The center shows hard on Harden and the PF rotates into the paint. If Harden goes to basket, he has his man, center, and PF to beat. If he passes it to Dwight, Dwight has to be careful not to charge the PF. While being careful, center catches up and he is basically double teamed. PG and SF are covered. Motiejunas or Jones are open for three. McHale doesn't seem too interested in placing the game in the hands of Jones or DMo at the three point line. Jones and DMo sometimes can get cuts to basket off of the Harden PnR, but it just isn't often enough to make it worth too much. Now if the Rockets had a PF that could make open mid range or three point shots, the Harden-Howard PnR would be deadly. Basically, the PnR is what made Delfino such a good small 4. When teams rotated PF to paint, the Rockets had 2 defenders guarding 3 three point shooters. When they didn't rotate PF to middle, Harden picked them apart.
So you're saying when we ran the small ball lineup last night of Terry, Harden, Brewer, Ariza & Howard that Mchale would utilize the P&R? I didn't see it.
Brewer is not a good three point shooter or good mid range shooter despite his early success with Rockets.
that irrelevant. He's taken 18 3s in 3 games. So clearly they've instructed him to shoot open 3s if he has them. So i ask you why did we not run the Howard & Harden P&R when we had three 3pt shooters on the floor for the spacing you say we need. We have the pieces. Either Mchale is incompetent or Dwight is a Diva. I don't think it can not be both.
Nope..he is just late on his defensive rotations. Team defense calls for guys to help in the paint on the drive and others rotate to the 3 point line. D Mo is rotating late. That is a fact.
Dwight did not want to run the PnR with Nash on the Lakers either, he is determined to be a post up player, he is so much better in the PnR. DD
He's so much better in the PnR when he has space. Until we get a legit shooter at the 4, he won't have that space.
I'm hoping against hope that Smoove's turnovers are attributable to not having a great feel for where guys are on the floor yet. His assist numbers are WAY too high for me to conclude he's a poor passer.
You have this all wrong. You seem to think Dorsey is a problem with this team. He's not. Dorsey does exactly what he's supposed to do on offense and defense. Dorsey's rebounding is really good. He averages a career 13 rebounds per 36 or something like that. Once again, he plays about 8 minutes a game. Let's always keep that in context. What are you talking about dude? The offensive unit was not broken. That was the unit that actually outscored Washington and brought us back into the game. You're literally just saying stuff to say stuff. Brewer+D-Mo+Dorsey brought us back into the game and were the only 3 who brought their A game last night. It's as simple as that. Also we would not have won the Memphis game without Dorsey's defense on Gasol when Gasol was feasting on our team. I am probably one of D-Mo's biggest fans on this board. But it still does not work like that. D-Mo getting the bulk of the minutes at center is destined to end poorly. It works for some stretches but should not happen consistently. D-Mo was actually the 4th best rim protector in the NBA. I haven't looked up the stat since the Smith signing though. Even still, that comes from D-Mo playing a vast majority of his minutes at the 4 position. Not the 5. Agree to disagree. But Dorsey provides solid around the rim defense. Papa being glued to the bench was always going to happen with the Smith signing. In fact Morey gets the blame completely on that one. It's Smith and D-Mo taking all of Papa's minutes. Not Dorsey. D-Mo should not lose any minutes in the rotation. That leaves Josh Smith as the root cause of everything. It just wasn't worth losing the contributions of one of the only guys on the team who actually moves the ball in Papa.
This is the third post I've read from you that lists "reasons" for D-Mo's lack of use/touches. Do you really believe it's all a conspiracy to r****d his development in order to get him on the cheap? I like D-Mo's post game and defensive intensity. He's a good offensive player. He's also one of my favorite players. But for a 7 footer he's a below average rebounder (which we need when Howard is out). I think he probably should still be starting but I really don't think of him as "elite" offensively like I keep reading here.
Exactly. People just want a scapegoat and still hate Dorsey because they feel slighted from striking out in free agency and picking up Dorsey who the team already let go once. Also, Dorsey is simply not to blame for D-Mo being marginalized and Papa being benched. That's all on Morey's decision to sign Smith and guarantee him a starting spot. 3rd in the NBA sounds pretty damn elite to me. Idk. D-Mo scores at a very high clip in the post. Most of the issues come from this team still not knowing how to play with a good post player and the post entry passing (i've been harping on this for months) on this team sucking dick. That conversation starts and ends with Patrick Beverley. Uh no. D-Mo is shooting ~60% on hook shots this season per Matt Bullard. That's pretty damn impressive. He does take it up strong whenever Beverley decides to actually f'ing give him the ball one time a game. It usually results in a foul for the defender or a basket. Then we decide to never do that play again. This happened 4 times in the last two games. Beverley and Ariza are completely ignoring. There's nothing else to be said about that. And most of it probably stems from the fact that they are abysmal at throwing in a post entry pass. They obviously have to throw it to Dwight and can't ignore him. But when they do, he's 2 feet from the 3 point line because of their ineptitude. Thank you for posting this shot chart. D-Mo's post up's are really very good. But please understand that even McHale is not that stupid. It is very likely that team's would eat a D-Mo/Papa defense with them at the 5/4 respectively. This is probably the big reason why D-Mo plays at the 4 with another defensive big man next to him. If Papa were to get minutes at the 4 I'd want Dwight at the 5. Otherwise Papa and D-Mo are best paired up if Papa would get mins at the 3 and D-Mo at the 4.
Papa is one of the highest IQ ballers on the rockets. You've replaced his contributions with maybe one of the lowest IQ ballers in the NBA I'd love to see a second unit featuring Canaan, Brewer, Papa & DMo...I think ball movement would be great in this lineup.
As much as you want to see it, PnR is not done as much as people want because 3 non-stars haven't been beating 2 defenders well enough to satisfy McHale. There is a belief that Howard doesn't like PnR. The Rockets have run it when the opposing team let's them so I take that argument with a grain of salt.
If that's the reason then McHale needs to go. What's the point of having guys that command double teams if your coach refuses to utilize the advantage. We had 3 competent 3pt shooters on the floor with Harden & Howard and yet we still didn't run the pick and roll? That doesn't pass the smell test. I'd understand your point if we had Rafer Alston, Ryan Bowen or Chuck Hayes on the floor with H&H but not when you have 3 shooters.
This isn't Kentucky basketball where the fans switch shirts with the whole second unit rolls in. Unfortunately, the reserves come in as the game allows it i.e fouls, etc. I do want to see Papa get in the game one way or another.
