we have our running to tire big men out . Big teams have size to wear smaller guys bodies down . (Ie we have to be operating at a heightened level to box out , take bumps etc) I would like to find out if we have a another player ( in addition to gordon) that can operate with a unit at say 85% and keep the pace up while putting up good fight on D ... I think with Luc AND Carroll that you have a 50/50 shot that one of them is playable . Imo extra depth will be key to us to sustain the pace .... anyways , I think that was the plan with Gordon . I don’t think MDA was lying about his plans for him . He looked better in that last preseason game before he got hurt . Instead of the 2 headed monster with james and Russ you had like a 2.5 headed monster with Eric able to take the lethality over the top . Hopefully that can still happen . I mean I’m not optimistic , but I am hopeful . The ankle injury didn’t look too bad , but , unfortunately I have to say this ... We are talking about Gordon . If he can come up big for us all will be forgiven and more . I like tucker and green house and Roco .. but can you imagine if you added a 85-90 percent luc or Carroll . Carroll is the perfect scrappy rebounder . Luc , if he’s even a she’ll of his former self defensively then he can be a secret weapon on 1-2’s using his length to shut them down . I wouldn’t be so hopeful of them contributing if they were former OFFENSIVE players , but they don’t have to worry about honing any of those old skills . Just learn to shoot and get your body right for defense / learn the scheme and communicate ... both are veterans . They don’t have to be prime stoppers anymore , just be solid . I think depth is our best way of trying to shore up our size weakness . Other teams are gonna throw bodies at harden to try to slow him down . Or we just make like 50% of our threes and put other teams away
More post points are not the answer. Rockets want teams to post up, they bait them to do it. Why? Simple math. 3>2
Not in our 2017-2018 season when we pushed GSW to 7 games in WCF. He had a 9 man rotation until CP3 and Nene went down.
I've skimmed through this thread since this morning and some good post. To reiterate height isn't everything but it is a truism in the NBA that you can't teach height. A taller player just makes it easier to get rebounds and defend the basket. That doesn't mean a short lineup can't do those things but it requires more effort getting into position because you're counting on beating the other player to position rather than just being able to reach over them. As other posters noted the Rockets are playing great crunch time D but this type of D requires a lot of energy. There is a cost to expending so much energy on D and that could take a toll on three point shooting. Tucker is a good shooter but it wouldn't surprise me if all of the energy he was expending on the other end of the court defending their bigs. I like what another poster wrote, "The Rockets are really good at playing bad D". This is a risky unorthodox strategy but if the Rockets can make it work that will be great.
We got some good timely shots from Tucker and Covington but neither have been in good offensive form. When we were on D the Bucks still took it too us inside.
Neither the Mavs game or the Bucks game was anywhere close to a Rockets perfect game. This a false assertion. In fact the Rockets did not play at their best, putting together a complete game, and still beat the #1 offense and #1 defense in consecutive games. I agree that a short rotation is dangerous considering the effort required, especially on defense, but using this as reason why Rockets are not contenders to win it all reeks of sour grapes. Because the solution is simple, expand the rotation. Which will happen once EGo returns taking it from 8 to 9. And if Luc gets back to form or Demarre gains D'Antoni's confidence, that is possible 10 man rotation. But it always comes down to Harden and Russ, these 2 players minutes cannot be replaced. Expanding the end of your bench will not win any team a championship. Put aside your anti-smallball anti-MDA agenda for a little while and enjoy this ride. This team is special.
If their shots were falling per their average then the Rockets would have cratered the Bucks. Bucks got lucky.
Pretty small sample size. This team also lost 4 in a row to the Clippers and 3 scrubs. Beating the Bucks is encouraging - don't get me wrong. It says something especially since we weren't nearly as competitive in the last 3 match-ups. And while there are some things to like, there's also question marks that people have raised in this thread. The Rockets can clearly play some very good defense. But the questions are 1. Can they maintain that kind of defensity intensity for a series 2. Is it enough to overcome the horrid number of defensive rebounds 3. Does it hurt their offensive game? 4. Will teams make adjustments that further exploit the small line up? Ultimately, I don't think these questions will be answered until the playoffs.
the article is awesome The Rockets are so fast, athletic, and in spots, smart defensively that they almost generate turnovers by accident. Covington isn't even looking at the ball on this steal. He's just moving quickly and keeping his arms up.
Not complaining about it at all. It's the ideal strategy for us. Just wish had some additional defenders where we wouldn't have that weakness. Unfortunately, guys like Covington don't grow on trees. Even a healthy Luc from a couple of years ago would help us big time.
