I always thought it was a gimmick offense from the jump. But it was working and we were winning games. I knew it would catch up to us when it mattered most (WCF, and the refs). At times we will get away with jacking up a bunch of 3's cause we will hit a good number of them, but we need to add other dimensions to our offense. This is getting ridiculous. If we added different variables, it would make it harder on defenses and easier on us. Right now, we are predictable.
So predictability is now to blame for all the high quality shots we are missing? Are some of you guys watching the same games as I Am? We are missing layups, free throws and open 3s right now. Im seeing the offense get what it wants but we are so damn cold we can’t make the shots we are working to get. The offense works. I know some of y’all hate “the numbers” argument but it’s the truth. The entire league continues to come around to what we have been implementing for years. The one thing that needs fixing on offense is just making the open shots we are already getting.
I agree. I just hate the non ball movement. As much as I dislike GS, I love the way they play on offense. And they were playing that way before they got Durant. Ball movement, 3's, midrange ect... We come down, dribble dribble dribble, maybe a pass or two, then a 3. I know it's not that way every time, but the majority of the time that's how our offense goes.
Didn't really mean "why don't we have one of these 3 guys now", more "why haven't we had anyone like this ever?" Seems like we almost had Reddick last year, so gotta give FO credit there. I understand what your saying and I'm not arguing it hasn't worked - the year with J-Smoove/Brewer we made the WCF - but the more teams copy our approach, the less edge blindlessly chunking treys has. Average to below average 3 point shooting is still better than midrange, but average to above average is way better. I could see a group of extremely gassed average shooters somehow missing 25 straight 3's, but does this happen if we have just one top tier pure shooter? In the past 5 years there has been a rough average of 20 players who have shot 40+% from three for each full season. The Rockets have had just two players hit this clip in that time span, Beverley and Randerson who were both barely over. Granted, our volume has been much higher, and our team hasn't shied away from launching contested of off the dribble theees, but other teams are catching up and it doesn't seem to be effecting their efficiency. Don't want to keep griping on this because as you said our issues go far beyond shooting, but it would be interesting to see what even a Joe Harris or E'Twaun Moore could accomplish offensively on this team.
So bricks on an a two pointer are better than bricks from 3 point range??? What makes you think anyone on this team is that efficient at a mid range 2. Literally only CP is, Harden is not. So it wont work like that. He also gave out shot selection in another post. If we are getting good shots but not making them, then you want to switch to bad shots and not make them either. Misses are gonna be a god send to the other team either way. @aelliott even said this "Houston is launching 41.8 three pointers per game so far this year. Of those attempts, 16.9 of them are open (nearest defender 4-6 ft) and 17 of them are wide open (no defender closer than 6+ feet). So 33.9 of those 41.8 attempts are either open or wide open 3s. Defense's haven't adjusted, we're still getting a ton of open shots but we're missing them." So we are getting good looks, are shooting arent just executing.
We can't abandon the three, because (like @Carl Herrera says about Tilman) then the team will lose confidence, because MDA will be showing no confidence in them. Confidence is a fragile thing with teams that almost won the title last year. Don't underestimate our ability to cause them to lose confidence in themselves.
The offensive principle in itself in terms of what types of shots to seek and which ones to avoid is not bad. Look at what Milwaukee is doing offensively taking about 41 3PA, but Milwaukee does do some things differently, and they are playing great defense. Milwaukee also has a, two 3PT shooting C’s in Lopez ($3.4M), 6.7 3PA , 39% 3PT and surprisingly, John Henson can supposedly shoot three’s now too, 2.3 3PA, 37% 3PT, don’t know where that came from, but it is happening so far. So for them, the lane is even more open than for Houston as they can basically play 5 out, though they for more of a 4 out 1 in with Giannis being the one inside. Trying to focus your team on the most efficient shots you can get is a good thing, and the Rockets are still getting what we would call open shots, even if they aren’t “wide open”, and I’m not sure if there has been a decrease in wide open shots. Still, in the end, there is value to diversity in your offense, especially when it comes to playoff matchups against top teams, and even more necessary if your defense can’t carry you. There is some value to taking good mid-range shots in order to get you back in rythmn. In the end the best shots are still open and confident shots, and sometimes what players need is for shots to go in, doesn’t matter where it comes from. When things are dragging, the Rockets should actually have deliberate sets here and there that set up players in the mid-range, first because it will throw the opposition off, but also just to see the ball go in the basket and to tide an opposing teams run. Rockets can even mix in random sets like setting up Harden at the foul line extended for quick isolation just using a jab step and attack, or the type of pick and roll that you usually see from a 4/5 pick and roll, but instead with Harden there. Just throwing in a few different things to give the players different looks, to give the defense different looks. The way I see it, any efficient star (Harden and Paul) should take whatever shots they want and that they are comfortable with. If you are shooting 59-60% TS, what’s the point of changing your scoring areas to have you still shoot 58-60% TS? The end goal is efficiency, if the efficiency ends up the same, then I’m not really concerned with where your shots come from. Role players on the other hand are the ones that need to be more picky with their shots, but not just in their shot areas, but shot selection. One of the problems the Rockets have had, even last season when the offense was very good, and when something is very good, there’s an easy fall back to “it’s working”. One of the problems is that the players are trying too much to take 3PT shots, that even in late clock, they will force themselves into a bad 3PT shot because they don’t want to cross the 3PT arc and shoot from the evil mid-range. When it gets that extreme is when there is a problem. Late clock just get the best shot you can, which seems logical, and most times the players will do it, but sometimes it was odd to watch players take what were basically low IQ shots just because they felt they needed to get up a three or get to the basket. That is a general principle, but in the end, you still want open shots.
Even last year the way we got our threes was not great, our offense is very simple and easy to defend if Harden and CP3 are not on. The problem is our reliance on threes and not practicing anything in between a layup and a 3. I bet we practice so many threes, guys who used to shoot 2s well now cannot.
Bwhahaha smart stat watchers knows how to deliver a pitch to convince people who really doesn't watch the game. Or who probably never played this game before in their lives.
I feel that Paul and Harden already have the freedom you speak of, Harden just doesnt got to the mid range as much(and hes not good or well efficient at it either). Paul has really just been missing shots, simple as that, mid range or 3. I will disagree with your third paragraph because no role player on this team can shoot the mid range two well? Green? Green is streaky as hell and the shooting will be the same from anywhere imo..though you could probably try it with him(and no I am not counting Melo cause he might but cut soon). Can you give an example of that this year? Like when are role players given that opportunity to even take a bad 3., i dont see much of it tbh?
Not everyone understands math, Friend. Or reality. Hard to believe this argument is happening in 2018.
Actually in that third paragraph, I meant for the stars, not for the role players, the role players just need to keep doing their role, and Melo is not a guy that takes necessarily good mid-range shots, he likes to jab, jab, contested shot, which is kinda meh. You are right that Paul has been missing basically everywhere, layups, FT’s, everything. I can’t think of anything specific, but I will keep an eye on it, I have seen Paul do it in the past, where he seems to take a tougher 3PT shot or pass it to someone for a tougher 3PT shot when in the past he would have tried to get to his mid-range spots.
You know, I think we have an agreement on Chris Paul though, I would be okay with him shooting his mid range, just to open him up. Everyone else though....(maybe Harden) im gonna take a hard pass lol. I think ive seen Harden and Paul pass on a lot of open catch and shoot opportunities for a worse shot, I think. Also, I think we need to bring back(like you said before)
As you said, there's not a whole lot of those guys and they tend to get paid. If you can get a guy that shoots that well and can do other things well, those guys are good as gold but they are rare. even the guys who shoot well but don't do much else still get paid. It comes down to how you want to spend your money.we've chosen to spend our money on CP3 and Harden.
My gut feeling is that Melo is mad about having to come off the bench. I have no idea what his personal issues are. That might be part of the reason why our shooting is so poor.
