David West: 'Stop letting nerds tell you how to play basketball....'

In Rivers' defense, Livingston isn't asked to do as much on the court with KD, Curry, Klay and Green out there and he only averages 13 minutes per game in the postseason. It's easy to be reliable when you have 3 HOF caliber killers on your team. Rivers has a higher usage rate on this Rockets team.

 

But Livingston is also a mainstay on a championship team. Just a few months ago Rivers didn't even really seem to have a team who wanted him. And now all the sudden we're really going to act like he's a more valuable NBA player than Livingston?

 

And I know some will say "Isiah was a horrible coach, think he could do better?"

The thing is he's talking about basic basketball stuff. In any sport the more predictable you are the easier you are to stop.

 

considering GS was one of the very teams that wanted him, i'd say hes pretty valuable. the difference bw the two isn't some huge gap. especially for someone whose done nothing significant up until these last few games in this years playoffs.

 

You're right. I agree the gap isn't huge either way. So where exactly is this huge depth difference that seemed to be hinted at?

Livingston <> Rivers
Looney and his youth/length/energy > Nene's old age
Shumpert/Green > who cares...doesn't even really matter

Again, there seemed to be this notion that the Rockets had so much more depth. I don't see it.

 

i have no idea and that's the point. this apparent monumental talent difference is not an excuse for a kd/cousins less gs team.

if you're telling me the likes of cook, jerebko, bell, and whoever else is just flat out a tier above talent than the rockets, then there's seriously something wrong with houston

 

Totally agree that talent wise, they are better. I mentioned exactly this in another thread:

If I have to rank top 10 players of GS and Hou, it would be:
1. Durant
2. Curry
3. Harden
4. Green
5. Thompson
6. Paul
7. Tucker
8. Iggy
9. Gordon
10. Capela

To me, we only have 1 top player vs their 4 from top 5 and that makes all the difference in the world.

 

Of course there is something wrong with the Rockets. The bench was literally pieced together from left over parts. It was not a strong, reliable bench all season long. I'm not saying the Rockets were a tier above. I'm saying the Rockets perceived depth advantage was pretty insignificant.

 

Not liking these comparisons at all.

There is a reason why Livingston couldn’t stick in many other teams. He is not better than Rivers. He is very one dimensional but the warriors are very good at using that strength. Down the stretch, they promptly found Livingston on the block, who made a turnaround shoot over. That was a huge basket. Their system have ways to keep the scoreboard moving if their stars are locked down or not available. Insert Looney, Cook and the likes too. Those are not better players than our role players.

We are on the other end, our reliance on Harden often reduces the strength of our other players. You see our role players are more than capable of doing their own thing when we stay away from ISO.
It’s the system and philosophy.

 

Livingston was a castaway before Warriors.

 

whether you think its insignificant or not, that shouldn't be the difference between being labeled as out-talented, based on what the warriors just trotted out there for 2 games.

 

Rockets are just not good enough, as simple as that.

I said this when Durant was out, that Rockets will have a hard time to guard the Warriors, simply because they are not smart/discipline enough to adjust defense to counter Warriors' motion offense. With Durant out, Warriors' offense had so much more motion, Rockets couldn't keep up with that, resulted in a lot of easy layups & offensive rebounds for GSW.

On the other end, the Rockets didn't have much left after exhausted so much energy on defense, particularly late in the game. Paul was gasping late, so MD had to take him out in critical moment,

One thing I never understand is why the Rockets took so long to start their offense. Given the Rockets' offense is so predictable, the defense can prepare, and make adjustment in the different stage of the game, it makes sense to start the offense early, so if the 1st option doesn't work, they could go to next one. We have seen it over and over again that the Rockets started their offense late, then when defense changes and stop their 1st option, there was no time left.

 

I think you're overestimating what we trotted out there.

 

if you think it not supposed to be better then the likes of cook, jerebko, bell, and whatever then you can have it

 

The aim should be to have a balance.

There is a lot in basketball that stats and data can never cover and focusing too much on data driven analytics will ignore those factors. There are situational basketball, flows and runs in a game, rhythm, player personalities and mentality etc.

Rockets seem to have taken the analytics too far

 

Yeah, we're talking past each other at this point. The Rockets bench sucks. It was one of the worst in the NBA all season long. The Warriors bench sucks worse, especially after all the injuries. The Rockets crappy bench not being as bad as the Warriors crappy bench doesn't even come close to making up for the talent difference at the upper-end of the spectrum between the two teams. It barely even registers.

 

Not going for an easy 2 on a fast break with numbers but retreating to the 3 point line is some major bullsnix.
Just turrible - C. Barkley