[I'm ignorant] Educate me on Silas' offensive system

I could see it if they were playing well and giving us the vet stability whilst the rocks developed. That's not at all what's going on though, the vets are playing like they need as much work as the rookies so bench them and work on the future.

 

Coaching
Maybe the vets are struggling too because the game emphasis and coaching is shabby. This last game with the Jazz, since Jeff H. gave the half time interview; I presume he was the leading assistant for this game prep. Some of the blame goes on him other than just Silas.

Quality minutes.
I'm still for Garuba and Josh getting minutes. For the rookie starters who are getting minutes, just throwing playing time is helpful, but it might not be as fruitful if they're unsuccessful. I'm not suggesting minutes be taken away for KPJ and Green, but restructure what they can do in those minutes.

Drafting talent over fit yes, but:
We're seeing a case of fit not fitting. KPJ and Green skill set do overlap. NBA nowadays are mostly combo guards, but KPJ and Green currently only have half that combo. Meaning they lean scoring, but haven't developed the point duty. I'm still for KPJ to practice PG more, because

• Wall is decidedly assistant coach
• DJ A. hasn't been too great lately.
• Some PG duty could be given to Alperen, but that's a band-aid, plus he's on the 2nd unit not first.
• KPJ has more pressure because he's asked to play point; some games hight TO others not. Green is just asked to score right now.

Defense:
We need better defense. I don't necessarily mean effort, I see the guys trying. I mean better, smarter defense. 3/5 of our starting 5 lean "offense". I say offense politely. Theis while OK in defense, is not an anchor. He can't necessarily shut down an opposing team STAR (or just TALL big). It's also not all necessarily his fault, if he has to cover when our guards get blown by. Also our tallest player Wood, I need Wood to help more for rim contest. Where is the help defense that Wood show flashes last year.

KPJ (offense)
Green (offense)
Tate (defense)
Wood. (offense)
Theis (avg defense)

* Not asking for elite two-way players, but for the other side ball, be at least average.

* Tate needs a more consistent 3 to stay on the court, his defense while valuable, can only take you so far if the rest aren't defending well. Once he racks up the fouls, he has to be more timid to avoid fouling out.

* Get a defensive specialist coach; like Jeff B. Not just assistants, who do a little bit of everything. Can one of the existing assistants take on the defensive mantle.

I'm simplifying their specialties as I'm sure they do other things; but the stereotype so far is
Diop - big man coach
Lucas - shooting coach. game plan is solid
Waver - video coordinator / film guy
Higgins - player development?
Jeff Hornacek - ?

* Stone should consider getting a taller (longer wingspan) defensive big. If the existing guys can't improve.

* I bring up defense in an offense identity thread is if Rockets can't hang their hats on offense, maybe the lineup, the minutes, player development should sway the other way. Silas' resume from Dallas is supposedly one of the best offense in league history. Green (although young), is supposed to be an instant bucket. Losing I can expect, but where is the scoring to keep us from the blow outs?

 

Part of it could just be focus and delegation. The assistant coaches for example, even if no luxury for a Jeff B. or Tibs, if Silas say 'hey Higgins, i want you to read up on the latest defenses, see what the top 10 teams are doing, come up with a plan on drills... and films... etc'

It could just be a matter of focus. Instead of something like Jeff H. you take the Jazz game, Weaver you take the Lakers game... which may affect our guys from game to game. Game to game prep is still necessary, but have one assistant be the primary defense guys and come up with a defensive identity.

I'm not in the locker room so I don't what they do for prep, but a question was floated to one of the Rockets beat guys on an official defensive coach; either Silas himself or one of his assistants, the answer was a NO, Rockets don't have that in this regime.

 

I'm a results guy. If we getting some solid incremental results, I don't think most of us would put on the magnifying glass to see how the sausage is made. If this staff use old school ways or bleeding edge methods, if they translated to competitive basketball we'd be OK with this.

Do the coaches think they're getting the most of our guys? If our coaches are world class, then the problem is with the talents right? I think the fan base is willing to be patient, but fear is we be patient and then 2-3 years go by; we backed the wrong horse(s). If the talent is there, but coaches didn't develop them properly, other draftees overtake ours, then that's also really bad. The LEFT and the RIGHT hands needs to work in tandem.

Incremental/cyclic feedback is important where maybe not on the live stage, where only us the fans see the blowouts; that at least behind the scenes, when coaches say their guys are improving, it's not just lip service and eventually will translate to real games.

 

I heard an interesting stat on The Dunc’d On podcast yesterday going over the Western Conference, that came out prior to last nights game.

The stat rates your offense based solely on your shot chart and bases it on how effective shots from those spots are. It does not take into account who is taking the shots, just that the team is getting the shots.

Rockets ranked #1 overall in this expected offense stat. But our actual offense, at that time, was 27th.

They talked about how we are shooting the 3 well, avoiding long 2s, getting lots of shots at the rim, but we are turning it over like crazy and finishing at the rim really, really poorly.

 

This is the same guy who took the ball out of Harden hands so John wall could run the team

 

Credit where credit is due.

Silas actually had a plan in 1st half vs. Lakers last night.

Unfortunately Vogel adjusted in 2nd half and Silas had no counter.

 

Great I been saying this for months and people called me a "Silas hater" LOL

 

I'd be the last one to call anyone a Silas hater.

 

how about silas disliker?

 

Silas of the Lambs.

 

I think yall know my opinion of the Silas offense... there isn't much of one.

That said, IF there's not going to be much of an offensive beyond PnR, go make something happen, if Silas can emphasize/continue to emphasize a couple things, at least it might work better

- Know their roles and general areas on the floor to fill
- STOP OVERDRIBBLING. One move. Get to the basket, get an open shot, find an open teammate, repeat
- Less stagnation. Not talking GSW motion, but have a cutter, and have that cutter know when to cut and from where, and not have 3 people cut at the same time for example.
- Take advantage of mismatches. Smalls on our bigs down low. Bigs on our wings outside

^ this requires a bit of organization, more than we've seen most games, with the first half of the Lakers game last night being one of the exceptions

 

Winner winner chicken dinner!!!