There are two things the Rockets need to improve on in order to contend for the title: rebounding and shotblocking. Its hard to believe that a team with Hakeem would ever suffer in these two areas, but considering that we are ranked 28th and 29th in these categories, they must improve.
DaneB, i believe when we won one of our championships we were last, an if not, pretty damn close, last in rebounding, but come to think of it we were probably first in shot-blocking cause Hakeem was a freak back then....but i guess what i'm really tryin' to say is your right it would help if we improved in those areas. But, we definitely cannot fault Jason Collier, cause i don't see Matt Bullards cheeks gettin' red from hustlin. ------------------ [This message has been edited by ROCKETBOOSTER (edited November 18, 2000).]
At least we had players avg more than 5 rebounds back then. HAKEEM is the leading rebounder, that is just wrong. ------------------ Vice President of the Jason Collier fan club!
Rebounding is a deceptive stat because it rarely relates to winning. Teams that run in the middle of the pack in rebounding (or even lower) are usually fairly good teams. Shot blocking is also deceptive because few teams are really good at it. The stats to watch are: 1. Assist to turnover ratio This one is a biggie for a young team. Veteran teams like the Jazz are always at the top of the league in this category but it really determines the level of play for young teams. 2. Team Defense This is a combination of opponent's field goals attempted, total points, free throw attempts and field goal percentage. Basically, it denotes defensive rebounding, steals and blocked shots. Any one of these is not as important as the combination of all three. 3. Free throws attempted If a team goes to the line 40+ times, it should never lose. The Rockets have done it twice this season and lost both times - very odd. The team that gets to the line tends to be the aggressor and, generally speaking, shoots a higer percentage shot. Jump shooting teams rarely go to the line but they also shoot a lower field goal percentage. Generally, the higher the number of free throws per game, the higher the field goal percentage. The only exception to this is if you have a star player that does not go to the line alot like when Hakeem used to do it for the Rockets. With the dream shake, he almost never got a call because he was fading away at the time. 4. Turnarounds This is a stat that is only kept by teams but it describes the number of times a defensive stop turns into an offensive basket. This doesn't just mean points off turnovers. It can mean a defensive rebound as well. The key here is how efficient a team is at capitalizing on the mistakes of its opponent. Win this battle and a team nearly always wins the war. ------------------ Time for a new cause.
One other thing I'd like to add to this. Defense is about more than rebounding, blocked shots and steals. It covers things like deflected passes (many of which don't result in steals or tunrovers but disrupt the flow of the offense), changed or challenged shots, defensive rotations (how quickly do you rotate to cover the open man), mixing up double teams, putting bodies on people, getting in the face of the shooter or ball handler and overall effectiveness of defensive strategy (do you let your man go baseline?, when to double team, scouting of players' strengths and weaknesses, etc.) All of these things play a role. It is almost impossible to sum up the defensive play of a team into just a couple of stats. You have to look at the whole package. ------------------ Time for a new cause.
Two stats that serve as a quick smell test of how much of a legit contendor your team is are FG% Against and Point Differential. Traditionally, the teams that are the strongest in these areas usually end up playing in the latter stages of the postseason. Granted 10 games into the season is a little early to evaluate these stats but with a little close inspection, I think they can tell what problem areas need to be solved. Last season, Portland and the Lakers were far and away the best in these two statistical categories. They were unarguably the two best teams in the NBA. As of now, the Rockets have a FGA of .464 and a pt differential of +2.5. In comparison to the top teams: Spurs FGA .438 Pt Diff +4.5 Lakers FGA .436 Pt Diff +2.5 Blazers FGA .427 Pt Diff +3.1 Jazz FGA .423 Pt Diff +4.6 In comparison to the mid level teams: Wolves FGA .448 Pt Diff +1.4 Mavs FGA .454 Pt Diff -3.7 Sonics FGA .454 Pt Diff -3.6 Moral of the story is that the Rockets need to take their defense to another level. They allow their opponents to shoot such a high percentage against them b/c the defensive rotations are very inconsistent. The opponents simply get too many easy looks. Some games, they rotate very quickly and have hands in the face of the shooters. Other games, the rotations are very slow and opponents get wide open looks. Once this defensive effort becomes more consistent, the Rockets can be regarded as a better team. As ugly as the offense looks at times, it is not the main area this team needs improvement in. ------------------ Check out the Best Source for Draft Info Draftsource.net
One interesting thing I found as I was looking through the stats. Jeff's point that blocks and steals by themselves do not constitute a good defense is very true. The Sixers right now are the hottest team going in basketball with a 9-0 start. The main reason they are doing this is b/c of the extraordinary defensive effort. The Sixers are actually being out blocked and out stolen by opponents. However, they are doing extremely well in the categories of FGA and Pt differential. Their FGA is .409 and Pt differential is +9.6. Even though their opponents are out blocking and out stealing them, they are performing so well defensively b/c their team defense (rotations, getting hands in shooters faces, etc) is very very good so far. ------------------ Check out the Best Source for Draft Info Draftsource.net
