Trade is showing an explosiveness to these Rockets, after gelling?

Defense and 4th quarter performance are worse.

 

Defense,Who cares about Defense

 

It's been better since lowry and ariza returned. Also , Hill is doing a good job of somewhat filling in for Landry.

 

Well the trade really did made a whole lot of sense to Houston. With Landry, the Rockets didn't have a good high scoring SG so Ariza have to fill that void by being a high scorer which he isn't comfortable with. Scola is good but with Landry, they both have to split the minutes and Scola couldn't thrive. AB without a good SG next to him can only do so much. All the attention goes to him so it is much harder for him to carry the back court scoring load by himself.

But when we traded Landry, Scola finally have room and a chance to showcase himself and a chance to play more in the fourth quarter. With Martin, Ariza can finally slide to his role and don't have to worry about being a high scorer since Martin took that load off of him. Brooks finally have a high scoring buddy that not only take the big load off of him but take the defense attention away from him.

Carl Landry is a good player but the Rockets need Martin more than they need Landry.

 

Yeah our defense is worse but this team no longer have that defense identity. We're more of a fast pace team. But the reason why our defense was hurting at the beginning of the trade was because Ariza and Lowry was injured. Both of those players are known for their defense and intensity. Without those two, the Rockets rely heavily on Martin, Battier and Brooks to play intensive defense.

But with Lowry and Ariza healthy again, Ariza can take the defensive role off Martin so Kevin can focus his energy on being a great scorer and Lowry can take the heavy defensive load off Brooks who isn't a good defender. Back then when the Rockets were a great defensive team was because they had JVG, who was a defensive specialist. Rick Adelman is more of an offensive specialist and we all know that even with good defense, our offense sucks and it didn't get us no where.

 

The Rockets will probably have to adopt a "we'll get stops when we have to" mentality like the Kings did with Bibby/Christie/Peja/C-Webb/Vlade/Bjax/Turkoglu group. On the flip side, I think player for player, the Rockets have better on ball defenders than the Kings had (Shane, Trev, Lowry, Chuck). The Rockets #1 problem on defense is containing these swingmen who can drive to the basket, as we have no shot blocker(s).

 

I think Martin and Brooks want to play good defense even though they don't seem to have any. I like how they try to set themselves up to take charges. I think they probably learn that from the "charging brothers" of Scola and Battier. It's nice to see that...because taking charges does make a difference in the game...and generate turnovers.

 

Care to tell us why?

 

You can tell Brooks looks fresher out there. He doesn't have to play 45 minutes anymore w/Lowry back, and defenses can't key on him as much either with Martin there. Also w/Battier not in the first unit, they can run more. I haven't checked but I bet their first quarter output has gone up the last few games.

It will be interesting to see how effective Lowry is now with Battier on the second team, Landry not on the second team and Budinger having his minutes cut drastically. Now Lowry has been coming in w/Andersen, Battier, and Hill, as opposed to Andersen, Landry, and Budinger.

 

Martin/Brooks are an interesting combination. Both can create their own shot, and shots for others. They seem to be employing an "anything you can do, I can do better" attitude. This could yield great results (as we are seeing right now), or cause some issues later on. We'll see.

But I think the more important aspect of this in your post is:

lolwut?

 

we simply got a starter for a non-starter

 

most of u guys are fairweather, yall were KILLIN Martin but hes the big reason why this team and individual players has improved dramtically

also Martin has rubbed off on the team in the FT category EVERYONE is all of a sudden hittin for good percentage like Martin

I loved the trade from the beginning welcome aboard bandwagoners

 

i think that was the idea the team had when they acquired martin.....we had talent already in the frontcourt and backcourt, but needed someone to form a link between those two. Martin basically opened up the court for the others. Now scola doesnt get a late double team and brooks won't get an early one. trevor will get a defender running at him instead of one already on him, so its easier for him to jab step and drive on a moving defender than one standing in front of him.

 

Not last night

 

Do you have a iphone or blackberry? Get the NBA League Pass app. Only $19 and it looks really good, just small. You can watch live Rockets games if you don't live in Houston.

 

Wow, I'm gonna have to get that for next season.

 

Short answer to OP's question is:

Not yet.