What do you think is the reason behind the decline? An unwillingness to send James to the line? An increased emphasis on guarding threes and dunks? Something else?
Great or even really good defenses, when given time to game plan and study tape, can generally defend multiple a few layers of options. Not every play but way more frequently than the regular season. Rockets offense way too predictable.
Ok. Let's take that as granted. How would you make the Rockets offense less predictable? (And it had better not be, "Take a lot more midrange shots.")
I agree with you about the tape; I think a lot of the reason behind e.g., Danuel House's decline was that teams figured out what he liked to do, and what he didn't like to do, and took things away from him. Let's see if he can adjust. Unfortunately, it probably won't be on the Rockets.
Pretty much any option has to start with player and ball movement. Harden will actually have to move around on offense. Mixed with some kindness of offensive scheme. As I’m not an nba coach ... I don’t know what scheme that is lol. But there are various ones that seem to work effectively.
Than I disagree with you alot I doubt it. Durant kept in the series for the irst 4 games. Believe it or not their offense remains the same when Durant goes out, its more Curry and Thompson threes and less Durant Mid range Isos. Not excusing us cause yes you're right we should have won but its not like that core didnt have 73 wins. I think it is.
We got screwed in game 1 with the refs. So your assesment is GS is just better, theres no way we could have won, Klay and Curry>Harden and Paul, end of discussion. The Warriors just win cause they are the Warriors and they would have adjusted lol. What utter nonsense. Absolutely ridiculous. And no the Warriors would not have won had we had Chris and Luc.
When you have a 3 on 1 fast break... and your guys stop and backtrack to the 3 pt line to chuck another 3 instead of finishing at the rim... there are philosophical problems... Its supposed to be finishing at the rim and 3's... but too often we're content just to chuck 3s instead of working for a high % bucket.... ...jus sayin...
This article from Chris Herring is probably the absolute best analysis I have seen on the Rockets post Game 6.
We need more variability in shot selection, we are way too predictable. Lots of 3 pointers and layups are long past "inefficiencies" at this point and part of mainstream NBA. The reason why Belichick and Pop are such historically great coaches is because they know the "system" only gets you so far. Belichick and Pop win so much because of their adjustments and making opponents play with their other hand.
Realistically our core is harden Paul pj and Clint ... maybe Gordon 2 of them are aging vets . Clint is coming off a BAD series And can harden really improve again ? I think so ... But that won't be enough . We've got to add / retain multiple role players. Of course Morey always looks to add stars , I think the chances of that are slim , does Morey have magic left ? In terms of our cores capabilities, that 5 man squad is nice but it can't beat the warriors , mainly because Clint can't match up and the only consistent offensive threat is James . We need to add players that can lighten the regular season load on our guys and also provide value in the playoffs . Last year at our peak we had Luc and Ariza providing that role . This year we had ..... House , rivers , and farried ? Clark and Hartenstein ? If those two can develop that would be nice, but I don't see a realistic situation where they get that good . Can you hope to get one of the rivers , house , farried trio back ? 2 ? 3? I'm thinking 1 , maybe 2 ..... or I could definitely see Morey keeping no one What I want . Youth , athleticism , shooting, length , cheap What we will probably get : draft bust , can't shoot, too weak , cheap Jk . I think Morey learns from his mistakes
Again just add butler guys. It's simple. Then win a chip. Cp3 got old so can no longer be 2nd best player. Just slide him down to 3rd...get butler now he the 2nd. N win a chip.
Warriors won't drop off without KD. In fact...they might improve, at least against Houston. That's pretty obvious given our results against them. Rockets going nowhere.