Optimism Prime wrote:roxfashoballin wrote:great game to lose , rockets gotta keep this up , memphis/toronto/chicago in the race w/ us for w/e draft pick we're fighting for. i think we should win
martin/brooks starting next season is frightening , i hope morey accepts the inconvienent truth and trade one of them, or have one off the bench and getta defensive guard play 15-20 min, hate to say it but that's notta championship team , playoff team for sure, 2nd round at best . 2010 offseason is gonna be entertaining.
Call it a hunch, but I bet they'll seem a lot better at defense when we have a certain 7-6 intimidation factor around the rim.
Look at Orlando last year--they started Howard, four mediocre-at-best defenders, and were the best defensive squad in the league. I'm not saying the same will hold true for us, but if we're a top-10 defensive team, I'd be thrilled. (Hint: we went from #4 to #17 this year. It's possible.)
i thought the same thing that yao and our sfs would make up for the backcourt defense but got to thinking it might not happen.
but the magics starters were better at defense then us. first of all, lee is above average at defense, as good as ariza, who's also above average. nelson at least has size, brooks prolly isnt even 160lbs, he's undersized for a pg, he can play good off the ball defense tho, he chases pgs around good, did a good job on rudy in last years playoffs. rashard can play better post defense then scola, he can contest shots much better and scola couldnt even dream of that. scola's the better rebounder but shard is a sf playing pf, and he's a good rebounder for a sf. hedo and maritn the same i guess. dwight better then yao too, yao can hold the paint down but still too slow and notta dominating rebounder. dwight can fly all over the place.
w/ brooks and martin, the opposing guards can go past them then force yao to help and yao'll get into foul trouble cuz of helping too much. scola cant play help defense, and ariza/shane gotta guard their man. the only way this team has a chance of contending w/ brooks/martin starting is if the pf is also good at defense. someoen who can block shots, preferrably long and fast for help defense. that way when brooks/martin lose their man, the guy w/ the ball has to deal w/ a defensive frontcourt, could result in more jumpshots.
of corse one of them can come off the bench and somehow getta defensive guard, preferably 2 guard cuz pgs are the hardest to stop.
o ya and i forgot that yao coming back from that injury, who knows if he can play, if he'll be as good, if he'll play more than 25mpg. he'll have to play heavy minutes
