A few seasons ago, when the Rockets were all-in on Moreyball, they were frequently made fun of. Only 3's, layups, free throws?!?! LOL "That might work in the regular season, but just wait until the playoffs!" Well they had more success against the GSW + KD in the playoffs than other team did...by far. They outplayed a team with superior talent, the most stacked team of all-time actually, and were a BS unlucky injury away from really showing everyone our system was the real deal. We had a hidden secret that made us greater than the sum of our parts. Fast forward to 2020, now everyone has basically copied Moreyball. Even down to the D'antoni Steve Nash style offense, with one player as the main ball handler and a bunch of supporting cast players. In fact Dallas put up the best offense of all-time, with a poor man's James Harden and a bunch of shooters. That was basically our strategy. So now that everyone has caught up to us analytically, give or take, we've actually regressed! I don't even have to mention our "superstar" player that shoots a bunch of inefficient mid rangers, and shoots below 30% from 3-pt. Meanwhile, everyone else has progressed while we've stagnated and even gotten worse in terms of efficiency. And I really don't know where to go from here. Even though 33 year old CP3 was overpaid, he was still a very efficient player, and the Rockets still had an edge analytically. Now with no discernible Moreyball advantage, and an avg efficiency 2nd best player, I'm not super optimistic at all going forward. This is not an overreaction to Westbrook being terrible in the bubble. He caught covid, missed a bunch of play time and practice, and had a quad injury. We gotta give him a break. It was impressive he was at least playing and looking OK physically. But even during his breakout run at the start of 2020, he wasn't THAT good. If a high PPG on 57% TS for a couple months is some sort of world class amazing run, let's compare that to James Harden the first couple months of the year...who averaged 38 PPG on 64% TS. With Russ playing well while attacking 4 on 3's while James gets doubled, and revolving an entire lineup to suit his strengths...we get a guy at slightly above average efficiency on an inflated PPG total? Uh ok...yeah that's really worth all the trouble lol. Even under best case scenario circumstances, I just don't see the value Russ' adds that he needs to compared to other 2nd stars on a team. Unless we can trade Russ for some elite role players who can actually shoot and punish the double team, this team is going absolutely nowhere no matter how we try to put a positive spin on it.
Mostly 3s and layups but not consistent enough. With the smaller lineup, the undersized dudes are quicker with firm hands to get steals and help defend.... Low turnovers and forcing opponents into mistakes - the team has done well limiting TOs in certain games. This style of play is too taxing.
The league is doing what we did now it’s time to change and make them catch us yet again. A healthy Westbrook looks completely different then what we saw in the playoffs. It becomes a numbers game to our advantage. I truly believe we did not win a championship this year because coach would not develop young talent, so we don’t have a bench. A player like Green (yes he is an older player but one that has passed around the league) comes in and gives us a huge adjustment/advantage. If there was several other options to choose from on the bench how good could we be?
Our competitive advantage is James Harden. Stylistically, We need to basically get personnel that better suits what we are trying to do and better supports our stars. Playing Eric Gordon at SF is not going to cut it. There is small-ball, and there is insanity. Russ was going bananas before his injury and while some people want to pretend that never happened, I have faith that he will bounce back. He needs to get the mid-range going again. We could really use a JaMychal Green type that can legitimately clean the glass, switch and also provide spacing. Basically Jeff Green, but an elite rebounder. I’d sell my soul for JaMychal on this team.
tillmen and his sons' leadership will be our advantage for decades to come. laugh now, the nba better hold on to their butts tho.
By playing 5 out and making everyone a threat on offense. By switching everything so everybody can guard anybody. By playing small so we have a speed advantage. HOWEVER all of that goes out the window the moment the opposition plays a Center that can match our speed and also big enough to punish us on the defensive end. Basically this midget ball has 0 chance against Anthony DAvis or Giannis. We match up fine against every team except Lakers or Bucks imo.
If we want to go small, we have to have a better fight in us. We can’t roll over so easily. Also, we can find taller players that can play the same style. It’s a little late now, seeing as we basically stuck with this team now.
As much as I griped and joked about his performance in the playoffs, a healthy Russ gives us a huge advantage in terms of changing up the way we play offensively. It's like a contrast of styles between Harden's pull up 3s and Russ' ability to attack the basket. Like you know what they're going to do but if you can't stop it then it becomes more unpredictable because they can make the passes to find an open man for the 3. Unfortunately this relies on the team to play their absolute best...which is the same thing we had to rely on a couple of years ago against Golden State. We need all of our players to execute everything to perfection in order to succeed/win. Having to do that every game is definitely taxing. Other teams can have their star player have an off night and still be good enough to win...we don't have that luxury as our margin for error is razor thin.
We've had literally years of first hand evidence to show Harden just needs to be surrounded by 3&D players. So naturally Tilman blows our immediate future getting a player who is the complete opposite of that meaning we have no way of bettering the team. I think our competitive advantage is Tilman Fertitta. We will be so bad under his ownership, teams may take pity on us and think they'll rock up for easy wins moving forward, and we may be able to jag a win against the better teams.
Was there something wrong with his brain? Possibly affecting his hand eye coordination, his sight, or his decision making skills? Thats sad to hear.
there is no competitive advantage...the Rockets keep going from gimmick to gimmick if you’re top 5 offensively and defensively and don’t have some huge weakness like not having any bigs, then u are good enough to win a title bring a big man in here, and get a coach that is a great tactician...the offense has been too simplistic, and the “we don’t have to change anything, we just gotta hit shots or do what we do, but better” attitude has been a consistent fail if the next coach is just a Moreyball puppet, I’m gonna be pissed GM’s gotta damn offense named after him like he’s the coach, and he brings in low skill role players and inconsistent brick layers to run it...
Our competitive advantage was supposed to be small ball - if we play our small lineup and the other team plays traditional centers, we get an advantage. The problem is that other teams immediately figure out to just not play those guys and the advantage is gone. Now we are left without one. Small ball only works when the other team plays big unskilled centers. If the other team matches us then the team with more talent will win, and unfortunately, that’s not us.
The mid-season Westbrook was rolling at an all time personal high. That speaks volumes because he was a MVP. IMO, your are right because his actions looked like his mind was telling his body to do things it couldn’t do = turn over OR silly foal. The normal Westbrook plays so much better than what we witnessed. He seemed to always be a step ahead of were he was overthinking himself, his kinetics we’re just a mess.
Whatever edge they gain by way of style, they seem willing to return in regards to roster building. By never developing talent. Covington returning in trade for the last developed Rocket (Capela, which should be its own indictment) is just some neon, flashing warning to stop relying on guys who bounce in and out of other rotations. GreenS, manimal, and so on. Landingan offseason free agent is one thing, even being able to add a mid season free agent but it shouldn’t be saving your rotation...which is fatally relying on 6 guys anyway. Herculean effort from 6, a middling veteran “savior” and the already on-board reclamation projects rivers and McLemore barely seeing thefloor. Dare we ask how Lebron, the walking basketball biotech, was able to 4-1 us? Stupid rotations, little in-game strategy and zero development of almost anyone. D’Antoni quit 2 years ago.
The rest of the league doesn’t follow morey ball, they don’t completely eliminate non threes or paint shots. I don’t understand why you people on here don’t get this. When they watch a rockets and non-rockets game there’s a huge different in style of play and shot selection
Rockets basketball ball is too predictable. They do not shoot mid range shots even they’re wide open. Keep shooting those desperate long threes.
