https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItPeZUXEiY Very good breakdown of what greatly ails us and some things pointed out that I didn't expect to see. He talks about how Harden hurts us on defense while on the court which is obvious but also says Lawson doesn't affect our defense and neither does Dwight Meanwhile, Dwight DOES hurt us on offense and our best lineup so far has been with Capela, Ariza, Harden, Lawson, and Thornton. I'm surprised because the eye test was telling me that Dwight was doing tons for our defense and needed more touches. Overall, he believes we'll be fine eventually when our 3's begin to fall at our normal rate. There's a more in depth break down he links to as well here http://bballbreakdown.com/2015/11/18/inside-the-rockets-meltdown/
Wow. So, only a few seconds mention of his defense needing improvement out of a 7 plus minute video is all you got out of it?
Harden is not playing defense but offensively not one other person has consistently shot the ball well. Thornton is streaky as is Ariza. brewer, despite hitting a big 3 last night, has never shot the ball well consistently. Lawson? At 27% from 3 he's shooting like Josh Smith. Bottom line is the Roxkets need guys that can shoot to take the pressure off Harden. They also need a low-port scoring threat to spread the floor. Howard just doesn't pose a threat down low anymore. Opponents know he can't shoot so they know exactly how to defend him. They also know if gets the ball too low on the post to just foul him since he can't shoot FT's. THAT is a big part of the problem.
Harden needs his Klay Thompson. Morey tried with Lawson, I suspect if it keeps failing ofcourse he will try to trade him. Rockets need a consistent scorer other than James Harden. I think with the coaching change the defense will get better but we can't keep going on Harden ISO.
We need D-Mo and P. Bev to come back. Have patrick Beverley start the game with James Harden and slowly work Lawson in to the offense. It is very difficult for players to come in and gel right away. Give Lawson time and I am sure he will figure it out but till than start Bev/Terry.
I think that coach Nick doesn't pay much attention to defence and is more offence obsessed and I find his predictions faulty. Example how he said that the Bulls defence will be fine and we see what is going on. I like watching his videos because in the end they are breakdowns and its hard to find but his main focus in all of them is only the offence. You must also know that he picked the Rockets to win it all before the season started. And I'm dissapointed by this video. He only went through some basic stats instead of doing actual breakdowns showing footage of games.
Thornton plays well in a starting role why not start him instead of terry and ease the law-son into his role. Or is him guarding point guards a bad idea?
the same who always goes on about offensive sets and doesn't say almost nothing about defensive sets or have defensive gifs. The same who in projections in the summer always said the defence will be fine without barely analysing it, in three teams breakdowns I saw of teams that have much worse defence than last year. But I haven't been following him for the past month.
If a player is rarely more than 2 passes, most of the shots are going to be contested shots. God helps the players to make decent percentage with a lot of contested shots. What the Rockets need: 1. Better defend that leads to better transition attack and thus better shots. 2. Some more set plays, ISO-and-kick-outs should not be a major weapon, because that, a lot of times, leads to late contested shots. Good player as Harden, he didn't make his teammates better.
Without looking at the numbers, I had the suspicion that our offense was actually doing better with Clint in the game. He's been a little disappointing on the defensive boards, but he does a good job setting picks and getting out of the way. When Howard is on the bench, the team at least knows what the plan is offensively.
Small sample size statistics can do this. Did you see the amount of minutes played? Not many. And correlation does not equal causation. One cannot credibly argue that Dwight Howard has not been a positive player this year when on the court. Morey himself said Dwight was the only one who was playing good this year. In regards to defense, McHale said Dwight was the only one talking. Maybe it's just me, but I'll trust my own beliefs and Morey's observations over small sample size statistics. Also, Clint Capela has played many minutes (not all, since Dwight has been out) against backups, aka lesser competition. It is unlikely that many minutes of that lineup came against bench warmers as well. Also, it's a measure of the lineup rating. When did Harden have his superb games? Who was in when Thornton was on a hot streak? Dwight hasn't posted up much this year, and has ran the PnR with Lawson a lot to start the 2nd quarter, something that Capela has not really done much (doesn't play as much). How can the roll man do much if the point guard is playing like a scrub? Dwight is playing literally how CF is wanting him to play on offense: PnR and O-boards. Now we have perimeter players who cannot benefit from his elite strengths. Dude, on every thread, you have said some false vitriol about Dwight and his "poor" defense. Clint is not out-playing Dwight on defense. Stop. Please. You are wrong. You have been called out on every. single. thread you say such things.
Harden should BE the Klay Thompson, as far as position goes. But even without position, they have Trevor Ariza. He's also shooting poorly right now.
tl;dr Start Capela, Dwight off bench Start Beverly, Lawson off bench Make Harden try harder on D. Rockets are back on pace.
good research .... Dwight Has turned into a Asik with better catching ability, no inside post game to speak of other than the alley oop.