[ClutchFans] Rockets Playbook: Examining Jeremy Lin's favorite set

Don't have time right now to get to all of the questions in here, but I've read all the comments and just wanted to say that I very much appreciate all kind the words. Thanks.

I have, yes. It's a play the Rockets put in this year. I believe they first ran it against the Lakers on January 8 to start the game off... and over time it's become a regular play for them.

I haven't sorted trough the clips yet to see if it'd make sense to already put them together, but I've got about 15 clips of the Rocket executing this play properly right now and haven't watched the Kings and Clippers games yet, so... I should have enough tape to put together 2-3 minutes of the play by next week. Not sure if I'll have the time to do so, but I'll definitely get video of this play up some time before the playoffs.

I'll try to get to all the other questions in here either later today or some time during the weekend. Cheers.

 

I didn't pay attention to this at the time, so couldn't really say if the Rockets changed any of their play-calls or signals in the playoffs last year.
I want to say that didn't, but, as I've said, the Rockets don't run a whole lot of set offense to begin with and even less so when they down-size and play up-tempo -- as they did for most of the playoffs -- so we're really talking only about a very limited number of possessions where the Rockets were calling/signaling for certain set plays to begin with.

A lot of NBA teams call or signal for plays nearly every time down the floor, though. Generally speaking, the teams that play at a slower pace tend to do so more often than the fast-paced teams, because they don't prioritize pushing the ball up the floor as much and as result run far less early-offense and more set offense in the half-court.

Yes. The Rockets' read and react makes up most of their offense by far. It's fairly structure-less, so a lot of it is just guys being opportunistic and attacking out of the flow of the offense.

That's not really how it works. The Rockets pretty much only call set plays when they're going up against a set defense and though there might be a reason why McHale or one of the Rockets players is calling for a specific play, I'd separate between called plays and the Rockets read-and-react offense. They're not connected.

Knowing what's coming definitely helps at times, but due to the speed of the game it's tough to actually benefit from it too much -- especially during the regular season when you play so many different teams with so little time to prepare.
Players might pick up on a set play the other team is going to a various times during one game, but you can't expect players to know much of the opposing play-calls/signals.

Also, unless we're talking about wide-spread terminology being used as play-calls or a team that's had the same make-up for a while and thus is very well scouted, often times only the advanced scout or the (assistant) coach who's in charge of scouting that particular opponent know what's coming... (I don't know how the Rockets handle this, but coaches usually split up scouting responsibilities among each other with at least 5-6, if not 9-10 teams assigned to them ) ... so they have to get that info to the head-coach or the assistant coach in charge of the defense first, so that those guys can make defensive calls... and even then it might not help as knowing what's coming or what type of defense you're supposed to play really only helps you so much, which goes back to what bmd was saying here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=8727876&postcount=45

I actually think the ball tends to get more sticky when the Rockets are out 'running' their read and react offense.
It's hard to stay on the attack for the entire game and when there is no specific action that is supposed to happen some players have the tendency to hold onto the ball longer than ideal from time to time.

Whether or not this calls for more called plays or a more structured attack is another question, though.
Just because the ball may get sticky more often obviously doesn't necessarily mean it's the less efficient thing to do, overall.
I actually think it isn't -- I'm a believer in up-tempo, attack basketball that's (fairly) free-flowing -- however I also think at times a little more structure wouldn't hurt the Rockets offense.

Not dumb at all. There obviously are pro and cons to running set plays.

Set plays are popular, because coaches like control.
Control over which defender is being attacked and in what way. Control over who's (likely) getting the shot. Control over where the shot is (likely) coming from.

A lot of coaches probably over-do it, but it's not like set plays are generally inefficient plays. Some are quite good. Some probably shouldn't be run. Overall, it's probably not a great idea to run too much set offense, but I think it'd be unwise to throw all set plays into a hat.
Most of the the Cavs set plays suck. A lot of Blazers set plays are quite good. Coaching and personnel matters in that regard.

Certain set plays are highly efficient when being used as specials (i.e. plays you use once a game, if that), but would turn into average/low efficiency plays if teams used them more frequently because defenses would sniff them out.

Also, not all set plays only consist of one option. Some do, but there probably are just as many that consist of multiple options.
Also, it's not like read-and-reacting goes out of the window once you call a play. Sound basketball always require to read-and-react and good sets will let you take advantage of the defense (over-)playing you one way or the other.

Ya. I should know this by now. Thanks for reminding me. I won't bother from here on out.

 

Catching up on these last few Rockets games right now... and though anybody with any sort of understanding of the game that follows the Rockets would recognize that they do as a matter of fact call and signal for certain plays to be run at times, certain individuals obvious like to go against all the evidence and stick to some bull****-theory they made up in their head.
If you are that guy, please go back and watch the Clippers game, where ESPN was so nice to focus in on McHale a few times at the start of possessions, where you can clearly see and often even hear McHale calling for certain plays to be run.

Here's one of those instances where McHale is calling for the very same play this blog post is about. As you can hear, the Rockets play-call for it apparently is "Fist Up 2".

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zV-Nr-ymJug" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But yeah, the Rockets don't call or signal for plays.