I'm not going to look it up, but I believe the Rockets of the 90's had a higher assist total and that's with all the entry passes to Hakeem, ISOs, and kick outs for threes.
Harden is the top scorer as well as the primary ball handler in the half court. He can't pass to himself.
At least some potential assists ended up in the seats due to an errant pass. Cut way back on the TO's, and we'll add at least a few, in my humble opinion.
I think you misunderstood his point. If you pass to a player that goes to the line, you don't get an assist. And since both Howard and Harden lead the league in free throw attempts, essentially every two is another assist we don't get. The poster you quoted could have been a bit clearer.
Looked it up.... '91-'96 Rockets consistently averaged 25 ast/game and their ranking ranged from 7-12. Currently were 21 ast/game and ranked 20th.
I believe it has to do with how an assist is defined. No assists on points scored through free throws. Assists on fast breaks are generally highlight reel material. Teams that shoot a lot of mid-range shots tend to wrack up more assists. That one is big. The Rockets shoot a lot of threes where they adjust their position after the pass.
As the team builds chemistry...the assist rack up. Since we do not have a pure PG, it has to be b/c of terrific ball movement...which really comes with familiarity of teammates.
also players get assists on plays you can swear are not even assisted plays, Chris Paul gets a lot of added assists on plays he hardly assisted in
Despite our high scoring, we only rank 14th in FGM per game, because of our 3 pt volume and FTs, we also slash and layup a lot, so ranking 20th in assists really isn't that strange.
The thing is, apart from Asik and possibly Hamilton (just because he is new to the team), the Rockets are still one of the most skilled passing teams IMO. That's part of what makes them explosive. They have been more iso oriented this year but at their best they combine the two. IMO it is when the team sometimes forgets to pass to set up the Isos that their offense can weirdly stall.
With the arrival of Dwight there is a lot more tossing it to him in the post and letting him work. Also, with Lin's role changing this year his assists are down a good deal. He's playing less minutes off the bench and more in a shooting guard role. He led the team in assists last year, not so this year. Bev is getting heavier minutes and he's a very low assist guard.
My point in this thread wasn't to make it out like the lack of assists was a huge problem (obviously it isn't we are kicking ass), but the stat seemed out of whack with the amount of points we are putting up. One question for ya'll -- in the link provided why don't Lin and Bev only show up in the 'all players' list and not the 'qualified' player list? It seems both have played enough games to be qualified, but looking at that list our second ranked player is Chandler at #38 with 3.9 per game. Lin I believe is at 4.1 per, but isn't listed under qualified players.
Currently we average (-0.23) FG per game, (-1.41) 3P per game, (+1.19) 2P per game and (-2.26) AST per game compared to last year. So fewer 3P shots which are usually 95%+ assisted, more 2P shots which on our team are assisted on lobs and unassisted on offensive rebound put backs, most drives to the basket and slow developing post up plays. Parsons and his pump fake take away about (-0.5) assists per game. This year 62% of his FGs are assisted and last year it was almost 74%. Also last year Delfino(80%) and 2Pat(78%) were primarily catch and shoot players. This year Beverley(55%) and TJones(69%) are replacing their scoring but also reducing assisted FGs by about (-1.52) per game. Howard(50%) compared to Asik(70%) last year is (+0.69) assisted FGs. Lin, Harden and even DMo have lower % of assisted FGs this year.
