Houston is not stubbornly relying on the post up, rather it's Coward who is refusing to play the pick and roll just like in LA
Actually post-up is McHale's idea of an ideal offensive strategy. He wants the ball to go inside out via post ups, not penetration. But we don't really have the players for it. Last year it was 2Pat posting up for the first 15 games or so before McHale finally saw enough and reverted him back to being a mid-range to corner-3 pt shooter. This year it was Twin Towers and Dwight posting up until he couldn't take the results anymore. Of course Dwight wants more post ups, like he said in LA. But with Dwight playing quite unselfish and overall just behaving much more mature than in recent years, I'm not sure if the coaching staff asked him to do more post ups, he would refuse.
Yep, I really don't understand that. Imagine LeBron refusing to play in the post and chuck 3s instead. He would be half a player he is today. Maybe Howard and McHale can reach a compromise...for each post up, he has to do one p'n'r.
Like I said in the 'When will Dwight show up thread', Howard is being used ineffectively. Our perimeter players are literally hopeless at feeding the post, can't throw basic lob passes and got so used to Asik fumbling the ball out of bounds off passes last season, that they seem hesitant to pass the ball to Dwight down low. When Dwight is scoring the ball, coach decides to either freeze him out of the offence, stop playing pick'n'roll or sits him down for long stretches. It is not that hard to draw up plays that will allow Dwight Howard to dominate effectively on offence. Pick'n'roll, pick'n'slip, back door screens, cuts to the basket, drive & dish...lob, lob, lob. If you are going to feed Dwight for a post up, do it when he has position & has sealed off his man. Too many times Dwight has gotten to where he needs to be & our guys just stand there dumbfounded on how to get the ball to him! The classic was when Hornececk actually counted down the seconds on a lane violation...he should've been called for a tech for it, but I digress... Howard was in perfect position: one step & a turn from the basket, but it took us 4 seconds to figure out how to get him the ball! People saying that Dwight doesn't want to play p'n'r, imagine if he played for Popavich? He'd be picking and rolling for 36 out of 38 minutes if that's what was required. McHale has to do more as a coach to get the best out of his players, seriously why even pick up the whiteboard & call a time out if you are not going to even draw up a play that gets your main guys open. End Rant.
I agree, I was at the game and it just amazes me how we don’t set any screens on offense, its like we just try to play off talent when the going gets tuff, dragic and bledsoe kept getting screens from frye at the top, bev was picked like every play the last 6mins of the game causing mismatches, and howard would end up on a guard. Then harden would go to the other side and not get any picks he would just jack up a shot.
It's up to the clueless McHale to get Howard more involved. Seriously he should get the ball every posession when facing scrubs like Plumlee or Frye. Rather have Dwight post up than Haren brick another 3 and not run back on D
I actually like some of Howards post plays. I think McHale and Hakeem both see the potential, but his execution is poor. Howard needs to post up lower. Between the first and 2nd block. I see him try this in the game, but all of our guards are dribbling around at the 3 point line and they make very telegraphed light passes to Howard. This is easily intercepted by Howards defender, so Howard comes out to get the pass, but it leaves him like 8 feet away from the basket. We need fast bounce passes from that far out or the guard needs to dribble in towards Howard, before making an air pass. When Howard posts up 8 feet away from the basket, he does the "dribble, 2 step layup/hook" move. However, he's terrible at it. He charges into his defender instead of 2-stepping around his defender. Since he's so far away from the basket, his defender pushes him out and he "arcs" across the free throw line, which allows a help defender to swipe at the ball as he's dribbling. Howard should never get the ball farther than dunking range. Like Hakeem said, Howard needs to focus more on spinning. To do that, he needs to be at the LOW post. The best post moves doesn't involve dribbling, because that means you are already in position to make an basket, instead of having to dribble your way into position.
In general the Rockets are great passers. We were just missing two of our top three or four best passers due to injury. I have to disagree here. I've seen plenty of passes down low to Howard (maybe not so much in the last 2 or 3 games though)- and honestly they still result in turnovers quite often. When centers are scoring often, it's natural that the opposing team will start guarding him a lot harder. This is usually the reason Howard is "frozen" for a good portion of a game in which he is shooting well. The Rockets' ball movement last night simply wasn't good enough to do much for Howard. Had Parsons and/or Lin played last night, he probably would have gotten the ball quite a bit more.
The biggest flaw of this team is not on offense but on defense, just like last season. Same old same old. Replacing Asik with Howard, Lin with Beverley in the starting lineup has not changed our defensive weaknesses much.
We might have some great passers on this team, but we lack the knowledge & experience to feed the post & are horrible at timing the lob pass. Passing the ball to Dwight when he isn't in position to do anything isn't what I'm talking about. Feeding the post when he's sealed off his man down low, the drive and dish or drive & lob or back door screens are what is needed. The reason why Dwight turns the ball over so much is the terrible post passing, setting him up out of position or telegraphing the pass, which gives the defence time to swoop in for the steal. That's where coaching adjustments come into play...that's where coach could draw up some 'plays' to get his guys open & going again. Dwight sometimes won't see the ball for a whole quarter! Blame the coach...what would've Popovich or Phil Jackson done? I like McHale, but he has to kick some butt when a kicking is necessary. He needs to open up a can of whoop ass when 'the ball gets sticky', Spoiler 'Did someone say' 'The Ball got Sticky?' not just clap like a r****ded seal screaming out ' that's ok, let's go guys, lets go...'
Izak is right No one on the team knows how to entry pass, or that Dwight Howard is bad at maintaining position before he gets the ball. Because most of the time when he gets the ball he's already pushed out of the effective low post area.
Our biggest offensive flaw must not be as bad as you all want it to be considering we are #1 in points scored per game and top 5 in efficiency... But don't let that stop the Howard/harden hate. Defense is our problem, and a good portion of that is on James's sheer lack of individual effort.
Your rant has some issues. 1. To make the entry pass easier for the other players, Dwight needs to go out there and win the position battle. He does not. Watching NBA TV with Shaq and Barkley, they both said the same thing. Dwight doesn't go out there and win the position battle so he is not in the right position to post up so he has to face up to the basket for a guy that shouldn't be facing up to the basket. I disagree with the point that "Dwight has gotten to where he needs to be". Dwight has NOT gotten to where he needs to be each time down the floor. What Shaq said was that he would MAKE the refs call him for 3 seconds as he always tried to win the battle down low. 2. The other players are NOT hesitant to pass the ball to Howard. The problem is that their half court offense revolves around either Howard or Harden. So if Harden is not banging the ball on the floor, they have to look for Howard and because Howard doesn't fight for position, he gets the ball 10-15 feet from the basket instead of 2-8 feet. Do you see all the nice lobs for dunks? Howard wasn't 5 feet from the basket. He was 10 feet from the basket and snuck down. If he was 5 feet from the basket, there wouldn't be much room to throw that lob. How to fix Howard's positioning problem: Houston needs to run some picks down low and move Howard so that he has a little help in establishing position. He is poor in backing down people. If the two of Shaq and Barkley say Howard doesn't hold position, he doesn't hold position. Have TJones set a pick for Howard just so that he can get to about 5 feet from the rim and then look at getting him the ball.
It's the regular season and we're 13-7 - I'm willing to continue to feed the ball to Howard to his heart's content. I do think he will get better with time.
If I hadn't watched howard in la last season, I would be much inclined to agree with you. true dwight has been missed on multiple occasions, and true mchale is not drawing up any plays, but when you're having the same issues your having now with steve nash, STEVE NASH, then guess what, it's not the pg, it's not the passer. If every1 smells like ****, then guess what, it's probably your upper lip...
The offense is to predictable. Dwight needs deep position in the post to score. You need movement before giving it to him in the block. All I ask for is once a game, have Dwight on the weak side block, with Jones coming to set a pick from the opposite elbow. Dwight goes over and gets deep position (defender is fighting over the pick), throw it in and quick move. Another play we have seemed to stop using is having Harden screen for the 1. Also with Casspi at the 4, use him as the ball handler in a pnr with the 4 and 5. Again I say the defensive end can help the offense. By creating turnovers with tough defense we can get easy buckets in the fast break and get Harden or Lin or Parsons easy buckets.
Howard is 3 and Jones is 4 in the diagram below. (Credit to coachesclipboard.net) Diagram B is the classic fight for position in the low post. If Howards gets deep, Jones comes out to clear the paint. Diagram C is what you guys are talking about. Jones screens Howards man so Howard can come up top and get a deeper position in the post. We need to run this 2 on 2 drill to death. Howard is the only star player who is not injured right now. Let him handle some of the load. We know he is unstoppable with the ball within dunking distance. Let's get him there.
