Speaking of "accountability," today's ESPN article on the Cavs Cavs stars tackled accountability issue in players-only meeting http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...-finding-success-holding-players-only-meeting
Aelliott, this is a great post. I would love to see others dive deeper into this issue since it really is the central issue. Coaching? Effort? Personnel (injuries etc)?
Here are two older threads that have previously discussed this with solid posts from A3PO, Aleron & JayZ750: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=254263 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=270103 The Rockets need to: a) Change up the schemes b) improve accountability c) encourage in-game communication
lol Harden is on fire the last month or so and you try to call him out like i have said, some fans here don't deserve to have a superstar like James Harden playing for their team. He has been playing amazing lately, not many players can put up 26.8ppg 6.8rpg 7.3apg on 45 percent shooting in a month of basketball as Harden did in January in fact his last 10 games have been even better 27.6ppg 7.6rpg 7.8apg on 47 percent shooting Stop blaming him and start blaming the inconsistent team mates he has that can't string 4-5 games in a row of constant help to help him get wins
also NBA defences as a whole are pretty bad these days, with everyone taking threes, it means long rebounds that start fast breaks nearly every time when there is a miss
Yes they are facts but they have no bearing on what we were discussing as we are not just talking about this past offseason.
Opponents FG% might not be the best stat to measure team defense because there are other important factors such as defensive rebounding, fouls, 3pt% TOV, etc. Adjusted PPP should be the be-all team defensive metric. Here are the teams aelliott pointed out: Miami #5 Chicago #6 Atlanta #7 Clippers #9 Toronto #10 Dallas #13 OKC #14 Houston #28 (Last season's Portland #5) http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2016_ratings.html Only 2 top-5 teams, last season's Portland and this season's Miami. But aelliott's point is still valid. These are all above average defensive teams with at least one terrible defender in their starting lineup. I agree that there has to be something deeper about the Rockets' defensive problem. If I have to bet, I'd say the combination of coaching and effort, perhaps the two are related. If we have to put it on Harden, it might be pointed out that none of those poor defenders is the de facto best player on their respective teams. (One may argue that Rose and Wade are, but they aren't as clear as Harden is.) So the argument of "the team follows its leader" might still have some merit.
Sure, it may not be as quantitative as you would like, but there's still good discussion there. We also should not forget an anomalous defensive statistic from last year: Rockets opponents shot a significantly lower 3pt% than the rest of the league when comparing the same closeout distances between the defender and shot-taker It's difficult to explain the specific aspect of the defense that gave this result (or was it luck?), but it is an important number to remember nonetheless. I don't know if it is happening again this year (I doubt it)
You are pretty light on citations yourself.... If you were providing facts and data you would be taken more seriously. Our offense hasn't been the main issue. In the Portland series we out scored them. So either back up your statements with citations of Mchale wanting an iso centric offense or just drop it. The way you talk, it doesn't sound like you think he is average like you said.
It is not hard to figure out - Harden is not trying on defense, the rest of the players are in a "Well if he isn't going to try, then neither am I" mode. DD
So we played majority ISO ball for the entire time that Mchale was here as coach but it wasn't on him? This past offseason he admitted that Harden needs to play off the ball and they need another playmaker. I think those links actually prove my point.
Lol he was fired this year not last year... How would characterize Harden's defense last year when we 6th in defense? I swear....people don't even follow the rockets with some of the stuff that comes out their mouths.... .... Come on DD, objectivity isn't that hard.
Never forget. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Twitter off the rails lately RT <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonerJob">@HoustonerJob</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey">@dmorey</a> Hello，I'am a funs of Houston Rockets.I think Milk Hair was so fool we lost 3 matches</p>— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/461146803618848768">April 29, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
