This has been the best offensive team in the last 30+ years of Rockets history?

It's a testament to the era, we're only 4th in the league, but we're the first historically in Houston to score that much.

 

Patterson has performed but his impact is being overrated. For a bench role Hill could easily substitute with his improved play. The guy not getting the proper credit he deserves on this board for the improved D is Lee, he's irreplaceable. He's even got someone like Martin, maybe because of competition, being more active on D.

 

Wow. Incredible piece of historical nugget that you found there. The reason for this, as you insinuated, may be a good number of things and it would be interesting to see how this info is analyzed over time. I am looking forward to reading the ideas and comments. Great piece of work CH.

 

Am I to understand that you believe we do not have a core? I would argue that we have one of the best cores in the league. We are one star away from contention from the way I see it. Take Dwight Howard off the Magic and do you really think their team is any better than ours?

 

I think your point holds, but the Pistons won a championship when the NBA had a lower level of total talent than it does today. I definitely don't think we need to blow it up. I think we have a good team where you could plug in a superstar (or even a near-superstar), and have a championship contender. But that'll take some creative roster moves or catching fire in a bottle in the draft.

 

This. We would have the potential to win it all this year with Dwight Howard.

 

The problem is, there are VERY few truly great young 2-way players in the league at any given time, and Miami has two of them. I think we're in a great position to nab a superstar if one becomes available. We just have to keep winning to boost our team's and roster's attractiveness to any potential free agent superstars.

 

Only if we sign him, if we have to trade our blue chippers, then we wouldn't have the chance to win it all.

I enjoyed this reading this thread - good discussion!

 

Not really, this era just has more fake superstars like Anthony and Amare.

Are you saying that a prime Ben Wallace/Prince added to this Rockets team wouldn't make us a contender? Those guys didn't lack talent they just lacked hype.

 

but you agree that the Rockets Defense is pretty darn good as of late correct?

 

Two words:
Adelman
Morey

BTW, somehow I found this funny as hell:

 

They run the offense great and like most other fast paced teams, they score effeciently at that pace. The rockets are like the team they played last night with better coaching. Put rick in gsw right now and the rockets and warriors records would be reversed. Offensive, none existent defensive team. The only guy who defends consistently is lee,hayes,and patterson.

 

LOL, what kind of logic is this? Kobe and Dirk were picked in the late lottery as teenagers (in the 90s when GMs were still hesitant to look past tried and tested college players for potential), so the Rockets could be just as lucky if they practice patience? Don't forget for every TMac there were 6-7 Travis Outlaw's and 100s of college busts or average players.

Say all you want about San Antonio's advanced scouts being as great as they are, Pop being as smart as he is, but without #1 pick Tim Duncan, they would have absolutely nothing to show for it.

In the past decade top 5 picks have dictated the ebb and flow of the NBA. Whether it's an actual superstar or trading for one, you need high lottery picks. Not middle of the pack crap.


Wade, LeBron, Bosh = top 5 picks
Dwight = #1
Carmelo = #3
Rose = #1
Chris Paul, Deron Williams = top 5
Durant = #2
Gasol = #3 (and we saw how the Lakers did without him)


Sure you have cinderella stories like Denver once in a while, but they won't last once teams figure them out. What makes superstars so valuable? Their strengths can't be stopped no matter how much you prepare for them. Mismatches are what win playoff games.

 

I'm sorry, but I just can't get excited over getting great production from one side of the court and not the other. This isn't baseball or football where offense and defense are more or less separated parts. In basketball everyone's a two-way player. Offense and defense are related to each other. i.e. hitting the offensive boards hard or making backdoor cuts leaves yourself more open to transition.

I think this year's team truly maximized their talent, and I believe this is the best way for us to win due to our lack of superstar(s). But it's still a hollow achievement IMO, because in the end we can't actually "build" on this great offensive showing. Even if we get a true center, say Thabeet turns into Deke-lite, and our defense improves. It will cost our offense because we won't have Scola/Patterson to finish or Hayes to play high post.

Of course, it is a great team to build upon if we get Dwight Howard... ahh one can dream...

 

The Warriors are an average offensive team. They were actually better offensively last year despite the breakout seasons of Wright and Ellis.

This isn't true. The problem is not the starters. Hypothetically, if these starters played 48 minutes a game at the level that they've played this season, we'd outscore opponents by 10 points a game.

The problem is that when a guy like Chuck Hayes goes down or has to go to the bench, we have one of the worst centers in the NBA to take his place (Hill). That's where having a Mutumbo or Thabeet helps. Do you know how big a difference 18 minutes of Mutumbo is vs. 18 minutes of Hill? I can't even comprehend the overall difference that might make on our defense.

There's a reason why Gortat makes so much money when Orlando knew he was going to be a backup for sure.

 

"Is it a testament to what can happen when players intelligently execute a well-designed offensive system?"

Yes. It certainly isn't the personel. I love this team, think they are a gas to watch, think they are underrated nationally, and think they might scare some people if they sneak into the playoffs, but it ain't the talent. It's that Adelman finally has a team running his offensive system at a high level consistently. We've seen flashes of it before, we've seen short stretches of his offense clicking, but never have we seen it at this level for this length of time. It boggles my mind that there are so many here ready to toss Adelman aside. Hell, I've seen him described as 68 years old here twice, and he most certainly isn't that old. It's bizarre. Just look at the assist numbers for the starters. Look at Battier's numbers before he left and you can safely assume that Chase would eventually equal them, were he given enough games. This offense is a thing of beauty. If we had a tall, talented, athletic defensive 5, you would see this offense balanced by the defense Adelman's teams have produced in the past. That's what we're lacking. That, and some fans that don't have their heads up their collective rear ends.

 

And if basketball were basically played with consistent 5-man units, we'd be awesome.

But it's not. You have to mix-and-match different parts over the course of the game. Hence, why superstars are so valuable. You can put different players around them and things still work really well, because their ability to score does not depend on others. You don't need passers like Hayes and Lowry along with finishers like Scola and Martin. Because one player takes care of that task by himself.

So I maintain my position that this is a hard group to make sizable improvements on.

 

This. Actually I'd say KM posting ridiculous TS (0.600+%) has a lot to do with it, the offense becomes amazing when you have a high volume, high efficiency shooter in the team. He's backed by Scola, Lowry, PP and even Hayes, who are all more efficient than the average NBA player.

So efficient players+RA's motion offense=best team offense in 30 years. If we had a decent C who could guard the paint we'd probably have the most successful team since Hakeem's era.

 

The mix-and-match's only a problem if the coach is a terrible tactician (i.e. Adelman). If the coach had been someone like George Karl, PJ or Pops, we'd have gone on 7-10 tears the entire season instead of just after the deadline.

Regarding your position, this would be true if we didn't have huge gaps in the rotation right now. C-bud is a liability on D, and while adequate Hayes isn't able to guard the paint. This means we have two spots we can improve, a defensive C and a more balanced SF woudl go a long way towards improving the team performance. For example someone like Tyson Chandler would make us contenders, and getting a Tyson Chandler is much easier to get than getting a superstar.

 

This. Since Morey's arrival the people on this board have gone stat crazy. It's still basketball, and there's no way you can watch this team and say that there close to anything without significant change. Hell any damn team would be better with Dwight Howard added to it.