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The Other Culprit : Our Pathetic Bench

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by hoopball, Nov 26, 2015.

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hoopball Member

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I recommend this article. very good read.

The Rockets bench has been a huge problem

During yet another Rockets loss on Wednesday night, the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen tweeted an incredibly distressing fact about the team this season:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As often as Rockets opponents have someone get hot off the bench, as Courtney Lee has tonight, Rockets don't. Bench outscored in every game.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/669713494355238912">November 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The Rockets bench has been outscored in every damn game. It's a stark contrast to the Rockets' elite bench mob of last season, once they acquired Corey Brewer and Josh Smith. Smith is gone (and struggling to find a role on the Clippers, with whom he signed for less money than the Rockets offered), and Brewer hasn't been remotely the same player he was as last season. Those are the biggest problems with the bench, but they're not the only ones.

Clint Capela and Montrezl Harrell are 1-2 on the Rockets in terms of field goal percentage, and they've served their highly specialized functions well, but of the rest of the reserves, not a single one cracks 40 percent from the field. Jason Terry sits at 40.3, but he's now, improbably, a starter. Marcus Thornton started 7 games and shot a quite-nice 48 percent from the field in those contests, but off the bench his FG% is at a lowly 26.8 percent. Corey Brewer wishes his FG% was as high as 26.8.

It's also worthwhile to mention that Capela is averaging just 12.2 minutes in the last six games he's come off the bench, and Harrell's averaging about 10 minutes per game over his last six (he hasn't played at all in two of the Rockets' last 8, over which time the team has gone 1-7).

Shooting percentages aren't exactly a tell-all stat, but look at the above tweet again. We know that the Rockets have been bad defensively across the board, but the bench is never supposed to be a stout defensive unit. The bench, especially the Rockets' bench, can distinguish itself by injecting a scoring boost, or at least by treading water.

To hear that the Rockets reserves have been outscored every game suddenly puts a lot of things into context, like how the Rockets can never seem to finish off runs to get back into the game, and instead stall just out of reach, like what happened throughout the second half against Memphis on Tuesday.

Again, a big part of this problem has been the Rockets' first guy off the bench -- Brewer. His net rating this year is an abysmal -14.5, third-worst on the team (Beverley and Harrell). His offensive rating is a paltry 91.5, a far cry from last year's 102.7. He's a notoriously streaky player, and this is the longest and coldest streak of his Rockets career. He's still running and doing crazy things like last year, but it gets a lot less endearing when you can't put the ball in the basket to save your life. There's no solution to his problems that I can see except to wait for him to turn it around, or stop playing him if he doesn't.

The more complicated problem comes from the point guard position. Ty Lawson's struggles have been well-documented, and he's quickly becoming an afterthought as Kevin McHale, and now J.B. Bickerstaff, lost all confidence in him. We have often thought that he'd be perfect coming off the bench as the primary ballhandler to replace James Harden, but Lawson is lost right now. He's shooting only 31.6 percent from the field, and getting to the free throw line just over half as often as he did last year.

If Lawson's not shooting well and not penetrating, he loses his effectiveness as a distributor (see: last year's version of Rajon Rondo; the last three years' versions of Deron Williams). It appears Bickerstaff's strategy is to sit him down for a few games and hope he gets his mind right. It's not a bad plan in theory; we can only hope it works. Remember, Denver gave Lawson away at pennies on the dollar for a reason.

The lone bench bright spot has been, of course, Clint Capela. The only Rocket with a positive net rating, he also has the best defensive rating on the team. He's a legitimate rim protector already in his career, and he turns the ball over far less than Dwight Howard. Neither of them have developed post games, but one of them is nearly ten years older than the other. At this point, until Dwight either gets healthier or simply improves, Capela might be better straight-up. In his five starts this year (in which he still played under 25 minutes per game), Capela averaged damn near a double-double. With Dwight now planning on playing every game, it feels good to have one reliable option off the bench.

Of course, the problem with Capela is that he can't create his own offense, or anything close to it. He's a capable pick-and-roll finisher, but he needs a viable dribble threat to pair with him or bigs will simply drop off to the basket to cut off Capela's rim runs. He covers up for a lot defensively, but perhaps the Rockets' biggest defensive issue -- on transition -- is not one that a rim protector can solve. If and/or when Lawson gets right, they seem like they could be a devastating pair. But until then, Capela will continue to be a good player without the right pieces around him to truly unlock his potential.

If Donatas Motiejunas returns to the starting lineup, Terrence Jones would certainly benefit from coming off the bench and not having to bang with front-line power forwards -- he looked pathetically overmatched against the 7'3" Kristaps Porzingis, for example, and a second unit of Lawson, Thornton, Brewer, Jones and Capela could still be a deadly unit. But a lot has to change for that to happen
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#1 hoopball, Nov 26, 2015

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Every single game. Wow. Even I didn't expect it to be that bad.

All the talk in the preseason for the Rockets was they didn't quite have the star power that other teams had, but their bench and their overall depth was elite. They were supposed to be what gave us a legit shot. It's amazing how atrociously they've performed.

#2 J Sizzle, Nov 26, 2015
hoopball Member

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J Sizzle said: ↑

Every single game. Wow. Even I didn't expect it to be that bad.

All the talk in the preseason for the Rockets was they didn't quite have the star power that other teams had, but their bench and their overall depth was elite. They were supposed to be what gave us a legit shot. It's amazing how atrociously they've performed.
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yeah, so much for the 'depth' in our roster. It seems like a cruel joke in retrospect, lol

#3 hoopball, Nov 26, 2015
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When guys who shoot the worst % take most shots, how do you call it? Lack of accountability? And it's not just bench. We also don't seem to play JUST the bench, it's usually couple guys from bench and some starter who takes all the shots. I want to see the stat that shows how many shots our bench is taking compared to other teams. They probably take more shots than we so they outscore us, doh. Don't blame the bench, blame Harden.

#4 OpenLayup-Why3?, Nov 26, 2015
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Say hello to a **** defence. That's the main reason for this.

#5 malakas, Nov 26, 2015
hoopball Member

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OpenLayup-Why3? said: ↑

When guys who shoot the worst % take most shots, how do you call it? Lack of accountability? And it's not just bench. We also don't seem to play JUST the bench, it's usually couple guys from bench and some starter who takes all the shots. I want to see the stat that shows how many shots our bench is taking compared to other teams. They probably take more shots than we so they outscore us, doh. Don't blame the bench, blame Harden.
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lmao, Brewer Thorton Lawson Terry Beverly are all bricking their way to career low FG%, so I'm pretty sure that the accuracy is the main reason why our bench gets outscored every single time, as opposed to the sheer volume. If anything, they should take less shots and just PnR with Capela every single time, because that seems like the only option that is working as of right now.

#6 hoopball, Nov 26, 2015
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Last year our bench scored a ton. A lot of that from transition buckets. The band of headband runners. But we had a better defense to get those buckets.

Not sure how much that plays into it, but lack of transition buckets from the bench seems to have dried up.

#7 heypartner, Nov 26, 2015

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The Rockets don’t need a Sixth Man of the Year, but they could use something off the bench. If that was not clear, former Rockets guard Courtney Lee offered a reminder. When both teams struggled to start the fourth quarter, Lee scored six quick points, steadying the Grizzlies before Marc Gasol could get back on the floor. The Rockets have seen this often, from Will Barton to Raymond Felton. As nice as it would be to have an instant offense scorer off the bench that puts up numbers every night, it would be enough just to have someone step up. Instead, Lee scored as many points (17) as the entire Rockets bench. In 15 games, the Rockets reserves have been outscored 15 times. The Rockets bench is averaging just 24 points per game on 38.5 percent shooting, ranking them 29th in the NBA in both. The Rockets reserves have been outscored by 11 points per 100 possessions, ranking 28th. The Rockets problems are far from isolated to the second unit. But after 15 games, with 10 at home, the bench has been just as far from a solution.
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http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...aways-from-the-rockets-loss-to-the-grizzlies/

#8 hoopball, Nov 26, 2015
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heypartner said: ↑

Last year our bench scored a ton. A lot of that from transition buckets. The band of headband runners. But we had a better defense to get those buckets.

Not sure how much that plays into it, but lack of transition buckets from the bench seems to have dried up.
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Last year we had Dmo as a post-up threat for the first chunk of the season and then you had Josh Smith come in at the later half. For all of Smith's flaws (including turnovers) he was a decent passer and wasn't afraid to initiate offense / passing.

#9 Sweet Lou 4 2, Nov 26, 2015
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#Depth #Stacked

#10 KlutchQT, Nov 26, 2015
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hoopball said: ↑

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...aways-from-the-rockets-loss-to-the-grizzlies/
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still missing you Courtney

#11 apollo33, Nov 26, 2015
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hoopball said: ↑

It's also worthwhile to mention that Capela is averaging just 12.2 minutes in the last six games he's come off the bench, and Harrell's averaging about 10 minutes per game over his last six (he hasn't played at all in two of the Rockets' last 8, over which time the team has gone 1-7).
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more clint and montrezl!

#12 Rio Rocket, Nov 26, 2015
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Every single game? That's got to be another phenomenal fail record.. Even the worst teams manage to have their bench play early and score some during a determined blowout right after the first half. That's amazing.

#13 Liberon, Nov 26, 2015

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Every single game? Wow.

You can't deny its talented. No one can, we really are a mess.

#14 DraftBoy10, Nov 26, 2015
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Yeah. The bench and role players on this team are utter garbage.

That coupled with the fact that Harden has no ****ing idea how to play without the ball in his hands added to there being some chemistry issues are the reasons this team is failing.

Brewer; Jones; Lawson; Beverley all need to be traded for maybe 2-3 players that actually complement Harden, can play a shred of defense, and aren't bricking their way to oblivion.

Then Le$ needs to fork over the money so we can sign a few vets at the minimum who don't crumble under pressure to round out the roster.

#15 DudeWah, Nov 26, 2015
Last edited: Nov 26, 2015
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You'd think random chance would lead to the bench outscoring someone at least once in 15 games, but for that to not occur, gosh

#16 Aleron, Nov 26, 2015
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You have a very talented PG in Lawson who could be the engine for our bench but you can't find a way to incorporate in the offense smh

#17 ashleyem, Nov 26, 2015
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ashleyem said: ↑

You have a very talented PG in Lawson who could be the engine for our bench but you can't find a way to incorporate in the offense smh
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but but we had guys injured in and out of the lineup all preseason doe

#18 pippendagimp, Nov 26, 2015

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witha healthy roster it shouldnt be so bad

bev
terry or thornton
brewer
jones
capella

how many games does one need to start making their wide open threes?
bev, brewer, and ariza say about half a season worth's games

#19 rocketsballin, Nov 26, 2015
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DudeWah said: ↑

That coupled with the fact that Harden has no ****ing idea how to play without the ball in his hands added to there being some chemistry issues are the reasons this team is failing.
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It has been an issue with Harden since he has been with the Rockets, one I pointed out well before this season, and was blasted by a uneducated homer.

There was a thread about how Harden hasn't been assisted, but it's not the other guys' fault. When Harden does this, for example:

Where he isn't even is the stinkin' picture.

Or like this:

Just look at Terry and Ariza, then look at Harden. Come on man.

When Harden isn't creating well, he becomes one of the worst players on the floor, because he isn't really good at anything else.

#20 jbasket, Nov 27, 2015

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