Sorry I meant to reply to someone in this thread saying we had a good offense this year. We do not lol
I remember you creating your blog and talking about defense Since we have no defense, all we have to talk about is the lack of offense
The point I was trying to make is Harden isn’t spacing the floor. If he was, Alex Caruso wouldn’t be leaving him to hedge, almost double, the ball handler. It’s not that play in vacuum, it’s all the other plays before it - for years. This is a copycat league. One day the scouting report is going to be ‘you don’t need to stay tight to James Harden because once he gives the ball up he isn’t getting it back’. That’s a problem that starts and ends with him. Of course he isn’t a threat if he’s chilling at halfcourt, or if he’s not even facing the direction of the play.
That's part of the playbook though right. The imaginary line few feet away from the 3pt line, where the driver (in this case Harden), has an option to use the long airplane runway to drive to the hoop. Also a counter against double team traps. It's one of Rocket's options, that time was option B, a pass to penetrator (Wall, maybe too early). Caruso also made the right choice that time, to help on Wall. On some plays, where Harden is standing near the half court line, that's not disinterest, that's part of the game plan. One could argue the potency, but it's one of the wrinkles in the offense.
What exactly is Jeff Hornacek's role again? He has been a terrible coach for his entire career. Now he's doing what again?
wall has never been better than westbrook. im right, you're wrong once again. one is first ballot HOF, the other is not. those are the facts. could he be better than WB this season ? maybe but that is irrelevant. what is relevant is wall on the rockets, vs WB on the rockets. the supporting cast this year is probably better overall. Wall has the worst +/- on the roster. wall is a worse fit next to james than WB is. james and russ were the highest scoring duo OF ALL TIME. you can deny these FACTS if you want to, but that would just make you the MAGA of the basketball world.
PJ and Nwaba can't be on the floor at the same time. Only 1 non shooter can be on the floor against the Lakers. James has to get back on defense when he takes a 30 ft 3. You can't start Nwaba and Pj against Lakers. That allows 2 Lakers to not play defense. I would give Ben the starting spot over Nwaba. I come with Nwaba to replace PJ and Gordon in his normal rotation and whoever else shoots a decent 3 point percentage. The problem is EG is playing like crap... Boogie has to stay in the game heard wise.
If we want to play nit pick. After EGO getting the ball, he didn't have to drive right away. Caruso is just edging towards to side to build a small Lakers wall. They are respecting EGO's drive, and forcing EGO to his left. If EGO felt like both guys are committed to him, he could have also passed the ball back to Harden, for a running 3. There's a lot of what-ifs.
I think it's been a problem for years if not decades, but our shooting coach has gotta be one of the worst in the NBA. Everyone gets worse at 3's when they get here, and it's not like they aren't getting wide open looks either. I blame Keith Jones
If Gordon had any court vision, he would know that he shouldn't go against a double, and pass it out to Harden for a clean look at a 3. Harden is one step from his normal range.
My answer to this is when has Gordon or anyone else made that pass back to him??? How many times do you see dude's from that angle drive and have their man pass back. Like if the ball handler has no vision to make this pass than of course he's gonna help off the dude. If Harden steps a few feet closer and has a "shooting motion" is that magically gonna make Gordon's play making better? Gordon should have passed the ball back. But he had tunnel vision and didnt even register that second defender. I respect your opinion man. But I request a whole article detailing how this has hurt us over the past few years if at all. I would also ask how many guys in the NBA even make that pass back to the top of the key. Is If this is about making James Harden a floor spacer than these guys have to get it back to him as well. So far I've only seen Wall do find James anywhere and he has been hesitant to shoot these shots(Im guessing cause they are not in rhythm.
Dissecting the game is good because a loss is of no meaning if it didn't provide learning opportunities. This kind of stuff is interesting. I'd also say that NBA Basketball is played at such a high speed, that while we as fans have the benefit of video and replays to critique, it's tougher for players to see everything in real time. The hope is that we get some knowledge and maybe incremental improvement in tonight's game.
With 12 seconds left on the shot clock, I'm fine with EGO trying to force something, especially since Harden is seemed uninterested in the play. Caruso wasn't committed to the double team. He was only preventing EGO from driving to his right. If EGO had passed it back to Harden, then given how far away Harden was, Caruso would've had plenty of time to recover.
You’re both right about Gordon, he didn’t play this right either, but that doesn’t absolve harden. And I don’t think this is nitpicking, he does this multiple times per game and has been doing it for years. On the topic of harden shooting the three, he’s really not in position to shoot it, which is all I’m asking for, it’s not a tall order. And even when he is in position to shoot, he usually doesn’t, he holds the ball and lets the defense reset and recover. I’m not trying to go full fchowd here, I’m a fan of Harden. All I’m saying is he could really help out the offense if he made himself available as a catch and shoot player when other guards have the ball. He still gets to stand still, just stand in the right spot and take the shot if you’re open. It’s the same thing they all do when he has the ball.
LOL 12 second are you kidding me. That's absolutely enough time for a better play. He absolutely should have passed back here. The dude did this not once but a bunch of times. He drove into like 4 defenders without checking. He clearly didnt even look for anyone else in this play. Even if he had recovered gotten it back to him(doubtful), that's still a better play than him driving into 4 defenders. You are garbage at reading the game. And your bias is clear.
Turnovers did hurt us. Lakers had 16 we had 21. They were relentless in punishing our mistakes and converting on our TOs. TO's bunch of that was shared by Harden (7), Wall (4), and Eric (4). So our guards were not blameless. If the spacing needs correction then so be it. But things like player x looks 'disinterested' really isn't productive. Fans can say these things that's fine, but playing psychology isn't my cup of tea. If a player emote too much (Eric), we meme him in the gif. (sometimes deserving ), or Boogie (gets T-ed up). If guys like Harden, don't emote he's disinterested. No Rocket's facial expression seems to make CFers happy.
