The most talked about subject since the Capela trade is how well Russ is doing. And it should be. He's been averaging like 32+ PPG on good efficiency, compared to around 25 PPG on 50 TS% before. That's a marked improvement and I'm stoked to see this version of the Brodie. However, we did lose Capela who as an ultra efficient scorer himself. We can't just say "Well Russ is a G now, so the Rockets offense is much improved!" without taking into account we lost a 15 PPG 62 TS% center. And Russ is not going to reach that efficiency. It's great that he's doing super well, and while a high volume 57 TS% player is super valuable, this alone might not necessarily be a net positive compared to before with Capela. Let alone last season either. The main key to this whole situation is whether everyone else going to see an improvement. Is Austin Rivers going to be able to finish in the lane easier? Is Harden going to become even more efficient without Clint? Are McLemore, Gordon, Covington, and House going to see an uptick in 3-point percentage with more wide open looks? I certainly hope so. So while I'm super stoked with how things are going now, if we don't see a notable improvement in our role players percentages, then the experiment hasn't quite reached its peach potential. Unlocking Russ can only do so much, and I hope that the other rotation players are reaping the benefits of the improved spacing going forward.
Small ball works perfectly against Most teams except Lakers and Clippers. Lakers Clippers have enough Top defensive small guys to shut down small ball. They don’t play on Rockets hand come playoffs time. They want Rockets to play internal defense and offensive rebound, Tucker will not have open shot on the corner. House and mclemore will play defense after being pushed to 30 feet. Nuggets and Jazz will be swept by Small ball.
this style of basketball that the Rockets are now playing better suits them and has increased their odds of winning the title Russ is playing better than he did when he won MVP...never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine he could be this efficient Clint was very efficient, but it was all because of Harden...guys that can’t create anything for themselves get neutralized in the playoffs And Russ is not going to reach that efficiency. It's great that he's doing super well, and while a high volume 57 TS% player is super valuable, this alone might not necessarily be a net positive compared to before with Capela. Let alone last season either. I heavily disagree with this...Russ is giving us 32 ppg and 7 apg on above average effiency since the start of January...Harden has never had a reliable offensive weapon next to him on that level...it far outweighs whatever Clint provides, and then u add in Covington who is the 3&D wing we’d been waiting on for years MVP caliber Russ and RoCo>>>>Capela and as a side note, the team is just a lot more entertaining since the trade, and Reeko loves that
When Roco gets tired like Tucker in the first half of the season, things would get problematic. Not until then.
When you factor in that Russ isn't going anywhere, and that his efficiency is much worse when he shares the court with Capela, then it's pretty easy to say the trade made us better. Although Capela is an efficient scorer, he interfered with Westbrook's efficiency. And since Russ is a star and Clint is not, Clint had to go. Also factor in that a) we got Robert Freaking Covington in the deal, which gives us another three point thread AND injects no small degree of lock-down ability in our defense, and b) the positive effect that a total switching defense has had on our players' effort level. Many of us liked Clint a lot, but let's not get carried away and say this trade didn't drastically improve the team. In reality, it made us better in nearly every way, except maybe rebounding. The stats show it, the eye test shows it, and most importantly, the W-L record shows it.
per basketball-reference.com On/Off splits for Capela (as Rocket.....before trade of course) On: Rockets team eFG% .527% and 112.1 ORtg Off: Rockets team eFG% .554% and 118.1 ORtg eFG% shows a lot, where Capela may have been the greatest benefactor of the Harden/Westbrook attack as noted by his TS%; but the rest of the team may have taken a dip in numbers. Capela screens allowed easier double teams on Harden, thus less PnR opportunities this season which resulted in a drop in Capela pts from 16.6 (last season) to 13.9 per game (this season) FT% dropping to 53% also hurt Capela/team this season
...cont’d some player roles have changed: Covington Covington with Minnesota spent 11% of his minutes at SF Covington with Minnesota spent 88% of his minutes at PF..............with Houston 7% at PF and 93% at center -2.5 when on the court with T-Wolves +3.9 when off the court with T-Wolves +14.5 when on the court with Rockets +10.6 when off the court with Rockets DMC DMC with Spurs spent 73% of his minutes at SF DMC with Spurs spent 27% of his minutes at PF..............with Rockets 48% at SF and 52% at PF 15 gms with Spurs was a plus 1.2 and had a TS% of .437 3 gms with Rockets has been a minus 0.7 and TS% of .455 Jeff Green Green with Jazz spent 82.9% of his minutes at SF Green with Jazz spent 18% of his minutes at PF...................with Rockets 100% of his minutes at center 30 gms with Utah was a minus 3.6 4 gms with Rockets a plus 13.3 With players changing positions or time at certain positions the dynamics or makeup of the team can change as well per basketball-reference.com
Their chances of winning go from 1% chance to 2% chance. There are you happy. It is because small works. The rockets fall under bell curve of losers at this point. Last year, rockets ain't even make game 7! It's entertaining with a small win streak but the bucks are even more entertaining seeing Middleton and bledsoe. People forget Eric bledsoe on the bucks was backup to John wall at Kentucky.
It’s actually hilarious that you feel comfortable posting garbage like this when the responses below you are so high in quality. “We might struggle against the best teams, but we’ll probably beat the teams that aren’t as good as us.” I mean, everything else you wrote is utter bs. The only value your comment provided is something that’s so obvious, a child could figure it out.
Capela was a product of Harden. The benefit of removing an offensively-dependent player from the paint is spread throughout the rest of the team in ways that don't show up in simple comparative numbers. Just going by the eye test, though, the freedom that both Harden and Russ have to play with now is dramatically enhanced by the fully spread offense and not having to think about whether to lob to Clint with each and every drive. It's like how the Hakeem Rockets worked an inside-out offense to maximum advantage, the Harden-Russ Rockets are now able to work an outside-in offense to maximum advantage.
Well put, you can throw out all the numbers you want on Capela but the fact that James or CP3 had to basically spoon feed the dude to get his numbers is all you need to know. Without CP3 and with Russ’s lack of range Clint and Russ could not occupy the same space. Now we’re seeing Rivers, House, Russ, Green and James only having one defender to beat to get to the rack. That’s a absolutely sustainable. Not to devalue what Capela brought defensively but he wasn’t trending upward defensively before the trade, whether it was his heel or slow rotations we were giving up plenty of point in the paint. Now we’re collapsing, rotating and overall more active defensively than before.
Hubie Brown ...........Ears Bleeding. We dont need a breakdown of simple nba rules every single call and play. SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Freaking Rambler
Wish they (everyone) would just shut up about this style. It's called basketball, put the damn ball in the hole, and prevent the other team from doing it . Period. If you like to run the ball and score good. End the day defense wins games. Pfffff
