[Video] Royce White's First NBA Basket (UPDATED: Full Royce Highlights)

Show me one post where I actually said he's just like Magic Johnson or Larry Bird.

Yep, I have no real substance. So true. You beat me to it. I have no ****ing clue what I'm talking about with anything of this guy or basketball in general.

 

I said I was mocking you guys, as in other clutchfans people on this thread, so cool down. Should have specified who. I could have worded it better admittedly. But yeah no substance man. You're going after me for suggesting that Royce White is someone who can and should be played at different positions. You probably don't know much about basketball if this is a foreign concept to you.

 

He's more like LeBron without the defense and the jumpshot. (Yes, LeBron has a jumpshot.)

White is a special talent. But he has glaring holes. He needs an innovative coach to figure out how to use him. McHale is old school and I am not sure if he knows how to utilize the kid. To bad. Like I said earlier after the draft, White is most likely to be wasted among all the surplus PFs we have.

 

Maybe I could have worded it better, but I'm not getting at you for that. if you actually read our conversation, at the end you will see me agreeing with you. I guess you're still holding onto the first message in that exchange in which there was a miscommunication.

I AGREE with playing him at one or two different roles to see how he does, but ultimately you have to play him at what he is "known for" as well.

Go back and read it. Maybe you'll realize after you specified that you weren't talking about tons of positions, I agreed with you.

 

I'll make it easier for you

I agree to try him out at a few others, but not at something he will obviously not be good at. You can see that in a practice/scrimmage usually anyway.

 

And most likely they do. So you hide Royce on that player. It's done all the time.

 

Good point. I concede on that. And I agree on play his for what he is known for in most cases. I guess we're not in as much disagreement as I thought. Apologies for the lack of substance comment.

 

So you are saying that his TOPG should be less than 1/game and not 3.8 if it wasnt for his teammates 'Stone Hands?' Amazing difference!

 

"Stone Hands" was a big part of it, and there were others too sometimes. Many passes of his were not handled correctly by his teammates even though many were played right in their hands. Maybe between 1.25 and 1.5 TO/game would be more like it if his teammates had been better at handling a pass. He did have either one pass a game or just an errant dribble, sometimes two. Sometimes twice a game, and sometimes 0 per game.

I can only two game where he was just truly off in either his passing or his dribbling, or both.I wanted to throw something at him. There were a few other times where he tried to force a pass that he shouldn't have. Something you'd see from someone who doesn't have as much experience in the situation he was in when he did it.

Other than that, he is less turnover prone than his stats would say, but he is still slightly turnover prone sometimes. Definitely not perfect.

 

I don't think McHale is very involved with the X's and O's on offense..My guess is that he just evaluates the plays. It will be up to the other coaches to be innovative.

 

I can see White eventually becoming a nice sparkplug off the bench if he works on a few things. On the other hand, I'm not super-confident he can make the adjustments needed given some of the problems that he has off the court.

I don't see a star player here. I don't think I even really see a starter.

 

You may be right about the X's and O's. But innovation starts at the top. If certain plays doesn't fit the head coach's philosophy, he'll pull the plug.

Most coaches like to run things that are comfortable to THEM, not to the players. If the players don't fit, they give PT to those who do.

 

I understand the notion of "putting him in a position on the court to be successful", but what exactly do you mean by that basketball wise? For sake of discussion we should keep this within McHale's offensive sets mind you to see how you get Royce involved in the short term.


Lets look at positions on the court in McHale's sets.

-As a 2/3 he's going to be playing off the ball on the wings. We already established that White needs the ball in his hands to be effective on offense. Plus, his 3 point shooting isn't were he needs it to be for him to consistently hit open 3's. Not the place for him in McHale's offense IMO. I think he will suffer in the "Witness protection program" that Sampson stated he tends to end up in.


-As a PG or point forward he needs to be facilitating the offense from the top of the key. Someone is going to have to set a pick for him to facilitate the offense. Have you ever seen 2 bigs run the P&R with 2 other bigs defending???... that could get ugly quick with very little spacing available.

-Examples-Lebron and Pippen are two similar players who have successfully initiated the offensive sets for their respective teams, but each were in different sets. Pippen with the triangle, and Lebron most recently in Miami's spread offense.

The sets that Miami is running could work for Houston in future seasons. They call it the "Occam's offense" where you spread the floor, pass the ball from side to side, and the single big in the middle really acts as the main pick for any of the wings. Also the PG really is a wing in this offense, and is primarily a decoy at the 3 point line to allow the other wings the spacing to get in the paint.

Not sure if that system, or the triangle would work for this Rockets team with all of their youth, and their inability to really grasp even a less complex offensive system that McHale is currently running.-


-As a 4/5 he's the one coming up to set the picks for the PG. He can roll to the rim, and get passes going towards the bucket. Also he can get the ball passed back to him in the mid range area for a shot fake, and drive to the bucket, or a jump shot(if he can hit it consistently). This is why Morris has done much better as a 4 then a 3. It fits his offensive game much better than a 2/3 in McHale's offensive sets.


So my opinion is that they should give White more time at the 4/5 position in McHale's sets to see what happens over a few more games. He's still going to get the ball in his hands, but in a different way. For example Royce might have the ability to draw in the help defender in the post to open up a wing for an open 3 when he rolls to the basket off the P&R.

McHale just needs to install a little more motion from his wings when they are playing off ball, and White needs time to develop chemistry with his cutters so he knows where they are going to be, and where they like to get their shots.

So for now, I think the 4/5 is the way to go for Royce to stay active within the offense. If it doesn't work then maybe you can work in some different sets for them to run, but I just dont see them completely overhauling their offense just for Royce at this point in his career.

 

I only saw him at the end of the game and was impressed. It will probably be the only game I see this year thanks to Comcast and the Rockets. I know, the "P" word, but it is true; I see loads of potential.

 

White seems very similar to Billy Owens (if any of you are old enough to remember him). Solid, big guy, good point guard skills, rebounds, but weak on defense and shooting. I think White will be fine though, as I like the fact that he plays team basketball, hands off and screens for outside shooters. Rockets are not talented enough to play individual ball. All 5 guys need to pass, screen, and D-up. One or two ballhogs and guys that don't hustle on D should not be in the lineup.

 

As long as White has the ball in his hand, he's a mismatch for pretty much anybody in the NBA. If Lin's not on the court, one option is to let the PG bring up the ball and let White initiate offense. If he gets the rebound, it's nobrainer for him to do his magic in transition.

On defense, coaches can decide who he can guard. Given his overll athleticism, IQ and size, he should be able to do an OK job defending.

Now what position he's playing? You can say he's actually playing point forward or sometimes PG. It doesn't really matter.

 

There was a decent amount of that going on last night too.

 

Exactly, bad offense attitude (hogging, not setting picks and moving) and bad defense (not trying or rotating) are contagious like a virus. Rockets can be very good with the right attitude.

 

His position doesn't matter necessarily, but what I think matters is his placement within the offense in the halfcourt, and what kind of plays they are calling.

If White is someone you think running your offense through gives you the best ability to win, then McHale's offense really should be tweaked to accommodate.

I dont think he's there yet to be making those kind of gameplay decisions on, but when the conversation goes back to "what position Royce is" and "can Royce run the point-forward" offense I start by thinking what system you need to run in the case that they want to build the offense around him.

McHale's system is not it.

If you want Royce to have the ball in his hands on offensive possessions the best you are going to get is him playing the 4/5 in McHale's system. He wont necessarily be able to create off the dribble here, but it will at least get him touches, and allow him to draw in helpside defenders for open shots.

Not that Im saying you are, but those who are pro-Royce beast mode shouldn't really be pushing for him to play the 2/3 if McHale is still running the sets that he's running.

 

Though we haven't always seen eye to eye on things in the past, I 100% agree with this.