Interesting article from Forbes: https://apple.news/AnbqnjesgSJ-8cLsZQmBEWw The combination of Westbrook, Harden, Covington and Tucker has scored 123.3 points per 100 possessions and given up 97.6 per 100, for a net of +25.6. With Gordon as the 5th, its 111.1 points scored and 74.3 (!!!) opposing points per 100 for a +36.8 margin. Very excited to see if we can sustain this.
I thought this part was just as spicy. The quartet has played just 36 possessions with Eric Gordon who has been injured. In that time, the team has scored 111.1 points per 100 possessions and given up just 74.3 points per 100 possessions on defense. That’s a +36.8 difference. With House instead of Gordon, the quartet has a +28.2 difference; with McLemore, its a +13.1 difference. However, the quintet including McLemore is producing 134.5 points per 100 possessions. Head coach Mike D’Antoni still has not definitively made a decision regarding the fifth starter. Rockets have options on offense. And MDA is still tinkering.
It’s been great. I’ll be here for the epic board knee jerk meltdown when we have an off shooting night and lose by 40 though.
Gordon has shown an ability to be a plus defensive player and versatile scoring weapon when he wants to be, so in the playoffs he can be a legit 2 way impact player. In the regular season he's far too often coasting on defense and doing nothing but jacking up 3's. House is a solid defensive player, but is strictly a shooter. McLemore is an outright bad defensive player, and I don't think he should be in a lineup with Harden and Westbrook. Keeping the ball in front of you is more important than ever now that we have no paint protection.
Our offense is as simple as it gets. Give the rock to either Beard or Brodie and space out. Our defense will just switch. What is not sustainable about this?
I think he means the sustainability of the results, not the strategy. So after 10, 15, 20, 30 games, will those lineups still have outrageously good net ratings? I don't think 30+ or even 20+ is reasonable to expect, but if those lineups have double digit net ratings after we get a more significant sample size I'll be really really impressed.
Not gonna lie, I wasn’t sold...and I definitely wasn’t happy with giving away a first round pick to get rid of green and nene...but damn I have been loving small ball since we got Covington
My question is why would that change? What is the reason for not being able to sustain it? Yes, there may be some games that the 3's are not falling but as long as they are mostly OPEN shots, we can live with that as we were able to execute.