Houston's style of play leads to inconsistent results... but it is their best chance to win

Young teams have to fast break due to lack of consistency. Its is now biting us in the butt cause clippers made us play halfcourt

 

We havent been able to make the opposing team run the last few games.

 

problem is kevin refuses to play rookies and everyone is tired

Jones is a stud i have no idea why his not playing

 

Becuase he's not very good at anything in particular. He's a jack of all trades that looks lost.

 

Running and gunning works well in the regular season but it's effectiveness dwindles when things slow down in the playoffs and it's largely half-court. Everyone cites the Suns as an example but they had Nash/Amare and consistent perimeter shooters.

If you're going to be contenders, half-court will be essential. I think the Hornets and this Clippers game exemplifies what happens to your game when they slow things down and defend well, which teams pick up on during the second half of the season.

 

I don't think anyone disagrees with that, but the reality of this team is we don't have that in our arsenal right now.

We're too inexperienced to have good defense.
We don't have the talent to have a great half court game.

If you look at the roster on paper, we shouldn't even be in the play offs. And if you look at the age of the roster, we shouldn't get far in the play offs either.

However, it doesn't mean it can't be done.

Essentially, the Rockets as constructed are a flawed team. We're not deep, we don't have a dominating front court, we don't have strong post up players, and we're not loaded with superstars and all stars.

And on top of that we're the youngest and least experienced.

So, if your weakness is the half court game, until you can add to the Roster our best chance right now is play to our youth and ability to score.

I like to use the boxing analogy.

We're not great boxers, we got mediocre footwork, poor form, and not a lot of ring savvy. However, we can throw really hard bombs.

So, our strategy is simple... swing for the fences, and hope we get a knock out.

Puncher's chance. :grin:

 

winning and overachieving
plus, they are entertaining when they get out and run

it is frustrating when they can't execute and grind out the low scoring gms

 

We're tired thats why we are losing.

Coach just needs to figure out who can play and who cant to give us a chance when we are tired after back to back and stuff like that.

 

This offense is only OK during the regular season when teams don´t really play hard. Now the important games start, we will see if this style works. I for one don´t have high hopes.

 

We shifted from a defensive identity under JVG and Thibs to a more offensive one under Adelman without giving up everything on D
In between we lost our identity completely
Now we are a completely offensive team without much D

We need more balance now that we have an offensive identity

 

=_=.... The inconsistent made by the larger standard deviation. The probability of three points shot is lower than 2 points shot, thus the standard deviation is larger.

 

I feel it doesn't matter how young or athletic the team is. Teams that play like this with so much pace just don't have the energy to play hard on defense throughout the whole game. You really just gotta choose the right times to make a couple of stops. Get the substitutions right and rest players. I guess maybe it comes down to the coaching staff to find the balance and of course having some depth on the team.

But you can't expect people to play 35-40 minutes, running up and down the court, and defend consistently the whole time. So essentially you just have to be hitting your shots. You're not really defending so you can't go through extended dry spells. The Rockets have been doing this a lot in the recent losses. They go through several minutes where they just can't hit a shot.

 

Hard to run when the opponents shoot such a high percentage -> forces inbound passes which allow for defenses to get set. That is why Asik is so important on defense. He rebounds and outlets off of missed shots which allows us to run.

 

when you give the kitchen sink you get the kitchen sink

 

Good points.

Some people seem to think that its the coaches strategy that dictates the style of play. Well, that can be the case (Lakers), but smart organizations fit the strategy to the players they have.

The boxing analogy works pretty well. IMO, we have over achieved and now we are getting back to level ground (about a .500 team). You just cant win every game by outrunning and out hustling your opponent.

What this team lacks more than anything is a diversified offense that can win in more than one manner. If you look at OK and the Spurs, they can run, they can play half court, they can play D, and they play smart.

 

We need to expand our rotation with our style of play. Our guys seem tired out there and it's not surprising given our style of play and 8 man rotation

 

We have lost recently and we are going to lose a lot more if there is no change in the system is because "we don't take in between shots". Let me explain.

Our PnR almost disappears because opponents don't respect our pick, e.g., 2pat always rolls to the perimeter thereafter because he is not allowed to take a mid range shot. Without PnR our guards are less effective in driving.

Our 3's are not falling and our driving lanes are blocked because opponents can pack on the paint and focus on the perimeter. Have you watched our first game against OKC ? Opponents all have adopted similar strategy against Rockets.

We all agree that our PF is almost non existing. But this actually due in part to our flawed system. PFs not allowed to take mid range shots don't know how to play anymore. Have you seen Pau in LA become ineffective recently? Trading for a better PF isn't going to help very much if our coaches don't modify their system.

In summary, we should take high efficency shots allowed by defense not by statistical average.