What is the "easier shot"?

I agree. Somehow on this team catching and shooting open threes is by far the toughest task handed to this team. Keyword being open.

I would scrap the 3 ball and just shoot anywhere inside the paint.

 

They need to start shooting more 2s they can make any wide open 3s. Even if analytics say 3s is better, it’s not if you have below average to mediocre 3 point shooters.

 

Harden at least. Idk about everyone else. But Harden is too stuck on just shooting threes that he will jack up 20 or 30 threes even if he just made 1 out of 20.
Maybe Ben only if he is open but he has been the only decent one shooting from 3s.

I wasn’t looking at the list just mainly at Harden. And Russ needs to finish those layups.
from that least I would trust maybe only Hartenstein and ego but Eric misses a lot of layups but he should shoot more 2s. He at least is capable of making the 2s. House just get him out. He can’t do anything.

 

https://stats.nba.com/teams/shots-closest-defender/

I looked at how the current best team in the league, Bucks, do in wide open 3pt shot attempts.

From the NBA data it seems like the Bucks generate 4 more wide open 3 pt attempts per game which is odd as they don't have a offensive playmaking juggernaut who draws doubles at the half court line. Hmm maybe that says something about our system?

And they also shoot at a worse percentage with their wide open 3s. Seems like this isn't the reason then why the Rockets are not at that level.

 

Catch and shoot, or a cut in
Anyway, at least a few passes to spread the floor finding a comfort open shot

 

I thought layups are the easiest shots in the game.

Opponents do layup drills on our asses every game.

Meanwhile our drives to the rim either gets blocked or just straight up bricks, this includes Harden, Rivers, Gordon, Capela, House, Tucker and Westbrook.

 

They're the best team in the league, but not the best offense. Our offense is better than theirs. I think the issue is that our defense is so poor that it feels like we need to make all our open 3s. When you're watching games this year it feels like we need every single open 3 to go in because of how many easy buckets we give up on the other end. If we were playing good defense it wouldn't feel that way. I don't think the offense is the problem here.

To give a little context, let's compare to the 2017-18 season where we actually had a good defense. That year we had a 114.7 ortg and this year its 114.1, basically the same. The difference was the defense. When our shots weren't falling (and that happens to every team, not just the rockets) we could really lock in on defense to still get the win.

In 2017-18, the rockets record in games where they had an ortg of 115+ was 38-2. In other words, when we play our game and the shots are falling at a decent rate, we win. The big difference though is when you you look at the below average nights, looking at games where the ortg was between 100-115, the record was still 26-10, which is a 59 win pace. That's still really good. And then on sub 100 ortg nights, the rockets went 1-5. That's fine, sometimes you can't hit anything, nobody really wins these types of games.

Compare to this year, in 115+ ortg games we are 14-1. Basically the same as last year, when the shots are falling, we are virtually unbeatable. Here's the big difference though, if you look at the 100-115 ortg range. Remember last year we won 72% of these games, at a 59 win pace. This year we are 12-10 in those games, that's barely over 500. And then we're 0-3 in sub 100 ortg games, which again, I think is fine. Sometimes you just have those nights.

So the real problem is on those nights where the offense is below our average, but still passable, we turn into a .500 team instead of a 60 win team. That's because this team doesn't have the ability to turn up the intensity and play serious defense to win on those nights where our shots aren't falling.

 

You have quickly become one of the most refreshing takes to read on clutchfans.

No knee jerk. Fact and data driven posts with little to no bias.

So rare around here. It is greatly appreciated.

 

What a kind thing to say to someone.

 

Ditto. He sticks with facts, not emotions. He doesn't follow narratives. he's great for this board.

 

lol it gets tough reading all the vomit people post and try to pass off as intelligent basketball discussion.

The good stuff shines through.

 

I think there are catch and shoot 3 pt specialists.

Like a Redick, Korver.

Not as easy as advertised for sure.

 

Yup, defense is our problem again, but on offense it's crazy how many open shots we miss and how other teams seem to punish us for leaving 3pt shooters open almost every single game.

 

Could've had Redick, but of course Morey at the last minute changed the contract offer - 3 years instead of 4 - and we lost out on the perfect player for our system. This was 2 off-seasons ago.

 

The Bucks have a higher offensive rating than the Rockets.

Edit: sorry they are exactly identical.

 

Except that some are still enamored with our Offense.

Let's see if we take out Harden, WB and Ego/the fun Ego, then that is a 20 or 25 win team.

I mean yeah sure, our Offense is that good but if only 2 or 3 guys account for the whole Offense, I am wondering if it is really a good, balanced Offense.

Once Harden and WB are tired, the Offense goes to garbage mode.

 

There’s a big difference between Giannis offense skills and Hardens. You don’t double him at half court for two reasons.
1) He doesn’t have Hardens range.
2) He has teammates that can create and hit open shots.
They pack the paint on Giannis, they drop a defender below the ft line and shade him. This why Giannis attacks from the top of the key( more room) as soon as the defense collapses inside or wings you have a open 3. It’s a inside out offense without the post ups.