Pelicans aren't the best defensive team by any means. Against other really good defensive teams that can run you off the 3pt line and protect the paint...there'll be a lot more mid range jumpers. Especially during playoff time.
They actually have been a pretty good defensive team this year. What was it that Matt kept saying last night? 8th in the league? That said, last night is not a good way to judge us or them. Other than plugging in Lou, we are basically running the same personnel and offensive sets. The Pelicans on the other hand reshaped their roster and will need some time to be sure to figure out to play together.
Twill be interesting to watch the battle. The one great thing about Lou Will is that he has the ability to put the ball on the floor and take it to the hole. He's not necessarily even a good playmaker, but he's also way more than just a spot-up shooter that can't handle and take it in or pass ala Ariza/Anderson. So now between Lou, Flash, Bev, and Dekker there's four guys you can put out there with Harden and Ariza/Anderson that can go to the hole and finish when they are run off the 3-point line. My questions are when we get to the playoffs: 1. Will we have enough paint and rim defense to water other teams offensive paint efficiency down enough to get past them? Right now we don't have enough. Capela is going to get stream rolled, Nene is a foul machine, and Harrell is simply going to be overpowered defensively. We have to get a primary rotation big or we have no chance. 2. Will Harden give up the ball early when he realizes they are fading off him and daring him to shoot the pull up so that one of these guys (Lou, Flash, Bev, Dekker in that order) can go make a play or will Harden do as he has done the last several years, which is hog the ball and either jack up a bunch of pull ups which he is not efficient at or force the action to the rim, and get stripped or throw the ball away too often? For us to win a championship this season 5 things have to happen. 1. We have to stay healthy, obviously. 2. We still have to get a quality rotation big that can hold the fort down defensively and either be able to shoot the 3 effectively or run the pick and roll well. 3. Harden has to get his turnover count down and and his pull up three point field goal attempts down and let the offense meld into a multi-dimensional passing attack, taking advantage of all mismatches accordingly. 4. The playmaking role players (Lou, Flash, Bev, Dekker) have to be efficient with their turnovers after Harden gets his turnovers down and eliminates the huge pile of bad pull up shots he takes. 5. A little bit of luck after 1-4.
This is an over reaction. A lots of the teams in the league now is playing the similar style. In fact, check the shot charts of the other teams when they beat the Rockets, they are mostly getting their points from inside the paints or 3s also.
not really. Houston is the only team that out of total shots put up in a game, close to 50% of that total is from 3pt land. That average is likely going to go up with the addition of Lou
Its not about just jack up the 3s, its about taking the most efficient shots, the Rox are horrible to defend the paint, when the other teams beat us, they usually score a tons inside the paint.
http://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameId=400900044 Look at the Heat's shot chart, they beat us the exact same way we played. The difference is they got more easy points inside the paint/
that's not the same way. 32% of their shots came from 3. way lower than what houston does on a nightly basis.
if you're talking about the way teams play and how it compares to Houston, then it is about putting up 3s because that's basically 50% of houston's offense. Significantly more then any other team in the league. That's the point
The Heat had 11 2-point shots outside the paint in that game, we had just a quarter of that yesterday. I would guess that 3 mid-range shots must be an NBA record or close to that. Not sure if that's the new normal for us or just an anomally. I buy the argument of some posters above that other teams will be better at running our shooters off the 3-point line, daring them to drive inside, especially for the likes of Ariza, Anderson and Dekker. In any case, Morey must be having wet dreams with this shot chart.
Holy shlt! We're hitting .667 of our non-paint 2-pointers! Morey should totally exploit that! Spoiler
