Now, yesterday was probably an anomaly and Pop WILL figure out some wrinkles, but how do teams score on the TT? Duncan and Splitter were utterly confused yesterday. One on one Asik can lock down any center in the league, and Dwight looks like he has his explosiveness back. It will be a challenge, but I think he can handle the Dirks/Griffins/LMA in the WC. Am I being overly optimistic, or am I being overly optimistic?
Fast break. Pretty easy to scout. Both Howard and Dwight will be around the basket on offense, and will be naturally slow to get back on defense. If you leak out on a Rockets miss, you're going to get easy buckets every time. Thats why the Rockets need to make sure they are taking their time in the half court to get the most efficient shot possible. That's why big teams traditionally slow the ball down, and score less points. They can't afford to fire away because they know the other team will run on them.
Is that really true? Dwight was running the floor really well yesterday and thwarted a few of SAS' fast breaks. Granted, Kawhi and Ginobili were not playing, so they lose a lot of the potency in their fast breaks, but then again, very few teams can stop SAS' fast breaks. If you timed end to end Dwight vs. the other 4s on this team, who do you think would win the race? Caspi tripped over his own legs for goodness sakes.
Well Parsons and Harden did well last night in transition defending. Howard and Asik sprint back. They are not like Roy Hibbert out there. There aren't alot of great fast breaking teams that could just destroy us except for Miami who are older now.
Doesn't matter if Dwight can run or not. He's going to be the primary scorer on the low block. If a shot is missed him and Asik have to not only run the full length of the court, they need to catch up to someone else as well since the opposing team will probably sag off of Asik on defense anyways. So that means the Rockets have 3 guys back and two in the front. The main anchor defensively will be the furthest from the other side of the court unless Asik is placed at the high post where he's not accustomed to playing. 4 of the teams opposing players will already be out in front of the Rockets bigs leading to a fast break. Its a foot race for Asik most likely who is the slowest player on the roster for the Rockets. If you are a the opposing team, you sprint down the floor on every possession.
This is not true. Plus, you have get the rebound, first. Good luck "leaking out" on the two of the best offensive rebounders in the business.
The main way to cause trouble is good jumpshooting from 4, or an attacking style that gets one of them in foul trouble. If Lebron plays the 4, neither one of our bigs can stay with him to the three point line but they would limit is post game.
How is that different from a traditional 5/stretch 4 lineup? In fact, you have any lineup available, if there's a long rebound, the answer is fast break. It's not unique to just the Rockets, and it's impossible to run a fast break offense at all times.
Teams will score on the twin towers both outside and inside. You can best believe we not stopping Lebron or Wade from attacking that rim.
Name a 4 that can stop Lebron out on the 3 point line. If the answer to the title is "Lebron", then the defense is near perfect.
Asik-Howard can take away the paint but not really the perimeter ... so I'd say the answer is with 3-4 three-point shooters. A small lineup, going more for three points per possession, could boom or bust on that Rocket lineup. The problem for opponents is the Rockets are constantly leaning heavily on the three as well, so even when Asik and Dwight are in, you've got guys like Harden, Parsons, Beverley, Garcia, Casspi and/or Lin shooting from distance. I feel the spacing could be an issue, but it certainly wasn't last night. Still, San Antonio (when they're running Duncan and Splitter out there) is a matchup most of us thought a big Rocket lineup could be successful against. Memphis (tonight) is another one. The real tests for a larger success will be against the likes of Golden State, LA Clippers and OKC, imo.
GS, LAC and OKC both have large lineups as well. The furthest out the 4s on those team go are to the mid range 13-16 footer. The only 4s in the west that are legitimate stretch 4s are NO, DAL, PHX and MIN, and none of them are legit contenders.
Any mobile 4 would cause unnecessary wear and tear on Dwight from chasing him around, and foul trouble. Defense was actually the biggest issue against Dallas, and it wasn't even Dirk shooting 3s. Our bigs were getting dragged out of the paint and the Mavs guards backcut us for layups. The big lineup is situational and will only be successful against certain match ups. It doesn't play to Dwight's strengths defensively or offensively(the "Dwight effect" loses its "effect" when Dwight isn't in the paint), so this isn't a lineup I think we would run for extended minutes.
Did you watch the game last night? No one attacked the rim and if they did, they got blocked. Btw Wade isn't that good anymore. We have Bev and Parsons also really good defenders.
