Does anyone here know the reason Dwight is so against pick and roll ? I remember when he was in LA D'Antoni and Nash were trying to make him do pick and roll plays but he would refuse. Now the same thing is happening here. You would think Dwight to be the perfect pick and roll big. Has a huge body and can set hard picks. Is very athletic to finish on the roll. However every play we see him demanding the ball on the post when it is clear he has very limited post skills. Why ?
p&r means he is not the main offense weapon on this team. i believe he wants to be a go-to-guy. with p&r, his offense will depend on whether his man leaves him or not. it depends what the ball handler does.
They were doubling him in the post every single play. That's why. Most teams have doubled him all season long already even despite his woes around the rim. The coach is obviously instructing them to do so because it has been opening up three pointers which the Rockets have not been making regularly. Dwight in the post works even though its not pretty. As long as they double him, and he can make the right passes, you MUST go to that play, its just that you MUST hit those 3's. Parsons, Casspi, Bev, Garcia need to get better at hitting those shots. You haven't seen much Dwight/Howard P&R because early in the games the TT has been clogging up the defense, and late in games teams have really clogged the paint against Dwight's early abusing in the paint early in games. Look up the stats, Dwight has been dominant in the paint in the first halves of games the past week or so, and teams bring help in the second half, and the Rockets can't make shots late in games. ..... Also keep in mind that right now the P&R is a high turnover % play for the Rockets to run which is why they stick with Isolations late in games instead of risking turnovers which lead to easy buckets for other teams. Late in games, you aren't going to see much Howard P&R until Harden/Lin/Howard/Asik can prove to the coaches that they will be able to do it without turning the ball over. Turning the ball over when up 3 late in games= bad news. So its fair to say that Dwight isn't the culprit here. Its the coaching that is putting these plays into motion. Still pay attention to the turnovers. You put Dwight in P&R's late in games and right now you WILL have more of them. Pick your poison.
I believe double team won't come until he spins to the middle of the lane in many cases. howard doesn't get same treatment by other teams as dream, yao got... dream and yao can punish other teams if they don't double team earlier.
I would like to know what is his aversion to coming out and defending it as well. Wide open jumpers by the big. He doesn't even try. I am not propositioning for JVG to come back but when I see that, I do wish he had a coach like him or Thibodeau so he could get chewed out! Especially when I see Asik defending it better when he is on the floor.
They were fairly regularly doubling Dwight. they would wait till he gets the ball, but he was pretty good about being patient to wait for the double. Bringing the double late is a strategy that Brown used a few times, but it still doesn't change the fact that the best way to score in the NBA is to utilize the few players you have that get doubled consistently. If teams are going to consistently do what Philly and others have done to Dwight in the post, you have to continue to work with that play. However, I do think we will start to see much more Harden/Howard P&R early in games now without the TT lineup. Keep in mind that this was the main reason why we haven't seen much of it early on. Dwight's aversion to the P&R is something that is pretty widely overblown because he didn't want to be Kobe's errand boy last year to do nothing but try and get him open for 18 footers. Harden and Lin are actually trying to get him buckets... that's a start.
If he couldn't play P&R with one of the greatest PGs of all time in Steve Nash, why would he do it in Houston
I've tried to watch as many of the games as I can this year but have missed a few. that being said, I don't see many passes coming for Dwight when he rolls to the basket. maybe the defense rotates to him so quickly that he's not open or maybe our guards just can't/won't make the pass. but for every 10 pick and rolls plays we run Dwight will get the ball, in stride to the hoop on *maybe* 1 of them. this team needs to get used to each other. I expect us to be much better in march than we are now.
I don`t think he has an aversion to it - didn`t he state before something like "who is gonna stop that Harden/Howard p&r?". I think it is more by design - why don`t they use it more often? I have no idea. We have several high picks by Howard in the game - but usually he doesn`t set a hard pick and also doesn`t roll to the basket. It is basically just a way to let Harden or Lin get a quick step on their defender. I also think we really need to put a real pick and roll into our arsenal - both Harden and Lin can excell with the pick and roll and they ran it several times last season with Asik. And both are very willing to pass. Sure, they need to learn the lob, but Howard will get several highlight plays with the pick and roll. I think the thing with Howard is, he wants to become a great post player. He wants to learn from Hakeem and McHale, and he wants to become an all time great. During the season, the team can grow - during the playoffs, the team has to win. I am sure we will see a lot more real pick and rolls in the playoffs and as the season progresses. Like dobro pointed out, Howard in the post is a good play as well - they are doubling him basically all the time and he still gets his shot up - and if we would be able to make a three pointer, we would really make other teams pay. But there is nothing wrong with having two killer plays with your star big men...
Dwight is a pretty good passer out of the post, he holds the ball high, then makes an accurate pass. The problem is, our cuts to the basket are lazy and unenthusiastic. And once he passes it back out to the 3 point line, there is almost no 'passing it around the horn' like the team of the 90s. It is still effective, but our spacing and passing is just dirty right now. I am pretty certain about 30-40 games into the season, they'll be much, much better at it...Oh yea, and it would help if anyone not named Lin would hit a jumper every now and then.
I don't think it is so much as he is averse to it but rather he doesn't want that to be the only thing he does. He wants to show he can expand his game to post play beyond PnR and putbacks. A 5 has to have post play, especially one who lacks range for a stop and pop after a pick in order to truly become great.
I anticipated this. No surprise. It's a difficult job, Asik is primarily a defensive center. He gives his all on defense, even when he has matchup problems.
