Chris Paul was the only Rocket smart enough to shoot mid range

Someone mentioned it: Harden was brought in and bought into Morey's system because that's what he can do. Hit three pointers and get to the basket. But he doesn't often venture out of that territory. And when it goes south, it goes way south. (And as far as missing 27 three pointers in a row, weren't at least two of those fouls that weren't called, which probably emboldened the Warriors with their defense?)

CP3 is automatic from mid-range and has the guts / profile to ignore the coach's "I want 55 three pointers" directives. He mixes it up and we sorely missed that (and other qualities) in Games 6 and 7.

 

I know that you don't really debate facts or anything but here's something to consider:

Chris Paul is a historically great midrange shooter. 53% from midrange this year.

Nobody else on our team is a very good midrange shooter.

In the series vs Golden State, Chris Paul shot 35.7% from midrange. That's equivalent to 23.5% from behind the arc.

Overall the Rockets, as a team, shot 25.8% from midrange in the series vs GS. That's equivalent to 17% from the 3pt line.

That's your secret to beating GS? Midrange?

Interestingly, Chris Paul finished the GS series shooting 35.7% from midrange and also 35.7% on threes. So, you have a choice of two shots that he's hitting at exactly the same percentage in the series and you feel the smart play is to take the ones that count 2pts/shot rather than the ones that count 3pts/shot? Ok.

That's it. Now you can go back to pretending that midrange shots are really just free throws.

 

<philosoraptor>

If everyone who is healthy shoots layups and 3's, does abruptly stopping midrange weakens hamstrings until they are destroyed?

</philosoraptor>

 

I think it was a combo of fatigue, an aggressive spin, and prior injuries. Also, I am probably missing internet sarcasm.

 

Are you under the impression that the rockets missed 27 threes on 27 consecutive possessions? This is not what happened, it was over about 50 possessions. The rockets mixed in tons of 2 point shots during this 3 point drought, so your point doesn't really make any sense. Unless you're suggesting that a midrange shot somehow "settles down" the team more than layups, floaters, drunks, and free throws? Harden was out there and took (and made) two mid range shots during this time. Why didn't this settle the team down?

 

CP3 is specifically instructed by D'antoni to take mid range shots, it's part of the offense. D'antoni has said this directly. He doesn't have "guts" to ignore his coach, he is listening to his coach.

 

The Rockets can shoot 2pters if they want, Harden had the freedom to do so, but chose not to, once the refs swallowed their whistles he probably should have tried some stop and pops at the FT line....

Nene used to be good there too, the FT line was open for exploitation, you know POPOVICH would have taken advantage.

DD

 

No I am not under that impression. I never said that it was 27 possessions in a row. And it has been established that outside of Chris Paul, who else on the Rockets are going to shoot shots that are not 3's, layups, or dunks? So let me make this crystal clear for you:

If Chris Paul had been playing in Game 7 (or even in Game 6), once the Rockets started misfiring from 3, he would have taken over the offense. He did it in the 4th quarter of Game 4 and in the 3rd quarter of Game 5. Go back and look at the stats for Game 4 and 5 for 3 point field goal percentage:

Game 4 - 12 for 38 for 31.6%
Game 5 - 13 for 43 for 30.2%

The point is that the Rockets really never shot the 3 that well in this series. Only in Game 2 which was 38.1% and in Game 6 which was 38.5% (and that was only due to the lights out shooting in the first half) did the Rockets break 35.1% from 3 point land. They were still going to get off as many 3s as they could - shooting percentages be damned! But when you have a guy who is automatic like CP3 from the mid range, it can help overcome bad shooting percentages from the 3 point line. We didn't have that luxury in Games 6 and 7 and we saw what happened - 25 total points in the 2nd half in Game 6 and 27 straight missed shots from 3 point land in Game 7. So if you cannot see the importance of having a guy like Paul out there to "right the ship" when needed, then you are being obtuse.

 

In your first post you talk about CP3 stopping a 'scoring drought' with his midrange, implying that this is something the rockets were missing. What I'm saying is that the Rockets never had a scoring drought, because Harden did exactly this. Every time the rockets missed a few 3s in a row, he would switch it up. 4 missed threes, then a layup, then a Capela dunk, then a midrange shot. Then back to missed 3s, miss 5 in a row, then more dunks, layups, and floaters. There was no extended scoring drought for the Rockets in this game, just missed 3s. But the entire time there were plenty of other shots mixed in there, and those were going in.

Of course having CP3 would have been important, I'm not disputing that. I agree that he would be out there making mid range shots, and that would help the Rockets overcome their terrible 3 point shooting performance -- we agree up to this point. The part I don't agree with is that Chris Paul knocking down midrange shots would settle the team and make them all start hitting their open 3s.

 

Harden is his own worst enemy. I don't understand him at all. He completely abandoned his mid-range game. He's assumed the mentality that his long range shots are only going to be 3 pointers that do the most damage. But, when that option isn't working, his only recourse is to drive into traffic and that breaks down when he doesn't get his usual foul calls. Not once did he go to mid-range shots. I absolutely don't get it at all. I can only assume he's pretty much abandoned any mid-range game. How he doesn't see how that is hurting his overall game is beyond me? He's gotten spoiled by the 3 pointer.

 

You're missing the point. In both Game 4 and Game 5 when Harden sorta disappeared in the 2nd half, it was Chris Paul that willed us to victory. It is all about momentum. Momentum had turned on us in both Games that Paul was out and he was sorely missed. It doesn't do a lot of good to keep driving to the basket and get hammered and not get a call and see the Warriors run out and score on a fast break. Harden and Gordon could not replicate that little floater of CP3's if they tried so they went driving to the basket but when the refs swallow their whistles, that is not going to work out either.

You could sense and feel the tide or momentum shift to the Warriors. Rockets started pressing in shooting the 3s. Having CP3 out there would have calmed the storm.

 

If that's true, I stand corrected; but D'Antoni certainly doesn't seem to preach the same to his other players. I can understand green-lighting a superstar who's good at the midrange. I don't understand the "I want to see 55 threes" directive at the expense of common sense. Just mix it up a little. Eventually the threes didn't fall + un-sympathetic ref.

In Montriezl Harrell's last season with us, even he was trying to jack from the three point line, maybe knowing it was the only way D'Antoni would play him. To everyone's detriment. Harrell could have given decent eighth-man minutes against the Spurs, hell, just ten minutes or so, to spell the seven-man rotation. Nope. No three pointers? No play.

 

That stat doesn't mean they shot 27 3's in a row. The ones they took, they missed. Mostly Ariza and EG

 

Imagine if we kept Montrezl. Dude is a beast, like he is 10x better on offense than Capela.

 

Hmmmmm. I’m pretty sure not just 1 person throws up 40 3’s. There’s 6 in the rotation. So max 8 threes in 48 minutes of basketball. That’s less than 1 per minute.

 

You gotta give up something good to get something as good or better in return.

 

He is missing the math that is staring him in the face. We only had to hit 3 more of those 37 misses to tie the game. That is still the correct strategy instead of trying to hit 6 more shots at a sub 40% clip.

 

Yeah, it was either D'antoni or Morey (don't remember which) explained their philosophy on a podcast. He said that they look at shooters percentages from different zones on the floor and that's how they determine the shots they like. It's not accurate to say that they "hate" mid range and post ups, if they had a player who could score 55% from the post they would love it. If they had a player that could shoot 50% on 20 footers they would love that too. The problem is that 95% of the players in the NBA that take these shots shoot them in the low 40s or high 30s, and that's a bad shot. Any shot that gives 2 points and goes in 42% of the time is not a good shot. That's why they never wanted Dwight to get post touches, even though that's where he likes to play, the numbers just weren't there. Chris Paul has shot over 50% from midrange throughout his career, so they encourage him to take those shots often.

I know a lot of posters here love to remember James as being an elite midrange scorer, but as aelliot pointed out, he's shot in the low 40s for his entire career. It's really just not a great shot for him.

 

Well. If we somehow managed to beat the warriors game 6/7 with or without cp3 do u still feel this way? We almost beat the refs and the warriors w/ basically a 7 man rotation. I see your point though.