We all know the Rockets are almost last, if not dead last, in Fast Break Points. We are terrible at scoring in transition, make a terrible pass, shoot the three or fail to get the ball to the open man and it ends up being a TO, missed shot or 5 on 5. If you look at how they run the fast break, if at all, it seems like they've skipped Basketball 101. When it's a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2 we almost never make the right decision. This all worries me, because the Rockets are not the best offensive team especially when Yao is fronted than getting easy buckets is key. This means they should try to capitalize on every single opportunity they can get. After a rebound, a blocked shot or a steal they need to get in the mindset of running the break. This means the one who will have the ball needs to look downcourt ASAP and other players need to run immediately if they can get the opportunity. I'm convinced the Rockets can do this so please do not say we do not have the right players to run the break because that's bullshhhh. Everybody except for Deke & Yao should be able to run down the court as fast as possible and get an easy dunk or layup. Especially with fast players like AB & Wafer we should get more fast break points. In the beginning of the year Wafer would get a lot of dunks because he ran the fast break on his own but this has gone down as the season went along. In my opinion if he sees the opportunity just run, even if nobody runs with you. AB and Wafer, maybe even Lowry, have the speed to run the break on their own and I rather see them trying instead of walking it up the court every single possession. Hopefully the Rockets will recognize this and hopefully make it easier for themselves by running the break more. We're too good of a defensive team to not take advantage of playing good defense. I mean, what's the point of getting a steal if you do not do something with it on the other end ? You might as well let the opponent run out the 24 second clock every time. What's the point of blocking a shot if you do not use it to your advantage.
Im ok with the Rockets stealing the ball and walking it down on offense and setting up Yao! Yao is easy buckets. It's always good to block shots even if you don't score on the possesion afterwards. It's called defense.
When Yao is fronted, the Rockets need to immediately move into a "Yao is being fronted offense". One option is to have Yao seal his man off from the basket, and a slashing type guard use Yao as a pick to get the defending guard off of him, and Yao can hold off the center to prevent shot blocking. Can you say dunks and layups by Von? And even if the PF rotates over, Scola/Landry just move to open space and take a wide open 14 footer. Easy-peasy. When I see Yao fronted, I just see the opposing center being taken out as a defender and rebounder at the rack. Not only can our players get there and finish more easily, but Yao should be in prime position for put-backs.
Playoff teams will have better transition defense (at least you'd think so). The quick pass down court won't always be available because there are already defenders down there. We should do it when we can, but we shouldn't look for it so much that we continually turn the ball over with fancy passes (Brooks/Lowry are not as capable as Nash/Kidd with this passes, either). That being said, you can skip the pass and have AB rush it down court, distribute a little down low, and get an easy lay-up that way. An additional benefit of this is Yao can take a breather back on the other end.
whats the correlation between good defensive teams and fast break buckets? i'd assume that most good defensive teams do not break a lot, just by the nature of the beast. iirc the rockets are one of the top defensive rebounding teams also, which leads me to believe they emphasize team rebounding over leaking out early after a successful defensive posession. so unless someone gambles on a steal (ron & wafer are the most likely culprits there) there's not much opportunity to break.
The 93-94 Rockets were a great defensive team and averaged a whole lot more fast break points than this team. They weren't known for it and I have watched several games where they said it was one of their weak points but I find that strange because Thorpe, Kenny, Sam, Horry, Maxwell & Elie all ran the break like crazy. Off of rebounds, blocked shots and steals they ran on instinct. This team seems to think way too much about what they want to do. It's natural when you get a steal you run down court and try to get an easy score. Maybe Tracy & Yao have messed this up and blocked the Rockets from running the break.
I'm not sure what the stats are saying but watching the games shows me that this team is nothing like the Rockets teams of previous years. Kyle Lowry and Von Wafer completely change the complexion of the game. Those guys are thinking fast break every time they touch the ball. Brooks also has this mentality although to a lesser extent. We will see more easy buckets than we have seen from this team in quite a few years.
From what I've seen over the past couple weeks, we are getting better at making quicker decisions when Yao is fronted. We were spending a good 10-15 seconds trying to get Yao the ball while being fronted, with no luck. Recently, once Yao is fronted, after a couple seconds, they swing the ball around and try to get Yao a better position, or find someone else open. Hopefully that will continue to happen in the playoffs (and tonight for that matter).
i would guess that it has to do with the fact that olajuwon, thorpe, and horry were all really good rebounders. for guards to leak out early you have to have a lot of confidence that your big men will get the rebound, otherwise you give up easy second chance points off the offensive glass. the game has changed so much since then that its really hard to compare though.
Agreed. I like that we've been doing the Phoenix thing lately, by quickly running down the court looking for an opportunity while 1-2 guys (one of them usually Yao) are still catching up on the play. At the very least we're putting pressure on the defense and it saves us a few seconds on the shot clock by pushing it. Our transition D also needs to be on point. There are games where our focus wavers and we give up lots of easy fast break points.
Good point, but if you look at the stats: we have the most defensive rebounds in the league. This does not transpire to the games themselves somehow because in the last 2 minutes against the Mavs we failed to get two precious defensive rebounds. Overall though, Scola, Yao and occasionally Wafer or Battier come up with the rebound and we should run the break. Just look at last night's game, there were tons of opportunities to get easy buckets but again we walked it up or ran like chickens with our heads cut off. There was one positive thing though: Lowry running the break by himself. He was phenomenal and just attacked the basket putting his head down (Clyde flashback ) and did it all by himself. This is what AB, Lowry and Wafer need to do more. Just run the break by yourself, just make good decisions and please no more floaters Wafer when you have Artest right next to you.
Looking at the Blazers series this again was very key for us not being able to win by large numbers and making it more interesting than it had to be. Wafer never ran, Lowry did his occasional one man fast break but failed many times and AB never did anything succesfully in transition. If we want to beat LA, getting easy buckets is key. After a block shot --> RUN After a rebound --> RUN After a steal --> RUN (something they did pretty well at times) This goes for everybody except Yao. I'm still confused how all these guys do not run more, especially guys like Battier & Landry. You cannot tell me on a basketball court you do not have the speed to run from one end to another. Wafer did it earlier in the year but as the season progressed and he noticed nobody running with him, he adapted and started to walk up the court like the rest. This troubles me and I hope RA puts emphasis on making it easy for themselves.
