You know who else was predictable? Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...... the 60's Celtics, the 80's Lakers, the 90's Bulls and the early 2000's Lakers. Greatness is predictable..... it is greatness because no one can consistently stop it. I get that Rockets fans wanted to win.......... but the Rockets always were the under dog........ only one team is #1.
Exactly. And that is why when Pippen says "predictable" what he really means is an aesthetic, a style of play that he does not enjoy to watch. Just say that. Just say *I don't like this style of play, but it is effective for them even though they don't have the overall talent edge.*
Even that argument to me seems silly. Does he remember that he played in the triangle and he played with arguably the greatest isolation player of all time? He also played in an era with little ball movement. At the end of the day, he had to take a position and go with it.
Offensive as in devisive. Joining a team that didn't really need him. Looks like he already played his last game as a gsw. Going to be some animosity when he faces them next season.
No, what Pippen means is you know who will set up the play and pretty much where all players are since nobody really moves aside from pick-and-roll action and maybe one off-ball screen or two. Rarely do we cut and make it harder for the defense to defend our guys and you know Harden gets it every single time. While that might be true @Nook, you cannot say that the triangle sets, Kobe and Shaq offenses are as simplistic and straight forward as ours. With Dream and our past Rockets you might come close, since most of our offense was pass it around to get it to Olajuwon or just straight dumping. However, while Harden's step-back three might be deadly, it's far less reliable than a Olajuwon fade away shot. We also had Maxwell and Horry in particular who would make cuts to the basket. Still, I'd argue our offense under MDA is still far more predictable since you know Harden or CP3 will just get a pick set for the switch, then attack for a lay-up or kick out or dribble until there's an opening for a three point shot. We had Kenny, Max and Sam who all could break down the defense and create their own shot. We had OT who got some touches on the block. And even when we passed to Dream, there would be some off the ball action. We simply just let Harden go to work while the rest looks on. That's far easier to defend.
Some fans are upset because a lot of believed we were a hamstring away the year prior vs this same unbeatable team. The hamstring was healthy this year and they lost their best player. In some fans eyes this should have swung the series in the Rox favor. I have to question you guys who keep saying that GS were still the favorites. The Rockets were as much as 7 point favorites in game six. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sb...rockets-warriors-2019-nba-playoff-odds-game-6 Every sports book in the country had the Rockets as heavy favorites to win this game. This narrative that the Rockets were supposed to lose to GS has almost driven me crazy. We became HEAVY favorites after Durant went out. Not by me or some emotional fans but by Vegas as well. That’s what made this more painful than even the 2018 loss in my opinion.
Do you understand how betting lines work? It's to get money to come in on a certain team, nobody would think that a team with 3 all stars still is a underdog to a team that has 1. GS had more talent than Houston even without Durant.
Yeah I’ve been betting since the nineties. If no one thought we could win then the sports books would have gotten crushed. Everyone would have jumped GS + 7. The line stayed steady. If GS was such a huge favorite then the line would have dropped to a -1 or maybe a pickem. Do you know understand how betting lines work?
The line stayed steady because they got the action they wanted. Anyway if you think betting lines should be how you think which is the better team have at it.
The Rockets may have been favorites in game 6, but they were not favorites to win the series at any point in time as far as I know. The vast majority of the people that follow the league or work in the league that I knew or talked to had the Warriors as favorites. The Rockets losing in the playoffs to the Warriors this season really wasn't a major surprise.... and it wasn't some major choke job by the Rockets either. The Rockets lost to a better team..... the Rockets had a chance and it didn't happen.
I can’t argue against your sources. I don’t have any sources. It’s just that Clutchfans is the only place that I’ve consistently read that we were underdogs after Durant went out. Every article and sports book I looked at or read had the Rockets as favorites after he went out. In hindsight you are right. I was foolish to believe that we would win. I placed a heavy bet on the money line and got my ass handed to me. I guess I should have asked for guys advice ahead of time lol.
I think they were both problematic How many transition points did we give up ? How many times did our defense get a stop and the offense couldn't build a lead ? Agree that our defense in the 4th was unacceptable . In my opinion it shouldn't have gotten to that point . To not be up at halftime with curry going for 0 was a bad sign.
The money line means it’s even. You eliminate the spread, but you you less money by taking the favorite which was Houston. There is no way I would have taken Houston -7. This gambling talk may be a little over your head biff.
To be fair, though, part of the reason that it was hard to stop was because it wasn't what they do ALL THE TIME. In the series, the GSW ran KD mid-range post ups. They ran classic GSW cut, back-cut, keep cutting, ball movement stuff. They ran Draymond FT elbow stuff. They ran fast breaks led by Steph, KD or Dray. And then they finished us off with a heavy dose of Curry/Green PnR. I'm not saying that predictable is always bad. I am saying there's predictable, but varied predictable. The triangle offense was basically a masterclass of that. You could study it, but ultimately it was a framework that could create offense in various ways, even if more often than not it ended up with MJ in the right position at the right time creating. As far as Hakeem and the Rockets ... for one, I don't think that league and this league are comparable. The first year they won the championship with a 105.9 Ortg. For two, though the offense was predictable, it also was so in a way that relied on a decent amount of ball movement. That team had 8 players that played 66 or more games that averaged 2+ apg. Compared to the 3 Rockets players that did that this year. It had 6 players that averaged 2.9+ apg. This Rockets team only had the 2. Similarly, the 72 win Bulls team had 6 players with 2.3+ apg. The Rockets 3rd assist guy this year was Rivers at 2.3 a game. The 13/14 Spurs, with 62 wins (their most in a ring season) had 4 guys at 2.8+ and 6 guys at 2+. Or put in more absolute terms, 61% of the Rockets assists came from 2 guys, with 39% from the rest of the team, in the regular season. The Spurs top 2 guys contributed 33%, and takes their top 5 guys to get to 60% of total team assists for the year. And honestly, I don't really need to do this for the Warriors, do I? We know its the same for them. Lakers first three peat... no guy ever had more than 5.5 apg. Their second back to back with Kobe, nobody with more than 5. It should be at least interesting that the 4 basketball dynasties of the last 25 years all had this same dynamic, even if parts of their offense were "predictable". That's 19 rings - 20 if the Warriors win this year. That's without the Rockets, who had a back to back and also fit this dynamic. BTW, Rondo led the Celtics the year they won with 5.1 apg. Chauncey led the Pistons with 5.7 the year they won and they had 6 guys with 2.3+ per game. This is probably a bigger debate about the importance of ball dominant PGs or what not. After all, Stockton made 2 Finals and only lost because he ran into Jordan. And Lebron did give the Heat 7.3 apg one championship year. And Jason Kidd gave the Mavs 8.2 per game in their ring year, though again they had 5 guys with 2.3+ a game (to the Rockets three). And the Rockets were super duper close last year, and it was a very similar 2 guy ISO dynamic. To me, there's predictable, but involving multiple players. And predictable and stagnant. When the Rockets fall into trap 2, as their scheme does far too often, they don't even know how to get out of it, and it doesn't work deeper in the playoffs.
You are showing nuance that Pippen is not. Pippen needs to explain himself better. I think you give him too much credit for what he means in "predictable."
