1. Defense 2. Harden 3. Rotation Just have to put it somewhere, 3 bad things so far: 1. FT shooting 2. Lack of plays called leading to too much 1-on-1, not much body nor ball movement 3. Health
I just need TJ to be able to roll out to that three point line. Then maaaan, what a team we got here. Love the defense being played too.
Jason Terry surprises me. I think he is a valuable piece in the short run. I am still holding my breath about Jones. I hope he can sustain his level of performance. Same with Harden's defense. There's no question our team defense has improved quite a bit. We'll see how solid it is when we face a real good offense.
Per stats.nba.com, Harden has generated 20ppg on 10.3 assists opportunities per game. Only 3 games, but he is by far the most efficient passer among playmakers this season.
Less than 3 games. He didn't play the 4th quarters vs. LAL or BOS, so more like 2.5 games. He's been crazy good, especially at finding people for the 3 ball. It's been fun to watch.
On defense I really like how they are making a concerted effort to disrupt the other's team's plays by denying people the ball on little things like perimeter passes. Ii seems small but more often than not it ends up being a big deal and forcing the other team into bad jumpshots.
Tarik Black's defensive positioning has been very good. He rotates really well, great find by the Rockets management
As long as Harden is not the pg I'm cool. I've never seen a player that gives as much bad body language. He doesn't play with the same heart every game. He takes games off and shows tantrums.
Does Hardens defensive effort look improved to you guys ? I think so. Above average defense from will mean so much for this team . I love everything about ariza so far. I really hope T jones is making a leap , if so look out. Why doesnt dwight like PnR ? His post ups are great when hes in rhythm , but him and Harden should pick n roll like every other possesion. It s obvious how deadly it would be. Its the most frustrating thing about dwight for me.
Not just Terry, but last night against the Celtics, Big Papa and DMo had some REALLY nice post passes to Dwight when he had phenomenal position in the paint leading to easy scores. I'm thinking Big papa and DMo may prove to be very good passers with above average court vision. Let's hope they can take advantage of that a lot this season.
Oh jeez, you've got to be kidding me. Really? Dissing Harden after starting the season with good defense and finding ways to become an even better playmaker. What a joke you are, Harden only hater.
Another good thing I've noticed is hustle. It's pretty simple, but not all teams do it. TJ has a motor like Scola (one of my favs in recent memory).
I'd add a fourth thing to the list: We've out-rebounded our opponent in every game for a total of +17. This shows hustle and that we are paying attention. Last year after Omer "went down", we were having trouble rebounding on the weak side. After Omer decided to sit, if it went Dwight's way it was ours. If it went the other way... who knows. This year there seems to be more boxing out on the weak side and if we do that all year, that may make a bigger difference than Harden putting in effort on defense. Props to Terrence Jones, DMo, Ariza and Pap on that stat. Our SFs have 26 rebounds so far and the PFs have 39. Last year at this time our SFs had 27 and the PFs had 41. Considering there is little drop-off and Omer had 35 of those 41 rebounds, I'd say this years team is putting in more effort considering their size. This is to say, we have very similar rebounding numbers without the liability on offense that Omer was.
Our current defensive rebounding percentage of 72.3 would have been 28th in the league last season. We are actually worse on the defensive boards. As for Omer's offensive liabilities, well over half his minutes have been replaced by Black, who is averaging 2 points a game.
Our defense has improved by a little, our offense has slightly worsened. It's easy to find good things in this 3 game win streak but realistically the sample size is too small, especially against the garbage teams we've been playing. Harden needs to find his shot.
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/rebounds-per-game/sort/avgReboundsDifference We are 5th in rebounding differential per game and ahead of Omer's Pelicans super rebounding front line, but you are right... we're terrible. Oh and we're second in rebounding differential overall, but that doesn't matter right?: http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/rebounds/sort/reboundsDifference
Yeah will see how that good defense holds up after playing somebody. I don't see no improvement. Eight seed at best or no playoffs. Which means another first round exit.
Obviously there's not enough data to make any solid observations. Some posters are super downers though with some of their comments. Geez why even watch the games? For my part, I like the way the team looks this year. Replacing some of our playmakers with dead eye shooters has made the team quite potent on offense. That said, we're probably going to have a nightmarish time beating teams that effectively take Harden out of his rhythm. I hope that the team finds a starting caliber PG who can replace Beverley as the starter. I love Beverley as much as the next guy, but I don't think his game is suited for a 30+ MPG role. If not a PG, then maybe a PF? David West? TJ seems to be getting a ton of midrange jumpers from the attention that Howard and Harden get but he can't make them consistently. Maybe West would be an upgrade there.
