i am so f.....CONCERNED by the horrible FT shooting of the Bigs this can be sadly the difference in the games honestly the team has a lot improved defensively and Harden is playing ala Lebron Cavs, but in close games, teams will catch us or win against us by Hacking Whoever Big
If you can find a way to double team both harden and howard hoping no one else goes off like Brewer/Smith/Ariza/DMO or Jones or Terry sure
I think Golden State is in for a rude awakening come playoff time as teams play one another differently
Last playoff spot. Capella and doresy should have a free throws battle at the end of the regular season.
DMO and Jones shoot it well enough, where no one is going to employ hack-a-Motiejunas or hack-a-Jones. Dwight is the only one that may be hacked. That's not too big a hurdle for the team... just look at Clippers (Deandre), GS (Bogut).
He has the record for the longest stretch for a NBA player to start his career 0-15 Gotta make your free throws fellas! Dorsey and Capela won't see the floor if we have a healthy Howard, Jones, D-MO, Smith back. Howard is bad and will get HACKED. Sometimes it will hurt us sometimes he'll get in a small rhythm and we'll be ok. The rest are really not bad enough to flat out HACK. But their overall percentage would lead me to coach against them with the mentality to play them very physical on defense, make them earn it. If they go to the line so what just don't give them easy shots. If I saw Dorsey or Capela go to the scorers table I sub in my LAST guy and tell him to foul every time till he is out of the game.
play Dorsey at the beginning of quarters to get us in the bonus faster if they start hacking in fact I wonder if teams could be baited into doing this
To be honest fellas Dorsey has been rebounding his @ss of lately. It's a shame that we will have to keep him on the bench in the playoffs for fear that his FT shooting will hurt us more than his rebounding can help.
Howard was capable of hitting 55 % or something at the end of last season. Then he missed a few near the end of Game 1 vs. Portland, McHale panicked, took him out, and the Rockets were bad on offense AND defense down the stretch. The important thing, other than for no-hopers like Dorsey and Capela - is to just keep it up. A guy who shoots 55% is going to have stretches where he misses 3 or 4 straight. He'll also have stretches where he makes both.
Lord help us if we play the Mavs. Carlisle will employ his pu**y tactics in the first half and make the games unwatchable. TNT or whomever is carrying the game will refuse because they're going to take 6 hours to play. I understand the theory and you do whatever is necessary to win. I still think it's a weak ass thing to do and it tells that coach's team that they're not good enough to win by actually playing basketball. If I were a player on that team, I'd be pissed.
Batman, as always thanks for all your insight! Do you know why the rockets don't employ shooting guru for the free throws, like the ones that the Spurs etc have? Or even Calvin or some other noted free throw people. Or do they already hire them (and if so, frankly they need new ones because the results are not translating). I agree this and health are our two Achilles heels going into the playoffs.
I kind of hope it's employed a lot by Carlisle or whoever plays the Clippers, and the league does something about the Hack-a by giving them 3 to make 2 FT's when it's not in the last 2 minutes or something like that.
We should use it to our advantage against those coaches, bait them into going into the penalty to hack a shaq, then put harden in and remove the FT liability and tell him to drive each trip down.
We need Harden in at the same time because he's our biggest offensive threat to force the defense to employ hack-a-whoever. FT shooting will be our weakest game. I hate how McHale plays scared and immediately pulls any big that misses a couple of FTs. He needs to allow them to get a rhythm. The best chance of the rule being modified is if we play the Clippers and we hack-a-Jordan, they hack-a-Dwight/Smith. The game will become a mockery of FT shooting and would take extra hours. The rule does need to be changed. Maybe 1 technical FT and possession after X amount of away-from-the-ball fouls.
It could cost us a game, but if teams are fouling you and sending you to the line, it usually means they're in trouble. All we need is for Dwight to be 50-60 percent. Same for Josh, and they are both capable of that.
The Rockets as a team hit 71% from the line which is about 4-5% less than where we would like them to be. Having said that, the Rockets go to the line more than almost anyone in the league, and with the missed free throws the Rockets are still in the top 3 for made free throws this season. It is a concern, and there have been games where the Rockets miss a higher number than you would like....... but the reality is that a good free throw shooting team makes 1 in 20 more free throws than the Rockets, and that is with the mutant twins (Capela and Dorsey) inside. Personally I think the high turnovers and fouls are more of a concern.
