Daryl Morey on 610 This Morning with Marc and Andre

I think that if you isolated the numbers just before the streak as opposed to the first two and a half months that started the season there would be a difference in effectiveness when Yao was on the court.

He did much better as the year progressed. At the beginning he was struggling to find a place in Rick's offense and Rick was struggling to find ways to get him the ball within the flow of an offense.

I would be interested to see the November and December numbers as opposed to the January and February numbers rather than an analysis of "playing big" for the whole year.

 

Good point. But I think Morey feels the Rockets play better in some areas when they go small. He said they run more, get more penetration, get more trips to the foul line (that's a surprise, actually), and they turn it over less. I wonder if Morey's assessment is in agreement with the coaches.

 

I agree with you that Harris will be out. Either Wafer or DJ would stay the whole season with the team and I believed there will be a trade in the middle of the season that will bring a 7 footer in.

 

Rockets played better in the 4th quarter without Yao.

 

http://www.82games.com/QTR4S0.HTM

Here are stats breakdown by quarter for last year.

In the fourth quarters, the Rockets were +13 with Yao over the entire season (464 total minutes), +73 with McGrady (517 total minutes), dead even with Battier (608 total minutes), and +33 with Chuck Hayes (302 total minutes). The rest of the Rockets who played at least 300 4th quarter minutes had a negative +/- (-18 for Head, -16 for Wells, and -16 for Scola).

More meaningful would be +/- for various player combinations in the 4th.

 

Isn't there a rule that you cannot cut an injured player and isn't Harris still injured? If so, then Harris could stick just because he is injured.

 

Ok. I didn't know he was injured. What a coincidence.

 

Thanks, durvasa. Great recap!

 

I would have like to hear an explanation on why we still have luther head. Morey said he will keep only one out of Wafer, Strawberry, and Harris. Luther Head is a joke and I believe Wafer and Strawberry are much better players, also this may shock even myself I'm tired of waiting!!! Francis you are my boy but "a cold",ni99a please Get on the court like yesterday!!!!

 

I would you suggest getting rid of Luther Head?

 

Great recap. I just want to add in regard to Scola he said that this is just preseason and you don't worry about a player like him.

I only bring that up because Scola's play has been heavily criticized here and it sure didn't sound like anyone on the staff is thinking about Landry starting based on anything that's happened in these games.

 

If +/- stat is meaning something, I have to say Yao's +/- is terrible.

the list +/- for all 4 quarters:

Alston (+105, +87, +100, +37)
TMAC (+126, +42,+24,+73)
Battier (+143,+111,+85,0)
Hayes (+38, +109,+30,+33)

Yao(+81, +65, +29, +13)

what does it mean? Yao's contribution to +/- can be replaced by a scrub like Hayes...

now we need to throw away +/-.

if there is a stat on 4th quarter collapses, we will see the difference with and without Yao.

 

Great recap. Thanks.

 

CHUCK

HAYES


You simply can't beat him. I think our best 2nd unit has him playing at center. He's gonna make the team every year and he's gonna play over 10 years in the NBA.

 

I think the the biggest factor of +/- stat is the diff between a player and his backup.

that's why you see a very good stat of alston, while yao's backups were deke/scolar/hayes.

tmac's backup was head. imagine if artest were his backup.

 

Thanks for the recap, I don't have time to go back and listen to it all.

Anything to read between the lines here?

 

When Chuck's in the game, good things happen.

 

Actually, +/- is independent of backups. It's just how much the team outscores the opponent when the player is on the court. On/Off differential depends on backups, though.

 

Thanks for the great recap durvasa. Looks like Marc and Andre were actually prepared to ask the key questions we want answered. This is better than Lance and Goofball would have done a couple of years ago in the morning on AM610.

Maybe Marc and Andre will have regular, informed, legit Rockets discussion this season. It shouldn't be hard for them to improve from how awful they were last season.

 

When Chuck's on the bench, more goods things happen.