The Rockets opened camp switching on screens, even off the ball, from point guard to center. That is not necessarily the defense they will play at all times, as much as a way to put in a foundation of the defense. The switching used so far includes center Alperen Sengun, who played almost entirely in drop coverages last season. Sengun sat out part of Tuesday’s five-on-five scrimmages Tuesday but went through all of Wednesday’s practice and was switching defensively throughout. Other coverages will be added. “We’ve done that with everybody to start,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We’re kind of reverse engineering it where we’re switching everything now knowing that won’t be our coverage in all our games. For us, we want them to be extra aggressive defensively. Part of that is the reason we switch so that when we peel back, it’s still aggressive and up and impacting the ball and things like that.” The Rockets ranked 29th in the NBA defensively last season. They did not use a wide variety of schemes. That could change this season, even if it has not in the first two days of training camp. They are unlikely to go with as many defenses as guard Fred VanVleet typically played with the Toronto Raptors, known for a wide variety of trick defenses that included zones, box-and-ones, even an occasional triangle-and-two. But VanVleet said he saw potential for the Rockets to mix things up more often than many teams. “Absolutely. If you look at the group that we have and you go guy by guy and see where they can be effective,” VanVleet said. “I think obviously you’ll see a lot of switching the way the NBA is played today. We’re really challenging Alpi to find different ways to be effective on defense. He’s probably not going to just sit in a drop like he’s used to. He’s going to get more active. “Jeff (Green) will probably play some five. Obviously, Jabari (Smith Jr.) Having all those guys who are versatile at the big spot — Jock (Landale) can move a little bit — and we got the guards and the wings. There’s potential to do a lot of nice things defensively and I’m looking forward to that.”
really interesting to hear Ime’s comments on the switch. Sounds like he knows that Al P will be an issue on the switch and that it’s likely to be a consideration with their defensive schemes, but that he at least wants him to get used to it. I like that.
Okay. Tate definitely got promoted to being Ime's player.......called him Swiss army knife ....kinda like LBJ and Franz W.
Cam Whitmore looked like he trucked somebody into another dimension in that Gatlin video. lol. Was that Holiday? And everybody wanting to know about Alperen's defense and if he's able to switch. Or at least that seemed to be a hot topic.
To me, it seemed much more that the guys asking the questions were singling out Alpi for defense questions than Ime did. Interesting that they didn't do the same for Jalen whose defense has been CONSIDERABLY worse than Alpi's. It almost seemed a bit to me that Ime was starting to get annoyed with them constantly asking about Alpi's defense.
Can confirm from multiple sources: Udoka did not get a boner after leaving the interview with Vanessa. #GetUsABaddieReporterPatrick
Who are some of the better reporters down there for training camp? I like Gatlin and Chancellor. There's this one fella. Binkley? Seems like a nice guy, but I hate his coverage and his writing is seriously worse than my 13 year old's English class essays. The Rockets really need to start credentialing people who have half a brain. Who are some of the better reporters down there for training camp? I like Gatlin and Chancellor. There's this one fella. Binkley? Seems like a nice guy, but I hate his coverage and his writing is seriously worse than my 13 year old's English class essays. The Rockets really need to start credentialing people who have at least half a brain.
We play Indiana on Oct 10th. Not that far away. https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/hou/houston-rockets
That's weird, I watched a few Tari and at least one Amen misses today but they don't seem to be in that clip.
Man, if you don't post some of his misses, I swear I'm putting you on ignore. lol. I'm kidding, but it's like in some of these tweets they act like these dudes haven't missed a shot. They hit like 2 shots during practice and put the NBA on notice.
