I agree! This is the real ELEPHANT in the room....Start Brewer and sit Ariza having him come off the bench and all of a sudden his defensive skillset become even more crucial and his FG% doesn't matter as much due to him being a mismatch problem for other teams even more so...
Yeah we know Dwight won't change. I think most of us just hope he would do what's best for the team. Dude is not getting any younger. The objective is to win a championship right?
Agreed Ariza shooting has been horrific for a hot minute now. Damn where is the Washington Ariza or the Ariza that was sizzling hot earlierthis season? Agreed Ariza shooting has been horrific for a hot minute. Damn where is the Washington Ariza or the one that was on fire earlier this season. .
Apparently, I haven't seen it much this season, but apparently there is a semblance of one according to these stats... I know it's only the first week of January, but this team does not look at all like a championship caliber team with this garbage offense (unless Harden goes hero ball and scores 40+ we lose) and what is more disturbing is that our defense has looked porous, weak, and soft the last 3-4 weeks since Howard returned and there is no question Harden is either too tired to play the type of D he was earlier in the season or he has just reverted back to his lazy ass way of laying D of last year. Troubling signs all around ...
The Dwight centered PnR offense worked great in orlando but the team also got him the ball when he had position right under the rim. This team either looks him off or makes a terrible pass that hits him at his shins (or somewhere else he can't catch it). I've never seen a team so inept at post entry passes. There's at least half a dozen times a game where they attempt the entry pass to Dmo/Dwight and after a while have to go into another play because they find it too difficult to pass a basketball.
I don't think Ariza even caught that. Dwight wasn't in position when Trevor got the ball and Belinelli was blocking his view after that.
Why Dwight 'hasn't been himself' of late...he gets prime position, but no one (apart from Big Papa & D-Mo can feed him the ball! Same with those 'weak' screens he's been setting this season...what's the point if you know that you are not going to get the ball, or if you do the pass will be bad - to low or forcing him under the backboard. It sucks that we finally get the best big man in the NBA, but have no clue on how to feed him.
That play above is starting to annoy me by how much it is posted and how much ppl blame Ariza for that. If you rewatch the whole play, there are 4 things to notice. If anyone missed the quick pass to Howard, it was Bev dribbling down the sideline. But he was looking to center the transition. Howard hadn't turned around yet, but we can argue Bev should have kept the ball longer to wait and see if Howard sealed Duncan. Once Bev passes to Ariza, he doesn't really have an easy entry to Howard. He's too far out with Splitter to pass over. Splitter is all over that pass from 30 ft out , so he drives for a closer look. By then, Howard has to jump out of the lane to avoid the 3 seconds...then he just stands there rather than sealing Duncan again for a pass from Josh, who now has the better angle than Ariza. Howard eventually reposts, gets the entry and scores anyhow...right at the rim over Duncan. So, all that fuss because Howard got early position but the ball was too far out, and he still scored right at the rim on an entry from Harden.
Nobody on our team can make a good entry pass, it's like we don't practice them! The concern about our 4th quarter offense is worrisome, but offense in general is a problem when so many things, including Howard not involved in the pick and roll. That's freedom offense for ya
It seems like 4th quarter offense has been a key issue with the Rockets over the last 3 or so years. You know the last three years with the same damn coach who has no clue how to run a smooth and efficient offense.
It's because we don't have a varied enough offense. In the final few minutes we will go to Harden on every possession and force him to create. Teams prepare for that and pack the paint, but we will choose the same option no matter how good of a defense were going up against. We don't ever make adjustments. Case in point: the Bulls game. The Bulls play great defense and have a great young defensive stopper, the most capable person in the league of stopping Harden. Not only that, the entire Bulls team is focused and engaged in defending the Harden dribble drive. What did we do to counter that? We played right into their hands and forced more Harden isolations. It's like repeatedly slamming your head in the wall expecting different outcomes. The logical thing to do would be to surprise the opponent with a different offensive set now and then. Try to feed DMo in the paint who can basically score at will, yet for some reason we don't trust him enough yet, try to get Howard deep position and actually pass him the ball. You can't win if you keep playing the same set over and over again, teams know what we're gonna do, we need to surprise them with more variance.
We have one guy on the team that can create consistently and 8 guys who are getting PT who need someone to create for them. So all a defense has to do is contain one guy and they can stifle our offense greatly. That's why you need a pg on this team to help Harden break down the defenses in situations where the D tightens up.
Dwight? They'll just foul him and then we hope he makes his free throws. Really, if they want to give him touches, we gotta play Papa in the 4th. I'd rather we go through DMo if Harden isn't on. It's been 4 years already and the coaching is still the same--it's not helping the players at crunch time.
This is affected by 2 things: 1. Dwight's post-up ability 2. Spacing Dwight's post-up ability against multiple defenders or against a defender with an opponent perimeter player sliding down to help or flashing underneath to help is very, very poor. He holds the ball too long and he obstinately continues to try to make his move against 2 defenders. He's not big enough, smart enough, nor skilled enough to do that. The guards constantly get a mitt on the basketball and he stumbles fumbles it away or they flat out steal it from him. Spacing keeps guys away from him. When you surround him with 4 guys that can shoot the 3 like SVG did in Orlando, then he can operate much more successfully in the post. But he's got to have that spacing in order to take the time and dribbles he needs to take to get his position and make his move or clearly see the double come down on him and hit the open man. Best play for Dwight is the pick-and-roll into the QUICK POST-UP. (Since we CANNOT at this time put 4 spacers on the floor around him.) Either he gets the ball up high and throws it down on the roll OR he sits down after the roll into a QUICK post-up, receives the ball quickly and makes a quick move. Just throwing him the ball on the block and waiting for him to make a move is bad news against the better teams in the league. Pick-and-roll into the quick post-up. That's the post-up touches he should get.
