No D in the H

I tried to make that sexually funny somehow but I failed horribly…Anyway, what I meant was, where the hell is the defense in our “supposed to be good this year” teams of Houston Rockets and Texans? There is none of it and both teams are either dead last or close to dead last in defensive efficiency after every single game. I know both teams are doing pretty well on the other side of game, but as we all know the saying is not “Offense Wins Championships”. I believe the correct saying by Paul Bryant was more like “Offense sells tickets, Defense wins Championships”. At least the Texans are following true to that phrase by selling out every game and the poor defense can be somewhat blamed on injuries . But the rockets can’t even sell out a game this year unless it’s the 1st game of the season or our opponent happens to have some form of the current fad of a Big 3. I mean Golden State does this every year. They always have one of the top offensive teams thanks to Nelly and the fans love it and love to go to the games even though they have only been to the dance once in the past gazillion years. On a side note, that one time out of a gazillion in the 1st round against Dallas was one of my favorite playoff series ever to watch, and not because I like the Warriors. This year the Rockets are a high powered offensive team but ain’t selling tickets and ain’t winning. Will they turn it around? Yeah sure maybe, and I hope so. But I do not remember a team that could get to the Ship without at least having “middle efficiency” defense. Just look at the Suns this past decade…a future hall of fame point guard, a beast in the paint and very very solid role players all around who could all shoot lights out every night and average 120 points for the season. Yeah having an ultra high powered offense will give you a great fan base and get you to the playoff every year, but when that non-defense team runs into a team like the Spurs (not flashy or high powered) who play very slow and is at the bottom of the barrel as far as points scored then we see consistently every year that defense almost always wins out. My point is that if the Suns couldn’t do it with the talent they had then how the hell are we supposed to try that with no future hall of famers and only 24 minutes per game of a beast in paint? If you want to call Yao a beast that is… We should have never gotten rid of JVG because he was so defensive minded and eventually it would have worked out; we just weren’t patient enough. And if you’re argument is that Adelman took the rockets to 2nd round for the 1st time in over a decade then my argument back is that Adelman had nothing to do with that. The rockets were still one of the best defensive team in the NBA that year and it was due to JVG pounding a defensive mindset into our player’s heads which stuck for the next couple years. So I still believe that if that team was under JVG and not Rick then we would have either done the same or better.



If we look at the Rockets today, there is absolutely no defensive mind set in our players that was taught from JVG. Yes Battier is older and Yao doesn’t play as much, but still, I would think that Adelman and Morey would recognize that and take action into attaining some defensive stoppers. We did it with Artest and Ariza so why is our main priority trying to go for guys like Kevin Martin and Chris Bosh who only play offense? If no one has noticed, a lot of experts say that Houston has one of the most potent offensive back courts in the league with Brooks and Martin and they complement each other very well. But they are also the main reason why so many teams can get to the hoop so easily. Yao is not quick enough to stop every freight train that drives the lane and The Chuck Wagon can’t stop anyone who can at least semi-jump. With those 2 guys guarding our wings it’s sometimes like a 5 on 3 when we are on defense. If our starting guards can’t stop Kobe then what’s even the point? They say that is why we traded Ariza for Courtney Lee, to have a “Kobe Stopper” but I highly doubt the 3rd year guy who comes off our bench is the answer. We are a better team all around when we focus on defense with our best players and not offense players. Adelman is a good coach but if our team continues to try to win games on just one side of ball then I say we beg JVG back and get him the players he sees to fit a defensive focus and to make the Great Wall greater.



One thing I loved about the Texans drafting the controversial 1st pick of the draft with Mario Williams over Reggie Bush was that we drafted a player specifically to stop and play defense against the best football player in the NFL. Now that is focusing on what matters; stopping the other team, not outscoring them.