When everything was on the line it’s hard to go out and trust guys, especially Faried. We were already getting outrebounded, Faried would not help, already having defensive breakdowns Faried would not help, you’re basically asking D’Antoni to just be desperate and just put him in there just for the sake of it. These were all close games mind you. We were taking the most 3 pointers I. The league when Mchale was here, I think Morey and D’Antoni probably are made for each other and work together. Ultimately we don’t know how much is either Morey or D’Antoni, what we do know is that the system does work, and that we needed better players for defensive purposes.
OP, I am not sure what your point is. Of course Morey doesn't force MDA what to do. But you don't think the style is rooted from Morey's analyitcs? You don't think MDA was hired because he bought into it? You don't think MDA and Morey talked about this? That said, I don't blame Morey for our style. His statistical input is valuable. One thing Morey lacks is basketball instinct. He is not a basketball guy. He doesn't know how players feel. He doesn't know how chemistry on the court develops. This is the job of the coach. The coach is responsible for the mental aspects of the players. And the players are responsible for executing what the coach instructs.
There's nothing wrong with Moreyball. The problem is the coach. We had enough players to beat the Warriors but MDA refused to fully utilize his depth and stupidly and stubbornly stuck with Capela despite zero evidence that he was playable against the Hampton's 5 What Morey needs to do is to fire D'Antoni and replace him with someone that 100% buys into his stats and uses them for every decision, including who gets minutes, who should be starting, etc. Just a basic search on +/- and net rating data would've told MDA that Austin Rivers should have been playing WAY more minutes than Capela.
I agree it's hard to separate out "blame" One point tho .... I think MDA was a les hire and not Moreys first choice . But I'm not sure where I heard that or if it was true
What if you were saying D'Antoni was trash even in wins? Gerald Green should have never played a single postseason minute.
Gerald was crap, there is no denying it. But if he gets hot he can win you ball games with his shooting. House was not ready, that’s it. He looked scared the whole time. Did D’Antoni make some mistakes yea he did, but no coach is perfect. He also contributed to us even getting to 6 games in the first place.
I believe analytics are vital to creating a championship team, but I also believe Morey has misapplied analytics and has therefore given it a bad rap. For instance, if Morey noticed that people tend to carry umbrellas every time it rained, he’d probably conclude umbrellas cause rain. Mistaking correlation with causation. Obviously that was an exaggerated analogy, but I sincerely believe that’s where he went wrong with the Rockets all these years.
Yup. You can’t run MDA’s fast pace, free flowing offense with beautiful ball movement when you relegate CP3 (one of the GOAT pgs) to a secondary ball handler/playmaker because the ball being in Harden’s hands 90% of the time is somehow a requirement and the only way it has to be. Go back and watch some of the Suns games or highlights from their run with MDA. They were a well oiled offensive machine, very unselfish guys that ran and moved the rock. There’s plenty of highlights where his Suns team would run and get buckets with all 5 guys touching the ball with nobody even taking a single dribble. You can’t run a MDA offense with Harden walking the ball up the court and dribbling the clock down to 7 seconds which in turn makes it a half court game ..... before he finally decides to make his move. How you gonna get a layup or an open 3 when you burn the clock down and give opposing defense all the time in the world to get set. And it’s not like we have a post player so we’re playing a half court game with a slim chance of getting a high percentage shot. Seems legit. Problem is CP3 and MDA both defer to Harden. Nobody holds him accountable for anything. The last time somebody did it was ****ing Kevin McHale out of all people. He decided to bench Harden in the 4th quarter game 6 against the Clippers and we miraculously came back to win with TEAM BASKETBALL. He had the balls to bench Harden in the most crucial time cause he was struggling and that decision took us to the WCF. I don’t mind MDA but he’s a p***y when it comes to holding Harden accountable.
I'm just going to leave this little nugget here: This is when Rivers came in. If you don't see the problem with that and still want to believe Morey and or MDA are not actively instructing players how to play then you're in denial. Sure, Rivers can still take a mid-range two of course, but when you don't practice then your confidence in them obviously goes down and it just doesn't feel right when you consistently practice long range shots and lay-ups. That's just a simple truth.
nothing wrong with Moreyball...the problem is that we have chosen to implement it via slow paced ISO ball instead of via ball movement and uptempo play The Bucks implemented Moreyball. They went from 25th to 2nd in 3 point attempts per game, and they reduced their midrange attempts from 17 last year down to just 8 a game this year which was the 4th fewest in the league. As a result, they climbed up to 4th in the league in offensive efficiency. “I think there’s a lot of focus on how many 3s [we are taking], but hopefully we’re having the best of everything,” Budenholzer said to The Athletic. “If you’re an efficient offense, you’re getting to the basket. You’re getting to the paint. You’re getting to the free-throw line. And you’re shooting a bunch of 3s.” Coach Bud is describing Moreyball to a T.
The lack of off ball movement is on MDA, and the pace is on Harden/Paul. Before we implemented any of it, it was a good idea to try. It didn't work out, so now we change. No need for blame. We could have won the title last season. It was the most successful strategy among all teams except the Warriors.
I hate to say this but aren't we all overreacting？ I mean yes we lost in the second round, but we lost to the defending champion in 6 games where each game could have gone either way, the total points difference in 6 games were merely 10 points. We are still one of the elite teams in the west and had we matched up against Denver or Portland we could have finished them off in 5 or 6 games. This system ****ing works alright, I don't give a **** about whether other fans or BSPN panelists like it or not. It works. We are a perennial title contender because of it and we just need to figure out how to beat a stacked team that has 5 all-stars on their roster.
Good point, but they have Giannis and very solid 3pt shooters, bigs who can spread the floor. Also, I highly doubt they don't instruct their guys not to take certain shots and Budenholzer is simply a great coach. The problem is not analytics or using data as Morey is doing, it's indeed how. The fact we're not running more aligns with what data shows and is common sense: lessen the amount of possessions, lessen the amount of passes and slowing it down decreases (chance at) turnovers. Also iso ball is backed up by data as both Harden and CP3 are masters at it and have a Point per Shot that's higher than any shot in the league I believe. Still, there's ways to diversify, lessen the load on Harden and actually adjust, but with MDA and our guys I don't see that happening. Tell Harden to run more, move more, after that crazy usage rate and he'll tell you to f- off and he'd have a point.
like I said, there’s nothing wrong with Moreyball...the Bucks do it, they just implement it in a different way, and they’ve found major success Tell Harden to start taking stepbacks from midrange while he shot 39% on stepback threes during the regular season and 44% on them during the postseason (31-71), and he’ll tell u to F-off. Matter of fact, it seems like he already has. anyways, we’re spending so much time talking about midrange shots when the Rockets were trash at defensive rebounding and could not contain Steph and Klay when it mattered most...they also just lack high end talent Why are we expecting Harden and a bunch of role players to win a title? Morey got some work to do. If u want to diversify, then bring in the talent to be able to do so. CJ McCollum is elite from midrange. KD is too. The Rockets have CP3 who takes them and Harden who is ok at it but has substituted it with stepback threes.
Yes, the Bucks did and have, but I don't see the Rockets adjusting all of a sudden. They're not suddenly going to change the way they play and you can make a good case Morey in combination with MDA have gone overboard with analytics to the point of not looking at context. Of course it helps that Harden is your star, but that shouldn't have stopped MDA from diversifying our offense to include some more ball and body movement, putting Harden on the block for that mid-range step back he was deadly at in 2015 under McHale. It's about more than winning a championship at this point, it's a philosophy and belief that basketball should be played a certain way. Rebounding, turnovers, defense are maybe higher on the priority list to work on, but to me it starts at the top.
