Ok. But how is the offense different? Are we scoring in different ways? Doing some of the same things that we always did but doing them better? I'm also only asking about offense.
So basically what you are saying is you already know the answer and instead of making a thread educating people on the reality you want to see how far from it people are? Sadistic, I like your style!
Oladipo is being show cased right now. The Rockets know he ain’t re-signing and to be frank a 29 year player with his injury history really shouldn’t be looked as a corner Stone and paid abhorrent amount of money. Especially if he is not all star level anymore
No, as I've said repeatedly, I'm curious as to what people feel they are seeing. I'm not concerned about how those perceptions compare to reality. Lots of people say they like this new offense but don't specify why. Is there one particular thing that everyone likes? Or does everyone have something different that they like? What do you think we are doing different? I'm asking for your perception. I don't care if your perception matches reality or not. It's a really simple question. I'm asking what it feels like to you.
It feels like Harden isn't there dribbling down to 3 seconds to drive in trying to get fouled. I am pretty sure NBA will back me up on the Harden not being there point.
How is what an improvement? That was a general question. We could be doing some things better and other things worse. I'll give you an example. We weren't as good last year as we were the two prior seasons but our transition game was much improved.
Never really understood the "showcasing". You think teams will have any different opinion watching him play that they didn't already have? Also they know of his injury history and unless a team that thinks they can win this year are on the verge of doing so needs Oli they aren't going to trade for him. Teams wont give up an arm and a leg for a 2 month rental.
The 5-out with a Big is better vs our small-ball versions of previous years. Gordon definitely has more room to drive than ever before. There is noticeably more drives (off of close-outs) and cutting... but requires chemistry to produce. we'll see. (and as noted in OP, I'm not talking about ORtg comparison of any small-ball, 5-out units featuring Paul/Harden ... because of the power of Harden ISO. I'm referring to system-produced qualify of shots and potential to diversify.) I particularly like the 5-out, flare pass method of swinging ball from one perimeter playmaker to another, with Wood/Cousin allowed to roll (or slip) from the flare pick. This is a trap-buster technique (originally for Harden, as well as a quick catch-n-shoot 3 look off flare. It also just simply gets Defense moving better. Watch any Dallas game, even now they still do it. So, obviously the flare method of swinging in 5-out is something Silas brought. Wall and Wood should actually get our Transition game back up. But when without Wall, we aren't pushing as much. I particularly like the difference a 3pt Shooting Big has on the secondary transition by creating the "randomness" of how we get into our 5-out. Wood (as trailer) has to be guarded out high, versus Capela trailing allows transition defense to sag for initial fastbreak options, until he achieved drag position for a Harden PnR. Also, he can take up initial position in several places off transition to show different initial looks. (@Rockets_Insider alykhan bijani actually asked Silas a question about this and Silas went into depth about the randomness of 5-out looks from transition due to Woods skills. Been watching that.)
More players getting shots. Less turnovers. Having 2 bigs who can space the floor. I know you're only asking for offense but in many cases the better defense leads to offense. Also having rookies who can score with the best of them is a joy to watch. Mason Jones will be in the top 3-4 in 3 pt per. at 58% if hes not already. If I were you I would be excited about Porter Jr. He looks to be a pretty good scorer some day. What more could you want.
It feels like we are generating fewer open corner 3s this year. Our driving guards aren't collapsing the defense as well. Defenders are staying home on our corner 3 point shooters. Also, we have bigs comfortable and willing to shoot from the wing. The result is an offense passing over corner 3s in favor of a secondary drive or a big popping from the top. Consequently it feels like we have a more egalitarian offense but one that is less efficient than previous years. On the other hand, we've had so few games of good health. It's hard to determine what is a strategic choice and what is merely necessary.
I could say a lot of things that are different about the offense but you specified that you are only interested in things that are better, and our offense is way worse this year. So I feel like there aren't many good answers to your question. The response can/will always be "but we're scoring less points" and you can't really argue with that. I can only come up with two things - first it feels like we have a lot more ball movement which leads to a lot more assisted shots. I'm not sure it actually translates to more assists because we are not a good shooting team but this is one of the only things I imagine is up from last few years. But again, are assisted shots objectively good, you could obviously argue that the answer is no, and then point to isolation numbers of years past. So I dunno. Second is that we get a lot more shots at the rim because we have more cutting and also more guys playing in the restricted area in general. Tate comes to mind as a guy who always seems to have the ball in his hands under the basket, and also a high usage center in Wood.
More ball movement - more body movement - everyone is involved, we don't have the chemistry yet, but it will get there. DD