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Adjustment to the way teams are now defending Rockets' small-ball

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by for-three, Mar 9, 2020.

  1. for-three

    for-three Member

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    Ever since the Celtics game teams are basically just clogging the paint with their center and collapsing off the shooters. The problem as I see it is Harden typically drives into the teeth of the defense and has always had the option of the lob, layup/floater, or to kick out for threes. Without the lob threat, he's now facing a sea of defenders in the paint that are disrupting his shot and forcing turnovers.

    I think one way in combating this strategy is to start passing the ball to the perimeter shooters much earlier in the drive, instead of trying to get all the way into the teeth of the defense every time. If you watch the Bucks in their five-out offense, Giannis often makes quick hitting passes to the open shooters right after his initial drive after crossing the 3-point line. The defenders that collapse when Giannis attacks often don't have time to rotate back out to the 3-point line with the pass being delivered sooner. That's the adjustment I think Harden will have to make. Dribbling into a congested paint every time and forcing the issue will just keep leading to getting the ball blocked/stripped and give the defenders time to recover to the corners. This five-out offense won't work just standing at the top of the key dribbling the ball/running the shot clock down always allowing the defense to set up. Harden needs to play with more pace and those quick-hitting passes earlier in the shot clock are key to being less predictable. Obviously there are other ways to mix up the offense too that people have mentioned (cutting more to the basket from the wing, occasionally having Harden work from the mid-post to get easier baskets, especially when his 3-point shot isn't falling, etc.), but this is one specific thing I think would help.
     
  2. for-three

    for-three Member

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    Also, the only silver lining I see is at least the team has a chance to figure out this defensive strategy before the playoffs start It seemed obvious teams would sell out to clog the middle and prevent Westbrook/Harden from scoring easy baskets arount the rim, so better now I guess than to have to adjust on the fly once the playoffs start. It took the team a week or so to figure out the aggressive doubling of Harden when Denver first started doing it and everyone used the same method.
     
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  3. snowconeman22

    snowconeman22 Member

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    Or he could just take midrange stepback

    him being in that position on the court also allows him a pass to the corner or towards the basket if the corner shooter cuts.

    pj isn’t a great cutter tho (pj has his little flip shot) . House is ok , Covington is pretty good, WB isn’t a great shooter . Green might work . Gordon might work . Rivers is ok but is small . Carroll I haven’t seen enough of yet and he looks rusty/ a bit stiff . maclemore can be good or can be awful .

    harden would be pretty good at this role too when Russ is handling the ball .

    I don’t know why we aren’t running something like that and rotating who the handler and corner people are ? Are we ?

    I would like to see harden work off the catch more too . One of the only ways this small ball offense works is if the ball is not , uh hmm, sticky - to quote mchale.

    It can actually be a bit like that style we played in 12-13 .

    Harden needs to resort to iso only on possessions that are busted and there are like 7-8 seconds left on the clock . Then , pull a quick move to get your shot/ foul of choice.

    but we need harden to be part of the system more , not the entire system .

    in the playoffs if you wanna devote some possessions to trying to exploit a mismatch - go for it . But it shouldn’t be our plan A,B, and C.

    Harden exposes his game so much that other teams bigger defenders are more ready for him than they were in 15-18. Teams throw multiple guys at him and tire him out .... and instead of creating chaos on our possessions and making other teams pay for devoting so much energy towards James .... we rely on James to read the defense, beat it , and set up a high value look for himself or one of his teammates ... who have been waiting .

    In addition to that we are counting on James to defend bigger guys and really body them up.

    Our strategy is just asking too much. It doesn’t even make sense to play near 100 percent every game . There are 20 games left , we should be in the mode of preparing our team to be as healthy as possible for a stretch run.

    the problem is we are small and need the speed.

    James is essentially our 4 now. Covington is better at guarding perimeter guys , and is a good help defender. James is a better man defender on most power forwards... when he’s got juice .

    we need James to play to win . But maybe we can devise a strategy where we aren’t asking so much ... because with the volume we count on him for , if he doesn’t have a good game we likely lose ... that’s unless another player steps up big . Furthermore , since James has kinda moved to the frontcourt his defense is counted on more . On the perimeter , unless you’re facing a deadly shooter , you can give them space . Throughout the game , unless you’re chasing around curry or some other star then you can save some energy .

    we need our depth to step up . We need to hit shots . We need to change some elements of our strategy to make the offense more fluid and ask less of James . Maybe even the defense too . It sounds like the communication level needs to improve.

    these are my thoughts
     
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  4. for-three

    for-three Member

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    I'm
    I would love to see him go to the midrange shot more, it's such an easy shot for him compared all the highly contested stepback three he takes. Especially when his legs get tired and he starts bricking threes and teams overcommit on his drives, he needs the midrange game to have a way to score less difficult baskets.
     
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  5. hikanoo49

    hikanoo49 Member

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    Let’s rain some 15 footers on the wolves!!!!
     
  6. rockets13champs

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    Our game plan needs to be a step ahead of the other team.
     
  7. harold bingo

    harold bingo Udoka Only Fan
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    This really shouldn't work, and if it does, it defeats the purpose of 5-out, or small ball, or whatever you want to call this. If a defender is camping/collapsing on the paint that means a shooter is open. If that guy gets the ball, he has to shoot it, plain and simple. Sometimes the passes aren't good/quick enough and it allows the defense to recover, and sometimes our shooters are afraid to shoot the open 3, but either way, this should not work at all. If teams guard us this way it should result in a wide open 3 on every single possession.
     
  8. JackLordsHair66

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    There are a lot of open 3s and this roster of suck is missing a **** ton of them, just look at the 3pt shooting percentages the last 4 games especially through the first 3 quarters. We just don’t have the right players to run this system an entire game every game, too many streaky, or more pointedly, poor shooters on this team.
     
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  9. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Also, Im still not a believer in Harden "needs" a lob threat.
     
  10. fckbandwagons

    fckbandwagons Member

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    Zones are meant to make the offense shoot. HOU is definitely hesitating on shots. If you're open, shoot!
     
  11. harold bingo

    harold bingo Udoka Only Fan
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    Respectfully I just disagree. Most games, especially those against bad teams, will be winnable even if you shoot in the low 30s from 3. To me there are 3 keys to this small-ball strategy that have to happen in order for it to work, and that's limiting turnovers, good defensive effort (forcing turnovers), and rebounding effort.

    There was a really good post here a few weeks ago that went into great detail on this stuff, but the short version is that we were still getting more shot attempts than our opponents despite losing the rebounding battle. If our guys put in a lot of effort rebounding, we won't lose that battle by much (if at all). On top of that, 5 out should reduce your turnovers, and it did when our shooters didn't hesistate, and it worked like it was supposed to. The turnovers start when players hesitate to shoot open shots, then you get late in the shot clock, roleplayers trying to dribble drive, forcing bad passes, that kind of thing. Turnovers have to be low with 5 out, and they should be. And then lastly our defense used to force a ton of turnovers. Obviously being so small is a disadvantage overall, but having smaller quicker guys should allow you to get more steals, jump more passing lanes, sneak in and force turnovers on double teams, and all that stuff. This effort just has not been there during the loss streak.

    The poor defense just hurts us too much. We can't let teams like Charlotte, Orlando, and the Knicks drop 120 ortgs against us. We shouldn't expect to win a lot of games if we're playing defense that poorly. But as long as we defend well, and keep our turnovers low, it doesn't take lights out shooting to win games.
     
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  12. mike2k132

    mike2k132 Member

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    ill make thia easy...hit open 3s. shot with confidence. thats all really lol. u said it urself its nothing def teams have been doing.

    when we won, we hit 15 or more 3s. someome do the research...i assume when we lost we didnt hit over 15.

    over success is tied to hitting 3s period. end thread. keep on keeping on #rednation out
     
  13. harold bingo

    harold bingo Udoka Only Fan
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    We made 15 against Charlotte and 20 against the Knicks. The defense is the bigger problem. I think playing defense is a lot more important that hitting shots. We can win (and we have) when the shots aren't falling, we can't win if we don't play defense. The team shot 27% against Boston but still won because of great defensive effort and rebounding effort.
     
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  14. Reeko

    Reeko Member

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    giving the amount of defense, hustle, and energy required to not get annihilated on the boards and contain dribble penetration at all times since u lack shot blocking might just be too taxing
     
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  15. mike2k132

    mike2k132 Member

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    new york we should of won. i meant 20s is our mark we have to hit. n again i think in the playoffs our defense focus will be better. i again keep preaching. we will be the reverse of prior years n actually be better in the playoffs. keep faith rednation. ive also said it would be rocky cause our main pieces are just plug n play. but if we do fig we have the highest upside in the
    league
     
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  16. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Yea, the problem is that either we would be without Capela even if we made the trade and wed still not great defensively(well we were improving) our offense would get a massive boost. The big problem now and that I want to know for sure(but there is no way we can know) is that if dudes are gassed? Like are our guys just too damn tired, or are they giving low effort? Or are they giving low effort because they are so damn tired....idk.
     
  17. ozrocketsfan

    ozrocketsfan Member

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    Prior to the Capela trade we were 1-dimensional, now I think even more so. We need to consistently run a number of different plays. I think pick & roll with Jeff Green is a good start. Having guys back cut from the corner along the baseline is another one when the defense sags.

    Having someone else take the ball up and get Harden free off screens would also be a good wrinkle, however in situations they have done that, Harden refuses to shoot when free. He waits for the defender and then it's back to the usual 1 on 1 attempt to beat them off the dribble.
     
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  18. Reeko

    Reeko Member

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    Idk how they couldn’t be gassed. They must have high intensity every game or they could give up 15+ offensive rebounds and get outrebounded by 30. They are constantly battling guys bigger and stronger than them in the paint, and they must also do their best to contain dribble penetration at all times because Covington is the only thing we got resembling a shot blocker. It doesn’t help that this team is also the oldest team in the league.

    small ball 24/7 is taxing and tiring...there’s a reason GS didn’t just trot out Draymond at the 5 all the time

    I was hoping we could land a legit starting caliber wing and a big that could at least give us 20-25 serviceable minutes during this trade deadline...we only managed to accomplish 1 of the 2 :(

    PJ will be dead come playoff time...Harden may not have any legs
     
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  19. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Keep hope bro, if Morey made this trade, he must have taken this into account. We'll see what happens. But if these guys play their best ball come playoff time, we might see something amazing. Let them get gassed now and see all these things defenses want to throw at us. Lets see what happens.
     
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  20. harold bingo

    harold bingo Udoka Only Fan
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    Totally agree with this. The best 5 man lineup in the league every year in the warriors era was the death lineup, and yet, there was a reason they didn't play it 30 minutes a game. They always ran out their sub-par bigs to soak up some minutes every game, and I think this is why.

    EDIT: just caught up with the thread and realized you made this exact same point in your next post
     
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