Calvin Murphy: Rockets need to take shots available even mid range

I don't believe that. A good coach gets the most out of his players. You think McHale is getting anything close to that?

Defense is not really based on talent. We are athletic enough.

 

McHale can't turn our players into Jordan? MCFAIL!

 

We were quite a bit better at 3 pointers last season.

Not sure if this season's 3 point shooting is some sort of statistical anomaly or what. But those shots aren't falling. Harden's numbers are especially down in that regard.

We don't have a no mid-range strategy, we have it's better to take a contested 3 pointer than a contested mid range shot.

 

I agree with midrange shots. When you're not hitting them, you gotta get in closer. Also, some opponents are just gonna let them take those 3s by closing out on them.

 

big dick is sorely missed

 

We only have one player (besides Harden) who has a sweet spot in any midrange area. Check it for yourself. If this team had a great midrange shooters on it, they would be playing and putting up some midrange shots. But we don't. We don't have anybody outside of Harden and this other unnamed player (who has a sweet spot in midrange) that can shoot from midrange worth a crap.

 

Patterson is missed

 

It a shame because Harden is actually a good midrange shooter. He tends to make it complicated with he moves and pump fakes which throw off his rhythm but coming off a a high pick and pulling up from 18ft was how he was so dangerous before. Also Lin is a pretty good midrange jump shooter as well. During Linsanity he wasn't going crazy from three, he was driving and prodding the defense for 15-18 footers.

While I do agree that shots and the rim and threes are the most efficient play style, it better to get some points than none at all. When our threes aren't falling and we can't get inside the paint, we need to get points somehow. No way this team should be held to under 90 points on consecutive nights. We just need to find a balance the balance in our game. We are more than halfway past the season and we still don't have an identity.

 

Pretty much accurate.

D'Antoni's offense heavily relies on the ideas that it's best to attack before the defense is set up and that a wide open shot should nearly always be taken when it comes to the open court.

In terms of half-court sets, D'Antoni's offensive sets are both subtle and complex. He has a very deep playbook, and the team runs plays with a lot of cutting, multiple screens including double and triple screens, and heavy use of picks and curls.

The only thing that the Rockets offense has in common with the D'Antoni offense is the preference to shoot lay ups and 3's. Outside of that it looks *nothing* like the D'Antoni offense.

D'Antoni calls plays out of time outs and they're usually very effective. He also has the PG driving the offense (which in this case would be Lin or Harden) not just in read and react, but in screens, picks and diversion plays.

When not pushing the ball in transition, the D'Antoni offense often starts with a play call and then players moving, cutting, screening and swinging the ball, often 3+ times in order to create space and an open shot or open flash to the rim.

This is in addition to the starting set of stretch players at the corners to create space. Beverley for example could never play in the D'Antoni offense... his 3 point shooting isn't enough of a threat, and his sub-par driving, finishing and passing skills don't take sufficient advantage of open driving lanes or defensive mismatches.

One of the things that made Lin very effective under D'Antoni was his ability to call a correct offensive set once he made the correct read. It wasn't all read and react, and there was a limited amount of ISO.

Unfortunately the current offense is pretty much pure read and react. It's good in some ways in that you have multiple high IQ players that can handle the ball, it's bad in some ways that the better defenses require more sophisticated lines of attack.

Watch the Spurs for example.. you'll rarely see Parker run an ISO. He's constantly running PnR's, cutting and utilizing double and triple screens to either free himself or free his team mate.

Without a higher level of offensive complexity, this team is most likely going to continue to struggle against the best defenses. It's just too easy to beat a "read and react" when you have a really big line like the Pacers or Memphis that can switch off a basic pick with minimal penalty. There aren't really a lot of "mismatches" that you can generate that will free up the paint against that sort of team unless you're tying them up or drawing them out of the paint.

You either run them off the floor in transition (which we don't do *nearly* as much as we did last year), or you need to out-execute them in the half-court set. Of course, to do that would probably require a good offensive playbook...

 

Yea...The D'Antoni offense in the half-court is "read defense, calls most appropriate play in playbook"
On the other hand the McSuccess "offense" can be described as "read defense, make up **** as you go" most of the time.

 

This is our 1st problem. Dwight should almost never get "locked down". His post has improved, but still needs work.

Other than that, agreed. Teams needs diversity on offense in general.

 

Look at Portland as an example. Aldridge is obviously their 1st option, but his TS% is pretty poor, while their other starters' TS% is very high.

It'd be disrespectful to group LA in the "inefficient chuckers" category, but they're not using him all too differently from guys like DeRozan, as he forces defenses to focus on "cold-spots" on the floor efficiency-wise (and he's talented enough to still convert reasonably well from that area, while being contested), opening up opportunities for all their shooters. I'd predict that come playoff-time, coaches will force LA to beat them and keep their 3FGA lower than they'd like.

 

Been said this before the season started.

 

Uhh... D'antoni's offense is not complex at all. It's kinda annoying to hear people call dantoni a offensive genius. There's no cutting or off ball movement or intricate plays called.

It's merely a pick n roll offense with shooters spreading the court. I like to call it more of a "pick up ball" basketball. It's kind of a gimmick. Now popavich, that's a complex, efficient high scoring offense.

D'antonis offense is more like a retarted distant ralative of popavichs offense.

 

Calling his offense r****ded is a little extreme. Back in his days in Suns, the Spurs vs. Suns playoff rivalry led to some most enjoyable b-ball games. Popovich did beat Dantoni in the rivalry, with the help of Duncan. But no one really argued that Pop was a better offensive coach than Dantoni. Pop still has his old pals who he knows better and better thoughtout these years while Dantoni have been moving around and dealing with new personnel and injuries. Look I'm not trying to say Dantoni is a comparable coach to Gregg Popovich. But as a head coach, you need to be able to utilize your talents to max the offensive efficiencies. Dantoni succeeded in Suns because he knew how to do that. And That's exactly something Mchale lacks. I don't think the current Rockets roster is short of talents. But so far I don't think Mchale has brought out the potential of this team, offensively and defensively. That's why so many people calling us "lack of identity". I wouldn't mind to wait for the team to gel but I have to know we are going towards the right direction.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. Good defensive teams really give us problems. And this team will go as far as Harden and Howard take them. They are the stars, they have to step up.

 

even if it's not mid-range jumpers, there's huge value from being able to generate offense from the midpost. it opens up the game both inside and outside. we don't have that.
check out the last champs, lebron does it, dirk did it. kobe did it, kg/pierce could do it. duncan obviously did it. there's big value for a player being able to catch it midpost, face up his defender and genrate offense. it's where durant is growing right now too.

 

and to add to that, it's how we can generate still good looks from 3/layups from the midpost with cutters against the halfcourt. now we rely on getting to the rim thru dribble penetration. that's not happening on a consistent basis v. great defensive teams.

 

That's a good point, that's something I have thought about recently. We really too much on dribble penetration from harden. We see stars like Carmelo, Aldridge, dirk, Kobe score efficiently in the midpost area.

I would like to see harden work on his midpost game in the future. He has the ability to do it.

 

I totally agree with Murphy. I could explain why, but it should be obvious.

Summary: While the premise of the 3-and-paint strategy is correct, it makes it too easy to defend you. You need to mix it up so that teams have a harder time reading you. TS % of the team will end up higher if you mix it up, even though at first glance the mid-range shots are "more inefficient". If you totally leave out the mid-range game, it makes your 3-point shooting and paint efforts more inefficient, thus negating the intended positive impact of leaving out the seemingly "inefficient" shots.