I'm not ignoring any points. I'm just imagining what could've happened had your point come into fruition. Your problem is that your solutions are shortsighted. Sure, double teaming Ellis would've contained him. But it would have created opportunites for everyone else which is a fine strategy if his teammates were shooting poorly, but that simply wasn't the case last night.
Not on Ellis, you needed 2 guys on him last night....if you watch, a lot of his shots were contested jumpers.....on the catch, you blitz him and make him pass it...... Mix it up some....too vanilla last night.....too easy for a guy with that confidence and that ability to torch the Rox. Bad move, IMO. DD
You are right. We need to focus on what we can do now to fix the issues, but while i'm doing that, i will also be hoping to get Ariza back in December.
Regarding Hill, which was also part of the original post, I was a little surprised that he did not start at Center....and Hayes did. We really could have used his length and athleticism in there.....not sure what is going on there....but Hill should have played. DD
The main thing this game did is make me feel like Battier is completely expendable. He couldn't guard a corpse, and he is basically worthless on offense. Why not give a younger guy a shot? And yeah...when we are getting absolutely torched by a guy, there needs to be some changes made and you HAVE to double a man who is shooting like Michael Jordan. We can't just try and outscore everyone, we have to get some stops. I think time and time again that strategy has failed teams...historically it just doesn't work. The two people that impressed me in this game were Scola and Chuck. Where was Jordan Hill? I mean even Jeffries showed in his limited minutes last night that he can make some defensive stops single-handed...yet he wasn't in for long... Budinger should play more (maybe not when we are in a stretch needing D though...) Either AB can't run the offense for **** in the final minute of the game, or Adelman is the worst game ending play drawer upper (yeah) I've ever seen. Every...freaking...game...I am baffled by the strategy in the final minute...mainly I'm still upset about the game ending play for the Laker game that ends with a MAYBE 6 foot tall guy (AB) trying to make a reverse layup in a swarm of dudes twice his size.
I also noticed at one point the Rockets had come up with a defense for that high pick and roll that Curry kept running, but the guy just couldn't miss a shot.
Trap him....he is a short guard, trap him hard and don't give him an angle to pass the ball into the paint. DD
One thing that happens to AB quite often against bigger guards is that they play more physical and force him from his spots. I was a bit surprised the Rox didn't get more physical with Ellis and Curry. They basically let them do what they wanted instead of pushing them around and making them earn their shots. If you can't keep up with them, how about knocking them down and pushing them away from their comfort zone.
AB was bothered by Curry last night, he was flustered. The Rockets hould have run some high PnR to free him up a little more....late in the game they went to it, and Scola scored on 2 passes from Brooks. That should have been their staple most of the game....too much one on one in this game...and not enough team....on offense OR defense. DD
You're going to drive yourself crazy if you're second-guessing every move like this. Just sit back and enjoy. The season is young and the team will continue to improve and get better, as they generally have done under Adelman. You brought up the comparison between Adelman and JVG before -- saying Adelman is doing the same thing that got JVG fired. I don't agree. JVG was a micromanager. Adelman looks at the bigger picture and coaches with broader strokes. Over time, you start to appreciate more and more the job Adelman does.
From CheezeyBoy's Morey thread: [rquoter]"Monta beat us up pretty good. Monta was doing things we were hoping he does but he was making shots He is a low % shooter but not last night." -- Morey[/rquoter] Exactly what I was saying. The Rockets defense was giving up contested, long 2-point shots to Monta, and he was nailing them. Tip your cap, but in the long run those are the kind of shots you prefer to give up. Its rare for teams to win by relying on players nailing contested 20-footers over and over again.
I thought Morey was a stats guy: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=2751 Monte is a CAREER .477 shooter, that is danged good....... And last night he was hot, I agree he is not going to do that every night, but since he was....why not mix in a little double team to get him a little off his rythmn, that is ENTIRELY the point of this thread. DD
Dude or DD I don't know who you are, I don't know what all those green boxes beneath your name mean. I have been a member of this site for a few months because like you and the rest here I'm a huge rockets fan. I agree with just about everything you posted. The only thing is that if you double-team Ellis, what do you about Curry and Wright who were also shooting lights out...
I think the stats guy might have been referring to his 51.0 TS% over the last two seasons (which is poor). And he probably has stats on Monta's percentage on long, contested 2-pointers too. I suspect his stats are a tad more useful than career FG%.
Adelman is not playing Hill because he wants his Center on the high post setting screens and looking for AB & Martin coming off as cutters. Adelman gets really frustrated with Hill even though he is exactly what the Rockets need. Its Adelmans fault for not figuring out how to properly use him. Gerald Wallace is a good example here. Just did not fit well in Adelman's system. Good solid player but couldnt see time on the floor because of this fact.
