When will this team ever learn that you can’t win championships with small ball, no defense (which go hand in hand) and no discipline. By the way those have always been the traits of every team D’Antoni has ever coached.
It always amazes me how much fundamentals professional basketball teams, namely the rockets , miss out on. That was the benefit of Chris...he understood that
You can win a Championship with small ball. The problem is the Rockets don't have the personnel to do it effectively against elite teams, nor the situational awareness when to use it and when not to use it. What the Rockets do at times isn't even small Ball. It's Tiny Ball.
we have had some good defensive teams with Mike D though.... obviously the 65 win year, and last year once we finally got going i believe we were top 5 over that stretch going from 20-50+ wins this year, only time will tell. this one game against a much bigger front line and we still out rebounded them.
Hell no. Warriors underperformed every season. 4 all stars, 2 mvps and you are winning just 50 games lol!
That is a misnomer. You fall for the false narrative. GS had 3 quality big men on each of their championship rosters. Bogut, Looney, Green, Speights, etc. Kerr always played a relevant center to rebound and plat defense. They killed the Rockets last year with their big men when we went to super small ball. Tucker at center is too small!!!
Small ball only works if you can make the 3 ball we didn’t in the 4th quarter which is why we lost. However, we were blowing them out in the first half we just have play a complete game I’m actually optimistic about the season after this first game
You can't win with small ball? You can't play defence with small ball? Were you in a coma since 2015 and only now woke up? LOL at putting Speights and Looney as quality big men defensively. And Green himself is the definition of small ball. Do you know how tall he is? Not even close enough to a center size.
It amazes me that the Rockets and James Harden haven figured out how to free James on the offensive end. He was horrible from the field, he can't hit that side step right jump shot. He forced so many shots last night. I can't wait for other teams to defend him like this. This is on the coaching staff and James to fix. Period. Also, our coach makes zero adjustments in 4th Quarter to play Lopez in the post, when we have Capela and Tyson on the bench. Capela is definitely playing super soft...
I’ve personally seen more than enough small ball and switching defense at this point. I think it’s easy to point to the teams improved offensive efficiency (Ortg) under MDA as a sign he is an offensive genius. Personally though, on a play by play what I saw basis, they were also very effective in the pre-MDA years. So why the jump? It’s less about style and more about math. More more more more threes and higher higher higher higher James Harden usage. Thing is, you can get that with tons of offensive styles. Regarding the switching defense, it can be effective but is most effective because of the personnel. In other words, Harden.... and lack of big men. There might not be a better defensive scheme given that so maybe that is what it is. However, even with that, the fact that they can’t play situationally at times and come out of switching to go man to man with rotations or heck even throw in the occasional zone to get the other team confused is a testament to the lack of “coaching” that happens. Additionally, the league has more than caught up. While the Rockets are going small to spread the court, the league increasingly has bugs that can do it anyway, while defending all areas of the court on the other side.
Draymond is not a small ball center. He has elite rim protection and that's why the death lineup worked. He wasn't elite defensively during the regular season last year and the lineup was ineffective and had the worst numbers of their tenure. When he's good he's basically a 7 footer that can switch 1-5 and protect the rim while playing point guard on the other end. There's nobody else in the league that does that. You can't just put any 6'7 guy at the 5 and expect the same results.