The Rockets CAN win with their style of play but…

Sorry, but you lost me when you called Monta Ellis a "fine player" and Royce White "a player that completely fits this offense" AND Faried "the archetype for this system."

Defense might not by the most important thing in winning a chip, but it is still VERY important. None of the three guys above can play defense at all. Like non.

Also, EG is "very limited dribbling-wise"? He might not have the handles that great PGs have, but he's above average for a SG.

 

I found Royce White's CF account

 

Notice the video pic.

2 All stars (wasnt even 2 in this year's series with the way CP played) vs 4 all stars.

That's the biggest difference.

 

PJ playing his rightful position at SF - with an actual PF and a Center.... sounds like less small ball and more size for rebounding, boxing out and rim protection... yer playing my song - thats muh jam! lol

I think more adjustments need to be made - like actual adjustments... but thats a good start!

I value EGo more...

 

The Rockets CAN win with their style of play in the Regular Season but…

FIFY

 

Of course our style can win a championship...
Like most of have been saying for a couple years now- we just lack the personnel....

 

Gtfoh

 

The warriors take the 2nd most midrange jumpers in the league. I don’t think taking a lot of those is the answer, but I think we need to be more versatile

 

Excellent @Kornel87

Reinforces what I’ve been saying.

1) Coaches: D’Antoni system works, he just moved towards a guard focused lineup. Trying to dribble against GSW’s
tends to get the ball stripped. With a center that can shoot 3’s, it opens up passing lanes and allows the play book to
expand with cutters to rim. IMO, the only way a team could beat the Warriors is with 5-Out (Draymond has to guard a
perimeter player........M Gasol, Shiakam or Ibaka w/Raptors and Brook Lopez & Ilyasova w/Bucks).

I can take D’Antoni or leave him. Can still manage a game and players like his non grueling practices, but he
needs to play 9 players in the playoffs or guys run a greater risk of injury......Warriors found this out as well.
Raptors won the championship because the Rockets wore down the Warriors physically.



2) personnel: Need upgrade in size on the Wing, that aren’t afraid of jacking up 8 three pt attempts per game. 3-D guys. I agree that Beverley compliments Harden. Receives the kick out and shoot or dribbles
a couple of times while looking to pass. Keep the ball moving that way.


3) System works. All teams start off with PnR, Weave, Iso, Horns, Hand off, Post (high or low), 5-Out, etc
Great facilitator (Harden/CP3/ ??Butler??) with consistent knock down perimeter shooters can win it all....
just add a little more height to those perimeter shooters imo. The height of the kick out pass can be elevated
and decrease the chances of getting picked off.

 

The Warriors vs the West in the playoffs (15-0) over the last 5 years. What's the rest of the West's excuse?

 

More All Stars....lol

Raptors All Star(s)
Kawhi Leonard
K Lowry
M Gasol

Warriors All Star(s)
Curry
KD................................... (injured most of finals)
Draymond
Klay.................................. (injured during finals)
Iggy (in 11/12)..................(missed game 4 of Portland series due to injury)
Cousins ............................(injured leading up to and during finals)

Rockets All Star(s)
Harden
CP3

Need more All Stars

 

I think that you may be overestimating how much the Rockets actually run Iso. They only run it about 20% of the time and almost all of those possessions are either Harden or CP3 who are both very good in iso.

In this year's playoffs, the Rockets ran iso an average of 22.4 times per game. Of those, 15 of them were Harden and 5 were CP3. Gordon only ran iso once per game in this years playoffs. He wasn't too good on those limited possesions but one possession isn't going to be a deciding factor on our success. Rivers also iso'd once per game and everyone else on the roster was less than 1 per game.

In the regular season, we ran iso an identical 22.4 times per game. Harden had 16.4 per game and CP3 had 4.7. Again, just over 22 possessionn/game and 20 of those were Harden or Paul.

All in all, we averaged 0.97 PPP in iSO in this years playoffs. That's a good number (though slightly down from our 1.06 ppp in the regular season), especially when you realize that we run almost double the amount of ISO than any other team in the league.

In the playoffs we had 22.4 ISO possessions/game. The next highest was Brooklyn with 12.0/game. Harden alone ran 15 ISOs per game.

All in all, we ran iso on 20.6% of our postseason possessions. The next highest rate was Boston at 10.7% of their possessions.

Those 22 possessions weren't a problem. If you want to look at ways to improve the offense, then our 75 non-iso possessions/game would be the place to look.

Also, D'Antoni isn't an ISO based coach. In fact, he doesn't like iSO but he's smart enough to play to the talents of his best players.

Faried was fine on offense against most teams. His issue is that he's a very bad defender and against the Warriors, they take away the lob to the roll man which eliminates most of his offensive effectiveness.

I don't think you'll see Tucker as a primary SF. He can cover quick guys for short periods of time but the Rockets won't ask him to do that for long stretches.

I too had high hopes for Royce White. He had passing skills but bottom line was that he couldn't shoot. If he were still here, he'd be just like Ben Simmons where teams completely back off of him and dare him to shoot. That's not evern considering what he would do in our switch everything defense.

I also believe that the Rockets do need a 2nd ball handler. Before CP3, teams could simply run a double at Harden and it took us out of our offense completely. With CP3 on the floor it's a different story. Not to mention having him to run the 2nd team when Harden is on the bench.

 

Preach