unless a team's shooters are literally ray allen clones, there's nothing they can do when the coaching staff encourages one on one basketball. our shooters dont suck, its the stand around offense that sucks.
Howard is definitely an improvement over Asik. The problem is unlike Asik, the Rockets are looking to get Howard the ball on the inside. The problem with that is that it takes Howard several seconds to set up and then post up for the shot. For the Rockets up tempo game, they need to score early in the shot clock. It's no shock to see Howard have some great games in losses.
Can't believe some people are blaming Howard on our 3-point struggles. Seriously?? He creates more open 3s in the halfcourt than last season. We are getting plenty of open looks.. we are just bricking them. Garcia is declining, Casspi just sucks, Beverly was never that good a shooter to begin with. Parsons is shooting it well. Harden is shooting the 3 a lot better since his slump early in the year, his % is going up. Our role players just suck. TJones is awful at the 3, just got lucky a few times when he first started and he's been jacking them since then.
I don't think it's all because of Howard but if you look back at the games where Howard is being defended 1-on-1 throughout, the rest of the team is defended pretty well, making those 3's harder to make. But I also believe Casspi and Garcia have struggled terribly lately and without Lin, those guys need score. Out bench is bad. I can't wait to get Lin and Asik back in full swing. The TT might have worked against Indianas bigs.
Eh, last season we pretty much created shots the same way, drive and kick or just pass it around on the perimeter and jack. Delfino would just launch 3s with a man in his face and he would drill them. We are certainly getting better shots this year, our shooters are just not as good.
This. There's no ball movement, no screens, no game plan. We pretty much pass the ball around until someone decides to have the guts to do something with it. Our only shining moments are during TO plays, where McHale actually draws up a plan and we follow through with it. If people have noticed, our TOs lead to some amazing plays.
I agree with you about Dwight. Garcia will get better (I hope), Casspi doesn't suck he has been quite a surprising newcomer and Beverly is Beverly. Parsons is doing okay. Harden needs to get better, can't really say his % is going up when he shot 1/5 from 3's today. TJ is okay, he'll get there.
I miss Delfino. He almost always just went for the three... I'm so freaking tired of these pump fakes, just shoot the damn 3. (Casspi, Parsons, Garcia)
The ball isn't moving as well as it did last year. With Harden out or not fully healthy and Jeremy not playing, we don't have the drive and kick game that was so effective last year. But I do think we need a reliable knock down shooter. I wish we could have gotten Korver during the offseason or even Anthony Marrow. Garcia and Casspi cannot be our "shooters". They are too inconsistent. I miss Deflino. He was streaky as hell but at least he understood how to move to the open spots for threes.
Lin/Garcia/Casspi/Smith/Asik is a decent second unit. We haven't seen this lineup in action much because of injuries. Both Casspi and Cisco noticeably play better when Lin's on the court.
With Harden, so many of his threes are when he goes ISO and jacks up a contested or off balanced three. I wish we played so that he gets to be set up for the three. He would shoot such a better percentage.
I'm thinking its more of lacking consistency from the guards this year. As we have Harden, Lin and Bev out for a number of games. Which causes the ball to move just a bit slower. And maybe, just maybe, that due to the refusal of taking mid range shorts, opposite defenders have 1 less option to defend, making it easier for them to defend the 3s.
we have plenty of shooter. But they need confidence to be able to shoot. Knowing that the nobody could score under the rim or rebound the missed shot place pressure on shooters. Shooting is all about mental state.
We live and die by the three. Today, we were laid to rest. Hopefully, we can bounce back from this game soon.
It's a mess, really. We just shot our load this offseason to bring in the best center in the game and when he's playing well our guards never pass him the ball. Take last nights Indiana game for example, Howard was 9 for 16 and playing pretty well, yet rather than continue to pass the ball to Howard our guards sit on the perimeter in the McFail circle jerk offense, dribbling the air out of the ball and jacking up contested bricks. Harden looked like a deer in the headlights. Beverly was merely a warm body on the floor, and not much else. Rockets may as well be playing 4 on 5, or put me in the game, I will gladly earn Beverly's salary for one night, doing absolutely jack ****. Harden and Beverly are both terrible 3pt shooters, yet they continue jacking them up anyway. This team has issues. The horrible defense being number one on the list.
wow, just checked and totally not realized that James Harden's 30.6% 3FG% is ranked number 10 in the whole team, only ahead of D-Mo, Asik and Greg Smith. And Asik and Greg Smith don't shoot 3s. Even Dwight is having a better 3FG%. (LOL, DH12 got 33%). And he is taking by far the most 3s in the team, with 6.4 3FGA. How come?
System works,their just running it backwards.When the Rockets are on the break the first thing they do is pass to the post.Last year we pass to the open man and some times it was Omer when he slashed to open dunks like Howard gets when runs the break with the rest of the team.
Because Harden wants to be the man, but he doesn't want to put the work in to be the man. He wants no part of being the team leader, either. Honestly, neither does Dwight so far. But, at least Dwight is scoring at acceptable rates. Harden has become too reliant on simply throwing his body into the paint and hoping for a whistle. He's gotten lazy and his game has regressed.