According to your narrative, the Rockets should have improved on the defensive glass. They have not. It is a complicated problem for which leaking out early was only a small part. The largest problem is that when Dwight goes for a block, the team isn't boxing out well enough. Rockets need a 4 that can control defensive glass in these situations. Granted, the Rockets have turned it up a notch on offensive glass. To be more on topic, offensive efficiency scares me a little. I think the Rockets need a 4 with at least a solid mid range game to really burn with the starters. A facilitator may help a little when Harden sits.
Exactly! From what I've seen, we do not even pass up mid-range shots, we either stay near / outside the 3pt line or go all the way to the basket (mostly to pass it out to a 3pt shooter).
Yeah, it's obvious that it has been instilled in this group that data shows shows that stepping back and shooting the 3 doesn't impact the success rate of a shot (compared to a mid-range shot) AND it adds an extra point. Easy to understand... but what about when the opponent makes a concerted effort to take away the 3? What does the data say then? I also know Morey welcomes having shots blocked. It shows the team is being aggressive. And ultimately those blocks should turn into fouls in most cases. The more free throws the better. Again, easy to understand. But in last night's game and at times during the Portland series the blocks were not a factor of aggressiveness combined with just not having calls go our way, they were a factor of poor offensive structure, predictability, and bad shot selection.
Good point. The other side of the coin is that it may not be helping the rebounding, but it may be keeping enough players on the defensive end to protect against an easy score after an opponent's offensive rebound. This would show up in overall defense efficiency.
Rockets try for close range shots, free throw throws, and threes. When defenses take all those away, then the Rockets will go for mid range shots in pull up situations. There just is no reason to design plays to get a guy open in mid range when that same play can get a guy open at the three. In Portland series, Rockets scored pretty easily even with Asik and Dwight in there together. The Rockets defense stunk so bad that Portland scored more easily making it look like Rockets weren't scoring well.
I am not sure if we should be worried or not. I guess I'll have to wait and see a little more. I was not as euphoric as some people here when we were steam-rolling over opponents in the first 6 games, because I knew the offensive efficiency (e.g. Ariza's 3pt shooting) could not be sustained for the whole season. But we have shown that we have enough offensive talent to be good. Harden has never been a high percentage shooter. His career 3pt average is 36.6%. Except for an outlying season (39%), his season average seems to be around 36%, which is good but not great. Likewise, his overall FG% is 44.3% is good but not great for a guard. His real efficiency comes from the ability to get foul shots. His shooting average is below his career number. So we can expect it to get better. But I would not expect a super hike. The good thing about Harden's offense this season is that he is more intent on setting up the teammates. This will bode well especially now that we are not as much of a fastbreak team as before.
Last nights game was (hopefully) an anomaly. 38% from at the rim, 28% from mid-range and 20% from beyond the arc. Also the Rockets did get the calls, they just were also miserable from the free throw line. If a NBA team just cannot make any shot it is going to be a long night. It has nothing to do with offensive structure. Plus the Rockets had about 23 wide open looks from behind the arc and still could not hit them.
Your first point: I wish someone would ask Morey this and he would answer honestly. I am sure he knows when the 3pt shot is taken away, the smartest way would be to have a mid-range game.. Spot on again about the Portland series and especially last night. Poor spacing, at the end of the shot clock plays and Dwight taking off from the 3pt line were among the reasons for some shots that should not have been blocked. What doesn't help is that while some were fouls, we have Dwight who screams he gets hacked on every play and Harden cocking his head back and flailing his arms almost every single time he goes to the basket. If both just focused on finishing the play and make a strong move, I'm sure referees are less inclined to swallow their whistle.
Absolutely true. The wide open 9 foot shot is a great great shot and the Rockets do take them if presented. A defense cannot guard everything. It is physically impossible.
Possibly. For me the biggest pluses for defense are: 1) Ariza is just a better man-to-man defender, help defender, and can pick up more steals than Parsons; 2) Canaan is better than Lin defensively; 3) Harden is playing with more awareness on defense; and 4) Most of all, Dwight has gone from a top 5 defender to back to being the best in the game. (I hope he keeps playing like this) well...Jones missing some games probably helped the defense, too...but hurts the offense as well.
Perfect. One thing people seem to forget, is that great offenses do suffer shooting slumps. Great defense is there every single night.
The offensive efficiency should be worrisome. The plus side is that this year they seem to have defensive efficiency to get them past those moments... ... BUT, clearly the team needs more offense. I'm not super concerned about the fast breaks. They should run fast breaks when it makes sense and is smart. If being that much better defensively means less fast breaks, I'll definitely take that. I am concerned that seemingly NO ONE on the bench can score. Terry can... but anyone that thinks a 83 year old Jason Terry was going to keep up that pace hasn't watched enough basketball. KPap is crazy crafty, and smart, but unless he can start hitting shots, he'll be a net neutral at best. DMo has been horrid from the field as well. I guess it's this way with role players. They focus on doing the things they were bad at, and get worse at the things they were good at. DMo is a better defender and rebounder than when he entered the league, perhaps by a fair amount. But even as the 4th or 5th man offensively on the team, he just couldn't find the bottom of the basket regularly. The return of Jones should clearly help It's not a coincidence offensive efficiency dropped when PBev/TJones went out. Beyond Jones being a solid offensive player, chemistry is chemistry. Still, when healthy, the bench consists of - Terry, KPap, DMo, Canaan and Black... yikes. It'd be nice to see Daniels get some more burn... but I can only suspect the problem is he is SO one-dimensional McHale has a hard time putting him on the court. He basically needs to be on the court WITH Harden. Considering they play the same position, that's tough...
The Rockets have been inefficient because they don't run half court sets. Part of this falls on Mchale, but mostly Morey for implementing this system. Last year's playoff was an example of how relying on 3's doesn't work when the game slows down. I don't understand how a NBA team can't run an effective half court set. Baffling
Yep. I've thought this for a long time. 3-pointers are efficient when you look at the numbers because those shots are taken within the flow of the offense which most-likely means they are open shots. If a coach looks at that and tells his team to shoot more 3's because the numbers support it, then they will be forcing more shots from 3 which means more contested 3's which lowers efficiency. Using your football analogy, the run opens up the pass and the pass opens up the run. If a running back runs for 200 yards in the context of a balanced offense, that doesn't mean he'd get 200 yards if they handed the ball off every single time.
Does anyone feel we are forcing more half court offense in order to be able to actually do it well come playoffs time? We can still beautifully execute our transition offense when we want to. We have countless of transition threes (mainly from Ariza) and fast break plays from this season to prove it.
That's not fair. Martin and Harden are very different players. Martin is a jump shooter. He got his fouls by faking the defender up and leaning toward him, adding some flopping in the process. And Martin is a better 3pt shooter than Harden when left open. Harden is much stronger than Martin and drives to the basket with authority. That's how he gets fouled. And Harden is much better at creating, both for himself and for his teammates.
I believe some do, but I suspect the Rockets transition is only being slowed by personnel and focusing on defense.
I agree with this. Martin is also just as bad if not worse defender than Harden on his best days and Harden's worst days. Basically Harden is what Martin wishes he was, only Martin looks like a stick figure and is missing a pair of balls.
