It is incredible how at one moment we look at the roster on paper and say "man this team is DEEEEEP" and then things go off the rails and we talk about the team having no depth.
There's been multiple problems this year. Early it was defense but they've cleaned that up. We've held teams under 100 in 4 of the last 5 games. Currently allowing 109.9 pts/100 possessions which is down from the 105.7 of last year but not bad considering the first two weeks of the season. Right now we have several guys that are shooting horribly and unfortunately it includes guys that we depend on a whole lot for offense. Here's the guys that are shooting below 30% from behind the arc. CP3 27.1 3pt% on 6 per game. 49.2% TS% Gordon 23.6 3pt% on 7.6 per game 43.1% TS% Green 26.3 3pt% on 5.7 per game 48.6% TS% Clark 27.3 3pt% on 3.7 per game. 44.1% TS% That's a lot of bad shooting right there. It's an awful lot to overcome. Clark is a rookie so who knows what he'll do the rest of the year. CP3 looks hurt. Based on history, you'd expect Gordon and Green to start shooting better. On the positive side, we have 3 guys shooting it really well Harden 41.1 3pt% 60.5 TS% Tucker 44.9 3pt% 60.9% TS% Ennis 48.1 3pt% 60.6% TS%
CP3 Harden PJ Melo Capela This is what needs to happen as far as starting lineup. But the team as a whole needs to move the ball majority of the time. The rox need to chill with the iso right quick.
Harden has a TS% over 60%. That's elite efficiency. If he can produce at that efficiency then he can take every shot as far as I'm concerned. Also, the Rockets are driving just slightly more (1 per game) this year than last.
melo is struggling to even contribute from the bench, yet the answer is to start him. you're highlighting iso and you want to add yet another iso player in the lineup. yall need to give that up already. he isn't a starter and does not fit in that lineup at this point in his career.
Exactly. Suddenly the sky is falling. Let's take a thorough assessment before the trade deadline, not the second week of November...
It'll never win a chip, UNLESS our defense is so strong we can get enough fast breaks to compensate. Haven't seen much hope for that.
As expected, we're missing shots...even the wide open ones. Open 3s (Closest defender 4-6 ft) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2017-2018 16.3 3pt attempts, 5.7 makes, 35.1% 2018-1019 16.9 3pt attempts 5.3 makes, 31.4% Wide Open 3s (Closest defender 6+ feet) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2017-2018 18.6 3pt attempts, 7.4 makes, 39.9% 2018-2019 17.0 3pt attempts, 5.8 makes, 34.1% Same story on drives ---------------------------- 2017-2018 41.7 drives per game and a fg% of 49.6% 2018-2019 42.7 drives per game and a fg% of 43.1% Free throws - Less of them and shooting worse ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2017-2018 25.1 per game and shot them at 78.1% 2018-2019 20.9 per game and shooting them at 71,3%
I'm in the group that thinks depth is the main issue at hand. We were hopeful that one or more of the following group: MCW Ennis Chriss Melo Green Knight Would be a consistent, solid contributor this year. So far, it's been very inconsistent and puts more pressure on the starting lineup to produce. Tack on the fact that Eric Gordon's decline is more problematic this year than years past also adds to the depth issue. Last year we had Tucker, Gordon, Mbah Moute being solid off the bench. This year..........ouch...
Gordon's always been streaky. He's generally really good or he's really bad. Go look at his month by month 3pt shooting stats from last year. Way up some months, way down others.
I was excited when MDA arrived to finally see our offense get away from so much ISO and seeing P&R, off-ball screens/cuts, ball movement, etc.. . Now it seems we're just back to ISO ball. But even when we're finding the open man it's nothing but bricks it seems. Our 3 point shooting (or lack thereof) seems to be the primary culprit. We rely on it so much, but yet, other teams are swishing 3's while we put up brick after brick
The stats definitely back up what we are watching. It's hard to win in this league if you can't score. Even with us holding opponents below 100, we can't expect to win only getting 80 points. This isn't the JVG days where we could pull out a 71-67 win. I don't know how any one could blame D'antoni about the offensive issues at all. This team isn't built for off the ball movement. Sure, we can get some simple cuts into the basket, but we don't have players that can move like Klay and Curry can. That's just not our system. The system worked just fine last year. Players are just not making shots as shown in the stats. The one thing I wish Morey could do is get a freaking pure shooter on this team. Even someone old like Kyle Korver. It's always great to have a solid shooter of that caliber than can hit from anywhere on the court. PJ is shooting a good percentage, but he struggles if he isn't in the corner.
I agree that he's a streaky player but it's been more of him hitting a wall and being cold later on in the season. Usually he starts off the season fairly well.
The system is meant to create wide open threes. It is meant to create lanes in order to allow Harden and company get into the paint or get easy lobs for Capela. Considering that most players shoot a crappy percentage from mid-range, it's best that they stay away from the mid-range. Part of the problem early on in games was that players who shouldn't be taking mid-range shots, were taking them. Like Ennis and MCW. Thankfully, it seems like that issue has mostly been handled. Even Melo is starting to take the three, rather than the one dribble, take one step and shoot. Now, if they could start hitting their shots, that would be great. I'm not sure how I feel about picking up the pace either. Both Harden and Paul have been really careless with the ball pushing the pace. If the opportunity is there, then fine, but more often than not they are throwing long passes trying to push the pace and the defense is stealing the ball from us. I don't mind playing at a slower pace, but as I keep saying over and over, Rockets just need to hit shots. Crazy that half the team is in a shooting slump. It definitely takes away lanes from Harden since the defense can clog up the lane. Also, we are definitely missing Gordon's energy. Gordon would get to the basket last year and finish or draw fouls at least. This year, he can't seem to get foul calls and he can't finish. I blame it on him losing weight. Last year he was strong enough to take the contact even when hit, this year he can't seem to take the contact and finish. It doesn't help that he isn't hitting threes either. Just a shitty perfect storm. I really hope we come out of our funk soon. It's tough watching games like this and watching us slip in the standings.
Yea I agree; this team was able to mask the lack of "true/pure" shooting from 3 for years now but it's definitely becoming evident that we really don't have a shooter in the mold of a Korver or Klay or Steph on this roster to sustain this kind of offense in today's NBA.
Last year, Gordon's 3pt % in October was 30.2%. 32.7% in November, 38.7% in December and 31.7% in January., 47.7% in March and 27.3% in April.
