The Houston Rockets Defense Will Be Even NASTIER Next Season
This has been a very busy off season for the Houston Rockets. An offseason so busy that they were able to get their hands on Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns. And in order to do that, the Houston Rockets, they did have to give up Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks, and the 10th overall pick in this year’s NBA draft. But the Houston Rockets, they saw this as a risk that was worth taking because this season, they saw the Houston Rockets go up against the Golden State Warriors, one of the hottest teams in the second half of the NBA season after making a trade for Jimmy Butler. But we see the Houston Rockets go up against Stephen Curry, Jimmy Traymond Green, and coach Steve Kerr. give them a hell of a time, taking them to seven games and they had a legit chance to win the series just if they could have been a little bit better in the half court, executing half court sets and also knocking down their free throws. And the Houston Rockets feel like they definitely get that with Kevin Durant. And um in one of my last videos, I called Kevin Durant an offensive ecosystem because everybody is going to eat off the type of offense that he generates and then he’s at the top of that food chain. But one thing I’ve really been overlooking since the addition of Kevin Durant and not just the addition of KD, but the way they finished the off season after that, um, extending Jabari Smith Jr., retaining Steven Adams, um, bringing in Dorian Finley Smith and Clint Capella. The way that I look at this roster now is it’s the it’s the same core guys, but it’s constructed so much differently now. But looking at this roster now, not only do I think we’re going to see improvements on the offensive side of the ball, but I think we’re going to see improvements on the defensive side of the ball. And I think that says a lot because the Houston Rockets these last couple years, they really rebranded themselves as one of the most stout defenses, one of the most physical defenses in the NBA today. So, what I’m looking at them right now and what um what potential I’m seeing to them next season, building um capitalizing off finishing fourth in defensive rating, potentially going even higher than that next season is now the Houston Rockets. Um I I I don’t know this for a fact, but just looking at it on paper, I think they may might have the longest team in the NBA. And right now, we’re just talking about length. We’re not factoring in all the athleticism that they possess right now. But when we talk about length, if you ever um played basketball, if you ever hooped at any level, playing in middle school, um playing pickup, playing in the park, playing in the open gym, length matters. If you know, if you have a smaller player on you, anybody shorter, shorter arms, you can lay the ball up easy easily over them all day. But when you start playing those guys that’s taller and they have longer arms, you have to try a lot harder to score the basketball. And then sometimes just having one of those guys on the court, it it it impacts a lot on the basketball court. So when we look at the Houston Rockets and just to give you the wingspan, the wingspans of some of the guys on this team, it’s ridiculous. When we look at um some of the bigs, when we look at Clint Capella and we look at Steven Adams, these two guys possess a 7 foot five wingspan and that makes a huge difference. Um playing in the passing lanes, playing in the pick and roll. You see Steven Adams, he gets a lot of little clever skills because he h um clever steals because he has that 7 foot5 wingspan and he has a high basketball IQ. And then um um Clint Capella is one of the more underrated rim protectors in the NBA today. Even at this point in at this later stage in his career, still a really good rim protector and his 7 foot five wingspan plays a huge role in that. So, we look at those two guys, massive wingspans. And then we look at the fors on this team. And this is where it really gets um really dangerous and I think where a lot of teams are going to hate playing the Houston Rockets this year. And also u one of the things I talked about that I overlooked with Kevin Durant. As good as he is on the offensive side of the ball, the offensive ecosystem that that he is, I think he can be really dangerous as a defender. He can be really dangerous as a defender under a guy like um under a guy like coach Eman Udogga and playing alongside all these other great defenders because that’s another thing about the game of basketball. If you played it at any level when you play around other highlevel defenders, guys that make plays on the defensive side of the ball, they make you want to they they you have no other choice but to play defense yourself as well. You don’t want to be the only guy out there that’s not giving an effort on the defensive side of the ball. So now we have Kevin Durant who stands at you know 6′ rumored to be 6′ 10 6′ 11 but we all believe Kevin Durant is 7 feet tall. So we have KD who is considered a wing in today’s NBA but you know a lot of people consider KD to be a bunch of different things but um we have him at the small forward power forward position. He’s 7 feet tall and he possesses a 7 foot five wingspan. So Kevin Durant is out there with the wing with with a wingspan with Clint Capella and Stephen Adams and we all know the amazing things he does on the offensive side of the ball. Um I feel like we always got to mention that about KD when we talking about his wingspan, but this is going to be so vital on the defensive side of the ball, especially with all the different things the Houston Rockets love to do defensively, going through different zones, switching everything. Kevin Durant as a weak side defender, being able to block shots, being able to get steals in the passing lanes. I think that’s going to be very beneficial for the Houston Rockets, looking deeper than looking deeper into this forward room when we look at a Dorian Fei Smith that was brought in this off season. Now, he stands at just 6’6 and he um he’s measured to have a 6’11 wingspan. We’re going to just round up today because it was 6’11 then a bunch of decimals. So around the 7 foot wingspan for Dorian Finny Smith too. And then also to make this even better, he’s already a defensive oriented player. Um made his name, made his money on being a 3 and D guy in the NBA. So that’s his thing. So, um he’s a good on ball point of attack defender and then also he can um rotate down, help protect the rim, bring down rebounds, get steals in the passing lanes, his his length on them, playing in them zone defenses, um playing in the in the switch schemes definitely going to be very beneficial for the Houston Rockets coming into this upcoming season. And then we look at these next two wings. The Houston Rockets actually drafted these guys. the sizes and the athleticism on these two guys is is ridiculous. Starting off with Tari E. He was drafted a couple years ago for the Houston Rockets. He stands at 6’8 6’8 tall, but he has a 72 wingspan. He’s supremely athletic going horizontally on the basketball court, going side to side and getting up and down the basketball court. He’s shown us how elite he is on the defensive side of the ball these last couple years. We just need Tari E to have a full consistent season for the Houston Rockets. And then we look at Jabari Smith Jr. Same thing. The um um monster physical traits. He stands at 6’10, has a 7 foot1 wingspan, does everything on the defensive side of the ball, can anchor the defense, um can switch onto smaller players, can guard in the post, and he can rebound the basketball. So, they’re extremely um they’re extremely long in their in their um in their wing department. And then we look at their ace defender. Their ace defender has elite lift on him as well. And we know their ace defender is none other than a men Thompson. And this is going to put the cherry on top of the video on why the um why the Houston Rockets could be even better even better on the defensive side of the ball next season is because they have a men Thompson as the captain of this defense as the um what did I just call him? The ace defender. He’s the ace defender for the Houston Rockets. And I think when you have an ace defender like this, um, it’s hard to top. It’s hard to when we just talk about the the physical attributes, the physical traits, it’s hard to top one better than the men Thompson, then what makes it even worse for all these other guys in the NBA is that he wants to get out there and defend. So when you have that that type of athleticism, type of instincts, and then you have the will of someone who wants to defend. I’m supposed to tell you guys his measurements, but Mid Thompson, he stands at 6’7, but he possesses a 7ft wingspan and he’s one of the most athletic players to come in the NBA in these recent amount of years. He’s supremely fast. He can jump out of the gym. You look at his highlights, he’s going to have some of the craziest defensive highlights that you can see. And he actually, if you just put on his defensive tape, the things that he does on the defensive side of the ball is very entertaining. There’s not many players you can say that you can say that about that you can just put on their their defensive highlights and you can be satisfied with watching that. That’s how explosive he is as a defender. But I’m excited for the Houston Rockets to have Amen Thompson with all of this length around him as that point of defa point of attack ace defender. We’re going to see him at the top of every zone. Um we’re going to see we’re going to see him starting off guarding the opposing team’s best offensive threat. And then also I think I think his what he can be on the defensive side of the board has no limitations. We’ve already seen it last season. He’s already guarding guys in the post. He’s already um protecting the rim. He’s getting chased down blocks. And I think now with Dylan Brooks going, he’s definitely going to get more responsibilities, more assignments, and I definitely think he’s ready for it. But when we look at the Houston Rockets and we look at um and we look at all these guys with all this length, we just named about five, six, seven guys that has a seven foot wingspan and we just go go back to that point that we made at the beginning of of the video. Basketball on any different level when you have anybody that’s, you know, a little bit um a little bit taller than you, a lot a lot taller than you, not saying you can’t score on these guys, but we all know it makes it it makes it a lot tougher. And then when you have guys who have like massive wings spans like these guys on the Houston Rockets, elite athletes like these guys on the Houston Rockets. And then you have coach Eay Udoka, one of the best def best defensive minded coaches in the game today who’s not afraid to we’ve seen him go to so many different looks. We’ve seen him throw out every type of zone. We’ve seen him play switch everything. We’ve seen him play in the drop coverage with his big. So, he literally has a a roster now where he can have every defensive scheme u at he can have every defensive scheme at his um disposal if he wants to play his bigs in a draft coverage. He has a men Thompson, he has Tari E, he has Dorian Finley Smith. That’s three own ball defenders right there that are um that that are that were brought into the NBA for their skills to fight over screens. if they wanted to play a zone um against a team, if they wanted to disrupt the passing lanes. Look at the the the length that they have on their wings with Kevin Durant, Tari East, and Jabari Smith Jr. That those three guys that can play on the basketball court at the same time, and they have a 7ft wingspan. So, that’s why I’m saying um it’s going to be real interesting to see what level of intensity that the Houston Rockets come out with on the defensive side of the ball next season. I think it’s going to be supremely high and I think a lot of teams are going to hate it. But that’s what I want to talk about with you guys today. If you enjoyed, please leave a like, comment down below if you agree or disagree, and then subscribe. Subscribe for more weekly content. And we do this all the time, man. And that’s curtains.
The Houston Rockets had one of the top 3 defenses last season, and this offseason they didn’t just improve their offense — their defense got even nastier. With the additions of Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela, plus keeping Jalen Green, Tari Eason, and Amen Thompson, the Rockets’ length and versatility on defense are going to be crazy. In this video, I break down why Houston’s defense is about to become even more dominant and why this could be a game-changer for their entire season. Don’t sleep on the Rockets’ defense this year!
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The Houston Rockets Defense Will Be Even NASTIER Next Seaso
