[Clutchfans] Dwight: Defensive woes "starts on the perimeter"

I'm not a sport analyst but i'm always wondering: How would this team be if it was coached by another coach like Popovich or Thibodeau ? can it really be drastically improved defensively even with "bad " or "below average" defenders?

 

i know brewer cant shoot but give the man some damn playing time

 

I found Parsons' interview most revealing. He said the Rockets have to be less selfish ... both offensively and defensively.

The Beard is my favorite player on the team, but to me, that sounds like an indictment of Harden. Team coaches have to be honest about this, if the team is going to make the progress needed to get where they want.

 

Glad Howard spoke this out.

Harden's Defence problem is mental, since he has got all tools to be at least an averaged defender. We can also blame coaches to some extents, but I guess there are lessons that can only be learnt to Max pay player by losing games. How much more can JVG make T-Mac's buy on playing D, apart from the playoffs.

Lin has always been struggling against quick PGs. But we have to give him credits to his improvement on 1 on 1 defence. There are less gambling steal than last season, and the truth is if he can stay with the opposing guard, there is a good chance ending up with a positive results due to his height and strength advantages.

Lin or any PG's P&R D is truly a team defence system issue. This blame has to be taken by coaches.

Parsons was a good defender in the past a few seasons, and it remains mysterious why suddenly nearly every sf/sg started going off against him. It's true that his defensive targets are either start or all start in opposing teams (KD, P.George, Gay, etc). I guess it's due to the fact that his weakness has been explored by other teams, and that's his strength to hold his position in D. We can clearly see more posts on Parsons and most of time it ends up with a comfortable jump shot or even attacking directly to the rim. It's also not odd that players looking for a new contract pay more attentions to offensive stuff, such as points, rebounds, assists, ets, rather than defence which doesn't shown on stat board.

Brooks' D has always been a weak spot. Bev is better than Lin on on-ball defence but he won't be the answer for the disaster on premier D. It's a truly a shame because our bigs (Howard and Jones) are doing a top job playing defence but we look so bad in this category.

 

I am a coach and I can tell you that coaching makes a big difference. Some teams can get away with poor coaching due to an overwhelming amount of talent. A bad coach can stunt the growth of player development. The Rockets two major problems on defense is that they gamble way too much, especially on critical possessions. Lin and Harden do this a lot. I don't them blame they are both good at steals but in the NBA your not going to take the ball that much. The result is like a matador type defense, they swipe and the guy just blows by them, sometimes they let the guy get a step on them so that he can expose the ball allowing the chance to steal but majority of the time in the NBA your not gonna get that. It puts way to much on Dwight. Asik held the middle a little better than Dwight so Lin and Harden are used to getting away with this.

The first thing they need to learn is to stay solid. Harden needs to stop worrying about everyone else's guy and worry about his own. Often times you will see Harden helping on a guy that he doesn't need to help with, leaving his guy wide open in the corner. If they do this they will be a much better team because they can score it will add a couple of additional stops during the game and should earn them the lead.

Rockets can't defend screens! why? because they don't call screen and they chase their man around the screen or they stay below the screen allowing their man to get an open shot. Whenever a screen starts the man who is defending the guy setting the screen should yell SCREEN! SCREEN! SCREEN! so that the guy being screened can go under the screen quickly and not allow himself to be screened. That would take away Sacramento's offense last night and they would have not had a chance. This was also our problem against Portland who runs screens very well. Teams that run screens well tend to beat us because Mchale makes no adjustments. As coach he should have been telling them these things along time ago.

Another way to defend the screen is a jump switch where the guy defending the guy setting the screen jumps to the middle to protect the lane, however, you have to watch out for the roll.

 

of course the 'usual people' are going to to say thomas got to the basket anytime he wanted. really? just like lin was getting to the basket everytime he wanted? who's at fault for the kings actually going to what works and the rockets going away from what they're best at? these are the same people that say Indiana is bad matchup for harden because, oh my god, they play DEFENSE! totally not fair!

but lets look at it closer. Last game against the kings..
7/12 for Thomas for 19 points, and 6 points in the fourth. and that was with gary payton guarding him =/

 

And cousins doubled Howard's total rebounds in 11 less minutes... Where's the rebounding effort Dwight?

 

Good question. Defense is even more a team issue than offense. It helps to have a lockdown wingdefender and/or shotblocker, but if the other players on the floor don't help out and play according to a certain philosophy (switch, show on p&r, etc) and don't communicate, having one or two good defenders isn't enough.

Look at how the Warriors improved a lot on D once Jackson and his former assistant, Malone (Kings coach), implemented a good defense while having mediocre individual defenders.

This is not meant to absolve Harden, since he is clearly one of the weakest links, but it is a team issue. And the idea that getting a good wing defender will fix all the problems on D is a pipe dream.

 

Harden's my fav player on the team and its just sucks to watch his defence.He's like a matador when his guy gets close to him he moves to the side and let them go by.He needs to be held accountable, I wish Steven A Smith go in on him to wake him up Mchail wont do it

 

"Defense is all about effort." - Dwight Howard


Nothing else needs to be said really.

 

Yep, and if you are not putting forth the effort, you should be riding the pine until you do.

DD

 

Yes it would be much improved because those two coaches preach defense. That is their forte, they will make sure defense is a priority for all players. You don't play defense then you will be on the bench plain n simple. Especially if Pop is coaching this team.

 

Agreed 100

 

But at least if we had a good wing defender who could score, McFail would have the luxury of benching Harden in crunch time. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit here, but I think McFail would sit Harden more often if he had a reliable 2-3 guy on the bench he could go to. Garcia clearly ain't getting the job done and Lin was forced into starting lineup after Bev's injury, so that rules him out.

 

It's not always that simple though.

 

It's a nice catch phrase, but it only covers a part of what defense requires. If with all your effort, you go under screens against guys like Curry and over screens against guys like Wade, it won't help much. If, with max effort, you rotate to the wrong guy, the effort is worthless. If you jump like crazy to block shots and are out of position for rebounds or Only make fouls, it doesn't help much.

 

"BAD MOVE: For all the offense Harden provided, his lackadaisical approach on defense hampered his team severely again Tuesday. Harden took several questionable risks and was caught ball-watching too often, allowing his man to sneak behind him for easy baskets on back-door cuts." - from NBA.com

 

Maybe not but if they are putting forth the effort and communicating like you stated above.( Screaming out the Screens). It can be very simple.

 

How many of those are there, and which one could we realistically get? And at what price?

 

Brooks put in an effort. He tried to deny IT the ball several times. Guys are bigger and stronger than him. Not IT, but IT blows by anyone, I've been watching him play. Brooks tries. PGs have not been killing the Rockets the past few games, it's the 2 position that has been and not from top 2 offensive players.