To maximize Russ potential we first have to look at his strengths and weaknesses,first off i gathered data from Russ best year fg percentage wise which was the 2011-12 year and i looked up some of his highlights to see what were his tendency's and what he felt comfortable with..One of the first things that i noticed was that he only shot the 3, 3 times a game which is low,and the rest of his attempts(16) were 2 point shots,the second thing i noticed was that he shied away from the 3 even when open and attacked the rim which led to a dunk or foul being called.The third thing i noticed was that he felt comfortible shooting the midrange and posting guys up.But most importantly he attacked the rim at all times . Currently when im watching russ get the ball ,sometimes he tends to iso that ends up a long 2 or 3 ,instead we should a run barrage of pick and rolls with Russ so we can get a mistmatch with him on a big and let him blow past him. . In conclusion instead of Dantoni encouraging Russ to shoot the 3(ideally have him shoot only 3 3s per game,currently shooting 6 times) ,he should encourage russ to attack the rim every time he gets the ball even if hes open for a 3. I know this team is all about chunking up as many 3 pointers as you can ,but instead he should put Russ on a mission to attack the rim , his fg percentage at the rim is around 60% this year ,.Secondly we need to see more post ups from Russ, so far this season hes shooting those at a 47 % clip..The rest of his fields goals should be attacking the rim for a high percentage shot,that can also put the other team in foul trouble.
The video u posted makes an interesting point about Westbrook helping an offense despite his poor shooting woes ,my suggestion is to make Westbrook as efficient as possible,which in turn would be even better than before ,Hes shooting 23% from 3 this year ,and 60% at the rim which do u think is better?.Russ has never been a good 3 point shooter ,but hes one of the best at attacking the basket. Less 3s and more 2s at the rim is what I suggest for Russ.
Morey and Dantoni says no. They are both too stuck in their ways to bend the offense to the player, instead they want to bend the player to a static offense.
I'm not calling for more 3's, the video didn't either. I hope in the next few games Rockets can put their players in more optimum situations to succeed.
Russ is not same athlete he was. Has had surgery on both knees. He is still explosive, but nothing like before, he can't be attacking the rim every single play. We have to face he is a finished product, can't change him. He is decent as a mid range shooter and good at the rim. Terrible shooting 3s. The offense is all about spacing, if he could attack the basket like before, he would be killing it, like James does, but defenders just wait him, knowing he can't shoot. I fear the rockets won't make it far as currently constructed.
I don’t mind if he shoots the 3 when he’s open and in rhythm. I just can’t stand it when he catches hesitates for 2 seconds then jacks it up
Likewise. But watch him last game....4 out of 5 of his 3 pointers were wide open, off the catch, in rhythm. And he made two of them. He also only took 4 mid range shots, 3 of which were inside 16 feet. Only one of which seemed a bit forced. He attacked the rim all game long, and if our supposed 3 point shooters could actually make a shot, he would've had like 12 assists! I hope his play style wasn't a fluke last game and he continues to play like that.
Russ is simply a poor jump shooter. Has always been his entire career. His mentality needs to be to pass first, attack the basket next, and shoot from distance the last. I think he probably understands it but sometimes he doesn’t think clearly in the moment.
We need to hide his deficiencies. The best way to do that is to use his strength ( assists) but that dosent work cause our shooters suck! Fix this and game is on.
Steve Francis part 2 - declining athleticism - will be making him worse and worse. Unless he somehow learns to shoot, IMHO he is going too quickly to get set, is rarely ever in good shooting position as he is always drifting. DD
