The Rockets are 19th in ORtg, 14th in eFG%, and SoS is 29th! So we have below average offensive efficiency, mediocre shooting efficiency while playing the weakest opponents.
Lin and Parsons meant more to this team offensively then people thought. Both could create something no matter their flaws. No Rockets got Harden trying to do everything and Dwight post ups every other play
We have big problems. 1. We need better plays on offense but we have a fraud hack of a coach incapable of making adjustments or gettign the team different looks. 2. This Morey ball stuff has its limits. Moreyball falls falt on its face when you can't hit the 3 and go through any prolonged shooting slump. Teams will just pack the paint and we look like clueless headless chickens.
We should be worried now, but the Rockets can fix these problems: 1) First of all, we need another playmaker. In the starting lineup, it's Harden and that's basically it. T-Jones when healthy is decent at creating his own shot, but he's out for another month and besides you don't wanna rely on a guy like that to generate offense. Right now the only other option on the roster is Canaan. If the woes continue, maybe the Rockets should consider making him a starter again. Long term though, they need to upgrade the PG spot. 2) The bench needs an upgrade as well. I'm going to assume Papa and Terry won't continue to struggle this badly from the field, but we still need guys who can create their own shot. Say what you will about Lin, but at least he could do that for us last season. Right now, all we have is Canaan and McHale being the moron he is prefers to bench him in favor of Cisco. We also clearly need a backup 4-5 guy, especially with T-Jones out for another month. 3) McHale has to start making adjustments both in-game and between games. This has been one of his biggest weaknesses as a coach IMO(Games 1 & 2 vs. Portland, anyone?), but it's put up or shut up time. No team no matter how talented is gonna play great ball for 82 games. It's incumbent upon the coach to fix problems when they arise. Right now, Dwight's postup game is inconsistent. The 3-point shots aren't falling. And certain players(namely Cisco and Papa) are contributing almost nothing out there. McHale needs to start drawing up other plays. Try some pick-and-roll. Mix in more midrange jumpers instead of relying on the 3 so much. Make sure Harden doesn't fall back in love with ISO ball. And don't be afraid to give young guys like Canaan and Daniels a shot. The defense may suffer a little, but when you're scoring in the teens in most quarters, offense needs to be the #1 priority. A lot of this is on Morey to fix, so hopefully he makes some moves and does it sooner rather than later. It's inexcusable to waste this season just to preserve a bunch of cap space for a big name free agent who odds are won't ever wind up here anyway. But in the meantime, McHale needs to start proving he has what it takes to lead this team. Otherwise we're in for another first round flameout and he'll be working as a studio analyst somewhere next year.
Howard needs to work on a lot. He is doing the same post move over and over without success, dumb fouls, missing ft, getting outworked in paint Harden is just a black hole on offense right now and when refs aren't calling fouls like last night he is hesitant to drive the paint. I swear the only NBA community that over talks "efficiency" is clutchfans. Just make a damn shot no matter where it is on the floor. Memphis scored all over the court with mids, 3's , post play and solid ball movement . rockets are lacking all of these things right now
Rockets run a limited rotation so they can't run n gun all game. Backup bigs are trash and McHale is hesitant to use guys like Canaan and Daniels
Were Parsons & Lin + our running game that crucial to our offensive successes? We are downright terrible so far this season and with the schedule getting tougher, how are we going to get our points? Morey really messed up this off-season, let's hope he can make some moves. Sure, it will get better with Jones back but our bench and no creator other then Harden is a major problem with our coaching limitations.
Play making was my worry after we lost Lin and Parsons. With Papa having flashes of brilliance, I was hoping that he could be that second play maker. But it looks like he still needs more time to be a major contributor. Someone mentioned that the new defensive philosophy might have contributed to the lack of running. That could be true to a certain extent. Parsons was a major factor in our transition offense. Lin also likes to push the ball whenever possible. Ariza is a good finisher but not very good at making fast decision in the running game. And Harden spending more energy on defense might prevent him from wanting to run too much.
Just wait until we get lebron...or ...er wait...Durant....er..."He called Dwight a p***y" now we can't lift our skirts up and w**** ourselves out the next FA and go all in
I mean, seeing we underachieved last year, we kind of have a right to be worried. Especially after the past 3 games.
Jeremy Lin, Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers have a better offensive efficiency than the Rockets.
The Rockets were not very good last season when Parsons didn't play. Ariza can replace him to an extent offensively and certainly is a better defender. But losing Parsons and Lin really hurts the Rockets in terms of playmaking. If Papa can get his shot going again and cut down on the turnovers and Canaan can actually get into games instead of Cisco, that'll help make up for the loss of those two players. But we still need one more playmaker to take the pressure off of Harden.
I've only watched about half the games this year, but it seems to me that other teams just are playing us better in transition. It was inevitable. For two years, we scored this massive number of points off of fast breaks. There was no way the rest of league was going to continue to allow that. I'd say the days of massive transition scoring are over. We desperately have got to work out an effective half court offense, and we just don't have it. I don't think any teams are scared of us. They know that if they guard against the fast break, and they contest as many threes as possible, they can effectively shut down the bulk of our offense. If we can't win games against good teams without the break and a high 3PT%, at best we're making it to the second round of the playoffs.
It actually goes further than this. Aside from the outlet valves of having supplemental playmakers in terms of dealing with the better defenses, the wear and tear on your primary players like Harden and Howard go WAY up without those supplemental playmakers. Its less about losing Parsons and Lin specifically than it is not having anyone to replace them that fulfill their roles on the offensive end. While it sounds great in theory when we see Howard and Harden put up 32 point games, over an 82 game season that's a brutal expectation. The physical fatigue compounded with the wear and tear from the banging of defenders constantly running at them, bodying them up, swiping at them and banging them in the paint and on the blocks is a long term losing game. Sure, you can win a lot of games short term, but as the minutes and physical abuse accrue over time, you not only increase the probability of injury, but you end up having a decline in performance as the season progresses. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. And the fewer guys you have to take on that play making load the more fatigued the stars get both physically and mentally. And this doesn't even factor in the impact of injury. Forget injuries that take either Howard or Harden off the roster for any significant amount of time, a bigger issue is the smaller injuries that accumulate throughout the season. Without support, its harder to recover from those injuries as you don't really have as many opportunities to "take it easy" from game to game and quarter to quarter. This was my biggest concern as well in terms of the off season. While losing Parsons and Lin aren't catastrophic in themselves, not having suitable players to replace their functions (depth and play making) creates a significant weakness in the offense that the better defensive teams will exploit. It's like Memphis vs OKC last season in the play offs. OKC is a great offensive team, but if Tony Allen takes Kevin Durant out of the game OKC has a shortage of play making that severely hampers their ability to score efficiently. Quite frankly, if ZBo hadn't been suspended for the last game of the series it could very well have ended in a first round elimination for OKC. The same applies for Harden. Any team with a strong enough defender or defensive scheme that can limit Harden is already half way to beating the Rockets in a play off series. If the Rockets want to go deep into the play offs without completely depending on not having Harden or Howard dinged up and not having bad games, then they need more play makers. The Rockets need at least 2, preferably 3 or 4 supplemental play makers. They don't have to be all stars, they just have to be good enough to handle parts of the offense when Harden is bottled up. And its especially true if we're up against a team like Memphis which not only has a great perimeter defender that can slow down Harden, but great bigs that can limit or fatigue Howard by banging him in the post. I'm currently not putting too much into the early season record. Aside from the very soft schedule, they've hardly put any miles on their bodies this early in the season. By all star break we'll have a much better idea whether this team is sustainable or not. Personally, I think without some additional trades to get some help for Harden and Howard by the mid-season trade deadline the Rockets may be limited to a 1st or 2nd round exit.
