Rockets write-up: Link at espn Spoiler 16. Houston Rockets Our go-to example for the rest of eternity for The Law of Too Many Guys. You only need eight and a half guys to win in the NBA: five starters, three bench guys, then an 8½th man who doesn't mind playing 0-10 minutes a night and being on call if a rotation guy gets into foul trouble, gets hurt or whatever. Of those eight and half guys, ideally, you need two scorers, one ball handler, one perimeter defender and one rebounder. You need to be able to play defense. You need everyone to know their roles. You need to know who's playing crunch time and who gets the ball in those last few minutes. And you need a coach competent enough not to screw things up. That's it. All of these concepts sound incredibly simple, yet NBA teams forget them over and over again. The Rockets started this season with eleven guys who thought they should be playing, as well as a starting point guard who wanted to get paid and thought he was a little better than he was (Aaron Brooks). You're not going to believe this, but it didn't work out. Yao Ming got injured early, then the team dealt Shane Battier and Brooks at the deadline. Suddenly they had an eight-man rotation that made sense: Luis Scola and Kevin Martin as the scorers; Kyle Lowry as the ball handler; Chuck Hayes and Patrick Patterson as the rebounders; Chase Budinger, Goran Dragic and Courtney Lee falling into place as the other three perimeter guys; and Brad Miller lurking as the 8½th man (happy to get a couple of minutes here and there). It's not the most talented group, and they're not quite good enough defensively as you'd want, but they play hard and know their roles. Since the trade deadline, Houston is 13-5. Here's what fascinates me: Rockets GM Daryl Morey already knew the Law of Too Many Guys. He was running them in 2008 when Houston thrived with Tracy McGrady and Scola (scorers); Rafer Alston (ball handler); Battier (perimeter stopper); Dikembe Mutombo (rebounder); Carl Landry, Bobby Jackson and Luther Head (bench guys); and Hayes (the 8½th man who eventually jumped into Mutombo's spot when Zeke got hurt). T-Mac wasn't even totally T-Mac anymore and that team won 22 straight games. Twenty-two! It's that easy. It's a common-sense thing. Ask any NBA starter how many minutes would make them happy and they'd say 36 to 38 (one rest per half). There are 240 minutes available in a basketball game. That means you need to allot 180-190 minutes for your five starters to be happy. Now, ask any bench player how many minutes they need to play well and you know what they'd say? Two stretches per half for 8-10 minutes. They need time to run around, break a sweat, get a feel for the game and get comfortable. That means you need to allot 50-60 minutes for your three bench guys and your 8½th man. So let's split the difference: 185 minutes for five happy starters, 55 minutes for the three and a half bench guys. That adds up to … wait for it … 240 minutes! What a coincidence.
Bill Simmons makes up names for teams/players whenever he feels like it. Like he still calls the Thunder, the Zombies.
I don't agree with his theory. 1. The Rockets didn't struggle early because they had too many guys who wanted to play. They struggled because certain of the guys in their rotation were doing poorly: (a) Brooks sucked after the injury and (b) Hill sucked while playing more minutes than he should. 2. It's not like we got total contentment on the roster even now. Remember Terrence Williams? 3. We actually have a 9 1/2 man rotation: Hill is a regular part of that rotation. Brad Miller is the 1/2 man-- who plays the "plunger" role, i.e. he only sees the floor when the Rockets are really struggling offensively and need his passing/shooting to get their offense unstuck.
Imagine if Lee and Patterson didn't get any PT and all those minutes went to AB and Hill (effectively making our rotation 8-9 players), we'd be at least 5 games under .500 right now. But luckily we had them to take AB and Hill's place. It's not about rotation size, just look at the best team in the NBA.
My thoughts exactly. That entire write up was him trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Not one point seemed fully accurate.
The roster was not easy of managing. But Rick has not shown a great proficiency handling it. I think it is one of the reasons why he still has not been extended (yet so, I bet he continues in the end). I think there was a thing hurting more the chemistry than the depth of the roster; the fact that every member of the team knew that a trade was going to happen, and could involve any one them. Specially for the young guys, it is hard. In favor of Morey also, he expected a Yao Ming for this season, and he not only would have helped to get a better dynamic, but also avoided all the "we need a center rumors". A healthy Yao would have contributed to gain a lot of chemistry. That said, Simmons is partially right, Morey had 4 wings who needed minutes, every one of them, and got another one during the season. I understand the reasons for Morey, but it has its drawbacks. With Aaron, I never trusted him and that's why I wanted him traded in the summer (when he was more valued), still I understand that Daryl was waiting for a good 1st half of season (counting with Yao) to increase his value and then trade him. A mix of bad luck, little mismanagement of resources (the coach and the GM), and simple strategy of sacrificing some present for a better future.
yeah i dont agree completely, but there is some truth to having too many guys. The team mentioned it recently, saying now they knew their roles better....i think we probably started closer to 12 guys who should play, but 9-10 i think still will work, and has.
A lot of the other guys did, too. Chase and Kyle were nowhere this good before the trade. They couldn't get into shape without the minutes. And Patterson doesn't play as well when Scola's playing a lot of minutes.
Disagree about the last part, the story is that Patterson didn't play at all when Hill was getting a lot of minutes. Pat has been fine both as a sub and as a starter. Same guy, different minutes. Chase and Kyle did improve later in the season, but they never strugglrd like Hill and AB. I dreaded those guys coming in cuz they almost always blew games.
It wasn't about too many guys, it was about inconsistent rotations, and extremely inconsistent players. Post trade, there seems to be a lot less up and downs within the lineup and within each player.
Kyle never struggled to that degree, but Chase had a terrible stretch at the beginning of the year. He was playing with absolutely zero confidence, and couldn't buy a 3-pt bucket. I even remember some clowns on this board demanding that he be sent to the Vipers... SMH.
