There was help on the dribble penetration but it was worthless because the defensive rotation was WAY too late. You are again thinking 1 on 1 defense. Your weak 1 on 1 defenders gets covered up when you play zone the right way. Gater, in the regular season, the rockets RARELY play zone. I just remembered once or twice this year we tried it but only a few defensive plays. Certainly not enough to know how affective or not affective it can be.
I have not idea what you're talking about. What is your point really? Who stops what? When? Are you thinking 1 on 1 defense?
Once Boozer got the ball in his hands, someone would have to stop him. If the Rockets played zone, the player or players assigned to stop him would be determined by where he was on the floor instead of who was assigned to him, but someone would still have to stop him. Who would do that?
I liked JVG's defense... where you are constantly attacking the ball pressure defense.. I mean who else would have a 7'6 stiff trying to force the ball out of a opposing guards hands at the 3 point line... I mean it worked... it got us 52 wins... but the problem was... our guys did expend alot of energy on the defensive end...running around for those 24 seconds and if you watched very closely... more often then not... we left someone wide open for a shot anyways... or our defenders were 2 or 3 steps away from a guy as he tossed it up.... it was a very good defense... but when the other side made adjustments... or the players adjusted too the presure of somone in your face... sometimes you have to switch it up...
JVG's defensive system is first class. No doubt about it. With the personnel we had, it could stop the vast majority of the teams. But the defense didn't work when the opponent has two scoring big men, one mobile, one 3pt shooter, on the floor at the same time. Who do you put Yao on? He can't guard the mobile one (Boozer in this case) and we don't want him to go out to the 3pt line to guard the shooter (Okur). That's why we had problem stopping the Suns. Yao can't guard Amare, and he can't guard Marion. I don't know if the zone would work. But if I were the coach, I'd put Yao on Okur. Let him go out to the 3pt line. Let Hayes guard Boozer. Yao isn't a better rebounder than Hayes anyways. Hayes has a much better chance containing Boozer. Plus, Hayes can help on guard penetration better than Yao. Sure, they need to rotate faster on Boozer when Hayes helps with the penetration. But I think that would have a better chance to succeed. JVG should at least try it for a game to see if it would work when the Yao-on-Boozer strategy clearly didn't work.
Van Gundy emphasized controlling the defensive boards and does not care about fast break points. When in a zone you are out of rebounding position, it allows for many more potential opportunities for the opposition. Because of that I think Van Gundy stayed away from the zone. Utah would probably shoot through our zone anyways. The Rockets had the best defensive FG% in the league, we gave Okur and AK fits, the problem was not defense. The problem was 4 players scoring in an entire game on offense. If you don't like JVG I can't blame you. If you bash his defense then I have to disagree.
If you want to watch zone defense turn on a college game - it's simply not used in the NBA very much by any team becuase it hasn't proven very effective.
If you think the zone is not effective watch the Spurs or Pistons sometimes... and GS against the mavs... just for examples. No you cannot run the zone exclusively in the NBA, well unless the other cannot shoot...um the Rockets, but it does help to change up your defense to confuse the other team and force turnovers. If you can play a good 2/3 zone with players who are good at ball pressure, you can stop a lot of teams.
When you play zone, one person don't have the burden to stop them by himself. He can't really drive against the zone with his type of ability so the only option boozer really have will be shooting over somebody in the midrange. We could have lived with his midrange jumpers. But when he started to drive and draw the fouls and finish up close that's when it started to break our backs defensively.
Just may be me, but didnt Boozer make mainly those jump shots over Yao, especially early in the series...which got Yao to come out more, letting Boozer drive by him?? (I just want to know why Yao always game him the baseline...watch the stance. I know you try to use the baseline as an extra defender, but he was giving him too much space there instead of forcing him back to the lane where you have help?) Anyway, I'm nitpicking something thats over and done with. I think Yao will be better when fully healed from the injury. With our players, we CANNOT play a very good zone, especially against a team like the Jazz until we have a real PF.
We can play a decent zone, enough to disrupt the Jazz from ripping a hole the size of Texas with their drive and dish or have Giricek/Matt Harpering, backing down all our guards including T-mac. I'm fine with them taking jump shots, but as good Boozer is, we made him look like a Hall of Famer out there, and that's just sad.
When you see the same defense sets over and over again you get comfortable. You will get in that zone because you know what is coming defensively and get in a good rhythm. If we throw different looks at him...like a zone or a double team. MAYBE just MAYBE we can catch him off of his zone and throw him out of his game.
