Turnovers, Missed FTs, Bench Production. don't even have to read any other post in this thread. take it from someone whose watched every game aside from Spurs on Christmas.
yup. #1 and #2 all boils down to discipline which = coaching. if players are not held accountable by the coaches to play disciplined ball, the first 2 things that suffer are: DEFENSE and Taking care of the ball.
How about the fact that we only have one consistent playmaker on the team? Parsons isn't bad but he is limited. Lin honestly has all the tools but his lack of consistency and confidence damn him to the bench
Good OP! Still - I have to burst the bubble on the lets-get-Scola-back idea (In case we're having it). I checked Luis' stats and found out he's been steadily dropping in FG% from season to season... He was 53% in 2008/9, and went down to 51% => 50% => 49% => 47% and finally to 45% this season. Since you mentioned TJ - he's 52.7% this year (though not from mid-range), so I say we stick with him instead. BTW - I believe 18-footers are banned & illegal in Morey-ball, are they not?
He played very good D on CP3. If we play the Clippers in the playoffs, he will be the most important player because he does a good job defending Paul. He did turn the ball over but his defense on Paul was key. Hey, if we eventually get a upgrade then so be it. But Bev is more than capable of being a starting point on this team. The whole "Bev's man doesn't have to work hard" argument is outdated and inaccurate. Beverley can definitely score, but sometimes defers to his superstars (what a PG is supposed to do). Overrall, our starting PG position is not a position of need. OUR BACKUP PG situation is another story
I would basically agree with this list, except I think that your honorable mention(defensive rebounding) should be first on the list.
Good list, I like it because you don't point to a single player, but rather as a team. Turnovers and dumb passes and lapses of terrible defense. I think I have to add sometimes bad shot selection. Our players have a tendency to ISO ball or put the shot up super quick.
He is just a ban-aid to the bad performance of Lin. He is a good defender but below average overall PG, but in most situation, you will rather play him than Lin, especially the last couple months. Given the current limitation of salaries, he is our best option. Yes moving forward, once Morey will be able to dump Lin's contract, I will be very surprised if we will not upgrade our PG position.
Earlier this season Jones has thrived mainly on athletic talent. People have seen enough games to see where Jones gets comfortable on offense, and those blocked shots and dunks make us overlook the times he was out of position on pnr defense, switches and rotations. I am sure he will do much better with more experience, more tape and hours of practice. I am just glad he has D12 and Asik to learn from instead of someone like...I dunno Cousins or Bynum XD.
The biggest challenges for the Rockets are: Point Guard, Lineups to protect Harden when he has a tough defensive matchup at the #2, stability at the #4. Point Guard - I think McHale's decision to start/give prominence to Beverley over Lin will lead to failure in the playoffs and will cause the Rockets to drop to the #4-#6 seed in the regular season, given their tough March schedule. Lin has more talent to meet the requirements of the position and is better able to matchup with and offset the opposing PGs production on both ends of the floor. Yes, the stats do show that Lin has held his opposing PGs to a lower shooting percentage than has Beverley. You can look at games where Lin has started or games when Lin has faced the same PG and you'll see the results. Beverley is best used as a specialist defender to slow down a hot #1 guard because of his talent for on the ball pressure. I know McHale likes his PGs to be 3 and D and not much else, but the position demands a little more than that in today's NBA, especially in the western conference. The best fit for McHale's system would be a big PG like G.Hill from Indiana but that isn't happening right now. SG defense - There was a diary on this site that said that Harden is playing out of position. I think that is a valid point. Because of Harden's foot problems, I don't think he can keep up with a quick 2 on defense. This is where the 3 guard rotation of Beverley-Lin-Harden can come into play more often, or some other combo, but the team has played well when Beverley and Lin are on the floor and part of the reason might be that Harden moves to the #3 where he can't be guarded and can handle his business better on the defensive end. PF - This has been a revolving door. D-Mo is probably the best fit at that spot to start. Jones hasn't been able to handle the more offensively minded PFs. However, Asik should take the bulk of minutes. The inability to integrate Asik into the lineup has been a liability for the Rockets. He's too good defensively to rot on the bench. He's a far better player than D-Mo, Jones or any of those revolving door guys. McHale has started to integrate him now, but it's not clear whether the right chemistry can be developed in time for the playoffs. McHale made a big mistake when he pulled the plug on the 2 towers experiment so quickly without finding a way to get Asik to buy in to a reduced role.
Disagree on all points; 1. Turnovers is a red herring. The lowest turnover team in the NBA has 12.5, we have 16.5. The median is around 14.5-15 So that's basically 4 extra turnovers per game above the lowest, and two more turnovers than the median. Our 3 highest turnover guys are Harden, Howard and Lin. If you want to cut down turnovers, you simply tell Dwight to stop posting up, Harden to stop drawing fouls, and Lin to stop being aggressive on the break. That's pretty much where the majority of turnovers are coming from. 2. Defense, we don't have a problem on defense, we have a top 10 defense, with great opponent FG%, the problem is defensive rebounding, that's because our best defensive rebounder last year is no longer in the starting lineup and replaced with a worse defensive rebounder. 3. Offense, the problem is not consistency, the problem is timing. We have the worst offense in the NBA during close games in the last 2 minutes. I think our FG% is something like 20% during close games in the last 2 minutes. That's basically Harden disregarding the offense to iso. Other than that, the offense is fine.
stats geek? Those stats lie lol remember how the texans had a top 5 defense last season? how did that turn out Turovers are caused by players mostly running into the paint , jumping , and looking to make a pass when no one is open. LIN and HARDEN do this crap constantly perimeter defense is inconsistent but has improved over the last 4 games now its just average The offense is predictable which is easily seen when playing the teams with good coaches. Dwight/Harden pick and roll doesnt work as well as it used to. Defenders are falling back into the paint instead of trying to defend it because they know harden's midrange jumper isnt consistent and he wont take it. alot of holes in the rockets offense and defense and the eyetest is a better judge than the stats
How about everybody getting wide open shots/layups against the Clippers? And the like 10 million missed layups/tipins on our end. Yeah, good consistency.
