Thoughts on the futility of the PNR offense this year

This thread makes no sense. Here's why:

1. The high pick N roll is the staple of almost every NBA offense.

2. What you're talking about, where the screener has the option of staying put for a 15 foot jumper instead of "rolling" to the basket is called a "pick N pop" in some circles.

3. A big who can pick N pop is a nice luxury to have, because it adds unpredictability to an offense, but it's by no means a necessity. Many, many teams do great without it. The Rockets already have 2-3 players on their roster who can all potentially do this, and the contention that they lack the personnel to do it with is incorrect.

4. It's bizarre to bring this up because the only thing that WAS working during the Rockets' game against the Heat was high pick N roll action with Omer Asik. As you correctly pointed out, Omer was not getting respect as a cutter after the screen.

5. As you incorrectly pointed out, the results from that were good, not bad. It ended up with a monster, career 19 point night for Asik, and with an inexperienced Rockets team nearly beating the NBA defending champs. That's not bad at all, it's quite good.

6. If teams continue to try to double ballhandlers Harden and Lin on the high pick N roll, a cutting Asik will always be one pass and a dunk away. it will continue to lead to monster nights from Asik until teams finally get the picture that whoops, maybe they should be guarding this guy. And eventually they will, probably within the span of another 10 games or so.

7. This reads like another "bench Chandler Parsons" thread right before and then even after he scores 19 and then 25 points. Except just change it to "Omer Asik." It's silliness.

 

I just got Lin's ...


Offense－Plays－PnR Ball Handler：

[ctweet][/ctweet]

Defense－Plays－PnR Ball Handler：

[ctweet][/ctweet]

 

Nice post.

 

Why was Asik trying layups instead of dunking in the earlier games?

 

Because of his 4 inch vertical.

 

I actually like our PnR's I'd love some more motion offense but the simple PnR will do for now.

We set screens so high because it forces the middle to open up for the 'roll', cuts or offensive rebounds

A low screen is good for creating close shots but it is susceptible to many problems (crowding the paint, allows for the wing defender to stay on the split line, requires more fine edge passing etc.)

 

You can tell Harden and Asik are doing PnR practice together. The pass from Harden to split the D is lightning quick and Asik is expecting it, which is a big change from the last few games.

I don't think Lin is practicing PnR. His reaction to the PnR set up for him in the third quarter of the Miami game was one of surprise - he was intending to cross court pass it. His ability to do PnR is already very good, so I actually don't mind him developing more areas of his game, and I'm extremely impressed with the other areas of the game he is developing - mainly, his D. His court vision is still very sharp and he has great decision making in transition, and I am always amazed at his football throws because most of them are in tight situations with little room for error.

BTW, I'm starting to like the other offensive play that the Rockets are trying to run, the swing n' slash. Basically swing and slash until the D becomes swiss cheese and then taking up an open shot. It does rely heavily on good shooters, but it actually fits the small player comp of the Rockets and works well against PnR defense (which is usually to clog the paint). I notice the offense often becomes "run a PnR into SnS". I think it will develop much more sophistication as the season goes on, but I like what I see so far.

SnS works well with this team because we have 3 slashers - Parsons, Lin and Harden. The slasher drives in to sag the D, giving the other 2 a huge advantage when they catch the swing. They can then shoot or beat the man off the dribble... but right now they just shoot .