I would agree but our D even with Battier, Artest, and Hayes in there...plus Scola...you'd expect to have some pretty good defense there...but it wasn't. Wafer-Brooks-Landry's weakness on D are major weaknesses. It's not that they aren't capable of it...just that they aren't having it instilled in them. I hope Battier and Artest can step up and teach these guys something things about defense.
Those guys can play decent D, but we have no shotblocking with that group, and there is no fear around the basket. Yao is not quick but he stops a LOT of shots with his presence. When he gets back our D will get better.....also, Hamilton was smoking out there.....he is a tough cover. DD
Adelman has never had good defensive teams. He wants to answer a run with offense where jvg answers with defense. Plus he never wanted deke nor does he want him now. They should go get a backup he's confortable with. Instead of force feeding deke on him when its obvious he's not going to play him. I don't think this team is good enough defensively to win a ring.
I think this team is slowly changing, focusing more on the offensive end than defensive now. The tempo is quicker than before. I think while our offense is getting better, our defense is getting worse. It's a process. If it continues, we will not win a championship.
Good observation, particularly the tempo bit, we are playing at a much faster pace, giving more possesions to the other team. But lately, the other team has been breaking 50% shooting, FAR too often.... I do like the tempo/pace comment......though, well observed. DD
Defense is a true team concept. Therefore, much chemistry among the players is needed in order for a defense to truly succeed especially at the professional level. When you have players with continuous injuries and are in/out of lineups every other night, continuity in practice and in games becomes difficult to accomplish. Like on the broadcast, the team simply needs more time in practice and in games with all rotation players playing together before we can make a true assessment of the quality of defense.
If defense doesn't improve,we are looking at another 1st round exit provided we make it to the playoffs first.Last year the defense was quite good for the most part. Quicker tempo does lead to more chances for the other team to score but if the defense picks up we could have our cake and eat it too. Don't see that happening though.
missing the D genius is the main problem. Another reason though is that Artest's D is simply overrated. He gambles WAY to much and does not have the speed to recover. Scola totally blows on D also unless he is flopping. Battier can shot block but he is mostly running around the perimeter since no one else can.
No need to worry, at all. The way I see it, JVG uses defense of playoff intensity in regular season. When real playoff comes and all teams crank up their intensity, we do not have enough fire power to counter it. Isn't this why we hired Adelman?
Current Rockets, 4th best D rating in the league. Last year's Rockets, 2nd best D rating in the league. 02-03 Kings, 2nd best D rating in the league. 90-91 Blazers, 3rd best D rating in the league.
Lately, we've agreed on a lot...but not this. Regarding an alleged Adelman "dislike" of Mutombo...didn't Deke take Hayes' minutes and become the starter last season when Yao went down? IMO, it's too early in Mutombo's conditioning process to play him. And the opponents lately have had outside shooting bigs like Rasheed, Okur and Troy Murphy. Not to mention, as much as I dislike Hayes, he did a credible job of closing out on Rasheed's 3 at the end of the DET game. Something Deke would clearly have struggled with. As far as the Rockets' defense not being good enough or "defense" being a prelude to winning the Championship, tell it to the current Lakers. And don't lose sight of the Cavs adding more firepower in Mo Williams. IMHO, what wins Championships is good transition and a balanced emphasis on both ends of the court. Thankfully, the additions of Artest and Wafer addressed the imbalance "hangover" from Van Gundy. The Rockets' biggest enemy so far this season has been health. I don't think we can draw too many conclusions about how good this teams plays (O or D) until they have established some sort of rotation.
PWND!!! My guess is the Adelman is devoting practice time to running his offense rather than practicing defensive sets. A lot of the our guys are already pretty good defensive players (Battier, Hayes, Mutombo, Yao Ming, Alston), so I guess Adelman wants to put more attention on running his offense. I'm fine with it as long as we keep getting away with Ws. Will this come back to bite us in the playoffs? Probably not, EVERYONE plays good D in the playoffs (even the Warriors), and the extra work on O will help us get easy buckets later on when the going gets tough.
Call me stupid, but I didn't see much bad defensive positioning or effort last night, and saw a few really good stops. Sheed was abusing Landry and Scola, but he's a near-elite post player going up against two guys who don't have the lower body strength to defend him. Stuckey abused Brooks and did well against Rafer, but he's a really tough cover. I know Rip scored 27, but he did most of that with a hand in his face. The Pistons are a very good team, and the Rockets beat them without yao on their floor with a balanced effort. Also, I thought the rebounding intensity was great on both ends of the floor, which has the potential to be a problem without Yao.
Um in case you noticed we had one of the highest quarters this season, and we were on fire from 3 pt land. In fact I think we shot in the 60%+ range for the entire game. Yet we only won by 3 pts. How does that not scream bad defense to you?
My observation that Detroit didn't seem to get very many easy shots, and that for the most part they were making tough shots.
Morey is the problem with the D. He can look at all his algorithms, parabolics, plus minus's and what not, but he may not realize that it would be nice to have an athletic shotblocker or two with size on the team. When Yao is out it becomes a layup drill for the other team. All the rocket fours are either semi undersized or completely undersized and none is a true shotblocker.
