My takeaway from this is that PJ Tucker is pretty key to our offense with the way the Jazz are playing defense. He needs to hit those 3s and make them pay for rotating off of him.
My thoughts are simple. If you're going to give Harden the drive and force him left you should do that with Favors out there trailing him into Gobert/Capela. Then let your smalls take away the shooters. That's the way I'd defend us. And then I'd look get a long look at Favors/Harden in the paint on the other end. Or Favors/Paul. I know Paul got a strip on Favors last game. But that's one play. I would exploit our lack of length defensively. And I'd try to exploit our lack of length offensively. I actually think the idea of forcing Harden to drive is probably their best option. I'd just do it with a big out there so I could play my double big lineups offensively.
terrible analysis btw PJ Tucker continues his great 3pt shooting from the last year playoffs!! KUDOS TO HIM
I thought it was pretty spot on... It's what I had said against the Bucks. The other teams would rather give up an open 3 to Tucker, than let 1 guy try to guard Harden. The Bucks actually gave up that 3 to Gordon and Tucker, but both were ice cold, and they looked like geniuses. We'll gladly take that challenge again...
So if the defense is done right. Harden has to pass behind himself...to a wide open House? Ok, let’s do that.
What I've learned from this vid is that even with Capela trying to pull Gobert outside the paint, Gobert gets to camp in the lane at will
Jazz can easily adjust and improve this by switching quickly on the open man. They aren’t very familiar on playing this way, look for them to improve. For us, we just rotate the ball and look for the open man and hope we make shots or Harden uses a mid range floaters or step back shot to force Gobert to come early, leading to open Capela or shooter. As long as the team is focused and hitting some shots, then Rockets keep on adjusting to their adjustments. I am more worried about doubling Harden on the pick and roll and forcing our bigs to become playmakers from beyond the free throw line or wasting time on the shot clock for resets and pass outs to perimeter players leading to potential turnovers.
I think for the defensive gameplan to work, rotations have to be spot on to force Harden to pass to a 3pt shooter who is facing a hard close out which forces them to drive (ie. Tucker). This normally would force our offense to reset back to Harden at the top of the key with the shot clock running down and making Harden work too hard. It is a gimmicky defense, but it basically takes away the unpredictability of Harden's offensive game into a drive and kick game.
What this shows is how Milwaukee defended us properly and the Jazz failed to do. Which is guard the corner and leave the above the break 3 open. Take away the step back by trailing. Take away the drive by having Gobert step up. Take away the lob by the corner defender rotating onto capela boxing him out. Take away the corner pass by leaving the above the break shooter. They were missing the final step almost all night and even when they did harden was finding ego and house at the break for the open 3. It makes sense why Rubio said they would continue this gameplan because the rotating corner defender or harden trail defender could rotate to the open shooter for a semi contest if executed properly. But mannn talk about a lot of work and rotations and room for a LOT of mistakes. Which is what we saw. A lot of mistakes. The problem is even if they are executing Perfectly, Harden still has the floater everytime. I understand that is what they are willing to live with over 3s and fts but idk if it will work. They are hoping to contain Harden to floaters with below efficiency (for him) and hope the role players miss open shots.
The times he said Spider needs to switch onto Tucker wouldn't really work. This would clearly leave Mitchell's man (in the two examples it was EGo) wide open for a 3. I know in one of the examples he said Rubio would switch onto Gordon but then that would leave the ClutchFan's Favorite, House, open for a 3 or to potentially drive the ball in. It truly leaves the Jazz at a pick the lesser of 2 evils scenario. I don't blame them for assuming Tucker is the lesser of 2 evils on wide open 3s.
That’s what I’m saying. What they did in game one was not rotate and they left the corner 3 open to Tucker. They are suppose to rotate and leave House open. So I expect that in game 2.
Do you mean floaters?? Because Harden has been off on his floater game recently, but the lob is not what they are giving us.
Yeah that's my mistake. But even being off, it's easy to see him get back on track. He was 7-15 from 2 last game for 43%. He makes his next hypothetical 2pt shot and its 8-16 for 50%. I believe he could make the floater at 55+% if that's all he had given to him all day from perfect defense.
I bet efficiency on floaters is way down league wide when it’s Gobert contesting the shot. I think the Jazz will happily give up a contested floater versus all the other possibilities. Would love to see Harden pull up for a 2-point jimmy every once and a while. Hit a couple of those, and the Jazz will get flustered.
