I do understand that Dallas, Charlotte, and Utah aren't much in terms of competition, but still very positive returns. On offense, the Rockets have maintained their efficiency while playing slower and with Asik/Howard together at times On defense, the Rockets have been very good even with small ball lineups. As long as one of Asik/Howard is in the game, we have a tough defense. If this trend continues, we have the perfect receipe for a championship caliber team.
I would like to see that offensive ranking improve at least a couple of spots. Hope the defense stays strong. Just weird to add Dwight Howard and not improve on offense, and I think it's because of the way we're using him. Need to get him involved in the offense more often and in better ways.
The first 25 games or so are all about experimenting and figuring out what works. Although it's good to see, there is a lot of room for improvement. Things will change a lot over the next few weeks and we will probably see some stretches of play a lot alike the first half against Utah.
Early turnovers are killing the efficiency on both ends. No shot for us and more easy shots for them.... Once we get those kinks ironed out, the team should be top 2-3 in all of those categories...
I'm a huge Howard fan thinks he's worth every penny of his contract, but so far his offense has been quite bad. Not Asik bad, but not much better. He's playing offense more like the Lakers Howard than the Orlando Howard. But the defensive improvements have been obvious.
I think it's in part due to the lack of acclimation to the offense and the players around him. Also, I think playing him next to Omer offensively is a disaster. Dwight will get better.
as i said before, howard offense limitation will not allow him to be a focal point of our offense. to defend him, a big and strong center should not have trouble, just holding position and paying attention on his spin move. that is all opponent center needs to do. the best way to use him is to put him in guard attacking offense. pulling his man away from him to free him up so he can be roller of P&R or crash the board to get 2nd chance.
I remember last season where it took about a month or so to get everybody on the same page on both offense and defense, and then there was that fantastic December. So I'm basically not expecting these numbers to last and looking forward to when the Rockets improve on these numbers a bit more as their game chemistry improves.
Rockets need to clean up their turnovers...i think they're like the worst or one of the worst in the league. They way the offense run, it is prone to turnover at some point since they like attacking, but they still need to clean it up if they want to play efficient basketball.
What is most impressive about these numbers is that we haven't put together a single 'good' game yet. There were points during last nights game where the guys didn't know what plays were being run and McHale was livid(mostly when Jones was in). A well oiled machine we are not. Reminds me of some of the hiccups when Miami's big 3 was first put together. Clearly we do not know how to fully utilize Howard and find him in the best spots yet. However, we seem to have that next gear and on/off switch that great teams possess. As gross as the first half was to watch last night, I was never too concerned with the outcome. Such is the faith in our talent. It is going to be interesting to see how these numbers end up once this team starts to get rolling.
can we at least wait 10 games before starting these ridiculous types of threads? Geez, stats based on 3 games?
Great point, but most of us have been jonesin' for some games that count so we can talk about them since, well, since the Thunder eliminated us. The temptation is too much!
Really? How much of Dwight Howard have you really really watched? Just highlights before he was a rocket? Maybe never before he was a rocket? Here. Dwight goes for 45 Great players do not just LUCK into 45 point games, and they damn sure dont have multiple 40 point games in their career. Dwights in a new offense, everyone else is still learning how to and when to get dwight the ball in the low block. Dwight also seems to be forcing it a little bit when he does get the ball. I expect all of those things to improve with time, as the chemistry and timing improve between everyone on the team.
It's scary to think how good this team can be when we have integrated Dwight fully into our offense and the PF rotation is set. I think Asik needs to stay, scoring points is not the problem so no need for a semi-star PF who can score a lot of points. We'll be fine!
did you even check the box score, Dwight had a great game but he shot 39 FREE THROWS because the Warriors were hacking him on purpose.
It takes time to make new chemistry. Last season Parsons is the glue guy, this season he has his own problem to solve. Hop he can find back confidence soon.
