[I'm ignorant] Educate me on Silas' offensive system

Neither KPJ and Green can consistently make passes that Luka or Harden makes. Wood is also the king of tunnel vision a lot of the times.

Sengun is kinda playing the Kelly role from last year, but hes the only one actively setting off ball screens, and constantly surveying the floor.

Our young guys are in desperate need of guidance, not sure of this freelancing the offense is good with rookies.

 

ALL OF THIS!

 

ALL OF THIS AS WELL

 

Instead of just taking on Sekou’s salary and then cutting him, I wish they would have used that TE on an intelligent veteran that could sit on the bench next to these kids and talk to them about what he is seeing. Someone who might have coaching aspirations after their career is over.

 

It doesn't look like a "system" to me, much more like a handful of sets.

• We seem to be spacing players around the court to create driving lanes with an occasional 2-man game pick and roll action (both on the side of the court and in the middle).
• We did line up with players catching the ball in the high post, but we seemed to be waiting on them to drive and kick.
• "Chemistry" in this approach involves the players stumbling through games and experimenting with what works in these given sets, based on personal strengths and personnel groupings.
• It wasn't until the 4th quarter group (Exum at the point, J Christopher, Brooks, K Martin, and Sengun/Garuba) that the Rockets had any sense of how to complement each other on the court. That was a long, long wait.
• I'm not sure that starting group knew what the sets were or how to stay out of each other's way. They were running @Tuckankhamun's revolutionary zone offense. LOL.

This is one of those things that I fail to understand about Pro basketball. So few teams pass and cut. Since we have a young team (and one with international players who are used to having to move on offense) why settle for stagnant, predictable sets? Why not, as a coach, install three or four options rather than letting the players wander around and try to figure it out? Is that too insulting to the psyche of the professional?

We are learning that Jalen Green has a steady catch-and-shoot game rather than simply a create-off-the-dribble approach. He'll need more "sets" to play to that strength. Maybe Silas will consider a set that simultaneously calls for staggered screens for Green on the far side of the court and pick and roll for KPJ on the near side.

 

I miss Rick Adelman so much.

DD

 

With Wall not playing anymore, someone has to take over the Tank Commander role on this team. Who better than the coach? It's pretty easy to lose games if you have no structure in place on either side of the floor.

In all seriousness, though, I was thinking the same thing watching the game last night, but I'm willing to give him a larger sample size now that he's got some core pieces in place and some legitimate talent on the roster. Given how young they are, Silas probably has a pretty long leash to fail (and might even be encouraged to lose). But if they're not developing chemistry and look out of sync like this midway through the season, I do think you have to start asking yourself if this is the right guy to lead this rebuilding core moving forward.

 

Ah the ole NBA Jam "HES ON FIRE!" offense.

Except you only have to tell yourself that. And no one has to hear you.

 

It’s pre-season. We don’t have John Wall orchestrating the offense and we don’t really have a real point guard right now.

I hope a lot of you are beginning to realize this is a going to be a bad team.

 

DJ Augustine is a real PG. Dante Exum is a real (bad) PG.

DD

 

From today's Athletic article from Iko:

"Last season, Silas spoke often about ‘random offense’, the ability to create points out of chaos. Oftentimes, that chaos comes when the opponent can’t get settled defensively and is being attacked. This is just what the coaching staff wants to see."

Shall we coin this the Random Offense?

To be fair, I think this is only one aspect of the coaching staff's approach, not the entirety of it. In any case, this team is not ready to run anything approaching a dangerous NBA offense yet. They're still learning to see the floor. I'm more worried about the defense, personally.

 

rookies gonna rot on the bench

 

Be sad (and a bit ironic) if Sengun's growth is stunted being on this NBA team with this staff. While othe NBA players same age, gets better faster than him and rest of our rookies.

Chemistry is nice but what is that in measurable terms. If team plays bad because of lack of structure, could it be misinterpreted as bad chemistry.

Also an early answer Silas gave before preseason about having to shorten the video sessions because of young kids and attention span bothered me. In early days of any profession, you study more (not less). Don't want to overwhelm but still have to push them. Set mini goals for them to reach.

 

1v5 on offense. Everyone has their own personal goal and the coach is praying it all works itself out. And on defense, someone needs to get fired.

 

Mavs with Luka had 33 wins in their first season.
Cavs had 35 wins first season with Lebron.
Warriors had 26 wins first season with Curry.

I'm not defending Silas the schemer, but I will stick up for the situation a little bit. I really think the people clamoring for JVG and others need to consider some of the all-time great coaches and players that have been involved with young, losing rosters. Maybe Silas is awful, the jury is 100% out, but patience is still warranted at this point.

This is a cast of G League and Euroleague all-star 20 year olds. Two greenhorn shooting guards are playing hybrid PGs. There is no true floor general (there is Wall, who doesn't have a role with the team and is a slasher/scorer PG and not a floor general). There is so much they have to learn about decision making a the NBA level. A coach can scheme until the cows come home but players are making split-second decisions at lightning speed on the court. Good decision making in an NBA framework is muscle memory. You don't build that in an offseason. There are a LOT of assumptions being made in here about what is being said or not being said in the film room.

Coaches also don't necessarily run all of their standard structures and plays in preseason, there's no point in tipping one's hand like that (according to coaches themselves). These games are a step between summer league pickup ball and NBA.

I know, I know, every excuse in the book. That's annoying. But they're applicable right now. It's too early for this level of hatred. I said the same thing about Tilman and Bill Obrien, both of whom I despise now, but I guess I am nothing if not fair.

After what we saw last year let's not let expectations get too high after 2 preseason games.

 

Yup, seems to be part of the problem Silas and whomever the point guard have to wrestle with. Where are each player's hot spot. They probably don't know because everyone is young and still developing.

Read and react has its place. Olynyk was decent at it, but he gone. Feel like they could do that more after the kids get their fundamental down first.

Using your example; skipping Intro to Chem, they jumped into Organic Chem too early.