More TJo and DMo please

DMo Can't buy a call in big moments and just doesn't have the capacity to step up in big moments. Jones makes huge mistakes on defense in key moments and cant rebound consistently on the defensive glass. They're liabilities.

They're not stepping up because... they're not there yet.

 

Hey, dobro1229…

...you’re probably more right that you need to be with this.

Myself, I wanted to wait and see with this year’s team. Even with Dwight Howard’s acquisition, I felt it would take some time (maybe a season or so) to see just what these Rockets had, and how they’d mesh together as a team…particularly against playoff-caliber competition.

The past is often prologue, in an odd sort of way. The Miami Heat, as a team, resembles a lot of the teams of the mid-to-late 1970s. Teams that weren’t necessarily built around size, but around their perimeter players. This “small-ball” theory isn’t as new as it may seem to us, except for the fact that the four-position (and sometimes even the five-spot) can function as a perimeter shooter in a half-court set much more often than in the past.

Miami’s a bit of a different bird, to me, because of Lebron James. It’s like you say…the Heat can be considered a “small” team by most measures. But Lebron, at his size and with his athleticism, keeps the Heat from being “small” in a half-court setting, especially when he is looking to score close to the basket on offense.

Dirk Nowitski is like that for Dallas (meaning an impossible matchup—too quick for big guys and too big for small guys), but Nowitski’s Achilles heel was always that he was more guard than forward. Dallas might have been able to beat the Golden State Warriors in 2007, for instance, if Dirk was a more capable player from the post. He is still 7’ tall, after all.

Currently, the Indiana Pacers have a massive front line that may be enough to topple Miami in the postseason. But they don’t have a typical back-to-the-basket low-post player, either. So it’s really about how you can take advantage of “size”, or a lack thereof, in a playoff-type basketball atmosphere.

Dwight Howard was supposed to create a type of balance offensively, for all intents and purposes, to mitigate the need for the Rockets to have to rely on a frenetic pace to remain comfortable offensively. Of course the idea being that, with Howard, if the Rockets had to go to a half-court setting on offense, the team had an “anchor” who could score himself, or create open shots for his perimeter mates after being double-teamed.

It was going to be the 1994 Rockets all over again.

Except that Howard isn’t Hakeem Olajuwon. And most likely never will be at this point of his career.

That’s not a knock on Howard himself. Bu the premise about how he would be best useful to the Rockets offensively was always a bit misguided, to me.
And this, again, is why I said when the season began, that a team this young (and with Howard, this “new”) would need some sort of structure to build an identity around. There’s only so much a young team is going to able to intuit in the heat of competition, even though that process is a necessary and unavoidable evil. And that identity, offensively, could not be Howard as option 1 or option 1a offensively.

I think, with the way the season has gone up ‘til now, and with the emergence of Terrence Jones and Donatas Montejunas, the answer may be present, but it goes back, in my opinion, to point-guard play.

If the offense or offensive philosophy is a “read-and react” one, for want of a better term, then you’re probably going to have to put the ball in the hands of a guard who can make good decisions and distribute the ball effectively. Outside of James Harden (who is, rightly I believe) looking to score himself rather than pass, the Rockets don’t have anyone who has consistently done that.

You look at Goran Dragic in Phoenix and wonder sometimes…

…but second-guessing is just that.

All in all, so far the Rockets are a little bit better than everybody thought they were. Including me.

But there’s only so much these guys are going to figure out on their own…

 

Total reactionary hindsight knee-jerk response result-oriented thinking.

There were certainly no noise of change during the winning streak, with nothing changed, and we lose games to other contenders, suddenly everything is back to the drawing board.

 

The Rockets have got enough offense. Where they are lacking is on the defensive side of the ball. Who are the "very good" defensive teams in the NBA right now? IND, CHI, MEM (now that Gasol is back), OKC, SAS. What do they all have in common? Rosters who have played together for years. Why is this important? Because NBA defenses are team oriented with constant rotations. Therefore they require the players to not only completely understand a myriad of concepts, but to be familiar with the players surrounding them. It takes time and experience to develop.

 

the hate in these ones are still strong. I dont mind though, you can continue to ****post every Dmo thread, wont change a thing

 

They should feed Dmo in the post with the second unit. That cat is skilled.

 

Yeah DMo is most improved player from beginning of the season till now. He needs more minutes. His defense and shooting have improved a great deal.

Hard work paying off for DMo!

 

Another Kneejerk...if you watched the other games, you would've noticed Jones getting horribly exposed against PFs.

 

To piggy back on this, the Rockets really dont have room to breathe (as most teams dont with more teams running now) on defense. Therefore their biggest bugaboo (turnovers) actually makes life for them much more difficult than it would be otherwise.

Turnovers I think are another thing that really gets mitigated with continuity, and experience playing together.... along with a little reminder as time goes on to the biggest offenders by the coaches & leaders on the team.

However, maybe their biggest problem otherwise which is getting disjointed in the half-court offense, and I think that's probably the bigger systemic issue to dive into other than their half court defense, and turnovers which I think should get better, and better with a season under their belt after this one.

I dont know the exact answer to the problems in their half court sets, but I will tell you this... I'm not sold on the one and answer being taking out Jones & D-Mo to play another PG to get points in the half court.... namely one that can allow blow-byes, and is the biggest offender on the team with un-forced turnovers. However the issue is on the other end when the ball slows down.

I think D-Mo right now would be my choice because the guy is constantly moving, and moving the ball. His screens, while often sloppy can at least give Harden a little separation.

If you are wanting to go to Howard on the post in those late game situations instead of Harden P&R, than you are gambling more with Howard's turnover issues in the post than you are with D-Mo's poor 3 point shooting. Subbing Garcia in for D-Mo/Jones give you spacing for a Harden/Howard P&R or Howard post up, but he doesn't do much of anything else that D-Mo might do in moving the ball, setting screens, etc.

So I guess that's my take on it from the offensive end. They score enough to win games sure, but their issues offensively in late game situations aren't ones that are likely solved with just time together like turnovers, and defense will with more chemistry. This team isn't really built that well for late game situations, but that doesn't mean they can't still win games, and get slightly better at it with improvement from D-Mo and Jones... who hold the lynch pin a little more than the other guys.

 

he is shooting a more respectable 36.3% since the beginning of 2014 as he has found more consistent playing time and his role off the bench.

I <gasp> actually agree with DaDakota for once here but as with all young players like Jones and DMo - you have to gauge how they are playing.

In yesterday's game even though D-Mo was tasked with guarding Ray Allen late - he was actually doing a respectable job - his mobility allowed him to not stay too far behind Allen and with his length he was still able to close out and disrupt Allen's shot a little. The one 3 that I recall Allen hit on D-Mo was a fading out of bounds 3 which D-Mo played great but Allen is after the greatest 3 point shooter we have ever seen was able to still hit it but D-Mo defense was not to blame there.

When Lin was subbed in (and again this isnt any sort of indictment on Lin's part) the Heat went into pick and rolls to get Lin to switch onto LeBron - while LeBron would abuse D-Mo as well at least D-Mo size would disrupt LeBron a little more than Lin.

In addition maybe LeBron would not be able to get away with that hold on a bigger player where it would look a lot more obvious.

The kick out where Lin left his feet to try to block Allen - D-Mo if he sagged down that low would not have to leave his feet there because of his size and would have forced Allen to shoot over him.

I do believe D-Mo has made some great strides since the beginning of the year in his defensive energy and effort. Jones is still the better rebounder but D-Mo is the better defender.

Of the two - Jones while more versatile on offense I still feel he tries to force the issue at times - D-Mo doesnt really do that anymore and helps move the ball around.


They are both young and given the need of a PF to be a consistent contributor they need to be able to play meaningful late minute situations. Great teams force other teams to adjust to their style of play - not the other way around thats why I thought it very telling that the Heat started Oden instead of going with their normal small ball lineup. That was a huge sign of respect for the Rockets there. But late that lineup with D-Mo got them back in and help with that 5 point lead - Mchale should have kept with it and seen if the Heat small ball lineup would have really hurt them rather than assuming it would right away.


I would be perfect fine with going with a 'small ball' lineup late if Garcia/Hamilton/Casspi/Lin were consistent but so far no one out of the four has shown that reliable consistency that would like to see. With that being the case - go with the young guys to see what they have and let them grow into it -- this team is not going to be winning championships in year one - no dynasty does (that celtics team is the exception where you had HOF vets coming together not a blend of young stars) it will be a learning curve and process - the GREAT thing is that it seems that the team is ahead of that curve and both Jones and D-Mo have both shown significant improvement from year 1 to year 2

 

I agree with this. I think DMo has surpassed TJones in defensive presence. And I'm surprised that has happened. But DMo is getting to spots, taking charges, being a nuisance for the most part.

TJones is getting played by the opposing offense when he is out there. Offenses are starting to concentrate on isoing him and getting him involved in pick-and-roll defense where they can take maximum advantage of his poor decision-making. Just watching the Heat game...they started the game by getting a switch-off with Jones on Lebron and Jones and Harden trying to defend Lebron and Wade in the pick-and-roll. (Disaster)

However....giving DMo every benefit of the doubt....he cannot stretch out to defend the perimeter. He's just not a good perimeter defender. He is much improved in the paint but on the perimeter .... just as piss poor as Jones. I wouldn't have any more confidence in DMo out there getting played in the pick-and-roll then I would with Jones. Both guys are going to get worked in the playoffs in isos and pick-and-roll coverage.

On this point I sadly disagree. While we have enough offense against the lottery teams and lower echelon playoff contenders that don't defend well...we do not have enough offense against the better defensive teams .... such as Miami.

Those guys (the teams we're going to have to beat to win a championship) force the ball to our weak spot....the 4 spot. They force our weakest player to have to make decisions. Or they force us into playing 4 on 5 and taking more contested shots while they leave our 4 man open all the time. Good defenses simply don't care how many points Jones scores. They want Jones scoring a bunch while they take away Harden, Howard, and Lin. That's why it's critical in my opinion for us to find "small ball" or "shooting" lineups to work and that's why it's critical in my opinion that if we're going to run a guy out there at the 4 that is going to get lost on the perimeter defensively and is going to shoot under 30% from the 3-point line then we might as well get the strongest defensive presence on the floor at the big spots that we can get (Twin Towers) when teams go with two bigs on us.

 

Jones generally blows 3-5 defensive assignments/rotations per game leading to 6-10 points a game. D-Mo is blowing extremely few defensive rotations now. He can get beat by someone like Blake (who can't?) but he seems to be right there making them shoot over all seven feet of him. Absolutely amazing turnaround. I am really optimistic about his future. If D-Mo can start hitting 35%+ from beyond the arc Houston may have the PF they need. At $1M a year.

 

A reasonable take. But isn't the gold standard entering the playoffs to be a top 5 team on both offense and defense over an entire season? The Rockets rank what - third on offense and ninth on defense? Just asking.

 

The Mavericks learned the hard way when they lost to the #8 seed.

I agree , make them play your game, not the other way around.

 

It certainly worked for Indiana playing Miami in the playoffs last season. Indiana went with more of the same this season. The ECF is looking like a serious dog fight this year.

 

I agree with this, there was a nice open field tackle of DMo in the Heat game with no whistle and it went as a turnover. I think if the Rockets go to him more in the post and he establishes himself as a good post player, he'll get more respect from the refs, but right now he is getting absolutely mugged without a whistle all too often.

 

The second DMo went out of the game is when Ray Allen started killing them. When you had a 7 footer with a hand in his face, he was pretty silent.

 

Yes...but they can stick a jumper and dribble in traffic.