Funny, I don't see you contributing to the "playbook" thread at all... With all that knowledge about "sets" that you possess, I would just naturally assume that you would let us all know what you would do in place of this total lack of offensive direction. I somehow know that your answer will be something along the lines of: "Anything! Anything is better than an offense that I see at the YMCA every day!" And somehow I know that you will never ascertain a professional coaching gig in your life...
Another reason Morey hired McHale was because he was a young coach who was willing to work with him as far as game plan design. The fact he wasn't bogged down with his own ideologies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA4I2DI7q98 It was a decision Morey, McHale, and the organization made together due to our personnel. Here is more details on the offense we run and why we run it. A recent interview from Morey (thanks to J.R for the transcript): (Style of play & philosophy?) Our organizational philosophy is just to win. We knew we would be young, with young legs and guys whose strengths were getting to the rim and shooting threes. Because of that and meeting with the coaches in the offseason and the coaches have a lot of experience coaching this style, we said this is the style we think is best for our personnel. We've been executing it and so far, so good. (No mid-range shots?) No, We're running offensive sets and read and react that generates those shots with our personnel. It's not a prescription of don't do this or don't do that. It's more set up a system that gets a high percentage shot most possessions. (Why don't other teams run this?) It does challenge your defense. There's a belief, that I don't agree with, that when you get to the playoffs it won't be effective. I think not a lot of teams, the kind of offense we're running, not a lot of coaches have coached it before. You go with what your comfortable with. And personnel wise, if you have Jefferson or Randolph, you want to pound it and post up. Here is what a read and react offense entails: http://basketballogy.com/2011/the-rgbs-of-the-read-and-react-offense-part-1-of-5/
Important bits if you don't want to read: "While our “system” gives our offense spacing, ball movement and player movement, there are 3 elements of offense that are contributed mostly by the players on the floor: 1. Acumen (decision making) 2. Effort 3. Capability (talent, skills, size, athleticism, etc.) True, these things can be coached to a degree. We can use our knowledge to teach players better decision making, our influence to get great effort from our players, and our authority to get the right capabilities on the floor, but none of that is actually playing the game. Ultimately acumen, effort and capability are player contributions." "Spacing could well be the single most underrated aspect of offense. I know the coaches and players I’ve known over the years seem to chronically overlook it, even though spacing is rightfully one of the 3 fundamental “RGBs” of half court offense. Bad spacing doesn’t just make shooting harder, it closes down passing lanes, and clogs up driving lanes, making it very difficult to move the ball, and extremely difficult to get the ball inside. Hey coach, before you assume your players are flawed, check first to see if it’s your analysis that’s flawed. Maybe your players can’t get the ball inside because your spacing is the real problem." Which is why in the recent interview with Lin he said: “I don’t play well without spacing and I don’t play well when we’re really not getting out in transition,” Lin said. “Those are two things we need to get better at, that coach has talked to us about"
Great post man. I think the treatment here to mchale is kind of ridiculous as well. I dont mind and understand most of moves on the court. I kind of appreciate that hes willing to change it up in-game if the formula isnt working. They may not work at times but thats what makes his moves a gamble. Its not like he is flat out dumb and clueless out there like ty corbin. Despite what he says about adjustment, i think he does it pretty well.
don't compare McHale with Phil Jackson, who was great at getting his star-studded teams to accept their roles and play as a team
So you're saying that because the Rockets don't have two superstars, therefore the idea that the coach should try to get his players to play together, sacrifice for each other, etc. shouldn't be applied to this team? FWIW, Phil Jackson when he doesn't have 2 superstars - 42 wins, 45 wins - both seasons with prime Kobe Byrant and a team that is a lot more experience than this current team. Rockets on pace record this year? 45 wins.
Thanks a lot for sharing! In principle, I'm all for teaching R&R offense to the players. In fact, I love to try to reduce complex phenomenon into simpler constructing principles myself, for a hobby. By its nature, it requires smart players to have a chance. Good for Rox, or by Morey's design, we have such personnel on the team. Parsons, Delfino, Garcia, Harden, Lin are all smart enough for this task. In fact, if anything, Lin may have been the one important ball handler who has incorporated this R&R principle best. And in aggregate, they have been successful so far this season. However, it's hard for players to be consistently concentrating on this, and it'd be of great help if they also have some set plays to fall back on. In fact, set plays and R&R are not mutually exclusive, since the same basic RGB material is also behind the design of any 'set plays'. In some sense, R&R as I see it requires a high level of Acumen from all players to be effective to some extent, while set plays such as simple P&R demand a lot less on that or replace that with routines via repeated drills in practice and games. Put differently, in response to your OP assertion, it's often not that the player don't "want" to move the ball, but it's that they are "unable" to move the ball properly. In particular, when Harden is sure he has a quite high-% way to get the team some point with ISOs, it's human nature to succumb to the urge to follow the simple and clear path you can better assess at the moment. The best way to sway him from that urge is to implement comparatively simple and clearly assessable alternatives such as set plays that force ball and player movements. Again, I list as exhibit A those set plays Sloan implemented in Utah, even with all time greats like Stockton and Malone. In Sloan's system, every player seems to perform above their Capabilities, as long as their Acumen stock is sufficient, in the quest to create winning Spacing on the court.
What Phil said, he has said about head coaching in general. It's his idea on the duties of head coaching. McHale seems to be doing a good job to me at getting through to the team. He preaches high pace transition ball and we have the highest pace team in the league. He preaches ball movement and aside from some stretches, we've been good with that as well. He hasn't even had a training camp with Harden and Robinson, much less a full season.
We incorporate offensive sets as well. Here are the two that I see a lot, courtesy of HMMMMM. I'd argue that atleast the 1-2 PnR is pretty accessible. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7534807&postcount=2 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7551480&postcount=51 And here's the entire thread http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=232193 "We're running offensive sets and read and react that generates those shots with our personnel. It's not a prescription of don't do this or don't do that. It's more set up a system that gets a high percentage shot most possessions." A lot of the onus is on the players. I think more than some people like to admit. But it's been amazing how well they've all adapted so quickly into a new environment with new systems and teammates. Despite that though we have better ball movement than most teams in the league, other than a few bad games here and there. It was also clearly our offense(and probably our energy since both teams came off of b2b's and Clips looked pretty sloppy) that won this latest Clippers game.
like i said, then harden has gone rogue agent. In an interview, I pointed out, mchale was clearly talking about harden and his stickyness.
I've always said that McHale's coaching career is still very young. He's like a rookie. He has had some brilliant moments and some boneheaded moments. Overall, he is not a bad coach so far. As for Harden's ISO, what do you do as a coach when your best offensive player doesn't play it the right way? It's like if you were Kobe's coach and he kept chucking and making some tough shots, there's really not much you could do.
The fact is every star player ISOs. That's because on most nights they will have a big mismatch. And on a lot of nights it has worked. It's just one of those things that are glaring when it's not working. At the same time he's been just a great distributor on a lot of nights. It's just a matter of him finding the right balance in his new role. We've had great ball movement and blown out plenty of teams with Harden doing both things just right. Every night won't be simple. When I look at these last two games where he's struggled, Pacer's where he tried to force it and then the Grizzlies games after that where he deferred too much, I think of the Carlos Delfino interview from a few weeks ago. Q: You had a role without Harden and another one with him here, with less guaranteed shots... But you have made the most of his arrival. A: The truth is I was happy when he came here. When we had Kevin Martin, who doesn't create many shots for others, I saw things tougher going forward; but James is no ballhog. He is a natural scorer who can also create, who passes the ball and when he doesn't, he comes in the next day and admits his mistake. You don't see that very often in the NBA. I also always knew my role was to be the "spare wheel" and I liked the challenge. He's trying to figure it out. It's all new to him. All of that being said, I think people are exaggerating a lot with their criticisms on Harden. I know we live in a "what have you done for me lately" world, but he's been great on most nights this season. We're expecting perfection out of him.
Exactly... Every coach at every level SAYS they want "ball movement". But mchale actually draws up an ISO after a timeout with no one moving... That's why has lost the players' ears in recent games. Quite frankly with this "system", the players do what they want anyways.
Really? You don't watch much Rockets ball. The winning shot against San Antonio was coming out of a time out when McHale drew up a play that had Harden pass the ball in to Asik. Harden used Asik to screen off the defender while taking the hand off from Asik while rolling to the basket. This created a perfect little open 15 foot jumper that easily went in for the winning shot with 4 seconds left in the game. McHale said after the game that the intent was to put the ball in Hardens hands and creat a situation where he had the option of a quality shot or the option to find a team mate if the defense overreacted to Harden. It was Hardens decision what the right option was but it was most certainly not an iso play designed to just spread everyone out while Harden went 1 against 5. But I guess you wouldn't know that unless you watched the game. Or maybe you have a vendetta against McHale and just look for situations that you can exaggerate in order to bash the coach while ignoring all the good he has done for the team.
yes all great players iso, no freakin' break through there. Hakeem on the low block was technically an iso. But there has to be continuity to the offensive flow. There are plenty of possessions to go around for isos. Harden has to learn to play in the flow of the offense. To think harden can't do that is insulting to Harden. He has high basketball I.Q and is unselfish. It will come with time, but you people have to understand that the point guard is also adjusting and learning to play, so the critique on lin is also exaggerated. Not having comcast, I have to listen to the other broadcasts and they always slober when talking about our backcourt potential with harden and lin. why can't we have the same thing from our own rockets fans?
You said "Harden has gone rogue." I'm pointing out to you that he's played within the offense plenty of times. It's not a matter of him becoming a "rogue agent," it's a matter of him learning and making mistakes.
