I've been pondering this for a while now. I think the biggest improvement of this team over last year is definitely Chemistry. The passing is so much better now, the ball is zipping around almost every possession. What you'd see every three games or so last year is happening every game. Smarter basketball is being played. Everyone is co-existing well. TMac and Yao both have a place in the offense, Wesley really knows his role. Sura could pass better but hey he's a playmaker so you need that. Last year we were a talent team, this year we are a skill team. Kind of like Sacramento. I still wonder if we can make it deep into the playoffs, but at least this team is very fun to watch.
They've had 35 assists twice this season. They combined with the T'Pups the other night for the lowest total turnovers in a game in NBA history. Yeah, I'd say the passing has improved slightly over last season.
Our team looks like a whole different style of play i havent seen in years for the Rockets. So much passing, so many open shots, so much efficient hustle (ie saving loose balls instead of attempting to save one and going out of bounds). Our Defense can be real good at times and I feel we have a good chance to win every single game we play because we can take it to JVG ball and slow it down to catch up. All players know their role, as MoT sits firmly on the bench. Biggest improvement I see is passing, more team chemistry, and no more "the shots we usually make did't fall tonight" or "we're a young team, we'll learn"
The Biggest Improvement I have seen this season are. 1. Lower Turnovers 2. More Assists (better passing, ball movement) 3. Better FG% (I cant confirm but I feel like we are making a better percentage of our shots than previous years) 4. Composure (someone mentioned that in previous years if the games were close we were always worried about losing close games) Now if we are close (up/down) I feel we have a legitimate chance to win the game. 5. Fastbreaks Have gotten worse this year. 1. Rebounding (losing Cato/SF3 has made our rebounding worse than in previous years) 2. Defense (although DWes has helped our perimeter defense our interior defense has taken a hit) 3. Speed (obviously with an older roster team we lost alot of team speed) 4. Chemistry (definately improving so may be moved to improved shortly) thats all that comes to me right now.
I agree with most of your post, but this statistic is pretty easy to confirm. Or, in this case, deny. We shot better from the field last season, but we're getting better.
interesting... i don't have the stats in front of me. but it does seem like we are averaging more points this year right? so does that mean we are shooting more 3's, or going to the line more?
Gotta agree with the Count. Percentages are down across the board this year, but we're scoring (and giving up) more, so the only explanation is that we're playing a faster tempo game. More fast breaking, more shots early in the shot clock. And the leaguewide trend of higher scoring this year has an obvious impact on both our defensive and offensive numbers (more running and gunning teams out there).
I know that numbers don't lie, but my vivid recollection of last year was, clang, clang, brick, brick. It got so bad that when a shot went up I was shocked when it went in. This year, I expect them to go in. The shooting seems so much better. Go figure.
I think Cat and JJ shot better than all our perimeter players including McGrady percentage wise. Francis had a bad year but he shot alot better than Wesley. The biggest difference this year is fastbreaks and turnovers.
Is "timely" shooting a factor? Also, I would guess more jumpers this year than last. More threes this year? Don't know the stats., just impressions.
I'm temporarily living in Cleveland (man, I must have done some evil sh*t in a previous life!), so I went to see the Cavs play the Magic on Saturday. It was kind of fun watching Steve and Kelvin during the warmups and the intros. I almost felt a little twinge of regret, after having pulled so hard for these guys all those years. Then the first possesion, Stevie brings the ball up the court and does his little hop-skip thing. Second possesion, he drives right into the lane with several defenders there, gets up in mid-air, then decides to pass -- of course, he had no idea where his teammates were, so he threw it right to the Cavs. TWO plays and less than a minute burned in the first quarter, and it really hit home just lucky we were to get T-Mac. Steve Francis will NEVER win an NBA championship on any team that has him as its leader. Ain't gonna happen. We were looking at more years of frustration until Tracey got itchy feet.
I got flamed many times for saying that very thing during the last years, and I still believe it as strongly as ever. I never dreamed the Rockets could get TMac though.
