL a purely defensive player, the pitcher, is recorded as winning the game. The problem with a pure scoring mindset is that if each team can score at will then possesions in any given game are equal and come down to who has the ball last. From most coaching standpoints this is unacceptable because then you end up ceding control of the game to the vagaries of clock or the opponents' own offensive skill, by making unforced misses. That is why most coaches in practically any sport who emphasize "fundamentals" almost always focus on defense. OTOH the great offensive teams are ones that by most accounts are considered the most talented and rely on the approach that while possessions might be roughly equal the opponents will miss more than they do. The 1999 St. Louis Rams as the best example. A related point to this argument is as the saying goes "the best defense is a good offense." In the case of fundamental type play this again has to do with maximizing your teams scoring chances while limiting the opponents and in games with a clock this is ball control and time of possession. Football is probably the best example of this where usually the team with the most time of possession wins. Of course for this to work your team still has to be able to score before the clock runs out. So to sum up before I get too didactic here is that JVG's system is one that he believes maximizes the most out of a team no matter what talent is on it by playing good D and ball control. Obviously this doesn't make the most exciting ball and IMO the Rox can do more. In general I like good D and don't want to see the Rox playing like the late 80's Denver Nuggets (they scored in 130's but so did their opponents) at the same time I think the Rox can open things up more on the offensive end. I think as JVG gets more comfortable with the team and them with him the offense will start increasing. Just look at the last 3 games.
This works up to a certain point. Ask Van Gundy how his Knicks teams got smashed by Michael Jordan even though the Knicks were always great defensively under Van Gundy.
That's true because they were dealing with a phenomenal offensive talent. Even if the Knicks played more offense I think they still would've lost to MJ's bulls. Obviously this strategy isn't foolproof, or every team would do it, but if you look at almost every sport teams with less talent or coaches that like fundamentals generally rely on defense more than offense.
First off, there is no such thing as an unstoppable O. Instead, I would said that they all have a VERY reliable offensive option. But what else did they all have in common? They all can shut you down when they needed to. They all also have great team chemistry and solid supporting casts. You could said McGrady, Iverson, Dallas as a team, Kings as a team, and Shaq last year were "very reliable" offensive force. But what they lacked was that chokehold D (all of them) and/or great team chemistry (McGrady, Iverson --- I know their team weren't close to compete but they are nevertheless great offensive force and are here for illustration) You need both to go all the way. Our D is already there.. a great feat after only half a season. Our team chemistry is no where close to being there yet. And we do not yet have a "very reliable" offensive option. When we do, we can content for the ring.
In this modern era, it's not defense that wins championships (although champions generally play excellent defense). If you identify the best player in the league, his team will win the championship. With some arguable exceptions, this has been the case for years. If this is true, where does that leave the Rockets? Yao is not on the short list of potential "best player in the league", but he can grow into that and must, if the Rox are to make it. (And lets not kid ourselves, Francis is not going to be that guy). In the interim, several things must occur in parallel with Yao's development, the most important of which is that the Rockets must make it to the playoffs, even if it results in a first round sweep. That is the price you have to pay and there is no substitute for playoff experience. JVG has decided, as many coaches do, that the best way to build the foundation is via defense. A consistent defense alone gives you a legitimate chance of taking the 8th seed. But that just gets us into the zip code. We still need to find our way to the big game. To reach this modest goal, we have to improve as a team and determine how to use Yao and identify those that fit in well with him. This task is relevant to both the short term playoff goal and the long term championship aspirations. Your point about the foundation solidifying is well taken. I think Van Gundy is starting to loosen up his thinking with the move of Yao to the high post. If I had to guess, I think that JVG probably still thinks that Yao should be banging in the paint all game long, but he is worried about our short term playoff goal. In his mind, he probably thinks that he is compromising Yao's long term development in the post. I happen to disagree, but that's something that remains to be seen. I'm not sure if JVG is changing his mind as to how he wants the team to ultimately play. He is tryign to get the offense to flow and is willing, at least in the short term, to pull Yao out of the low block. Just as Yao has had difficulty adjusting to western style basketball, JVG is probably having a hard time thinking about big men not roaming the paint, shooting outside shots and passing the ball (because his poing guard just can't do it consistently). We'll see what happens in the long run, but the playoffs must be attained.
Basically, although wins against the big 5 are great, it is wins in games like tonight that really matter. Whatever the philosophy is, JVG must motivate and get this team mentally focused for a win they should take from these guys..... This is his biggest challenge....
Yes MacBeth Defence is the foundation of a winning Team but once put in place and an automatic charateristic of a Team it should not be at the expence of a serious Offencive Game. I believe that JVG is doing just what he said he would do and that is evaluate during his first season. Because of this, the Game is not tailored to the Guards or the Center Positions as he is still evaluating. Thus we see at times Steve Francis and Yao Ming not playing their Natural Games. Possibly after this season the Game might become more tailored to their talents, if they both are still Rockets. Steve is a naturally a scorer not a playmaker and Ming is not a Traditional Under the Basket Center but is more in a natural mode when he is not restricted by such restraints. I consider it a mistake to expect Yao Ming to become the Traditional Under the Basket Center. His mind set is not suited. I have posted many times being critical of the way the Guards perform it is because I, also like you Mac Beth, want to see the Rockets not only be good but have them be Great.
I'm not convinced that JVG is altering the system to the player's talents other than putting Ming in the high post recently. The real question in my mind is SF's future with our team. The present system doesn't play to his strengths, as Macbeth pointed out. I'm not that worried about Mobley, he seems just as content biding his time and taking his shots when they come to him. Steve needs the ball in his hands to dominate, which he can. People can complain all they want about Steve being a playground baller, but there's something special when a guy can dominate the ball and score at will which Steve can sometimes do. It takes a player's coach to sit back and let your best, most creative guy control the flow. Steve doesn't have great court vision and he never will, though he may develop average vision eventually. I think he'll eventually develop more smarts and trust, after all he'll have to 5-10 years down the road when his athleticism and crossover aren't there anymore. But how long will it take? JVG's greatest challenge isn't adapting to Ming- that's easy, Yao is a coaches dream. His greatest challenge is getting Steve to fit into the system or get his system to fit Steve's talent. Steve is adjusting to the system. But will he ever flourish in it?
Definitely. Defense wins championships. Period. Without a doubt. Any team that doesn't put defense upfront of everything is only setting up for failure. Look at all of the teams that have won titles over the past 10-15 years. The Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Lakers and Spurs were all good defensive teams. Good defensive teams can create easy offense outside of the half-court set. All of our current starters, with the exception of Francis, are above average defenders. Their problem is they don't pick their spots when transitioning to offense. They miss alot of opportunities to push the ball when getting a defensive takeaway. IMO a big part of this is because they try to limit opposing team's possessions by slowing down the ball, but there are still clear opportunities to get back in transition and make the defense react to you and create easier shots. This is something that will develop as the team grows(which they are doing). Somewhat, but he knows what will work in his system, so I'm sure he did the latter as well. Any coach that has a new team has to do a little of both in the beginning. I'm sure any worthwhile coach does a little tinkering in the first couple years with a new team. JVG is no exception to that rule.
The focus of this training camp was clearly defense. The results are showing. This is why I believe the focus of the next training camp will be how and when to run a fast break. Judicious but well-executed use of the fast break could add 6 - 10 points a game to this team's output. This would greatly increase their winning percentage and consistency, reduce the complaints about "winning ugly" from those who automatically equate low scoring with being boring (those have already been reduced when we've been winning 95-85 instead of 80-66), and actually even make them more fun to watch.
Celtics of the 60's were built around Bill Russell. How can you say they weren't built around defense?? You must be looking only at total scores. Defense was how the Celtics of that era got their fast breaks. Good defense doesn't have to mean slow-paced and low-scoring. Celtics of the 60's proved that. I notice that you aren't making that claim about the Bird-era Celtics. They were an excellent fast-breaking team -- when the opportunity presented itself, they took it and executed it consistently. But they were hardly a run-and-gun team. Good defense, good half-court offense, and well-executed, judicious use of the fast break will beat an unstructured run-and-gun offense consistently, especially in the playoffs. And while a lot of people liked Showtime better, very few people called the Bird/McHale era Celtics Uglyball.
