We should all be grateful to David Stern for that Gasol trade. what kind of mess would be now without David Stern? In term of the performance in playoffs so far, I am not convinced that we have two top ten players in this team. I do not think we are asking too much or too early. Wasn't the expectation the second round in the beginning of this season for most of fans and the FO? Not promising either after two games. Something is not right.
Irrelevant. Yea, its been rough. I hope Harden can play to the level he has been playing at for the past 160 games before the last 2 stinkers. I agree, something is not right, but it definitely isn't Morey.
You do realize that the Spurs, Mavs, Portland and GSW are all cutting edge teams in Analytics? "Moreyball" or analytics is about finding the most efficient use of the roster that you have, it's not about dogmatically shooting 3 pointers and lay ups. So what has "Moreyball" or Analytics won? It helped win the title for the Mavs. It helped get the Spurs to last year's finals and 16s from the title. We don't shoot a lot of mid range shots because we have very few good mid-range shooters. Morey has said himself in his interview that if we had LMA or Dirk we'd shoot a TON of mid-range 2's. The reason it changes for LMA and Dirk is because they can MAKE them at a high enough clip to use them. If we had 15 players that shoot the 3 like Omer Asik, Moreyball would tell us to NEVER take a 3 pointer. If we had 15 players like Stephen Curry, it would tell us to take as many 3 pointers as you can. If we had 15 players like LMA, we'd be shooting mid-range 2's all night long. LMA has proven only one thing, that he's an elite mid-range shooter.
My biggest issue with Morey is the doctrine of "Moreyball" overriding the philosophy of whoever coaches the team. Generally speaking, if the GM has rules overriding the coach's philosophy in any way, it too often compromises play. I don't know how much differently McHale would be coaching this team had there been no "Moreyball", but I don't think he'd be any worse. I also think "Moreyball", which eschews the midrange game in favor of "layups and three pt shots", muzzles playmaking point guards and bigs with a strong midrange shot. Players like Chris Paul, Lamarcus Aldridge, or Blake Griffin would absolutely hate playing under this system. It also cramps fundamental plays like the "pick-and-roll" because taking away options from it (the "pick-and-pop, for one) makes the play so much easier for the defense to shut it down.
Did Mavs use Moreyball? how? If mavs did it and won the title from it, why would they hire someone from Rockets last season? Did Spurs do it too? I highly doubt it. They are elite team in the last decade. I believer every sports team use statistic as tool somehow, but not Moreyball. It is not just about Dirk or LMA. Your team has weakness and you will be explored by other teams. Balanced team win playoffs. It does not matter whether it is mid-ranger or 3 pointer.
Any player can shoot a midrange jumper. This system doesn't get them open. We don't have midrange, 3 point, defenders....
Sorry... I know you guys are disgruntled right now, but this is completely wrong, and totally shows how little folks around here mis-understand Morey and his overall basketball philosophies. You know what kind of shots Morey likes..... EFFICIENT SHOTS Morey went after Dirk last summer, and has gone after LMA multiple times in his tenure with the Rockets. You know who Morey has said his favorite player was other than Yao... Luis Scola... an efficient mid-range shooter. Efficiency is the key word with Morey's basketball philosophies. If you aren't an efficient shooter from anywhere on the court, but you need to be able to shoot, he's going to tell you that you are better off spacing the floor out to the 3 point line where you at least give more room for drivers, and if you do hit a shot its a 3 instead of a 2. As for Morey imposing his basketball philosophies onto the coaching staff???... Look at Morey's lab down in RGV. If you think the Rockets style of play is extreme and 100% Morey's plan of action, think again. It could be much more Moreycentric if the coaches didn't have a say so and it was 100% by Morey's design. I do think Morey will pick a coach that believes in what the front office believes in, but in no way do I think he's the one actually making the game time coaching decisions. If he was, they might actually be better off, but he's obviously not.
Oh really? Saying "any player can shoot a mid-range" is like saying any player can shoot the 3 pointer. List me 5 players on the roster that shoot 40% or better from 10-16 feet. How about over the last 2 seasons averaging 40% or better from 10-16 feet. I'll be waiting while you dig up all these good "mid range" shooters.
The players don't take a lot of mid-range jumpers because they think the coaching staff and management will frown on it and that will cut into playing time. Guys like Casspi and Garcia have been hurt by fealty to the Houston 'system'.
100% correct. I also think this is the main underlining reason we're getting our asses handed to us against Portland. Teams that rely on fastbreak points & 3's don't fair well in the NBA playoffs. Why? Because the game slows and becomes half court. While the Rockets have a post up center. They haven't played half court long enough to go a entire series playing this way. Plus they've been playing the same way all year (3's & fastbreak). So when Dwight dominates like he did in game 2, players like Parsons & Harden don't know how to get themselves open like a Mario Elie, Kenny Smith or Robert Horry. Bottom line, our offensive strategy put together by our celebrity GM has backfired us again in the postseason. Mchale never was a good signing. But Morey hired him because he knew Mchale would allow him to implement his Moreyball system. Now that system is failed, ppl wanna blame elsewhere other than Morey when he's the one who created this flawed system and hired the unqualified coach lol. Damn shame
Just not true. They don't take midrange shots because like coaching and management these are smart people who understand that the approach they are taking is the right one.
Nice try, but no. Everybody in the NBA has been aware of Morey's 3's & layups strategy. We even had players trained to bypass decent midrange shots just to take a foot behind the 3pt line. Now that it's falling apart ppl wanna change the components to shift blame elsewhere. Mchale is a crappy coach. But who hired him in the first place? Who's system are we running? Don't flip flop now
the teams that you mentioned all have coaches who are more involved in how the team's system operates. we went over this, but i think a coach's loss of control over the team is what morey wants (the hardwood paroxysm guy's tweet). look at mchale. look at the RVG quotes ("the less i do, the better"). the quotes where morey says coaching is negligible. you don't have to agree with me, but i'd wish you'd at least be a bit more skeptical of morey's possible enforcement of free lance offense. we may not have the right people for a midrange game currently. however, it doesn't make sense for the coaching staff to ignore developing that part of the system or developing player's skills in that department.
Its not a try. Its a fact. Do you think if the Rockets acquired Dirk or LMA they would ban them from taking mid-range jumpers? Did you ever remember McHale forcing Scola to shoot 3's instead of long 2's??? Have you seen Harden get benched yet for taking a step-back 2??? -You know what players were trained to step back behind the 3 point line? Role Players that aren't good mid-range shooters that were getting their foot caught on the line, and if they took one step back would have 3 points instead of 2. They aren't getting plays run for them to get shots at 18 feet. They were getting their shots at the 3 point line, but had their foot on the line. Its no secret that Morey loves the 3 point shot over the 2 point shot if the percentages are going to be fairly similar with certain players. Why wouldn't you... 3 points are better than 2 points, and give more space. But you are (not trying to insult) frankly dumb if you think that Morey wouldn't consider a Dirk or LMA mid-range jump shot efficient enough to incorporate into the Rockets game-plan IF they were to acquire a player that is EFFICIENT from the mid range. The problem is the Rockets DO NOT have an efficient mid-range shooter other than James Harden who... guess what.... is getting better at, and taking a much larger degree of mid-range shots as his step-back jumper gets better and better with time. -Actually Leslie Alexander made the final decision on the coaching hire. He was very much involved in the decision. He chose between guys like Lawrence Frank, and Dwayne Casey. Ultimately Les was sold on McHale and went with him over Casey & Frank. Morey gave Les an ample opportunity to go with less flash and more workahollic X's and O's types over the big name hire. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...-rockets-are-ready-to-make-a-coaching-choice/ The Rockets, he said, don’t have a front-runner because they don’t want a front-runner, yet. They have intentionally put off that kind of thinking until Rockets owner Leslie Alexander gets back to town next week and they then lay out their information for him. What he did not say is that it really does not matter if there were a leader of the pack, anyway. Alexander made the call on the previous hires and he’ll make the choice, again.
There is only ONE. James Harden. Next 2 closest are Lin (38% or so) and Parsons (33% this season, 37% or so career). You know what rest of the team shoots from 10-16 feet? 25-27%. So go ahead, keep arguing that everyone can shoot a mid-range jumper. You can line them up and keep hitting 1/4 shots.
The response to your indictment was two paragraphs down in the same post you quoted: Moreyball is getting the players shoot from the places where you get the most points per possession. It is hardly suprising that trends emerge for typical players, but that doesn't make it a requirement for all players..
