I have been harping on this in chat during 4th quarters and Shane said yesterday what I have been saying... They can't just go one on one and break teams down... they need to move and get the defense moving before they ask Aaron or Luis or Carl to take on someone one on one. <object width="388" height="394" classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="ep"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="movie" value="http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/.element/swf/1.1/cvp/nba_embed_container.swf?context=rockets&videoId=teams/rockets/2009/11/24/20091124BattierMOV-1135614" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><embed src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/.element/swf/1.1/cvp/nba_embed_container.swf?context=rockets&videoId=teams/rockets/2009/11/24/20091124BattierMOV-1135614" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="388" wmode="transparent" height="394"></embed></object> The problem I have noticed pretty much anytime the shots stop falling... they stop moving. It's led to all of their losses.. imho. Thought I would share the vid
The embedded video didn't work for me, but here's a link to the video on rockets.com: http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2009/11/24/20091124BattierMOV-1135614/index.html
I think Battier is going to be President one day, and Hayes will be his Secretary of Defense. But I digress.
This is nothing new. Trap Brooks and the turnovers will come. Lowry handles it better despite not having much outside range on his shooting. In order to have motion,it's not enough to want to move the ball. You have to have better passers too. The team will just have to keep on working at it and hit higher percentage shots. Chase might have to take up the role of the 3rd passer with more experience,since he has the ability to bring up the ball. Luis and Shane/Chuck can help with frontcourt passing,but it will depend mostly on Brooks and Lowry.
Motion does not work all of the time on this level. That's when a Clyde Drexler or Chris Webber comes in handy. They went 1on1 and then the offense opened back up. Unfortunately, we don't have that caliber of player. When a team decides to really focus defensively, they notice all of the screens and cuts and who is getting open from them. Then, the offense goes south...but we knew that would happen this season. It is to be expected. This offense is already pretty good. If it gets any better, Adelman should go to the HoF...next year.
I agree that eventually you have to break a defender down... however, if you get the opposing team rotating defensively you have a better likelihood of a mismatch and a combo where we can win a one on one battle. If we set a pick and roll then the ball swings around and Chuck's defender ends up on Aaron, he has a much better chance of taking him off the dribble than he does the opposing point guard. If we move and cut until Luis has a shooting guard defending him, it's much easier to back him in and do a post move for an easy bucket. The problem I have noticed is that we end up slowing the ball down and have no mismatches and try to beat the defenders. We just don't have the talent level to do that. Which is why I want them to spend a few seconds on the shot clock moving and forcing rotations.
Think players, not plays. You can run the princeton offense or the triangle into the ground, but at critical junctures against good teams, they will kill all cuts, man up on the weakest scorer and tilt or double the others and that when a guy has to make a play. The bulls post jordan ran the triangle and did the lakers post shaq minus gasol, but the lost games and in the bulls case lost alot of games. Players make plays look alot better than what they are. Everey coach has sets designed to get backdoor layups, open shots and such, but just like the game i was watching the other night of kings v lakers in 01, shaq, manhandled the inside,kobe took over from outside, and the cutoff any backdoor cut the kings were trying to get. I'm not going to start on shane, but he's a guy that doesn't move at all or enough to be effective. Teams can rotate to a spot, the corner, without fear of him putting the ball on the floor or not being in the designated spot.
