It appears lately that the Rockets have not been running the same offense that have in the past under Mchale. From the beginning under Mchale, the offense was a pick n roll/motion offense. McHale in interviews before the season started said that on offense the players should be moving at all times. We were repeated ly told how effective Lin and Harden were last year in the Pick n Roll. However, it seems as though the current offense is more of isolation offense. Is this by design? The following article suggests that Harden and Lin's success in isolation last year may have caused the Rockets to believe that they could be successful in isolation this season. http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/category/_/name/espn-stats-info As we can all see the Isolation offense has not been successful for the Rockets this season. But why the change in offense, and why the drastic increase in isolation plays? Has Sampson changed the offense? Is it simply bad strategy? Was this the planned offense for this season? Are the players not sticking to the coaches plans? Is there a problem with the offensive abilities with the personel personnel?
The Rockets ball movement since Kelvin Sampson took over has improved a lot. Perticularly since the Miami game the Rockets have moved the ball extreamly well and cut down on the turnovers a lot. The offense as a whole has improved under Sampson as well. The team does tend to fall into isolation plays towards the end of games but that has been standerd for the Rockets and other teams for years. At the end of quarters and games one guy regardless if that guy is Steve Francis, TMac, Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry or James Harden will bring the ball across the half court line dribble seconds off the clock and go one on one for the last shot.
If we were tanking, Lin, Harden and/or Asik wouldn't play as many minutes as they do and TJoFs would be satisfied because Jones would get playing time. We are heading for .500 or just below basketball, the same as last season and the season before and the season before.
The rockets are currently league average in the nba on offense. With one star player and a center with a range of 1 feet. Did people really expect us to be better? And by us I mean the Rockets as a team, not Jeremy Lin.
They are right where I expected and predicted - and got flamed pretty hard for saying. The best thing this team can do is just let the young guys play and lose.
