-16th in ppg...last year we were 2nd -15th in offensive efficiency...last year we were 2nd -19th in pace...last year we were 3rd -22nd in FG%...last year we were 12th -28th in 3pt% while being 1st in attempts by a wide margin (10.5 more threes a game than the next closest team in GS)...last year we were 1st while being 15th in percentage -25th in field goal attempts per game...last year we were 7th -13th in free throw attempts, but 5th in percentage...last year we were 1st in attempts and 20th in percentage -25th in passes per game...last year we were 28th -19th in assists...last year we were 2nd the offense has been shaky, but we are still 5-3 in spite of that, and we’ll be getting CP3 back eventually...we have so much room for improvement on the offensive end, and there’s no way our shooters can continue to shoot this poorly I still believe we are the 2nd best team in the West if healthy and firing on all cylinders
Wins -- #1 Road Wins -- #1 Riley Stat -- #1 (Road Wins v Home Losses) "You are what your record says you are." -- JVG.
Rockets entire offensive game plan = Drive, kick, shoot a 3 It works to a certain degree during the regular season. No bueno in the playoffs. It's like we haven't learned from our previous failures.
We want to go from being a great regular season team to being a great playoff team. That's why we got CP3. As for the rest of the roster, they're all movable besides Harden and Gordon
It's one thing to encourage guys to take 3's when the first open one presents itself...but to start the season it's looked like there are a LOT of threes that have been FORCED. It may be because there's less play-making going on which leads to kick outs, etc., but the overall mentality seems different.
8 games into the season including injuries (1 to a key part of our system), figuring out rotations, etc and ya'll are treating this like an 8 game sample size is defining the entire season and creating threads about it? chill out, eat some halloween candy, and watch the astros tonight and don't check this thread again until we're 20 games in because everyone's looking at this thread like...
NBA is like chess. You don't just mindlessly stick to your original game plan, while not taking into account what the opponent is doing. No, you look at (and anticipate) what kind moves the other guy makes, and make the optimum strategic choice accordingly even if it wasn't your most preferred option, simply because the alternatives are worse. This is the fundamental concept in game theory in Economics, which I would argue applies to every aspect of human interaction. Similarly in basketball, once the other team has figured out what your strategy is, you better adapt and introduce new countermeasures accordingly, or else be prepared to take the L. Teams and players are constantly evolving, and yet there are people out there who still believe chucking 50 or 60 threes in a game is all you need to win the game. Even when our players are shooting miserably from beyond the arc; even when the opponents just park their bigs at the rim and diligently run you off the line and dare you to take that mythical mid-range jumper, we still stick to our one-dimensional, simple-minded, painfully-predictable game plan, just because it has worked quite well in the beginning, I guess. It only worked in its initial stage because the other teams were not quite used to the barrage of threes that we were unloading, and weren't prepared for it. It was something new, radical, and unpredictable. So, of course it worked. The problem is our so called 'system' is no longer a novelty anymore. The blueprint for defending teams who play in this extremely limited fashion like the Rockets has already been rolled out to the public, particularly by San Antonio last year. So, what are we doing in response to this? Zilch, zip, nada, nil. I'm getting really sick of these obtuse, stubborn idiots.
Spoiler Nah, it's not the same group. Not the same group! We gotta quit saying that. This is not the same group. I'm just gonna leave it at that. It's not. Whoever told you that, they're kidding themselves. They're not watching the games. Right. Spoiler
Our offense really has been sluggish to start. We are not pushing tempo enough. The real problem tho, is we are doubling down on 3s philosophy. Which I'm perfectly ok with, but we aren't making shiit. The horrible category Gordon is shooting 12.3 a game at 30.2% Ariza is shooting 5.3 a game at 31.3% Mbah is shooting 2.6 a game at 23.8% The average category Harden is shooting 9.8 at 34.6% Tucker is shooting 4.5 a game at 36.1% The above average category Anderson is shooting 8.4 a game at 38.8% As a team we are shooting 44 3s a game at a horrrrrrrrible conversion rate of 30.7% That's the problem. That's what needs to be fixed. A lot of it has to do with Gordon losing his stroke for some reason after preseason.
Part of that might be due to his new role of starting versus coming off the bench (with lesser minutes) and playing off Harden and CP3.
Chess. A game where everyone has PERFECT information. Is P = NP, as in we don't know how to calculate the optimal strategy at any given time. That theory falls apart in basketball, which isn't a perfect information game, and where there isn't a clear optimal choice at each time state. We have a sample size of 8 games. The playoffs don't suddenly make the Rockets trash or the system obsolete. We just get punished for having a slump at inopportune times. So you can say the current system has too much variance to rely on in the playoffs. But no, it's not a result of other teams "figuring us out". Yeah let's throw out our entire gameplan and system 8 games into the season. Let's wait before we hit the panic button. Cavs and Warriors look like trash too. But guess which two teams are going to the finals come June?
You don't need perfect information in order to adapt to a given situation. I'm also not talking about literally computing the optimum strategy in every instance, which is not only practically impossible, but also infeasible on a theoretical level. I'm alluding to the fact that this team looks like they go into the game thinking we are going to throw up 40 to 50 threes NO MATTER how the opponent defends and the game unfolds, because that's just how we play. I certainly know MDA has this kind of mindset, based on his various remarks since last year. We need to approach and treat every single game as an unique entity, where sometimes taking that many threes just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE in that particular context. And yes, sometimes the mid-range jumper is the best shot available at that time. If you think our dogmatic attachment to Moreyball philosophy has nothing to do with our relatively poor performance in last year's playoffs, I urge you to read this article. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/feb/23/nba-three-pointer-mid-range-jumper
I like to stay objective...so here's what I can conclude... Corey Brewer infected this franchise's ability to shoot and I will not accept any other reasoning
You guys aren’t reading enough RocketsTruth . . . Adam Silver is totally responsible for the Rockets’ offense this season, and clearly he decreed, “The Rockets’ offense shall suck!” There is no other explanation.
1) Small Sample Size 2) Really poor shooting in a Small Sample Size 3) Not playing with any noticeable pace Of the 3 the one that concerns me most is the pace. That one is weird to me. We are playing slow. @J.R. is right though that it's NOT the same group of guys.
