The Rockets are one of the WORST 3-point shooting teams in the league. They need shooters bad.

A very interesting post.

I never thought of it this way (DH & Jones playing sort of an undersized TT)

This COULD be one of the reasons our offense gets stuck
(Apart from Harden's, and last night Lin's, ISO ball).

Thanks for the insight!

 

We need a pg to create shooting chance
If anyone does only 1 on 1, the best shooter can't shoot good FG%

 

The Rockets have 4 main issues:
1. Injuries: nothing can be done.
2. Defensive rotations: Young team, could use a Shane Battier or Tony Allen type.
3. Three point shooting: obvious
4. Depth: Obvious
5. Free throw shooting: unlikely to be fixed.

The easiest problem to fix is depth and three point shooting, if you fix one you can fix the other at the same time. Players such as Dunleavy, Korver, Marrow and others are available. Adding a Dunleavy and one more solid rotation player could easily add 2-3 wins or more to this team.

 

RIP delfino! not shooting the threes kills our triple penetration and kills our assist numbers. everyone's shooting from 3 has been off. <---ya think.

 

Everything except coaching. Dunleavy could've won us those 8 games we were suppose to win.

 

When Garcia came to Houston, Morris was traded to Suns and Patterson traded to SAC in the same time.
Why is about Morris, Patterson?

 

This is the truth right here, people can blame mchale all they want but once again, he has incorporated Howard "post game offense" perfectly into our offense & still runs the same r&r as last year that was productive, the problem is

1. we just lack the shooters compared to last year, even if Howard throws ball out the post we are not knocking down the shots.

2. We are lacking a solid stretch 4 that can run the pick & pop at the top with Lin, harden, bev, brooks,

3. the guards are not getting to the rim as easy because of the lack of screens & lack of movement from the center & PF position compared to last year. say what u want about asik "butter fingers" and smith, ppat.. But those guys set solid screens and were always moving once the ball crosses the half court line.

4. We don't run as much because of the post game offense, Howard holds on to ball after rebound so every can run jog and get set, last year rebounders use to throw the outlet pass quick, if the break wasn't there then they would go half court offense.

 

I said this before, our terrible shooting is only saved by our hyper-efficient shot selection.

But as others have noted, it's not quite as simple as "shoot better" or "get better shooters". The other variable is how contested are those shots being taken.

Are we shooting poorly because our shooters are poor, or is it because our shots are more contested than other teams?

 

Live by the 3 and die by the 3

 

"Oh lord, you are a bad poster. You are the face of clutchfans today. Total crap."

Anonymous rep.

If I get one more anonymous rep, I'm going to ....

 

Our 3s are all contested this year. Harden especially now that teams understand he goes iso mode in the 4th. Parsons is the only one who runs off the ball to get open shots.

We've become predictable. Harden iso or Howard post.

 

we barely give dwight the ball...too much guard play on the outside..our guards sometimes look lost out there

 

I see your point bmd, although I'd be careful in concluding that poor shooting necessarily is the result of bad/incapable shooters.

Adding another shooter obviously wouldn't hurt, but it's not like the Rockets have a bunch of guys who can't shoot it out there.
Jones really is the only guy who isn't all much of a threat from 3. Harden, Garcia and Casspi all have struggled some, but we know those guys can shoot it. Their career numbers are much better indicators of their shooting ability than this sample size of less than 40 games.

To me the low shooting % can be contributed to a bunch of things and it starts on defense. Not getting a lot of stops --> not getting out in transition as much --> not as many open 3s.

Secondly, it would appear that the Rockets aren't getting quite as many open 3s in the half-court as they did last year, which I'd contribute to teams being more prepared/making some adjustments and the Rockets not executing quite as well.
Last year the Rockets were strictly a drive and kick team. Now the offense is much more balanced, which will be a good thing in the long run, but probably has contributed to the Rockets not getting as many open 3s off kick-outs off drives.
It takes time to get used to playing with a post player and all the lineup changes/injuries sure haven't helped.

If I told you before the season that one of the Rockets weaknesses was 3P-shooting you probably would have said I was crazy, which is why I think it's too early to conclude that the Rockets need more/better shooters. You can't have too much of it, but I honestly don't think it's a huge need. I fully expect things to get better over time.

 

Harden iso or Howard post, is McHale learning Van Gandy brothers(Jeff & Stan)? but our defense isn't improving

 

Those guys were playing the 4 and they could both shoot it. Morris shot over 38% from 3 for us and Patterson was shooting around the same but Patterson was flat-out lighting it up from midrange. Patterson may have been the best midrange shooter in the league last year before he was traded.

Patterson's shot chart last year:




Patterson was above 50% (I'm thinking around 55%) from midrange for us last year. He tailed off after he was traded away.


Now, here's the contrast to this year:



Here's Jones' shot chart from the last month:




In the last 15 games our record is 8-7.

In the last 15 games Jones shooting percentages are:

48.5% from the field
a blistering 12.5% from the 3 point line
and a Howardesque 56% from the FT line.


Jones is a guy that doesn't want to shoot a jumper and doesn't want to get fouled and have to go to the line and knock them down. That means he is going to catch, put the ball in the floor and try to get a layup (much more difficult now since the league now knows his game) or he's going to play hot potato with it as soon as he catches it, throwing it to another perimeter guy who is standing there with a defender up in his grill before he even gets the ball.



The problem with this team is obvious. But the solution is not so obvious.

 

I never really understood how Hawes fit in here, but I'm starting to get it. With Hawes, you can move TJones to the bench and have 4 shooters on the floor with the 2nd unit.

 

So we could sign Howard.


Don't be surprised if we trade Asik/Lin/Dmo/TJones is a similar move this year.