What disingenuous crap. Morey rightfully so doesn't like long twos and we don't have players that make a lot of long twos well so we eliminated them. Aldridge is one of the best mid-range players in basketball so using him as proof that our players should be shooting more mid-range is ridiculous. Morey will gladly acquire players that are actually GOOD at mid-range. Did you forget about Chris Bosh? Our supposed interest in Melo?
not sure about the thread title, but whatever the rockets call their offense, it seems to get shut down way too easily in the post season. different story when teams put all their effort into studying your game.
Of course. That's why the Spurs made 20 3pa (21.4 season average) tonight, Dallas made 21 3pa (22.8 season average) tonight, Miami made 23 3pa (22.3 season average), and the Bobcats made 21 3pa (18.0 season average). All of those are close to their season average of 3pa's. It's SO clear that you can't get decent numbers of 3's and uncontested 3's. Maybe the REAL issue isn't that "play off defense" makes it harder to get a 3 (it's harder to get EVERY type of shot), but a question of whether you have NO offensive system, aren't using the PnR, aren't passing the ball well, and aren't using screens to open up your outside shooters. Oh, and Portland attempted 23 3's tonight as well... pretty close to their actual season average of 25.3. http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/three-pointers-attempted-per-game No, they can't because if you are actually attacking the basket, using Picks and Screens and moving the ball the human body can not physically move fast enough to contest both the paint and the perimeter. Inside out is fine if you get double teamed. If you don't then yes, perimeter defenders can stay on their man. That's why things like the PnR, off the ball movement and screens are so useful. Nobody said to shoot BAD 3's. The point is an offensive system is supposed to produce GOOD 3's, either through PnR, Screens, double-teams, mismatches, drives to the rim to collapse the defense, or in transition. How much of that did you see tonight? You're ignoring the mathematics of expected value. Yes, the percentage of a shot going in goes down. However, the expected value of earning 150% of the points more than offsets the decline in shooting accuracy vs any mid-range shot from 16 feet outward unless you are an excellent mid-range shooter like Dirk, Melo, and it seems LMA. And analytics doesn't argue that you shouldn't take a 10 foot shot (unless you're bad at it) or ignore a 4 foot shot (unless you're bad at it). And who's talking 30 feet away? We're talking normal 3 point shots. If you're shooting from 4 feet behind the line you're doing it wrong unless you're one of the truly rare elite 3 point shooters. And the decline in shot accuracy has been very accurately studied in terms of distance vs loss of accuracy in terms of muscle accuracy. This isn't guess work, this is data from thousands of NBA players taking 10's of thousands of shots.
I still firmly believe that he is simply playing way over his head. LMA has never, ever been this good. He will come back to earth. Will that happen in this series? Who knows.
Wanted to leave this quote here: /u/dmorey One interesting thing is that folks think we are proscribing mid-range shots, which is not the case. Our transition based attack and open sets give us the best chance to win with our personnel and generally this type of offense leads to high quality shots. per his reddit AMA during the playoffs last year. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1colpv/iam_the_houston_rockets_gm_ama_playoffs_edition/c9ikzsj
Wrong, you said the Rockets had an outside chance of winning a championship and now you're backtracking: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=8822961&postcount=44 and http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=8823000&postcount=47 Now let's see how you spin this, but I think you'd be better served by "shutting the heck up" now instead of digging yourself a deeper hole and "spewing more ignorance."
the good defenses tend to break up whatever the rockets are trying to do. sometimes a "play" isn't even established. they have looked completely lost on offense vs good defensive teams. some elements of the philosophy are fine. putting all your eggs in the basket isn't. take a look at some of the championship teams. their systems are solid. they do seem to adopt some principles of the analytics crowd but they haven't drank the kool aid.
For like the jillionth time. Aldridge is good at post fadeaways and other midrange shots. If we had him, we'd let him take them. Shame we won't be getting him now that Portland is good, because he turns into a ****ing monster when he plays in the Toyota Center.
Doesn't explain his Rio grande team and how he pretty much only acquires three point shooters that fit his approach
Torocan, I'm not questioning your reading comprehension, but I am seriously beginning to appreciate your ability to bull****. You have been pulling stats out of your ass to spin every bad game Lin has had since you have been here. Half way through, it seems that you are agreeing with me, and then turn a corner to insert fluff as if you are fighting a battle for analytics in a do or die situation. I never said shooting 3s is a bad thing, go look at my earlier post in this thread. I said that it should be secondary and come with good open looks like the teams you stated above do. Running a system gets you good looks on 3s like the spurs? No ****. You know why their system allows that? They are versatile. You can't even cover duncan in the post. He has a beautiful midrange game that will punish you. TP has a good midrange game too, their offense isn't predictable like ours as a result. Again, you are trying to use a point that favors my end of the argument , how essential a midrange game is (The title of this thread) , to favor you in a doomed attempt. Before I continue on and respond to what ever you will vomit out next, somethings need to be straightened out. Certain premises which are going to lead us in circles unless we address them. To posters or even Morey citing that he isn't opposed to a midrange game: Why have the rockets started to shoot such few midrange jumpers (by such a LARGE margin) since he has implemented his Moreyball philosophy? It is common knowledge that he criticizes long 2s as does the coaching staff he uses as puppets. Our D-league team that he openly admits epitomizes his philosophy, follows the lack of midrange down to the core . So people can dance around this all they want, but the results speak differently. Its nice to see how the narrative has changed though, from "midrange game is useless!" to "Morey doesn't actually discourage it!"
the problem is morey constructed the team based on his principles. so even if mid range is not actively discouraged, people like dwight, asik, jones, dmo cannot shoot and thus are naturally opposed to shooting. also guys like garcia, hamilton, casspi, etc are 3pt catch and shoot players. they are naturally opposed to mid range because they do not have a robust mid range game. we need a new coach who will stand up to morey and use analytics wisely, not blindly...
EXACTLY. Just stated this in my earlier post. People have to be delusional to think that he doesn't push this philosophy to the core. Bill & Bull openly admit it on the air too.
I would say that about 99% of the teams that have won a ring, with the Hakeem led rockets as being the most notable exception, tend to contribute to that sample size. Michael Jordan...Dirk Nowitzki...Tim Duncan...Dwayne Wade...Kobe Byrant...I mean... they were known for their lack of midrange game right?
Are you reading comprehension impaired? Fringe contender = outside chance = low probability. Low probability means it's more likely that it does NOT happen than it does. Look up the meaning of fringe/outside chance. IE, it's possible but unlikely. Morey himself never said that all mid-range shots are inherently bad. I've never argued that either. What I DID argue is that it's only worthwhile IF you have people that can SHOOT those shots well. IE, we do NOT have the personnel for the most part to make those shots so "diversifying" the offense with people that can't make those shots is of limited value. We shoot few mid-range shots because MOST of our roster is BAD at shooting them. I posted this link in another thread. Scroll down and look at the actual FG% at various distances for the team. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2014.html There is literally only TWO people on the team that shoot above 40% from 16-23 feet this season that shoot anywhere near 40% over their career or even the last couple of seasons. And that's Harden and Lin. 16-23 feet 2013-14 vs Career Harden 46.2%, 38.1% Lin 40.5%, 41.8% Parsons 33.3%, 37.6% Jones 27.3%, 25.6% Dmo 25.0%, 26.7% Casspi 25.0%, 37.2% Beverley 26.9%, 26.3% So WHO exactly would you have shooting all these mid-range jumpers from 16 feet out? Dmo and his 25%? Jones and his 27%? Beverley and his 26.9%? Morey is correct when he says that it's the best option for our Current personnel. So, unless you have some great mid-range shooters to take those long 2's stashed up your butt, I'm open to hearing your suggestions of how we're supposed to integrate 16-23 feet shots into our offense. I'll be waiting with baited breath.
Then why has Jeremy Lin, whose "Linsanity" era was totally predicated from creation off his midrange game, abandoned that midrange game almost entirely since joining the team? And why did Lin, who almost won Game One with his midrange play, totally abandon his midrange game during Game Two? It's as if he were reprimanded for going midrange in Game One....... Watching Lin on the Rockets and watching him on the Knicks, you'd swear he was two totally different players. (And the one on the Knicks being far better.)
Midrange shots are more consistent than threes. Just saying. Doesn't matter what will mathematically happen if we go an infinite amount of times when a playoff series can be as short as 4 games.
