After watching many years of Wall spoonfeed Gortat, I am perplexed by this too. Not sure why they don't run them, Wood is a beast of a lob threat. Would generate much more efficient offense at the beginning and end of games instead of those long bricks.
If Wood was more involved he could easily avg. Between 25- 28 pts a game...maybe even more...Wood is special
Yea Wall and Victor are using isos too much and not enough pnr. Haven’t seen many or any lobs that I can recall.
Wall is playing like a Mini Westbrook. Silas has to put a stop to this. Dipo drove the ball better to the basket. Wood played well on offense with control.
I think we were spoiled by Harden being immediately able to create a connection with a big man in a PnR. Wood needs some sand in his pants to set a meaningful screen too. Setting a good pick is real important for a PnR to be effective and I'm just not seeing him set great ones. Dude needs to put on some kgs
Its a little frustrating that there isn't as much movement in the offense when John is in the game. I really hope Silas works with him more on getting him to move the ball more.
I was watching for this last night also and saw many missed opportunities where Wood was wide open on the role at the rim. I noticed in the clips with Gortat that Wall almost always passes immediately while Marcin was rolling, vs Harden who would drive and pass at the last second for a lob. So it’s possible Wood isn’t looking for the early pass and/or Wall can’t throw the late one well. Hopefully they work it out quickly.
Defenses are going under every Wall PnR, clogging the lane and making it difficult to penetrate. It's partially on the big to get better angles either on the drop, or two flare in front of the on ball defender instead. Wall has to consistently take and make those jumpers imo for there to be a significant change in efficiency moving forward.
A little thing called chemistry. Learning the plays, where teammates like to/and will be at, consistency in fine tuning. I did mention it usually takes a month or two to get use to one another. Factor in time missed with Wall being out two years.......Covid isolation to start the season followed by Knee discomfort. Wood doesn’t set a solid screen like Gortat and then seal his man off. But give it time. It’s not like the movies where one bullet kills each man/woman instantly or in basketball movies where chemistry on the court happens in two seconds. This is real time and real life. Now if everything was iso, then that would be a little different. Wall-Gortat were together for years. Show me clips only of the first month of them together.
Hopefully it’s just a chemistry thing and PT together will help, because I agree it could be utilized heavily.
They have logged in 181 minutes together Ranked 2nd on the Rockets in two-man combinations. Only behind Wall-Tucker (mins) https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/walljo01/lineups/2021
It seems like they are preferring the pick and pop instead of pick and roll. Not sure why. Maybe it’s bc 3 is greater than 2
it will come. Wood is just not as strong as Gortat. Also Wall seems to want to score 1st Pass 2nd. Rocket River
I did notice Wood doesn't really set a real screen, he cheats on it and dives to the hoop. The thing is Harden is great with those situations because the opponent usually traps Harden and he just lops it into the lane to Wood. Opponents usually go under the screen against Wall, or just do a switch and theres no opportunity for penetration