[Chron] Rockets working on offensive kinks with Dwight

No, I watched the game where Dwight played with Beverly and Lin against the SAME team and neither one could get him the ball effectively.

 

^^^Kinda have to take it with a grain of salt, due to the small sample size and high usage role he was playing, but Hedo @ EuroBasket: PER of -0.8, 6th worst among all players. Worst among SFs (42th).

 

Sluggishness is on the individual player, as we saw Bev/Harden/Howard weren't really affected by jet lag. But Lin consistently pushes the pace & Parsons is usually right beside him so I think those two being out slowed the game down a bit cause they'll force the whole team to run. FWIW, I do recall Lin's rebounds going down last year so he could be in position to receive the ball in transition. My prediction is if PBev starts, McHale might ask him to not concern himself with rebs so he can run the ball and push the pace. But I doubt his OR goes down

Also, I used to think Lin was the best passer on the team, but it looks like Harden's actually the best. We just don't usually see it from him because we need his scoring ability more than his passing. Howard and Parsons, I predict are also going to get good at the passing game. I absolutely love that our Rockets are starting to develop other skills to make them more versatile and dangerous.

 

One of the most important things Dwight brought to Houston is stoping the iso-hegemony of the Beard... look how Harden suddenly become more efficient and better player as soon as he stoped iso forcing...

 

dwight posting will be this season's iso harden...

 

I'm not really sure how the graphs are relevant in terms of feeding dwight the ball in the post. At the rim and in the post are not the same. From the preseason games the best at passing into the post seems to be Harden with his bounce passes and even then that is debatable.

 

Actually McHale said in post game interview last night, he was fine w/ Bev crashing the boards, but no other guards.

 

Ahh....well, there goes my prediction I think his DR goes down, but his OR effort stays the same. Also, I really wish he was a foot taller, he can be our answer to the 4!

 

Dwight didn't stop the "isos", he made it easier for Harden. Teams can no longer help out like before when Harden takes his man 1v1. That was evident in a few plays against the Magic, especially this one.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lai2nMGhNRw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

It's Mchale's most important task since he was coach.

 

It's not all McHale's fault. In Orlando they would run pick and rolls to get Dwight the ball close to the basket, but the last couple of years he has leaned away from the pick and roll and likes to call for the ball in the post where it's easier for defenses to anticipate the pass.

 

PER of 12.4, 20th among SFs.

http://in-the-game.org/download/ebplayerstats.xls

I looked at the wrong colum with Hedo, btw. His EuroBasket PER was -0.8. :grin:

 

What is the point of this chart? Your percentage of assists at the rim has nothing to do with passing into the post.

 

I'm just glad they're publicly acknowledging it as an issue. Part of me was wondering if they've been humoring Dwight with the post focus during the last couple of games to convince him the P&R >>>>

 

I notice in the previous scrim games, Lin is actually on the opposite team. Harden and Dwight on the same. Lin's team won both times. Definitely can't read too much from this, but just something interesting you might want to know.

But I'm sure Lin does get to have Dwight on his team for practice to feel out what works and what doesn't. Lin starts the next game anyway so we can see how they pan out.

 

Maybe post play is a harder skill to work on - so they want to figure out that part early and how everyone plays with that. PNR is pretty standard - and they ran it often last year. This year dumping it into the post is pretty new. The team will play differently this year because of Dwight. Could be combination of run and gun but not as fast.

 

Maybe they do that because Bev. needs a great deal of practice feeding the low post. Lin may be more adept at this. Watch the next game.

 

It is the preseason. They are on the court working on things that do work well. I expect a ton more passes to Howard in the low post before the regular season begins.

 

This video makes me so happy. Kobe is such a tool.

The look on Howard's face afterwards...poor guy. Glad he's happy now.