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 Houston teams? There is none of it and both the Texans and the Rockets 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 with offense, 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 part of the 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 is able to accomplish sold games every year and they suck. 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 playeoffs 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 having at least a “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 close to 120 points for the season. Yes having an ultra high powered offense like the 2000's Suns will give you a great fan base and get you to the playoffs 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 accomplish 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… I know Adelman is more so in his own way trying to do with Yao what Orlando is doing with Dwight Howard and surrounding him with 3 point threats and spreading the floor. And in theory that sounds great. I mean Yao when healthy is dominant in the paint and is a better passer and shooter than Dwight and we don’t have to send Yao to the bench in the 4th due to bad free throw shooting like Orlando must do with Dwight. We have great role players who play as a team and can shoot very well. But Yao is the center piece of that style and theory and without him then it fails miserably and then it turns into running around and jacking up shots since that what our role players are taught to do it seems.  We should have never gotten rid of JVG because he was so defensive minded and eventually it would have worked out better in case we didn’t have Yao full time like we do now; at least we would have a chance at stopping the other teams offense even if we were scoring slowly; I think we just weren’t patient enough back then and I think we canned JVG too soon. And if you’re argument is that Adelman took the rockets to the 2nd round for the first time in over a decade then my argument back is that JVG had more to do with that than Adelman. 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. The other side of that is we had Artest to guard Kobe and who knows what would have happened if Yao didn’t go out in the middle of that series. But that still shows that we need good defense to stop a great team like the Lakers.

If we look at the Rockets today, there is absolutely no defensive mind set in our players that was taught from JVG. Yes we still have some of those guy but Battier is older and Yao doesn’t play as much and Chuck is still a midget center from the 60’s and that’s about all our defensive players from the JVG experiment, but still, I would think that Adelman and Morey would recognize and take more action into attaining some defensive stoppers. Morey and Adlman went out and got Artest and Ariza so why is our main priority now trying to go for guys like Kevin Martin and Chris Bosh who only play on one side of the ball? Here’s my big issue…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 (I’d say Golden State has the best), but they are also the main reason why so many teams can get to the hoop so easily and put up a ton of points and even allow the opposing guards to have career games. Yao and Miller are not quick enough to stop every freight train that drives the lane, the Chuck Wagon can’t stop anyone who can at least semi-jump and Adelman doesn’t like playing young guys like Hill even if has loads of upside. With Martin and Brooks guarding our wings it’s sometimes like a 5 on 3 when we are on defense. Often times I find myself wishing that I’d rather have Lowry and Lee out there for 30 minutes a game just so we have a better shot at stopping the ball and not leaving it up to our handicaps in the middle to stop the opposition. Actually I’d rather have Lowry out there than Brooks regardless (if he played like he did last year and didn’t jack up 3’s that is); Kyle may not be a better shooter or as quick but at least he can draw fouls in the lane, pass the ball out and play some D. We have enough 3 point shooters so I do not think it is absolutely necessary for our starting PG to shoot 5-6 treys per game. I’d rather have more assists from out starting PG than point s and 3’s.  If our starting guards can’t stop Kobe then what’s even the point of having our guards score 17+ per game? Our team should be focused on containing the best team and the best player in the NBA, not outscoring them. Again I say that if Phoenix couldn’t do then no way we can. Some say that is why we traded Ariza for Courtney Lee, to have a better “Kobe Stopper” but I highly doubt the 3rd year guy who comes off our bench is the answer. And Battier can only guard slower SF’s it seem these days. We are a better team all around when we have focused 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 by scoring 100+ then I say we beg JVG back and get him the players he needs to fit a defensive focus and to make the Great Wall greater.

One thing I loved about the Texans drafting that 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.