People keep misinterpreting the offensive strategy. It is not "Never take a midrange shot". Here's the order: 1) Always take the open shot 2) Prioritize: a) driving to the basket, b) dunks/lay-ups, c) 3-pointers (a.k.a. "shots at the rim, 3-pointers, and free throws") That's it. If you are open, you take the shot. Nearly all NBA players make an uncontested shot at higher than a 50% clip - oftentimes much higher (depends on the player and the shot, but +70% is not atypical). Last season, the league averaged 105.9 points per 100 possessions. Basically, that translates into a 53% FG% for 2-pointers. If you can beat a 53% shot at making a bucket, you take that shot. Period. There's no "advanced stats hand wavy mathemagic" going on here. Nobody has ever said that you don't take an open shot, even if it's a long two-pointer. If you said that to anyone you'd get laughed out of the room. Making an open shot is fundamental basketball - if your players can't do that consistently then you might as well forfeit all your games, because nothing you do will help your offense.
LOL kuku! Nice. And I was talking about those little wide open 8 footers. Lin and Harden taking them is just fine with me, for a total of about 4 a game. Any more is just so anti-Morey I don't believe it is going to happen.
It was good for the coaches (Harden?) to make the adjustment last night. Since our 3pt shooting was so bad, we took more midrange shots. Harden took only 3 attempts from 3pt range. He was money on his midrange. Glad we're not irrationally locked in on a particular strategy when it's currently not working. Switch it up. There are many ways to win.
I think Dwight's inconsistent scoring is a product of his approach to his post moves. I don't think it's anything related to our offense. I coach and work with guys in the post all the time. Dwight's problem is that he over-dribbles before he makes his move. The defender then has more time to adjust his position and anticipate the movie. If Dwight could just one power dribble with a baby hook, he'd be more effective. Even more, a power dribble and a spin move would work. He gets into trouble with the over-dribbling and trying to go across the paint, instead of towards the basket. However, Dwight's rebounding and defense have been great. It's nice to have a guy to change shots, grab rebounds and be powerful.
Yeah most of Dwight's post-up moves are predicated on speed and power, and less on finesse/trickery as well. As he gets older, the positioning of the entry pass is going to be more and more important to whether or not he can convert from the post. If they pass too low or in the wrong direction, then he has to dribble the ball to get back into neutral position, at which point he's forced to do a standard one-on-one back-down post game, at which he's just not very good. We're already seeing some of that now - a lot of the passes to Dwight are just standard tosses straight to his body or (even worse) bounce passes at an angle. He can't do anything with those.
I agree, and it's good to read from someone who knows more than just what is shown on TV. I also think Dwight isn't positioning himself deep enough in the post before the actual pass. He's allowing weak defenders push him farther out. If he got in deep before the defense could adjust, he would get easier buckets. Another thing I've noticed is his lack of dunking/power this year. Instead of slamming it home, he uses the backboard. I'm wondering it it's his back or fear of the freethrow line. Hopefully Hakeem gets him straightened out. Dwight should be an MVP candidate once he gets it all together.
Dream is out of the country & will be back to work with the rockets for the rest of the season after the Allstar break. He is not impressed & is ready to come back and help Howard more. http://www.slamonline.com/online/nb...-wishes-dwight-howard-was-doing-a-better-job/
The other things you said sounded good but this is what I think limits Howard on the offense end. Been going on his entire career and the reason he's only been a 10-12 field goal attempt per game player for his career. I don't know why he doesn't constantly bully his way into position like Shaq use to do when it looks like he can over power most. And when he's not in position it's practically useless to pass him the ball. He's always showed glimpses like the Dallas game though, would be nice if he could do that consistently.
Thanks brosef - internet fist bump. I wouldn't be surprised if he was told not to dunk so hard to save unnecessary trauma on his back. Well before his back injury, the guy was crazy athletic. He didn't need to position himself well because he could just muscle his way to the hoop. I know we all recognize the slam dunk contest as a joke nowadays, but he showed some pretty impressive jumping strength and range back in the day. Now, I don't think he can the same things he did before. He's definitely starting that descent from peak-athleticism into veteran-savvy, and it's up to him to figure out how to take advantage of the things that will still be around when he's no longer freakishly faster and stronger than everyone else.
You dont see the refs calling foul on him a lot when he bully's his way. You also dont see him sealing his man underneath the basket and his teammates doesnt pass him the ball. LOL my boy Remii
i don't think the team is positioned well on some of the post up attempts either. he gets doubled way too easily sometimes due to the position of the other teammates.
Possibly. The spacing seems to be off, but it is DWIGHT'S job to secure his spot deep in the post BEFORE the ball is passed to the wing for the post pass. It would solve so many issues. Then again, I'm only an AAU/High School coach. I have absolutely NO idea how physical it feels to be in the NBA. Maybe Dwight cannot push his man back for position anymore...
sometimes he does have position, but a guy is a second late crossing across the court for spacing. sometimes its while a player is cutting. i see good post up opportunities, but they are quick with getting him the ball properly. im not saying he is a great post up player, but it seems like people ignore how the entire team is playing the post up.
We've been all over this so many times it's ridiculous, the mid-range shot is the worst shot in basketball, period. Teams who make it a big part of their game plan underachieve (NY Knicks, Last year's Philly, Rudy Gay lololol), while teams who limit it over achieve (Rox the past 3 years, Philly this year). Does it mean they never shoot the mid-range? Well not really, but IMHO the mid-range should be treated the same as a 3 pt shot to beat the shot clock: used as a last resort. If there's no other better shot available take it, but if you can drive or shoot a 3, then do that instead. The Rox right now have a lot of weapons so it's much easier to get open than before, so the mid-range is getting used less and less, which is actually good for us as teams that depend on the mid-range tend to fall flat in the playoffs.
I don't think this is exactly right. You'll notice that when the ball is kicked out to our perimeter shooters and they have a defender closing out hard, they're either going to shoot the 3 or they're going to drive. What you rarely see out of this team is taking the one-dribble pull-up after a hard closeout. That one-dribble pullup shot is almost always going to be an open shot, but the team almost never takes it. To me, that indicates that there is a system in place to avoid inefficient looks like this.
