Why don't we have anything to rely on in the half court set? I remember coach saying in the beginning of the year because we were young and inexperienced that he wanted to introduce minimal plays and try to keep it simple etc.. However it's evident late in the season that we have nothing to rely on what so ever in the half court offense. When you let inexperienced plays try to play free flowing motion offense will result in a lot of standing around or poor spacing due to bad timing of cuts. Contrary to popular belief I don't think anyone in the Rockets organization believe that iso Harden or iso Parsons is a long term winning solution. It's just getting good ball movement and a strong offense is not as simple as going out there spacing the floor and hoping for the best. Most of the time especially lately it results in players standing around not knowing where to cut resulting in iso's. Our players are to young, inexperienced and lack the basketball knowledge to play in a read and react half court offense. If in the beginning of the year he made it known that we should run but then slowly introduced plays but stuck with it we would have atleast SOMETHING to go to now. We might have struggled earlier in the year with a lot of turnovers and face palming shots but by practicing that over the course of the year we would have gotten better at it. Obviously not having a post presence makes things harder but you can still pass the ball in and use them as a decoy/passer to run plays. This team really needs more structure. I know the coaching staff has done a lot for this team and it wouldn't in this position without Mchale and mostly Harden but I hope next year if we get a new coach we try to establish a playbook or something to build upon besides run and get fast break buckets. Even the suns back in the day had good movement from their pick and rolls to open shooters. Our team doesn't even set picks anymore. I hope Mchale or whoever comes in next year makes this a focus along with team defense. Its too late to change anything now I just hope the guys go out there and play their hardest and take away any learning experience they can for the rest of the series! Alas the team is still extremely young and inexperienced, we should try our best to enjoy PLAYOFF basketball and support our team and hope for growth.
You could have just typed the first sentence. in b4 all the replies are "Because we have McHale as a coach."
It's on the coaching staff. Even our garbage minute guys didn't have clearly defined plays. I found that extremely concerning.
Well, that was exactly what I was going to write about: I didn't see anything that even remotely resembled an offensive play out there. This team appeared to be completely lost out there. All is solved by barking at lin however. Mchale or lin have to go. Or both.
because mchale.... iso ball works in the regular season against garbage teams but not against a coach worth a damn
I just find it really disappointing to watch when our offense stops and noone does anything. 4 people standing around the perimeter and one person dribbling trying to make something happen. People waving the arms in the air no idea where to go scared they will cut and clog lane etc.. I don't know specifics but everyone knows implementing plays and identify a go to style is extremely important and can be difficult to iron out with lots of frustrating struggles along the way but that is what the regular season is for. Running a lot is good but half court offense is still needed.
Mchale has completely alienated 3 talented point guards in less than 2 seasons. The problem is that morey has not shown the slightest inclination to replace mchale. As much as I respect morey, his 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' stance towards his coaching hire leads me to question whether morey is capable of evaluating and hiring a head coach which will fit the pieces he's so brilliantly acquired.
Rockets will never be as good as OKC talent wise, without tanking hard. But at least Rockets can hire a good coach and play some fun team balls.
I didn't even see any iso's. It was pure chaos out there. As in "what's wrong with you lin?!?" Great job, mac.
Harden is a big reason because he likes to hold the ball at the top of the key and call for a pick. Harden isn't a Steph Curry type player who can run over screens and get his shot. He's most comfortable dribbling with it and then getting his shot, unfortunately this makes us have zero ball movement.
Their scared to shoot because they don't know when their suppose to shoot. They have no system, apparently we're suppose to take the best available shot from our drive and kick game but when things get stagnant no one has any idea what is a good shot and hesitate to take it in fear of being yelled at. That moment of hesitancy makes all the difference, especially for a jump shooting team.
Because everyone has been saying that in order to win in this league, you have to have that one player that you can ISO in crunch time. I'm guessing McHale's definition of "crunch time" is "every single possession."
