The Rockets went 3 – 0 for their first week and for the most part there is a ton to be excited about; having said that it hasn’t all been wine and roses. Here are some of my thoughts following the first three wins. The Bad At times the offense has been poor to say the least. Particularly in the Charlotte game and the first half of the Utah game there was little ball movement. The team appears to open games trying to force the ball into Dwight Howard and usually not with good results. Dwight at times looks to have hands like Roberto Duran or Omer Asik as teams will slap the ball from his hands as he tries to make a move to the basket. Other times Dwight just fumbles the ball trying to make his move towards the basket while other times he tends to step out of bounds on the baseline while dribbling the ball. In fairness to Dwight a lot of the times when he steps out of bounds on the baseline it appears that he is pushed but for whatever reason the foul almost never gets called. Omer Asik is like the same soup but different bowl at times when the Rockets try to pass the ball inside to him. He rarely seems to catch the pass cleanly leads to turnovers or allows teams to get into a good defensive position before Asik can re-gather himself with the ball in what would have otherwise been an easy slam had he just made a clean catch. Early in games there has just been way too much standing around and trying to go one on one. Not enough getting out and running but I think a lot of the reason for that has been an attempt to get Dwight going in the post early in games. It also looks pretty obvious that Kevin McHale is trying to make more of an effort to employee a half court game this season. I think he still wants the Rockets to run… a lot, but I think he is trying to get them ready for the play-offs by making sure their half court game is ready when May rolls around. The results haven’t always been good. It was really hard to judge the Rockets against Dallas since they actually opened up like an unstoppable freight train in that game but were quickly taken out of the game by some of the worst officiating we will hopefully see all season. Plus Carlisle played the Hack a Dwight strategy for such a large portion of the second half. Turn-overs, turn-overs and more turn-overs, particularly early in games. They do a much better job of protecting the ball late in games but they are still leading the league at over 20 a game! That is really just not acceptable. If they could cut those down to a respectable 14 or even to last season’s 16 they would be blowing teams out by 20 a game. As mentioned earlier a big reason for their high turn-over number is because they try to force the action into Dwight early in the game. Players tend to stand around or go one on one early in games which leads to forced shots and bad decisions by Harden, Parsons and Lin. The Chandler Parsons pump fake has also been a major contributor to the Rockets turnovers as he carelessly drags his pivot foot during the pump fake. We have seen this a couple of times a game so far. Injuries might be the biggest reason for concern during the early part of the season. James Harden has been playing through a hurt back and now a rolled ankle. Patrick Beverley has a torn muscle, Omri Casspi has a tweaked ankle and Chandler Parsons suddenly look as if he is hurt every time he gets hit. While the injuries are not season threatening, having this many, this early is bad since they add up during the season and take their toll in March and April. At times the Pick and Roll has not been very efficient. Last season there were several times that Harden or Lin tried to throw the ball up Asik only to realize he can’t catch it there. As a result they spent the season giving him bounce passes out of the pick and roll. Dwight Howard is not Asik but at times it seems that Harden and Lin attempt to bounce a passes to him when he needs it up high over the rim. I think they are getting better as was seen be a perfect ally-oop pass to Howard from Harden in the second half of the Utah game from the top of the 3pt line. As the season goes on the team as a hole will figure out where Howard likes the ball and become better at getting it to him there. The Good You have to start with Defense when you talk about what is going right with the Rockets. During the first half of the Utah game the Jazz hit 49% of their shots. The Rockets apparently did not like what happened in the first half of the Utah game because they held the Jazz to 29% shooting in the 3rd quarter and 35% shooting in the 4th quarter. After a blistering 1st half the Jazz finished the game with a not so good 42% shooting percentage. It’s the only time during the first week that the Rockets have allowed a team to even reach 40% shooting for the game. The Rockets 3rd quarter defense has been particularly good coming out of half time allowing the Bobcats only 37%, the Mav’s only 25% and the Jazz only 27% Field Goal Percentages. The Twin Towers have been the anchor of the defense and they have dominated the boards. And while Dwight has had his issues on offense he showed what he can do on offense during the 1st quarter of the Mavs game and the 3rd quarter of both the Bobcats and Jazz game when he was just dominate putting the ball in the basket. Part of the beauty has been watching opponents work their asses off to get one of either Dwight or Omer only to find the other in their way. Jeremy Lin & James Harden have both been outstanding to this point. James heard the first chants of MVP the other night against the Mavs. Harden is averaging 52% FG%, 26 PPG, 35% 3pt%, 4 reb, 4 assists, 3 steals. James has not used his Eurostep this so far this season like he did last season but he is still getting to the foul line over 8 times a game. The really exciting thing about James is that he is playing defense this season which is something he did not do last season. It probably helps knowing that either Dwight, Omer or both always has your back. Additionally Harden has been getting back in transition which has been IMO the biggest difference in his game this season. Harden always seemed lackadaisical in transition defense last year but seems to have committed himself to it this season. Harden is a legit MVP candidate IMO. Like Harden, Jeremy has been really good and really efficient scoring the ball this season. It looks like the second half of last season was no fluke. Jeremy is averaging 55% FG%, 17 PPG, 40% 3pt%, 2 reb, 3 assists, 1 steal which is just phenomenal. While not great Jeremy’s defense has been solid. What I really like about Jeremy though is his ability to take his man off of the dribble and get to the rim where he has been terrific finishing. Regardless if Jeremy stays in the starting rotation or goes back to the bench as a 6th man of the year candidate, I think his numbers are sustainable. Kevin McHale has been using him as a tweener guard, playing the point with James but sliding to the 2 guard when Aaron is in the game with him. I think Jeremy has a legit chance of turning into a 50/40/90 player, which IMO is a landmark measurement for every great scrorer. With the way Jeremy is able to beat his man off of the dribble and finish at the basket, if he can maintain 40% 3pt% he will finish the season with a FG% of over 50% which only leaves his Free throw shooting he needs to improve on. The Rockets are in the rare position of always having either Asik or Howard on the floor and they are equally lucky to always be able to have one of either Harden or Lin on the floor at all times. What other team can boast that kind of depth at both the center and shooting guard position? Having three players like Parsons, Garcia and Casspi who can all slide between the 2 guard and power forward spots is a tremendous luxury. Garcia is the best 3pt shooter, Casspi appears to be the best post player and Parsons just does everything really good. You can’t leave any of them alone behind the 3pt line and all of them can put the ball on the court and finish at the rim if you try to close out too hard on them. Casspi has been the biggest surprise honestly since I had no idea that he had such a good game close to the basket. While Chandler has struggled a bit from behind the arc this season, he has shown signs of finding his stroke as he went 2 for 4 from 3pt land against the Jazz, his defense appears to be as solid as it was his rookie season. He is making the right switch and helping at the right time. There were a couple of times in the first half against the Jazz where he got himself out of position trying to help on defense but for the most part that has not happened this season. Garcia has just been an assassin with his ability to come in and hit 3pt shots at such a high rate. I absolutely loved watching him piss off Richard Jefferson into a stupid technical foul against the Jazz as well. While the Rockets are still trying to fine tune their offense they have had enough players who are highly skilled enough to continue scoring the basket at a very efficient rate. And while the team is not focusing on running and pace quite like they were last season they are still one of the most efficient and deadly offenses in the league. The league better be taking notice because once the team develops a little more consistency with Dwight and once Dwight becomes comfortable in his role on the offensive end, there is just not a defense designed to stop them. They have too many weapons at too many places on the floor. Just a Final Thought The one team that really scares me is the Golden State Warriors. We destroyed them last season because we ran their asses off the court and out of the building. With a slower pace there will be many more chances for the Warriors to get into their half court sets where Klay Thompson and Steph Curry can do what they do best, bomb away from behind the arc. They play good half court defense and have a bone to pick with us. Maybe my concern is just needless worrying but I’m sure hopping that Patrick Beverley is fully healthy when we play them because he is one of those players that I think can get inside Steph Curry’s shorts and make life miserable on him all night.
So far, Omer and Dwight look like what we expect them to look in the early part of the season. They have mostly played awesome ball separately, but have for the most part struggled playing together. The one exception, though, was last night in Utah-- the team basically struggled with all lineup combos in the first half, but the start of the 3rd quarter, the Rockets began its comeback with both Dwight and Omer on the court and that unit was a huge positive for the team during that time.
Cisco is one of those players that on a team like Sacramento gets a little forgotten in the league even though he hits two or three 3 pointers a game. But place him on a great team like the Rockets and those 3 pointers become daggers to the heart of the opposition. He has turned into one of my favorite players.
No Garcia love? And as a lin fan, no matter how much I want lin to sustain those numbers, I'm not sure that he can; however, if considering his post all star break numbers, it looks like this may be the real jlin the rockets and morey paid for. Still not sold on his consistency just yet.
I think together, their defense has been spectacular. Last night against Utah in the 2nd half and in the 1st quarter against Dallas they were great together on offense and defense.
Asik and Howard only played 52 seconds together in the 1st quarter vs. Dallas, during that time Houston was down by 1 point. http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20131101&game=DALHOU Asik had to sit after picking up 2 quick fouls.
Great post overall. This comment is one of the little things that struck me as well. When you combine those three with a big man who is an elite PnR defender like Howard, you can literally switch everything and gang rebound. You then go to offense, drag one of their big men to the perimeter and either give a ~40% 3P shooter an open look, the opponent is trying to beat Howard to a rebound one on one. It's a pretty tough lineup for anyone to match up against, and it gives Harden a breather. Having Howard makes it that much easier to give Harden a breather. And having Asik makes it easier to give Howard a breather. McHale rested Howard at the beginning of the 4th, and you could see Howard was itching to get back in from the scorer's table around the 7 minute mark. Howard is so physically and athletically dominant, if he's well rested and fresh against a tired opponent at the end of the game, forget about it. Turnovers and injuries are my biggest concern. I'm pretty sure the turnovers will work themselves out - the team will start figuring out where Howard likes the ball, and vice versa. McHale is going to have to balance a line early on between getting the players live minutes to get comfortable with each other, and staying fresh.
Good summary of the team through 3 games. Thumbs up... I'm hoping the Rockets as a team can stay in good health through out the season and playoffs. Rockets are a dangerous team. I also agree with you about the GS Warriors matchup. It will be battle and fun to watch. I'm hoping for Warriors vs Rockets in the Western Finals.
A few muddled thoughts. I just got up. McHale seems to be sacrificing offense for defense. I believe that the assists show this most succinctly. I am not sure that this is the best strategy, but he is the head coach. And the advanced stats certainly back up his choice. Last years full season stats, this years rosters: The Rockets seem to me to be winning games just based on roster talent. And fouls. The opposition's players are in foul trouble early and often. I expected that the opposing teams would garner more fouls this season, but I had no idea they would be hamstrung to this degree. I do not believe that the Rockets fear facing LAC in the playoffs because the Clips are so thin at the PF and center position. To a lesser degree this also applies to all other NBA teams except perhaps IND and SAS. The most worrisome aspect of this season seems to me to be lack of guard penetration. But advanced stats disagrees with this opinion, so let us see what happens over the next 10 games or so. But I need coffee desperately. This was a great thread start. You are to be commended for all the effort. If other CF members would put a quarter of this work to start a thread it would be a much better fan site.
Rockets after 1 week. The good: Beat 3 crappy teams for 3-0 record The bad: Rockets have a LOT to work on if they want to get another 52.
Muddled? Seems pretty organized to me I agree with you assumption that I higher priority has been placed on defense. I think starting Asik with Dwight is proof of that. I think the decrease in assists has more to do with trying to dump the ball into the post more as a 1st option as opposed to last season when dumping the ball into the post was done after the ball was passed around the court. D12 is given the option to pound the ball some when Asik normally wasn't. I would say the decrease in running out on the break has also resulted in a decrease in assists. I would disagree however with the thought that the wings are not getting penetration. I think all of them have had some success and I think Jeremy and James have been terrific.
