Who is to blame for the awful D?

At this point I will say harden, not just because of his D, but this is his TEAM, he is the superstar Allstate took us to playoffs etc last year... So if D is bit that important to him it rubs off on others because no one is willing to step up and address him because at the end of the day this is his team & the player that may want to address him does not do enough to win games so they have to be quiet, this is where rondo comes in

 

Thanks for posting this. Interesting video. And actually I think the most interesting part might be right before your bookmark.

Specifically, SVG was talking about a comment Daryl Morey made in an earlier session, in which Morey said that sometimes he would point out to coaches that a player who sometimes misses rotations is nevertheless a positive because he does valuable things like getting steals and hitting 3s, etc. and it would be good to keep the guy on the floor. Stan says that he would disagree because tolerating such a player's mistakes would lead to a breakdown in the team's defensive culture and defensive system.

It is interesting to me because it's as though these guys are talking about this year's Rockets team-- our perimeter guys do miss rotations and gamble for steals. Maybe they are even told to gamble because the numbers show that the odds are good, who knows?

Maybe Daryl's numbers show that guys like Lin, Harden, Parsons, etc. are not really as bad defensively as some argue, but tolerating these mistakes and risk taking could be making it hard to build a defensive culture.

Also, I actually think that both SVG and Sampson can be right: coaching and system matters, but what is really important isn't exactly what system you devise, it's what you can actually get players to do. We've seen good defensive teams do things very differently-- some trap pick and rolls, some have their bigs lay back to protect the paint, for example-- but the good defensive coaches get the players to actually execute the system.

Edit: I see that Breitbart actually commented on this part also.

 

• Incompetent coaching
• Lackadaisical young team

Where's the poll option for:

Who is to blame threads are always horrible threads put forth by incompetent and Lackadaisical young fans.

 

If the coaches say they value defense, then they must put out best defensive players on the court in the 4th even if we sacrifice a little offense.

You have to slow down Dirk and Ellis? Adjust. Try something different to break their momentum like Asik on Dirk and Brewer on Ellis. At the least, they will need to re-think the offense.

We keep talking about defense, but we reward poor effort from our guys. I even think Asik is better than Howard on pnr defense.

 

Also brewer needs to get minutes he can play. Harden doesn't need to be playing 40 plus everynight that will help

 

We are still early into the season, McHale have to have better command and p0ut his foot down, when players are not following instructions, particularly on defense, and call the player out. There are many capable players on eagerly waiting for minutes. Give them a chance. Sometimes, lessons are taught the hard way.

 

Even a good on ball defender can be easily caught by screen, which will cause a series of defensive reactions. That is why disciplined defensive system is important. Right now it is either coach's inability to punish undisciplined players, or coach failing to build an effective system that works. Either way it is largely on coaching.

 

Another thing that Stan Van Gundy said in the video:

He would play JJ Redick even though the analytics people tell him that Redick is a bad defender (and at least one number, RAPM, reflects this: http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/). Even though Redick is short and not very athletic, he is always in the right place at the right time and this is important to building the defensive culture.

This reminds me of how Stan's brother Jeff would play Juwan Howard a ton back in the days. Juwan was the ultimate "always execute the game plan, but is still totally ineffective" guy.

The difference between Juwan and JJ Redick is that JJ is at least effective on offense. Juwan sucks on both ends despite actually executing the game plan-- on offense, he always pops up at the perfect moment at an open spot on the floor for the midrange jumper, and misses frequently with his no-arc J. Good times.

I think you can get too extreme in either direction. I get the "building the culture" argument and for the most part agree with it. But you have to notice when the scoreboard is going the wrong way.

 

There's definitely legitimate arguments to be made on both sides of the argument, in terms of both having an emphasis on discipline and team culture as well as the impact of less orthodox, impact driven play.

I think however there may not be a "best" answer. I don't think it's impossible to integrate a strong culture and still have the room for "free lancing" if the rewards outweigh the risk.

For example, would you really want Beverley to never gamble on steals if he's very good at getting them? Or to never go for offensive rebounds and instead run back for a set defense?

In some ways it's very similar to building a corporate culture. You want a corporate culture that instills discipline and uniform rules, yet if you do not make exceptions for "outliers", ie, people with unique or special talents then you essentially become IBM from the 1980's... a stodgy corporation that gets crushed by more nimble and adaptive competitors.

Surely there must be room for both the systematic and the creative. The real question is whether McHale and Co are the ones with the ability to strike the right balance.

 

This. Just sit him for the first 6 minutes of a game and the point will have been made. If he sulks and gets all emo - then we know what we are going to have to deal with for the next several years. I would wager that he gets angry, embarrassed and makes a drastic improvement in his overall game.

I remember Arian sitting for a half against the Raiders a couple of years ago. Guy totally beasted after that.

 

OP...you should have added "both" to your poll. It starts with laziness and miscommunication on the defensive end, but it's up to the coaching staff to hold players accountable and fix the lingering issues.

 

Good post.

I've always defended the analytics approach. But how do you measure intangibles such as team culture? I am not sure I totally agree or disagree with the JVG/SVG philosophy. It's always a trade off.

I've said it somewhere else. Perhaps the apparent lack of direction in our coaching philosophy so far is by Morey's design. McHale is supposed to be "open" to Morey's inputs on game planning. And maybe Morey wants to do more experiments at this stage of team building in order to get more real data to confirm or debunk his theories.

 

The talks about coaching has me thinking that the Rockets seems to be going in a big circle with their coaches in the last decade or so.

We started off with Rudy T, a former star forward and a "player's coach." Les let him go because the team was lacking in discipline (if you think "Harden iso" is worth complaining about, go back and watch some of the footage of Steve Francis Dribble-mania) and in search of defensive improvement even after landing a talented big man.

Then we get JVG, who was let go because the team wasn't doing enough offensively and playing slow-down grinding basketball. Les replaced him with Adelman (who, by the way, didn't really change the team's playing style or result that much while Yao/McGrady were there).

Adelman was then replaced for whatever reason-- most likely because of a lack of receptiveness to analytics? Anyhow, the team then hired Kevin McHale, a former star forward and a "player's coach." And I don't know what Leslie is thinking but we are hearing fans complaining about McHale doesn't reign in Harden's iso tendencies and instill defensive discipline.

Will the cycle continue?

(And no, Kevin McHale doesn't have the success that Rudy had as coach, but then again, Kevin McHale didn't have Hakeem Olajuwon & Co. Anyhow, I am not saying they are the same guy, just have some similar characteristics).

 

Rudy T didn't have Morey.