I’m tired of watching this team play centerless. I’m not blaming anyone. We just miss Clint out there and it’s obvious.
Think the 95 championship season. We were a totally different team at the end of the year than what we started with in the beginning and we were 6th in the west with the prospect of facing Seattle Phoenix San Antonio at the height of their powers we end up facing Utah Phoenix and San Antonio and then beat Orlando we were not favored in any of the series and no home court advantage in the entire playoffs. The only thing that matters is we have a complete ready to go squad (1-12) that has average chemistry and Healthy going into the playoffs
Did you watch in 95? Most frusturating regular season ever... But we had a switch and got hot at the right time.
Agreed, but I think it is pretty obvious that we need a jolt too. Either Mike D’Antoni needs to start tinkering with different lineups (Shump/House starting), or we need Keef to get signed and bring some nasty at PF for us. It might take both. I for one am incredibly tired of getting beat up down low. PJ Tucker does a phenomenal job at both forward positions, but he needs help. Either start a bigger SF, or move Tuck to SF and start Keef ASAP.
last year, Houston can best opponents with 30 points. This year, we cannot see it. It is due to small forward and defence problems. We need a small forward with Ariza's height.
So, is this going to fix their 3rd quarter blues where they seem to ALWAYS come out with zero energy or effort?
We had a way better winning percentage last year with just Chris Paul and Luc Mbah a Moute. 13-7 when you're fully stacked is not the record of a championship team.
Could some of this "13-7" record be a bi-product of us getting through those experimental Melo, MCW, and Ennis games? I'm not trying to make anymore excuses for these guys, than we've already made. We just need to look at the full picture before making assessments of this small piece of data, especially since they're still not 100% while adding one more piece to that mix.
D'Antoni is a big picture guy. He just refuses to actually coach. The other team's on a 25-4 run? Let our guys work it out. They'll hit a couple threes. Oops, guess not. I never have understood Morey's (and Dan Tony's?) propensity for smallish players. 6'5" PF and 6'8" center, etcetera.
This is the biggest issue. You can't expect to consistently win without a center. You need a center in the paint who can block, rebound, dunk, and help Harden in the pick and roll when the 3 isn't falling. Height matters in basketball in case nobody noticed. People keep saying the offense is fine, it's the defense that's an issue. I disagree with that statement because the two aren't decoupled. Live by the 3, die by the 3 is a saying for a reason. It's great when the shot is dropping but it's a terrible shot when it isn't. The defense can get set on made shots. It forces the other team to run half court sets. A missed shot leads to fast break points and easy baskets- especially when players don't run back on defense. So when the Rockets are bricking 3's it makes it easier for the opponent to score quickly and it really puts a strain on the defense. Even if they score 120 points, they still miss a ton of shots to get there which ends up with the opponent getting a ton of easy baskets. JVG only cared about defense so he slowed the game down to make sure his players were able to get back into defensive position. DanTony only cares about offense so he loves the 3. I still think Rick Adelman was the best coach we've had since Rudy because he was more balanced. He just didn't have enough talent to win. I also think GS has the best blend of offense and defense. If any team was built to shoot a crazy number of 3's it's them and they don't. They are smart about it. They also have 5 allstars though too so I guess that helps! Haha.
I certainly believe they will step it up because effort is absolutely an issue, however, they can't just go from being awful to good because of flipping a switch. They give such poor effort that they are establishing terrible habits. Some of it is personnel too though. Faried just can't play team defense and we have no rim protection. That sort of magnifies EVERY thing else.
Yea, I mean this team has shown ability to step up against the better teams in the league in terms of effort. But the fundamentals remain poor, and in a 7 game series will be easily exploited. I just can’t believe how little they try on that end against inferior opponents. They just don’t have the mindset of last year’s team.
By providing context you would be making your own case. I have no case to make. I'm just wondering if you want to give any meaning to the topic you brought up here. If not that's ok.
