The idea or belief behind our system is a new thing. It's recently invented. Whether it's good or not is another topic. I wont discuss it in this thread. However, the thing that really concerns me is that our coach and players are not wise enough to implement such idea. They shoot 3s at any time during the game, pretending it's part of our system. It's not true. When in the game we only need 2 points to secure a win, we should not force shooting 3s. When in the game we have to have 2 points to keep pressure on the other team, we should not force shooting 3s, etc. Example is that last game with LAC, we tried to hack Jordan and then we forced to shoot 3s in order to catch up. But it didnt work out. However, take a look at Spur's yesterday game with LAC. They tried to hack Jordan as well. And they caught up easily twice (at 2nd quarter and 4th quarter) by taking 2s and 3s wisely. Triangle offense was not invented by Phil. Phil is the guy who is wise enough to enhance and implement it in the correct way. I am not sure our coach and players are doing it correctly.
I get that Morey is responsible for getting subpar shooters but it's up to McHale to either abandon the philosophy or adapt as he sees fit. To just blindly follow Morey's instructions or however they went about this ridiculous notion of an offense, is beyond stupid. You can say okay, we can try to get as many threes and FTs as possible fine. But if game after game after game you shoot 20-35% and mainly due to ill-advised, early shot clock and high volume of shots, you need to address that. McHale has not done anything to address this, which is mind boggling.
I don't care whose fault it is. All I know is that relying on the 3 pointer to the degree of which Houston are doing is not condusive to sustained success in the playoffs.
They're not running any set plays most of the time though. It's too much ISO offense. And it's not like there's a law saying you have to take 3-point shots only. Why are none of these guys attempting 18-20 footers?
Agreed that there's too much ISO, but in the end it comes down to if they hit their 3s or not. If they'd hit em with a respectable percentage there's be no issue.
Once again, no 3pt shooters on the roster shoot above 40%. Another seasons being a "3pt shooting team". This is a 3pt shooting team but not a 3pt making team. Josh Smith is shooting 3s better than Ariza. That's just embarrassing
Not all threes are equal. If we shot threes in a more varied offense and got better looks via paint penetration, we would shoot a higher percentage. Running up the court and jacking up a contested shot, or two guys passing back and forth on the perimeter is not a good play, and sometimes we do this for minutes at a time. For this reason, it's McHale's fault. Also, last night we were bricking everything in the paint as well. It was a brickfest.
From what I've seen there's nothing really wrong with the Rockets system per se, players are just bricking their shots. I watched the game and although the Rox got buried, a lot of the threes they took were wide open, the problem is everyone just didn't convert their shots. I don't always agree with Tinman, but he's right here the Rox are playing a 3 pt reliant system but their 3 pt shooters are crap so no wonder we get our ass handed to us by GSW (essentially running the same system but with better 3 pt shooters) everytime. In cases like that the Rox need to have a plan "B", hanging your hat on defense is nice in theory but you should also have lockdown players to do it, and in our case Bev has been playing like hot garbage on both offense and defense lately. I also agree Mchale needs to react better when this happens rather than keep relying on Harden to come up with an MVP performance every night. I think the Rox also need to intensify their practices, do some more 3 pt shooting drills and have personalized 3 pt shooting lessons from the assistant coaches. You can't have Harden generating open looks just to have everyone brick every open 3 pt shot.
I don't really think it's McHale's fault that the 3s aren't falling. The Rockets just don't have the personnel. Harden and Terry are the only ones I'd call above average 3 point shooters.
The problem is that we aren't shooting the type of 3s we are supposed to shoot. Most of the threes we take nowadays are, what I like to call, "forced 3s". These are 3s that we really shouldn't take; 3s when we have a lay-up opportunity or 3s early in the shot clock that are mildly contested. I can't tell you how many times I've seen DMo pass up his automatic 8 foot hook to pass to the corner for a three. DMo is shooting almost 60% on his hook shots, so unless he is passing to Kyle Korver in the corner, the hook shot is a much better percentage. It's not just DMo, but all our players rather pass it out for a three than go for an open lay-up, it seems. The Money/Morey-Ball ideology is this: 1st - Points in the paint 2nd - Points off of free throws 3rd - Points from open, uncontested and preferably corner threes. Three point shots are third on that list for a reason, mostly because those first two are more sustainable than chucking threes. This team's problem is that we prioritize three point shots first rather than easier lay-ups or getting to the line. There have been some games were we have shoot more that 60% of our total shots from three. Even if you have a good three point shooting team, that's not a very sustainable way to generate points for a season. The Rockets are a below average three point shooting teams so night were we rely so much on the three can spell disaster. The priority must always be getting easy lay-ups. Always. Earlier this season we were doing exactly that. Looking for easy lay-ups then shoot the threes, and our offense was just amazing (remember at that first Heat game). Now, if there is a somewhat open 3 point shot we are taking it, even if there is a possible lay-up available.
Very Intelligent post! Again tho it's the coaches job to deal Dmo to stop making that pass or to make sure we are going hard to the rack before anything else,...it's an indictment on the coaching of Kevin McHale that its not getting done.
Therein lies the problem, as you've stated. Games are won or lost one at a time. I'd like to see some standard deviations on this tactic. If 50% from 2 has a small deviation, you take that over 33% from 3 with a large standard deviation. The Rockets have a large standard deviation on threes, I'm sure. It's 20% one night and 46% the next night. That's 33% on average, assuming, for example purposes, they take the same number of threes in both games. (In reality, just by watching them, it seems like they take even MORE attempts per game when they're shooting 20%.) No team will ever win a championship like this.
Yep. It just seems like our guys go out there and play however they want. The strategy RocketsJumer described makes sense, and the lack of implementation of it explains a lot. People always seem to discount the influence of coaching in professional sports. It's ironic that any Houstonian would do this, since mediocre coaching lines up extremely well with mediocre performance or underperformance in all 3 big Houston sports teams. My thinking has always been that a coach is there first and foremost to make sure his players play at their full potential. It's more psychological than it is drawing up plays and making in-game decisions. Here's an example: why does this team continue to start games slowly or ease up when they get a big lead? Why? Why do they consistently rank in the darkest depths of league in turnovers? Why do they pass up open shots? This is a player performance management problem, and that means it's a coaching problem.
What Rockets team are you watching? We run plenty of sets and lots of PnR. You think the Spurs are running "set plays" or they are doing exactly what we are doing with better spacing and more effectively?
Maan, I felt the same way. But then Rick would not allow Morey to impose his "Basket ball mind". No wonder he had to leave.
