Was Charles Barkley right about the Rockets defense?

All that is true .... and to make it worse , the Clippers have their two best defenders defending the Rockets two best scoring options .... that's a recipe for disaster.

 

I agree, Chuck was a way better player than Tracy M(a)urray was ... but Tracy has a ring (Rockets '95).
Oooh, but you meant Daryl Morey? Why does so many CF posters keep on writing his name wrong?

Spoiler

 

it's an old joke.

 

Say what you want about Barkley, but he says what he thinks, even if what he thinks is wrong. I respect his honesty.

In this instance, Barkley has a point: Rockets' defense is not up to snuff for a playoff team.

The merit of his broader point on the use analytics is up for debate... The jury is still out in my view. There is a huge difference between using analytics in the service of bettering the team vs. building a team purely base on analytics.

Has Morey struck the right balance?

 

Charles Barkley is absolutely right.

He also called the Grizzlies exposing the Warriors.

 

Rockets were #6 in defensive efficiency in the regular season. That's a FACT.

Barkley saying we were one of the worst defensive teams in the league is completely false.

That the Rockets are getting torched now on D (without 2 key defensive players) is much more of an indication of the quality of the Clippers' offense (who are fully healthy now). Both Mavs and Clippers have great coaches that adjusted well and realized that running nonstop on Houston missed threes will work more often than not.

Most teams though don't have great quality coaches nor the Clippers' talent. That's why against most teams, the Rockets' defense has been solid this year -- thus the #6 ranking.

 

What you and Boobythegreat said are 100% correct. It's pretty simple. 2 big injuries + matchup nightmare = blowout losses.

I mean, the Clippers have been doing this to us the moment David Stern vetoed that CP3/Gasol trade. Why are people surprised now?

 

again despite what some numbers say the rockets never had that good of a defense. The habits on defense were never that of a top team. you can list a group of individuals that are associated with defensive play but as a team there never was good team defense. players expect others to bail them out. no accountability, no discipline. whether that's on the coaches scheme or the players or maybe both, someone on the team needs to speak up. at some point this should have happened.

 

Before the series even began, I was talking to my friend about defensive traits that the Rockets must learn in order to beat the Clippers - PnR and transition D. Throughout the season, we haven't been able to master these two traits against the top tier teams - Warriors, Clippers, Spurs, etc.

We played good man-on-man defense in the regular season when the teams are about 1-2 guys trying to beat you. But when the team have superior talent and play cohesively (Warriors, Spurs, Clippers), we have no answers for them. Chuck was right all along. We're Food's Gold.

 

exactly. a lot people don't see it during the regular since you are playing different opponents every night. this is what flaws the defensive numbers and doesn't tell the entire truth.

 

Have the rockets switched on defense every single time this year? or is it only against the clippers?
i live in austin and dont get many regular season games.

To me thats why the rockets are so bad right now. it all stems from bad defense.
Defense is easy to beat when you can just run pick and roll until your best player is matched up against the other teams worst defensive player.

Clippers every play just run PNR until griffin has the ball against harden and its an easy bucket.

i like mchale but it is troubling that he has not resolved this.

 

yeah. the easy switch puzzles me big time. how many times we saw last night, for example, herden switched on griffin and we got burned. why? i really cant comprehend.