Creating An Identity

Recently, a lot has been made of the Rockets lack of identity (and for good reason). We've seen fluctuating rotations, overstaffed rotations, and most importantly an inability to finish off the better teams in the league.

For the Rockets to come together, four things need to happen:

(1) Bring Aaron Brooks off the bench.

I know a lot of people are very high on AB, as the Lowry vs. AB debates have shown. But this isn't about Lowry, it's about what's best for the team.

We have too many go-to players in our first unit to start a point guard who looks for his shot first. I think the first team's overall success would benefit from having a PG (Lowry) who looks to setup others before himself. With Brooks/Martin/Scola all sharing the floor, sometimes we saw them looking at each other not sure which one should look to take over. Moving Brooks to the bench would help alleviate this.

Additionally, it makes us a stronger defensive team at the start of games. Starting with this unit should help set the defensive tone for the second unit to come in and sustain. Brooks would be the scoring punch off the bench that would (hopefully) take advantage of being fresh (for once) and playing bench players.

I'd liken this to the Mavericks bringing Jason Terry off the bench as opposed to starting him -- yes, Terry is probably better than whatever two guard is ahead of him, but the team is better off having his scoring punch off the bench. This also doesn't mean that Brooks wouldn't be in the game down the stretch -- Adelman can go with what he feels is working. Brooks can come off the bench and still help close games for us if his shot is falling.

(2) Create a 'pecking order'

By pecking order, I mean establish which players the offense will primarily feature throughout the game. As in, establish your "go to" players.

I believe Luis Scola should be our number one option. He's a terrific post presence, scoring consistently on even the better defenders, and he's shown this year to be a good passer when double teamed. I believe that teams are at their best when they play inside-out; we need to establish the Scola's post presence early and often. Down the stretch when we need a bucket, we should be calling a play for #4 most often. Obviously, this can change depending on who gets hot, but Luis should be identified as our rock.

Martin should be the clear number two. I don't like him as the #1 option because of his inability to get off his own shot at times and his penchant for disappearing down the stretch. However, he's still putting up 20+ points a game and going to the line at an insane rate. We should be running curl plays for Martin and look for him spotting up when Luis or others are double teamed. We traded for Martin to be our 2nd/3rd star -- it's time we set the pecking order to put him into that role.

(3) Make Brad Miller the starting center

Until Yao is able to play in back-to-back games, Brad Miller should be our starting center. This team has struggled out of the gate because of a lack of consistency in whose playing and whose not playing. This would be helped by naming Miller the starting five. Yao would come off the bench at the 6 minute mark; this would also help Yao see the floor late in games, as currently his minutes limit has seemed to cause problems as we got late into games and he has met his limit.

Further, this would be beneficial for Miller. He's had a few DNP-CD's mixed in with a few starts for our team. We need to name him the starter to help define his role to both him and the team.

This is all based on Yao's inability to play big minutes and in back-to-back games. Once the restrictions have been loosened, I'd advocate for Yao to resume his place in the starting unit and for Brad Miller to be his main backup off the bench.

(4) Cut the rotation to 9 -- bench Budinger & Hill (or Hayes)

As other people and threads have pointed out, the current rotation is simply too big. The injuries lately have helped cut that down, but it's a problem we need to address sooner than later to help the players who are playing develop more cohesion playing together.

Bench Chase Budinger. This won't be popular with a certain poster, but Chase is the odd-man out. His defense is below-average and he's shooting 20% from downtown -- as in, the only thing he's shooting is our team in the foot. It infuriates me that we traded our starting SF (Ariza) for a backup SG whose only playing 18 minutes a night. If you believe in Courtney Lee enough to trade Ariza for him, then show us why! Courtney Lee should be our backup SG & SF. Yes, he's only 6'5 -- but a certain 6'6" post player has shown us that size only matters to a certain extent. Lee is one of our best (first or second best) perimeter defenders; he needs to get a lot more playing time than 18 minutes a night. Benching Budinger would open up more time for Lee and would make us a better defensive team as a whole (More CLee defense, less CBud defense).

Bench Jordan Hill (or Hayes). A day ago, I was all in favor of benching Hayes -- but his defense against Amare has me second guessing. With Scola and Miller entrenched at our four and five spot, and Yao handling backup five duties, that leaves one spot for another big.

Ideally, you would want Jordan Hill winning this spot as he can play both the four and five for stretches; especially for the nights that Yao doesn't play. Hill is also the only shot blocking presence we have without Yao.

Realistically, Chuck Hayes should win the job. His defense on Amare last night might have sealed his spot. I hate playing Chuck Hayes against marginal PFs because his best strength (one on one defense) is marginalized; but then I realized that the West is loaded with top-tier PFs. On a given night, our PF is guarding Duncan, Dirk, West, Gasol (or Odom), Millsap, Nene (or Martin). In other words, the playoff teams of the West seem to be loaded with great-to-above-average PFs. This would make me more inclined to play Hayes over Hill for the defense, but this can be a fluid situation. I don't think the team would suffer that much because the 9th & 10th man occasionally flip-flop.

This would leave us with a (temporary until Yao heals) lineup of:

Lowry/Brooks
Martin/Clee
Battier/Clee
Scola/Hillayes
Brad/Yao

To me, this would be best for the Rockets going forward. It gives our starting five more defense while also allowing our second unit's best defender to make a greater impact on the game.

Thoughts?

 

I'm happy to debate some of the points. We all want the Rockets to do well, we just may disagree sometimes on the best way to get there.

Brooks is clearly the superior shooter to Lowry, you won't find many argue differently. I don't believe that Brooks needs Yao Ming however; last year AB took and made the most 3s in the nba, all while shooting them at a nearly 40% clip. That's damn impressive and Yao had nothing to do with it. Though in my scenario, Brooks would still be paired with Yao, except both would be coming off the bench. If Lowry is struggling to hit shots in key stretches of the game, Adelman can insert Brooks.

Exactly! I think it could be really good for Brooks as well; instead of worrying about getting Martin/Scola/Yao involved in the game, he can concentrate on what he does best: scoring the damn ball.

I don't really mean it as a knock on Chase -- I like him plenty. But there's simply no room. When you factor in the starting five I laid out, plus Brooks/Lee/Yao off the bench, you're already at an eight man rotation. Most teams in the playoffs only play eight and that rotation still doesn't have a backup PF (Hill or Hayes).

Playing Budinger would cut into Courtney Lee's minutes (hurts us defensively) and brings us to a 10 man rotation -- I know Adelman's getting old, but he would be entering Hubie Brown old if he did that. I don't have faith in any team advancing very far with a 10 man rotation. It becomes too difficult to get into a rhythm and understand your role and what's expected of you if you're only playing 15-18 minutes a night. I guess you could debate Lee vs. Budinger, but I think Lee is the better player.

As far as Hill goes, it's a toss up between him and Hayes. Potential, talent.. I'd much rather play Hill. But then I watch games like last night and see Hayes completely neutralize the guy who was killing us all game...

It's certainly not an easy decision, but like I said we can flip-flop PT for Hayes & Hill depending on the matchups.

Exactly. Last season we were an up tempo, out-score you at all cost team. Those type of teams don't go very far in the NBA playoffs. We need to get back to our defensive roots -- which means we should be giving Lee the bulk of the minutes.

 

I disagree with the scoring and the idea that we would be playing 3 on 5 on offense. Don't confuse 'not a good shooter' with 'not an effective offensive player'. Taking Brooks away from the starting unit opens up more shots for Scola and Martin -- it doesn't mean that Miller or Lowry would take those shots.

And while Battier isn't a threat to score double digits on you on a given night, he's a good enough shooter to put in the corner and post up on smaller players.

Regarding the big men -- who do you suggest? Starting Jordan Hill over Brad Miller? The problem you laid out would be resolved when Yao's minutes/game restrictions are loosened. Until then, we need a solution. That front court would not be a shot blocking threat, I agree. But our perimeter defense would not be three matadors -- Lowry and Shane are both pretty damn good defensive players. I just don't think that other teams would 'be able to get by our guards with ease' -- when we had Martin and Brooks, I thought that. With Lowry and Shane now being able to cover for Martin, I think our defense would improve on the perimeter.

What are you basing the Lee can't play SF argument on? His height? He's done a fine job playing with Martin, which is what he would have to do a lot in my scenario. He's stronger, quicker, and smarter defensively than Budinger, so I don't think Lee would be pushed around as easily as Bud is (remember what Melo did to Chase? Ugh.)

Is he the ideal SF? Of course not, but looking at our roster, he's the best alternative to one that we have. If you want to create an identity as a defensive team, you need to sacrifice some offense (Budinger) for toughness and defense (Lee).

It's hard to have a great impact when you're only playing 18 minutes a game. By the time you start sweating, it's time to take a seat. Lee is shooting better than Budinger from 3PT, FG% and FT%. Offensively, there isn't that much of a difference. Defensively, there is a big one.

And yes, I believe we do need more defensive players. If you took a straw poll of 'what type of team the Rockets want to be', I'd be willing to bet that defense wins out. We are ranked 28th right now in giving up PPG.. I'd take all the defense we can get.

Our problem certainly isn't offensive, in which we're 4th in the league in scoring.

 

Then you play Lowry-Brooks combination at the 1 and 2 like we did all of last year. Or, in emergency situations such as foul trouble, you can play Budinger. That fact that he doesn't get regular PT doesn't mean he can't step in if injuries/fouls force us into it.