It matters when that's the first point you bring to counter my post. The ability of shooters like Tucker and RoCo to knock down open shoots regularly is absolutely essential. It's fair to wonder if they will be able to sustain the necessary level of production given heavy minutes and tired legs. We saw some of that with Tucker the other night. He normally doesn't shoot 20% from the corners but tough minutes will do that to you. The minutes only get tougher from here. Yes we all know Capela wasn't the answer but Capela been gone for 6 months. It's time to stop talking about lineups he was a part of and start focusing on the strengths, and weaknesses, of the present lineups.
its the first point bc that's what you were talking about. again these minutes and tired legs questions were still widely prevalent prior to to playing ball. That needs to be acknowledged instead of making it seem like its a small ball issue. it isn't. that's always been something the rockets have dealt with no matter what lineups they threw out there. it's a league wide issue that's part of the game and will always be We don't know that he simply missed those shots bc of pure fatigue. it shouldn't be tbh bc this whole thing just started. Every single player is well rested. It could very well be he is just missing and had an off night. It happens. That's part of playing the game. shooters miss. They go through stretches of misses. The question is always going to be how they respond and how they get through it. RoCo was abysmal for almost 4 quarters from the 3 pt line against dallas. He continued to stick with it and came up huge from the tip in on
That is true..... but remember, the Rockets players are also more rested because of the long lay off, so they can handle the minutes better than had we just played a normal season. Also the Rockets have worked on some things and have had time to pick apart what other teams do. I think it "can" work but you are right, it requires a lot of effort and having a referee that doesn't decide to call the game a particular way. I am not sure the Rockets can beat the Bucks four times in a seven game series.... as I think this year coming out of the West guarantees anything. The Raptors also could end up winning it all........ the Sixers and Celtics also are tough.
2 things you need to factor as far as leaving Lopez in. One I think he was visibly gassed. When they went to timeout you could see he was gasping for air. I think he may have asked out of the game. Second Lopez gave up at least 25 open corner threes yesterday. If PJ Tucker shoots his averages it’s a blowout or he would be unplayable. With a lead I don’t think they wanted us to keep shooting open corner threes cuz that’s how we would comeback.
That's a good point. The Clippers have 3 all NBA level wing defenders to make our perimeter focused offense tough. I'm sure that the Clippers length and activity played a large role in the shooting percentage.
I know that everyone wants to call it micro ball or small ball......... but really it has to do with the Rockets having 5 players on the floor that can cover the perimeter and the post in a pinch, and having 4 guys on the floor that can shoot the ball. Covington is huge in what the Rockets are trying to do..... and his wingspan and physical strength is under appreciated. He also does a good job in the post. The real trade off for the Rockets hasn't been so much in the post as much as on the boards where they have gone from being solid to poor..... but have improved in several other areas. Overall the Rockets are better now than they were before the Covington deal. However, I am sure the Rockets will pursue more versatile length inside and likely look hard at a rebounder.
The long layoff certainly benefited the Rockets (Harden took advantage of it so did Gordon before the latest injury. RoCo got a "training camp" etc.). But other teams received that same advantage. A rested LBJ is arguably the best player in the league. I do feel that had the season not paused, the Rockets would not have been able to sustain this style of play so that was a great benefit to us. We'll see how they call the games in the playoffs but yes, we are relying on the officials to not allow us to get manhandled on the defensive end. Giannis got away with a few borderline charges last night. Are those called in the post-season? Idk but I doubt it.
We were not anywhere close to being near perfect last night against the Bucks and still won. PJ Tucker was atrocious from the corner 3. Harden got into foul trouble early in the game, which took him out his rhythm for most of the game. We bricked wide option threes after wide open threes. What part of all that sounds like anywhere close to a near perfect night? Despite all that, we still won against not just the best team in the league currently, but the best REBOUNDING team as well. This proves our team has margin. The ability for role players to hit timely shots under ANY situation is an issue inherent to ANY team, not just the Rockets. That is why having multiple stars are so important, so we can minimize the need for those players to have to hit timely shots.
I'm calling it micro ball lol. I already have the memes of shrunken Rocket 2K players beating the Lakers and one of PJ Tucker on stilts.
"The guys have to be near perfect night in and out over the course of multiple series." What SERIES did the Rockets play last night or at any point this year? NONE, NADA, ZINCH .......they have yet to play a series meaning they've yet to have an opposing coaching staff lock in on their weakness for an extended period of time. ANYTHING can happen during the course of an individual game. Hell Trey Burke looked like the second coming of Steph Curry the other night but I doubt he could sustain that over 4 games. Could the Rockets survive 4 games exactly like the one last night? Maybe....maybe not. I wouldn't say that it is a given. The key will be if they can keep leveraging the advantages of this strategy over the course of AT LEAST 16 playoff games. They just might be able to do it, but I honestly doubt it. We are relying on players to consistently hit a pretty high variance shot while simultaneously asking them to play heavy minutes against bigger players. It's fair to wonder if that will result in a championship. I think the strategy involves too many moving pieces and "what ifs" but it is our best shot because of less desirable roster decisions earlier on.
Our small ball lineup increases variance - this is a good thing. I think increased variance with 2 MVP-caliber players that can put up 30 point triple doubles on any given night is a solid combination. There will be nights where we STRUGGLE and the very next night we might look like the most dangerous team in the league. That's what ultra reliance on 3's looks like. We won't win many rebounding battles but as long as we hit 3's at an above average clip and win the turnover battle (create lots of turnovers) we can beat any team. Regarding last night, Bucks really missed Bledsoe. He is the x-factor for their match up with us. They missed Bledsoe much more than we missed Gordon.
I agree , however , i also think the other guy has a point. There might come a certain junction in future games where , if we are behind, the other team will try to establish post play ( if hey have proper personnel ) . You rightly suggest that 3>2 , and that is the math mda and morey believe in as well. But , if we are down 10 with 2 min left , another coach might not care if he's giving up 3 as long as he is sure to be getting two . 3>2 , but its a 1 point difference , whereas if you arent scoring its a minimum 2 points. Our counter will be to double/ and or take the initiative defensively some how , but its also a gamble for us if the offense ( other teams ) can remain steady. Long story short , its still a game of runs. Anything you can do to counterbalance a comeback by keeping the scoreboard moving is an option to be considered.
Didn't think I needed to break this down that much for you. Saying that we have to play near perfect night in and night out means you don't believe we can win otherwise. This game showed absolutely that we could win games even without playing anywhere close to near perfect, much less sustaining near perfect play throughout an entire series. As to your point of whether the Rockets could survive 4 games exactly like the one last night, that's kind of a pointless question because we will have much better games offensively than the one last night, just as we will have worse games in comparison. As for your point about asking role players to high high variance shots (3 pointers), that has been the case since we started this entire switch heavy defensive scheme and it took us a game away from the Finals even with a CP3 injury and missing 27 straight threes. As for your "fair to wonder if that will result in a championship" point, that applies for literally any team. You literally wonder that about any team until a team actually wins.
Good thing is this new NBA doesn’t have anyone close to Dream or Shaq. Who are you really afraid of in the post? Best post big man would be Joel Embiid and we won’t even see him in the playoffs. Not afraid of AD shooting fade-aways all game long. Not afraid of skinny Jokic cuz he’s a defensive liability.
There is a blue print for everything, right now the Rockets are designing their own. Blue print of all blue collar and no Alpha but multiple Allstars - Pistons Blue print of 3 superstars or 4 stars- Heat, lesser degree Boston...... Blue print of dynamic duo - Shaq and Kobe, Gasol and Kobe Blue print of one Superstar C surrounded by shooters - Rockets, Mavericks with Dirk So, not entirely, there were formulas that could somehow increase the winning possibility.
It doesn't show that anymore than us losing to the Suns or Clippers a few months back shows that the strategy couldn't work. It was a great game, but it was one regular season game. We will get to see how this strategy holds up in the playoffs in a few weeks. Until it has withstood that test I can't say that it shows we can win a series. For all we know, teams could be hiding a fantastic counter to micro ball for the post season. "As for your "fair to wonder if that will result in a championship" point, that applies for literally any team. You literally wonder that about any team until a team actually wins." You're the second person to try to make this type of argument. When did I suggest that this was a concern unique to the Rockets? Whether or not you like it, it is a fair.....and very real....concern.
Any attempt to defend size with size will backfire on us because a traditional center like Tyson would make Russ less effective due to worse spacing. Too late for any roster changes at this point. Maybe we can shore this up in the offseason with a center that can rebound and shoot the three like Serge Ibaka, but for now microball is our best strategy. As much as we hate getting pounded on the boards, other teams hate getting killed inside by Russ. It's a trade off we're going to have to live with this year.
The one thing we should be concerned about......is Fatigue, Fatigue FATIGUE You guys see it out there, those dudes look like they are giving 100% effort out there. They look exhausted playing like this. We are gonna have to open the rotation more imo.
Ideally, if you had to play Chandler hopefully you'd stagger his minutes with Westbrook's but I don't see MDA going to Chandler at any point this season (outside of elimination game desperation). I agree wholeheartedly that we need a big that can rebound, defend and shoot moving forward. IDK where that player will be found though.
I'd like to see Luc get some more burn but idk what kind of shape he's in and MDA's level of trust in him. I thought DMC would have helped but I was underwhelmed with his minutes and given his lack of PT so was Mike.
