Has anyone noticed how ineffective we are at the Pick-N-Roll? 9 times out of 10, after Dwight has set a screen, he will NOT roll hard to the basket. I don't think it's because he can't. His best years in Orlando were run with a PNR. It's because the coaches won't install this. Instead, I think we have the following quandary: 1. Houston won't run a true PNR with Harden and Dwight because then there's not enough room for Harden's damn eurostep, and because Harden likes to operate with as much room and options as possible. 2. They won't run a true PNR with Jeremy and Dwight because that would mean the offense would run through those two guys and Harden's role in the offense would be reduced. They won't even run the same PNR sets they ran last year with Omer and Jeremy (which IMHO were incredibly effective anytime Omer didn't fumble the pass). So what we end up with is one of the most dynamic offensive centers in the league without even close to enough touches per game. Dwight's under-utilized, Jeremy's underutilized (TJ's playing awesome considering he's a 2nd year player with nothing run for him. Parsons, I don't know enough about basketball to figure out if he's being used well or not), and all at the expense of Harden's offense. Now, I'm not taking anything away from Harden's abilities as a scorer (and we're not talking defense, just not going there) but he is really, really in danger of becoming a Carmelo - a top notch elite scorer who will get you points but cannot make his teammates better (and Carmelo has made it out of the first round only once in his long and illustrious career). IMHO, this is all on the coaching. They still haven't figured out how to best utilize everyone and they really don't have an offensive philosophy and I just can't see how we're going to get far in the playoffs with the way this offense is constructed. I watched the Rockets all last year and they were fun to watch and root for even through their losses. This year has been really painful. Harden's determined to cement his status as the league's best shooting guard and he'll lose you some games, but he'll win you more games. Fine. But it's just not fun, team basketball to watch. Bottom line, and granted it's just the first year, (but I can't see this changing with the current coaching staff) until we make better use of Dwight and ideally make him the primary offensive option, we aren't going to sniff the championships. Thoughts?
Good thread I understand your concerns. But me, I can sit back and read these threads knowing that I still stand pat and my opinion this summer. As a rocket fan I wish I wasn't right & things would change. I'm seeing a trend of posters starting to realize certain things about TEAM play recently. I don't look at teams on paper.
I think our championship aspirations have little to do with the offensive side of the ball. Get the right complimentary pieces around Harden/Howard, specifically defensive role players and go from there.
As someone else pointed out earlier, you can't hide your defensive weakness in a championship run. You can hope to out score your opponents but you can't cover for a player that doesn't play defense because BB is a team game and the other team will exploit your defensive weakness.
You will never have perfect basketball players at every position. Every player will have their strengths and weaknesses. Trying to change players is not going to get you anywhere. Believing that the right coaches will change the players will not get you where you want to go. You have to have personnel that helps cover up each other's weaknesses. Just about every elite/championship team has the defensive role player specialist (Bowen, Battier, Rodman, Stevenson, Wallace) and we don't. You guys can keep pretending this is a coaching issue, but it isn't. It is a personnel issue.
Dwight is the worst player to have in the PnR. Watch how he sets screens. It's terrible. Asik was the best screener on the team, but Asik gone. Greg Smith is second, but he hardly plays. Harden is probably the best screener on the team at the moment, and that's sad.
The pick-and-roll cannot be executed with any regularity without the "pick-and-pop".... The defending big has to be kept honest where the screener shoots the 15 to 20 foot jump shot.... (The base play is actually the "pick-and-pop"... The pick-and-roll can only be executed when the screen defender contests the "pick-and-pop".) Otherwise the defending big will always sag toward the hoop to stop the screener rolling to the basket. (This is also why we have trouble executing lob plays, which also requires the screen defender contesting the "pick-and-pop".) Sorry to say this, but the "layups and threes" offense is at the core of why we don’t run a lot of pick-and-roll..... The only time we can run it regularly is with DMo or TJones, where the base "pick-and-pop" is the screener shooting the three ball.
So the point you are trying to make is that since one instance of a tactic was unsuccessful, then all future instances will be unsuccessful as well, despite numerous other examples to the contrary. It's time to stop being average Joe and start being above average Joe.
Just because our name is different doesn't make you above average than anybody. Name calling will not get you anywhere. The point I'm making is if your star players don't play defense, it doesn't matter how many role players you pad in your team. We've seen that during Yao & Mcgrady era. We had great role players with great defense, but it was not enough to pad Mcgrady's lack of effort on the defense end. We do not want the same thing happening to Harden because we love him as our star player, not because we hate him. Harden is young, these things need to be get to him so he can grow to be a even better player, a more rounded player. The coaching on this team is exactly the kind like you who thinks Harden should not be criticized while it is obvious Harden's lack of effort is one of the main causes of this team's poor defense. Coaching staff cannot control Harden because they are afraid of him. They know Harden is here to stay but they can be sacked anytime Harden isn't happy. Harden is just too spoiled.
The problem during the Yao/Tmac issue wasn't defense, they were consistently one of the best defensive teams in the league, it was that the offense was some god awful pos.
I agree you need defensive personnel around your stars. But I'm trying to think of one star on a championship team with such a glaring defensive weakness as Harden...but I can't. You can hide deficiencies, but only to a certain extent. It's a 5 player game after all and it's the NBA, not high school or college. No team is capable of playing another team 4 v 5 in one end of the ball. So agreed, it is a personnel issue. Harden needs to play defense. Whether the role players like Lin or Jones does it doesn't matter, because worst case you can make adjustments through trades. If your designated franchise player does not play defense, you can't win a ring. This is especially the case for perimeter players, because help D is tougher. Think of the # of offensively elite players with defensive issues who haven't won anything. Nash, Melo, STAT, etc.
You were talking JVG time, he was actually making Mcgrady play D. It's Adelman's time that Mcgrady wasn't giving the efforts anymore.
The way that tyson chandler was setting screens today was a thing of beauty. sigh too bad that will never happen on the rockets.
I looked at Lin's 4 assists on NBA and Lin's first assist was a screen and roll from DH. And DH set a pretty crappy pick and it still worked out. They should do this at least 6 times a game and probably convert a large % of them against defenses like the Knicks. Jones also had a PnR with Lin that worked out well in last night's game.
Hate to break it to you but Harden and Howard are nowhere near Dominate enough to lead us to a championship by themselves and just "hustling role players",...we're not talking about Hakeem and Clyde here. We need for guys like Parsons and Lin to be really good as well
