Pick and roll doesnt work if your guard/foward isnt a threat to shoot or finish in the paint consistently
Not necessarily true. Our pick and rolls with Asik last year were effective, even when he blew a decent percentage of layups. The point of a pick and roll is to gain an offensive advantage somewhere on the court. Dwight might get mobbed at the basket when he rolls, but something should be open. With our current personnel, we should be able to get a pretty open 3 every time we run it, if not better. For us to not have a humming pick and roll offense by this point of the season is probably the biggest failing of McHale, and just one of the reasons why he will not be back next year.
at the very least, it makes opposing defenses work harder. as it is, Rockets opponents have a field day because you basically just hold your position against a PG who crosses half court and immediately passes off to either Harden or Parsons 80% of the time, then everyone else just stands around asking for the ball. having pick and roll sets, or pick and pop, whether the big scan shoot the mid range or not, gets more people involved, gives people roles and accountabilities instead of simply watching ISOs. lots of options as well when our guards beat opposing bigs who switch and a 3rd guy helps out, leaving our shooters open. i guess anything is better than our stagnant offense. if you call it sticky, then better do something to unsticky it coach.
I found a couple of articles that support your view that Rockets need to involve Howard in more Pick and Roll (not that support is needed since, as you say, it's obvious to everybody) . Best Pick & Roll Duos in the NBA (from 2012), written by Jesse Dorsey 01. Jameer Nelson & Dwight Howard (Magic) 02. Steve Nash & Amare Stoudemire (but anyone on the Suns team fits) 03. Carmelo Anthony & Amare Stoudemire (Knicks) 04. Kobe Bryant 7 Pau Gasol (Lakers) 05. LeBron James & Dwyane Wade (Heat) 06. Derrick Rose & Carlos Boozer (Chicago) 07. Chris Paul & Blake Griffin (Clippers) 08. Russell Westbrook & Kevin Durant (Thunder) 09. Deron Williams & Brook Lopez (Nets) 10. Monta Ellis & David Lee (Golden State Warriors) 11. Manu Ginobli & Tim Duncan (Spurs) 12. Devin Harris & Al Jefferson (Jazz) http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1026007-12-best-pick-and-roll-duos-in-the-nba/page/13 The ranking above support your point of view but it does appear that these rankings reflect just one man’s opinion (since he never cited any actual data to support it). Below, I posted an excerpt from Jason Friedman on Rockets.com (not sure of the date). But he mentions that Lowry and Dragic are gone and that Lin is about to join the team so I assume that he was referencing Lin's P&R Synergy data from his last season with the Knicks, which would likely involve Tyson Chandler (primarily) and Amare Stoudemire as P&R partners. This article does reference a data source, Synergy. “Jeremy Lin was a very good pick-and-roll player and a spectacular performer out of the isolations last year. His Synergy stats in those categories: .797 points per possession when operating out of the pick-and roll, good enough to rank him in the 63rd percentile at his position, and a whopping 1.022 points per possession in iso situations, which put him in the NBA’s 95th percentile.” http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/stop-insanity If you believe Lin is not the man for the job then let Harden or Parsons do it but somebody needs to involve Howard in more Pick & Roll. It just makes so much basketball sense.
Harden was top 5 in pick and rolls last year I believe. It doesn't just have to be one player. Even Parsons has improved this year although I would much rather go through Harden/Howard or Lin/Howard.
Howard isn't as bad in the block as the Inside the NBA guys like to say. The problem is he works to hard to get position and gets the ball to far away from the bucket. You also mentioned Lin's name way to much. So the solution to you is give Lin the ball more and have Howard just set picks for him. Yeah, okay lol. You say don't make it about Lin yet you made it about Lin.
This did not happen with the Tyson Chandler/Lin example OP mentioned in his original post, nor with the Asik example another poster mentioned about last year. Asik's problem was only with finishing at the rim, not defenders denying the roll. Neither Chandler nor Asik have a midrange game whatsoever. The problem is that Dwight just doesn't want to be a pick and roll big, period.
Kenny smith said las night that he could remember seeing a C run too many PnR so high from the rim. DH12 needs to run PnR like Blake Griffin does closer to the hoop not way up high away from the basket.
I agree. The Howard P&R partner doesn't need to be limited to just one position. As you can see in the rankings, many of the best P&R duos do not involve the PG. Also, someone mentioned that Howard and Harden, the 1st and 2nd options, may not want to run the P&R with the Rockets third, fourth, or fifth options but what we've seen this year and last from this team contradicts that notion because I have seen both Howard and Harden in P&R with our 3rd, 4th, and 5th options. Also, some of the best P&R duos listed above do not even involve the first & second best options on that team (see Golden State).
Rockets rank 1st in PnR efficiency but use it on less than 13% of possessions, that alone validates the existence of this thread.
This was what made Asik so valuable last season. This was the one play last season opposing teams had a hard time executing, because Asik was the best in the business at snuffing the play out. Not just the PnR, but all the variants off it, including the pick-and-pop. Dwight Howard is a great individual defender, but not half the team defender Asik was. And now we're paying the consequences. I'll say it again.... I was maybe the only Rox fan who didn't like the Dwight Howard acquisition. Because Dwight was not much of an upgrade over what we already had. I love Dwight as a person, and he's a fun player to watch, but Asik was about to become a top-tier center in this league. But now he's out of favor with the club. And therein lies the real tragedy.
I find this fact surprising..... Because the lack of the midrange option of the play would make it a lot easier to defend. Although Dwight probably would finish a PnR better than anyone else. Could explain it as well. But then again, the percentage of possessions might be so low because the defense takes away the roll to the basket, essentially transforming the play a "non-PnR" attempt.
not surprising to me. as i stated in the other thread, the coaches we go up against know what's up. no coincidence. they know we don't have a scheme to defend the pNR, or maybe we do but players don't feel in the mood to do it. Bev,Lin,Brooks are basically getting caught and can't recover before kemba walker waltzes to the rim. It's hard enough that the PnR is designed to put your defense in a catch 22 to begin with. Other teams can't f'n stop our pick and rolls but we neglect to run it? that's coaching. then again, coaches do call for the ball to move but certain players are not in the mood to do so. Last season it was about sharing on the fast break. this season, way too many plays by lin, harden and jones where they take it in on three defenders when they have wingmen and trailers. luckily, they have converted those plays at a high %
After the game tonight, I thought I would just bump this thread up. I seriously don't understand what the long range game is... why are we not setting screens for our playmakers like every other team in the league?
