How the Rockets have looked these past 9 games statistically

Thanks for this! I think the schedule, the injuries since some players are still not a 100%, the almost immediate reinstating Capela as starting center, the minutes and rotation changes due to injuries, little time to practice and maybe a lack of working on defense before games to fix mistakes, very little adjustments and frustrations due to the losses. We don't need a players only meeting necessarily, but we do need changes. Right now!

I feel the team is just doing what they've been doing and while it has worked for a while, our shooting was just not sustainable and teams have partly figured us out - for the lack of a better term. The main problem to me is the obvious lack of defense, which yes starts with our alpha dog and the coaches as well. The finger pointing, not running back in transition, mouthing off at each other, standing around after a TO or arguing for a call has been happening a lot more recently. Those are bad habits that we need to get rid of, also right now!

The second thing in my eyes is the lack of adjustments by our coaching staff. On offense, you just cannot keep preaching threes and lay-ups if opponents keep taking it away and or our players are slumping. It's just stubborn and frankly quite stupid. Get that midrange game going, mix it up, do something else besides pick-and-roll with Harden and Gordon. Get some shots for Harrell, Nene, Gordon, Ryno, Harden closer to the basket. Beverley has been making that floater / teardrop a lot more, so start telling him to use it instead of the usual going inside to draw defenders only to kick it out for a 3. Wide open or not, a shot closer to the basket is a higher % if you account our drop in 3p% due to tired legs etc.

If anybody has seen any adjustments, please point them out because I haven't seen any new sets they've used on a regular nor the use of mid-range or some mixing it up with who sets up the offense. If we continue like this, we will stumble into the ASB as the 4-5 seed and I don't think Morey can work his magic this time around. The rotation is another big problem, but as a coach you don't have much choice when you have Brewer, Ennis, Brown, Kyle and Onuaku on your bench. I do want them to use Harrell more, but there's a lot more to it than just playing a certain guy more minutes.

 

Great work OP. This slump is predictable and logical, I'm not worried about it. Fatigue coinciding with rough schedule coinciding with injuries. Classic signs of fatigue showing up: transition defense is bad, rotations are slow, shooters slumping. There are also some growing pains from Trez and Dekker and Capela, but we are good enough to absorb their mistakes.

There must be some mental explanation to the stats too. I feel like the guys won good games with seemingly easy comebacks. Maybe they started feeling like deficits are easy to overcome, which is just as bad as thinking deficits are impossible to overcome, and that's what has made them take their foot off the pedal defensively. I haven't watched the Celtics game yet but in general I have noticed a drop in urgency to protect the basket. This particular group of guys haven't lost tough games together before, so there is also an element of learning how to respond as a team.

Offensively, more rest days and law of averages will push us back to a top offensive team. We were not so good defensively to begin with, I hope we bring ourselves to a respectable top 10 calibre defense for the remaining games. We will be fine, we're still going to win 20+ games the rest of the way. I also hope we can get a defensively competent big guard and C to give us options.

This next stretch of games is going to tell me whether we have a team that will turn it up or stay flat come playoffs. We have a single day off between each game for the next 2 weeks (IIRC) after going through a tired stretch, followed by a long rest. The conditions are perfect imo to make an assessment of how this team is likely to play in the playoffs, and also who might help us as an acquisition.

 

The bench without Gordon is not that good.

But in regards to adjustments and "midrange". Harden operated inside the arc and put up about 4-5 mid range jumpers over a certain sequence of plays.

 

Based on the stats it looks like we are shooting 3s worse. We are a team that lives and dies by the 3. Gordon is also probably hurt which has been his MO over this career.

 

honestly Gordon's looking like da real MVP right about now . . .

 

I had mentioned this several times.

Capela is not a good finisher around the rim, and his overall defense efficiency is overrated. He is a good shot blocker but his position and rotation on defense is no where close to elite level. This team will always suck on defense and rebounding.

With Harrell and Nene rotation, this team actually was playing better on the offensive side.

If your defense is going to suck anyway, you may as well max your offense to outscore people.

 

Didn't read everything but thanks.

To summarize:

Players stats/numbers and team stats are better during Rockets Wins than Rockets losses.

 

Sa basically after losing 1 game all December....they're tired.....who woulda thought.....Well good hing we have an all star break.

 

Solid analysis. It looks to me like during this slump we're playing better teams, on their court, while they're more rested. We have injuries, guys coming back from injuries, and various shooting slumps to contend with. i agree with what a lot of people are saying - if the 3 isn't falling we need to run plays that get us closer to the basket. Back door cuts, Harden post ups, hand offs - etc. Pretty sure D'Antoni has seen this kind of slump before and has something in his tool box for it.

The OPP FG% in the paint, however... yikes. Hopefully a completely healthy Clint cuts back on some of that.

 

Rockets need to finish better in the lane - missing too many bunnies
Rockets need to defend the lane better - too many layups / offensive rebounds given up/ etc
Rockets need to hit their threes - stop all this fricking hesitating
Rockets Needs to play harder *clap*clap*clap*

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