Mike D'Antoni: Rockets can be a lot better on offense

This.... Eric Gordon should know better. He's in the game to shoot, not to create shots for team mates. 2 TO's per game is too many

 

I dare you to compare the so called chase videos side by side, even Stevie Wonder can tell the differences.

 

Strange thing to say during a nine game winning streak. How is Harden chasing stats instead of victories when the team is winning?

 

They can certainly be more efficient. Sometimes they jack up 3's when they could easily be taking it into the paint. Other times guys pass up wide open shots(admittedly it's because they're being unselfish). There are also sloppy passes that can always be cleaned up. And there's always the bad habit of falling back into ISO-ball late in games although they've come a long way in that area since the disastrous 4th quarter in that loss at OKC.

 

DUPLICATE POST

 

Actually, the triple-double chasing is not what almost cost us that game; it's Harden's lazy defense in 4Q that really did us a lot of damage. I personally don't mind going after individual stats as long as we can maintain a big lead, especially when people are so enamored with Westbrook's numbers even though a lot of them are artificially inflated, so Harden probably feels some kind of pressure to keep up. That's not the problem per se, it's just that we seem to be doing a lot worse defensively whenever Harden is in the game. That's why his +/- has been unimpressive lately, despite all those gaudy numbers Harden is putting up.

 

Ignoring the facts of the existing problem because of love is just as bad as blindly attack the things that you hate.

There is no difference between the 2s.

 

Calling out Harden's defense is blindly attacking? Go re-watch last game's 4Q. Stat chasing was not the problem. It was our defense that completely broke down. Even the guy on 'Locked on Rockets' podcast pointed this out, and he's a major Harden homer.

 

Perfect demonstration of why Dan Tony is superior to McHale:

"We're just going to have to try to do it harder and better."

Compare this to McHale who would have just said, "try harder." Try what harder, the players wondered. Try to do it harder, Dan Tony finally clarifies.

 

I just wish Harden would cut out stuff like trying behind-the-back bounce passes at guys' feet in heavy traffic. I can live with an honest failure in communication sometimes or trying to push the ball too fast, but getting cute when there's still most of a half left in the game drives me crazy.

 

"We are winning so those problems do not exist" - clutchfans

 

Harden was never a good defender, that's a fact.

Forget about what Morey said on twitter, he was just trolling and mocking the people mocking Harden with those video. He was never serious about Harden being a "good defender".

Even Harden openly admitted "we play as a team and cover for each others." He understand his weakness and strength, more than often, he made a bad play, he raised his hand and pad his chest also.

So him being a bad defender is a fact, that was calculated into the Rockets game plan, and that's how our defense had been designed to cover this weakness, and also why we struggled a lots on this area when Bev will be out.

But it doesn't mean he should be attacked everytime when he will have a bad play on defense. Same goes for his TOV, which is something that I do not pay attention much to this year, unlikely many here.

When you get beautiful passes after passes, you will get some ugly TOVs.

What I care about is the efforts, which at times, in some games, that's the main issue with Harden.

He got this tendency that when things did not go well, he could give up on both end of the floor, and that's the biggest issue. Luckily the Rox does not have too much of this situation this season because his teammates are much better and picked him up time after time and let him regroup to shine again.

And of course, chasing for the triple double last night was just ugly and bad leadership, for that, I think MDA should be responsible also.

 

But Mchale compensates with clap clap

 

Chasing individual stats isn't a problem when we're up 20 and can maintain that lead by playing solid defense. It only becomes problematic when our defense breaks down, and Harden was the main reason for our pathetic 4Q defense the last game. I'm not saying Harden's defense has been this bad all along this season; in fact I've said numerous times that he seems more engaged defensively than ever before. But in the past few games, he's reverted back to being unacceptably bad, and it shows in various defensive metrics (+/-, on/off numbers, DRPM, etc.)

I'm pointing this out for Harden's own good : if he wan't to be the MVP, he gotta have impressive 'impact stats', to go along with traditional box score numbers. 14-15 Harden was very high on impact metrics; this year's Harden not so much.

 

Being consistent on both ends improves that margin of victory on average. Sometimes you can run your offense perfectly and the shots just won't fall. That's when your defense allows you to stay in the game or even win it. Amazingly, we've been able to do just that! We're not world beaters defensively or anything, but we've been able to get key stops in clutch situations.

 

the fact that harden is still playing during games that are well in hand is concerning... his minutes/useage should be based on team need - not stats driven... I'm concerned about him running out of gas by the time we hit the playoffs... jus sayin...

 

Coaches always say this, you can't always buy it. It feels so good to think it, sometimes we kind of let ourselves believe it.

We can get better - especially in specific instances - but not a lot better imo. I already see the improvement I was expecting, which is that players are passing the ball instinctively to the places they know and expect their teammates to be. When they look for someone to pass to, they know exactly where to look. I'm seeing many of the same passes from Harden that Nash used to make, particularly the no-look straight behind and the cross court to the corner pass. When I saw Harden do those things it reminded me of Nash very much, but it's more about the system being similar than the players being similar. Harden is essentially finding the cheat codes in this system.

Now, that process is going to generate turnovers as long as Harden is aggressive and until the players become even quicker to move or get to their spots, and Harden becomes used to how the defense tries to counter it. I can also see Harden improving at his decision making with regards to how often to push the ball up faster and when to go at a slower pace.

All in all though, we're not going to get much better at this. But given how insanely good it is already, I see that little bit of improvement going more towards getting over the hump vs the 3 or 4 elite defensive teams. Avoiding their attempts to disrupt our flow.

On that note: is it just me or do almost all the players on this team serially tend to pass the ball too low? I thought this was just Harden, but I'm noticing it more and more that they tend to pass the ball to the knees and sometimes almost the floor. Sharper, crisper passes are underrated in this league and an easy thing to improve on.

 

I absolutely agree the offense has been great...and its striking that as good as it has been there is clear room for improvement. Once all players completley have absorbed MDA's system the flow will get even smoother and many of the TO's will get cleaned up. Confidence of the role players like Anderson, Harrell, and Dekker will continue trending upward...with confidence rising often leads to a rise in efficiency and a cleaner game...all producing points. I'm really excited!!

 

I'm glad we're not getting complacent.

 

You can't be serious......

The Rockets are 31-9 and on pace to smash the franchise record of wins by 6.... all of this with only one star player on the floor.
So please tell me how "individual states instead of team victory" fits into the equation.