Would you give up scoring in order to stop your opponent from scoring?

But would you want to see a line up of Lowry, Lee, Battier, Jefferies and Hayes?

 

Easy...all of the fans who want to watch a game with a final score in the mid 80's. They'll wait with baited breath on the edges of their seats to see if the Rockets can beat the Spurs 87-85 or lose to the Kings 83-81. :grin:


IMHO, it's not...nor ever has been...about offense or defense. It's about getting players who play well on both sides of the ball. And it's always much easier to get a player with offensive skills to commit to playing D. Much easier than getting offensive value-add from a defensive player who struggles to score in a gym by himself.

 

At some point, you've got to stop the opponent from scoring....As entertaining as offense is in the league, championships aren't won just by scoring (see Steve Nash Suns of a few years ago).

 

Agee Gater. You need players who can play both sides of the ball.

 

I just think there has to be balance in the lineup and a philosophy to match. Look at the rockets starters and bench players and we see a bunch of 1 way players. If you want a brooks/martin backcourt,then the fronlint needs to be long,agile,versitile players. Continuing the lineup with guys like shane,chuck,and scola doesnt add up.

I've said this before, the rockets have been looking for and adding players who fit adelmans offensive system which in turn make them overlook good,2 way players.I would give up martin for the right player mix.He's not a guy i see as hard to find.. I would take wallace straight up and some for martin. I would take Iggy for martin also. Same goes for luis.

 

Yep. But allow me take it one step further.

The standard spiel from the ex-coaches and ex-players doing NBA TV games is this. If your outside shot isn't dropping, take it to the basket and get to the foul line. If all you have is a 3 point shot, you can't actualize this.

I guess my operative word would be "balance". Players need to have a balanced skill set. At least the starters IMHO.

Basically agree. But want to broaden your thoughts.

Adelman's Kings did real well with Peja and Christie. Peja could put the ball on the floor and was tall enough to get off a shot over most defenders. Christie was tall enough and athletic enough to switch defensive assignments with Peja. And Christie was a real good transition player. Transition has to be part of the balance we are highlighting.

 

Gater, doesnt this still sound like the greyhound theory? :grin:

If it were me and I wanted to play Brooks and Martin together I would have Randolph as a 3,Jason Thompson as a 4,and Thaeet as a 5. That way I can bump and slide players. If I bring in chase, i can slide randolph to the 4 and thompson to the 5. If I broght in Lee and patterson, i can sit thompson and martin. The rockets dont have enough guys who can play effectively together.

 

The pieces just do not fit.....there is a missing chemistry this year....even from last year.....which was not a perfect fit either.

Sometimes it is hard to figure it out, but it is especially hard when you give a tinkerer too many pieces to tinker with....

Adelman should shorten his rotation to 8 1/2 players.....if he wants to win, you can't win by playing 10 players, there are just situations where guys are in that don't know each other well.

And while it is hard to watch Hill struggle lately, it is the organizations fault for trying to get him to play the C position when he is clearly a PF......

So, what is Morey and Co. going to do? ....that is the question everyone is asking....but unfortunatly it is not the right question.

It should be "What CAN Morey and Co. do?"....because trades don't always materialize or work, and the roster as it is....is broken....and has no flexibility to take a look at other players.

Morey has painted himself into a corner.

DD

 

DaDa -
In the last year vs this year thread, you just criticized Adelman for playing the starters too many minutes. Here, you want him to shorten the rotation. Can't have it both ways my friend.

But I do think they need to re-configure the variables in the quantitative analysis. :grin:

 

completely agree. no defense no play time. defense is more or less a commitment and effort. play fundamental defense and make other team shoot at low %.

 

I don't know if Morey is intentionally taking this approach but we have some really good offensive players. Yet, hasn't anyone noticed we really don't need them to play well offensively?

Brooks goes out, our offense is fine. Miller goes out, our offense if fine. Martin goes out, our offense is fine. Isn't the nature of Adelman's offense such that players move and take what the defensive gives them? Sure, we need a star for clutch situations but this offense works fine with the Lowry's and Lee's of the league. Guys who can produce offensively in multiple ways but aren't great at it. With the roster as is, there isn't really much the coach or anyone else can do to help the situation. I can't be the only one that sees we can move some of these all-offense players, remain a decent offense, and get much better defensively.

With that being said, I don't think Morey cares much about our lack of balance right now. We have zero chance of being a contender without both a star and a long defensive big. I'm sure that's his main focus.

 

Defense wins championships. Nuff said.

 

Surely if we had a shot blocker in the frontline, our defense improves markedly.

 

Sorry, maybe I am not being clear enough, but you certainly can do both.

Shorten the number of players that are playing and increase the amount of time the bench plays.

I hope that makes sense.

DD

 

I agree because Van Gundy's system is the type that win championships you just need atleast three all-star talents (that aren't defensive liabilities) to run your offense through like spurs (parker, ginobili, duncan), lakers (kobe, odom, gasol) and celtics (peirce, garnette, allen) we were on the right path with yao, t-mac and gundy we just needed that 3rd all-star and better health.

Now we seem to be going in the phoenix suns/warriors direction high octane offense and no defense in which you gcan win games maybe even a playoff series, but it never wins championships.

 

Year ORTG DRTG
90-91 2nd 3rd
91-92 7th 3rd
92-93 14th 4th
93-94 10th 12th
99-00 11th 10th
00-01 10th 7th
01-02 3rd 6th
02-03 2nd 6th
03-04 2nd 21st
04-05 3rd 23rd
05-06 11th 12th
07-08 17th 2nd
08-09 14th 4th
09-10 16th 17th

Adelman's history does not correspond with what you're suggesting. Only twice has he had a great offensive team and a bad defensive team.