Interestingly enough, the Warriors use tons of analytics to make decisions. They're among the leaders in the NBA in the use of data analytics and video analysis.
The Spurs did not rest their starters. They played everyone and went for the 2nd seed. They just came up short. Look, the Rockets did a great job last season in the regular season and did beat the teams put in front of them in the first two rounds. And they won 54 games the year before. But they've never been a team that dominated even the inferior opponents. They've been able to win a lot of close games the last few years in order to achieve those win totals. This season, they've just hit a wall and aren't getting the career years they got in previous years from their players. Last year, Harden had an MVP caliber season. D-Mo had a breakout year. Smith was rejuvenated playing here. Brewer had a great start and finish to the season(although his outside shot was off in between). Terry had a decent year for a guy who was 37. Right now, Smith is gone, D-Mo is out, Brewer is a disaster, Harden is having his worst year as a Rocket, Terry is ineffective, and aside from Dwight, no one else is stepping up.
Warriors have been playing together for 3 yrs+ Roster turn over is minimal They have great chemistry Rockets don't have that, at least right now. We need them to develop chemistry & trust.
Points in the paint and mid-range jumpers are basketball staples. Not sure why living and dying by the three point shot is so desirable. If it is, then get some lights-out three point shooters. We've had none since Matt Bullard...
We don't even get half the assist or screens GSW sets. Stop comparing us to them. Our philosophy is, see a 3, shoot it.
When the Rockets won last year, Moreyball worked. Now that they're struggling with essentially the same roster, Moreyball sucks?
You can't blame this team's woes on roster turnover. Most of these guys were here last season. The only new additions getting major minutes are Harrell, Lawson, and Thornton. Hell, even going back to the 2013-14 season, we had Howard, Harden, Bev, and Jones here(even if the latter hardly played that year).
I have no problems with Moreyball. But, you have to have players that fit that system. I've never thought we had the best players for Moreyball.
Brewer was good last year. Brewer sucks this year. Smith was good this year. Smith is gone. Harden was the runner up in the MVP vote last year. He's not even an All-Star this year. Bev at least stayed mostly healthy til March last year. He's already been injured most of the games so far this year. Dwight is healthier than last year, but can't play B2Bs and clearly isn't the athlete he once was even though he still hauls in rebounds. Ariza started out red hot last season before going ice cold for most of the year. He's been mostly ice cold to start this year. T-Jones is....well, he's T-Jones. And Lawson is just a complete mess. I don't know if it's just bad luck that everyone seems to be having a horrible season or if it's a chemistry issue or if they just need a better system put in place. All I know is that what they have now ain't working. So Morey either has to bring in an entirely new coaching staff that will try to maximize the talent on this roster or he has to trade away half this team and replace them with pieces that will fit in the system they currently have.
Right, analytics is not the problem. Analytics should give you recommendations on how to improve/adjust your play. How you use/apply analytics is just as important as coming up with the stats.... Here's the thing, I agree, our roster isn't fit for shooting this many 3's. Our low % last year proved this. The good teams shoot high 30%s, this is part system and part players. I also agree that most of our players aside from Harden and Ariza shouldn't be shooting this many 3's but look at our system.... It's predicated on Harden 2/4-5 PNR and a bunch of people spacing the floor for either a collapsing defense/harden drive/kickout/ or 4-5 Roll. How many times have you seen Dwight actually complete a roll to the rim this year? Why do you think this is? Let me tell you why. Have you ever seen Dwight set a screen? He leaves early 75% of the time which pretty much makes the screen pointless. This is supposed to be our highest percentage play, but we aren't even executing this correctly. This is why Capela has been better on offense so far. What else do we have aside from the Harden-45 PNR? Dwight in the post... Which is the worst option we have. You'd rather have Harden jack contested 3's than Howard in the post. You saw it tonight, when Harden was sitting, they had no idea what to do aside from dump it into Howard, except he was avoiding it because I think he knows he sucks at it. Look the Morey has to own this roster, he built it, but he's not responsible for coaching the players. I'm sure he provides direction/analysis, but imagine Pop coaching this team. I would bet everything it would be a well oiled 3 point shooting machine.
He needs to go too. Barkley was absolutely right about him. Harden was a huge acquisition but it's been downhill since then. The supporting cast is inherently flawed.
we had great chemistry before under Morey remember the pregame handshake JH CP JL used to do? at least they seem to be friends
Moreyball is fine, but once you get high-level players, you have to tweak the system to take advantage of their strengths and maximize their effectiveness. For example, Harden and Lawson seem to be very good midrange shooters. Even TJones is decent from midrange. Pick and roll is easily our best offensive option, yet it's rarely run. That needs to change.
The problem isn't Moreyball per se, it's Morey. He has continued to acquire square pegs for round holes. Morey fans are enamored with the pegs because they're covered in (fools) gold. This year it's finally catching up with everyone and necks are turning green. On top of that Morey needs to have his say with everything, including how the team plays. It's just not going to work.
It's not catching up with anyone. The one flaw in Moreyball is you don't account for weak minded players. Harden and Howard have more important things to do than worry about basketball.
