Look, Ariza's long reach helped tip balls and get rebounds, he was like a 6'10" guy out there. Our small team got even smaller - we need more height......we are just too damned short. DD
No, it’s a domino effect. Ennis getting lost causes PJ to shift/cheat over. Ariza was much better at containment and rotating down on the contest by Capela.
Personnel change is probably needed in the mid-term, but short-term I see these guys NOT BOXING OUT so much of the time. Lots of easy points given up for that.
Wish they would stop switching Capela out on the perimeter. As others mentioned, teams seem to be exploiting it a lot this year.
I think having our biggest player, and best rebounder, near the general vicinity of the basket instead of around the perimeter when a shot goes up, would be a really, really, REALLY smart thing to do. Greater basketball minds think differently though. So what do I know.
A lot of the issues like rebounding can be improved through the trade market. Improved roster will lead to better effort and that includes rebounding. Some of it is coaching but there are so many issues.
I think your misguided. I would start green over ennis. I truly belive the sf position in our system has to not be afraid to lunch. I dont start gordan cause i feel he needs to provide that punch from the bench. Other thing tucker need to not be the guy picking. He needs to be in the corner at all times. Just my 2 cent.
Lol i remember i started a trend like game 5 of the season, about the real reason we missed ariza was his 1 rebounding 2 ability to play mulitiple position which in turn 3 allowes him to play a crazy amount of minutes that masked our depth problems. Glad we all see that now. Just wanted to pat myself on the back for being ahead of the data
Its been a problem all year, early in the season capela was a huge culprit and he still is but he has turned it around lately but not good enough. Chris Paul has not been nearly as bothersome and pesky like he was last year. Tucker has been a problem all year. Being undersized at the 4 for 30+ minutes a night is effecting us and arizas length helped offset that last year. Ariza is a good rebounding 3, Ennis not so much. We gang rebounded much more last year on long rebounds with our wings and guards. Last year we switched half the time, this year we switch like 90% of the time. This does pull capela out much more often than last year. . . . This year we have a Oreb% of 29.1 Last year we had a Oreb% of 25.4 We have actually improved on crashing the offense. But I believe this to not be a great thing. Last year we always sold out and got back on Defense. This year not so much. This year we have a Dreb% of 68.5 Last year we had a Dreb% of 75 This is a biggg decrease. We were very good at ending the possession last year and it really helped our defense. We suck at finishing out defensive possessions this year. This year our overall reb% is 48.1 Last year our overall reb% was 50.3 Our weakness is giving up 2nd chance pts and its dropped us below 50%. Last year it was our strength. . . . Chris Paul this year - 1.6 Oreb%, 11.3 Dreb%, 6.3 reb% Chris Paul last year - 2.0 Oreb%, 15.1 Dreb%, 8.6 reb% Hes been significantly worse and has dropped nearly 4% defensively. James Harden this year - 1.7 Oreb%, 14.4 Dreb%, 8.0 reb% James Harden last year - 1.7 Oreb%, 13.7 Dreb%, 7.8 reb% Hes slightly better but more or less the same. Eric Gordon this year -0.9 Oreb%, 6.3 Dreb%, 3.5 reb % Eric Gordon last year - 1.1 Oreb%, 6.5 Dreb%, 3.9 reb% Hes slightly worse but more or less the same. PJ Tucker this year - 3.7 Oreb%, 14.6 Dreb%, 9.0 reb% PJ Tucker last year - 4.0 Oreb%, 16.0 Dreb%, 10.1 reb% Hes been a little worse this year by another 1.4% defensive decrease. Clint Capela this year - 14.2 Oreb%, 21.1 Dreb%, 17.5 reb% Clint Capela last year - 11.9 Oreb%, 27.8 Dreb%, 19.8 reb% Hes been much worse this year with another 7.7% defensive decrease. He was significantly worse at the beginning of the year and has gotten slightly better but hes a big culprit. Trevor Ariza last year - 1.4 Oreb%, 11.6 Dreb%, 6.5 reb% James Ennis this year -4.0 Oreb%, 7.0 Dreb%, 5.5 reb% James Ennis is significantly worse at defensive rebounding, another 4.5% decrease, but attributes to our increased Oreb%.
Basically ariza is a 5 tool player. In a vaccum he seems replaceable bout with other good players he is really important
Yeah, these are the nuanced little things that don't show up in the box score that are causing us problems.
Wow, @BigMaloe awesome post! Thanks for the timing looking up those numbers. For some time I had been thinking that the rebounding drop off from Ariza to Ennis was big, even in nuanced ways and your numbers tell it. Capela's numbers also are not surprising from what we are seeing. And teams taking Capela out of the paint turning the Rockets switching defense against them appears to be a problem. I can live with CP slowing down to some degree. This was going to happen. But the other guys have to produce better.
We really miss his versatility and length. His replacement Ennis is just so limited on both ends of the court.
What I noticed earlier in the season when we turned it around was this. "We have to change the defense" was not really a change. Actually it was off ball switches in the paint we started making, or rather switching back and preventing the switch. This really stopped a lot of cp3, ego, etc... guarding a big in the paint. It also kept at least one of tucker or capela defending the rim/paint. We went on a 5 game win streak and the defense looked great. Bzdelik came back and it appears what Roy Roger's implemented was given a backseat to all switching all the time again. Guards and wings are good at acquiring long rebounds, centers and forwards are much better at acquiring rebounds at the rim. Our switch everything defense is being exploited right now. Not because capela cant guard the perimeter or because harden cant defend the post because both are very good in that regard. Where we are being exposed is by teams forcing smaller players to rebound down low where size is important and making our bigger players rebound outside where speed and reaction is more inportant. IMO, we need to go back to the system Roy implemented where we were playing very well.
Something that popped into my head earlier today -- does our slow pace hurt our defensive rebounding? A few years ago I remember watching something (I think it was something on ESPN?) where a coach was talking about his playoff strategy of ignoring offensive rebounds. The team they were playing against was lethal in transition, so as soon as a shot went up, everyone would hustle back as fast as possible to avoid giving up those transition opportunities. They knew they could defend the other team as long as their defense was set. The coaching staff decided that getting back on defense was far more valuable than being aggressive on the offensive glass. In short, the threat of transition buckets was a huge deterrent for crashing the offensive glass. We are 27th in transition scoring this year, last year we were 10th, the year before that we were 3rd. Maybe if teams were a little more scared of us running down the court in transition they wouldn't be so aggressive with the offensive rebounding? Not sure there's anything to this theory...would like to hear other peoples thoughts on it.
If only there was a good rebounding PF (that could be had for maybe Knight's contract plus a 1st) whose baby mama didn't have intimate relations with James Harden....
Next 4 games will tell you tremendous amount of playoffs chance. Trail Blazers Rockets Thu, 12/13 5:00 PM Lakers Rockets Sat, 12/15 5:00 PM Rockets Grizzlies Mon, 12/17 5:00 PM Jazz Rockets
