Shot selection. The Rocket players are only allowed to shoot threes and layups. That’s exactly what Gordon takes. That’s what all our players take. Gordon is told to shoot and that’s what he does.
This is true...truly MDA is an incredibly bad coach and I was pretty neutral on him until last year. He pulls guys when they're hot and when they're bricking them instead of taking them out of the game and giving your best three point shooter on the bench a chance he tells them to keep bricking/shooting. It's truly asinine.
Obviously I get that...I watch the games. My point is he takes too many threes and not enough layups especially given his shot has been missing for a year now and he's really good going to the basket. And he seems to settle for threes even more in the second halves of games, particularly the fourth quarter. There's no excuse for going 0-4 from 3 and not taking an attempt at the basket once in a tightly contested game...especially given literally all four of those weren't even close and I think he airballed one of them. When he scored 50 he was so aggressive - he took 11 2s and went to the line TWENTY times because he was aggressive going to the basket. He's had several games like this and then he reverts back to standing at that same spot and taking a contested three over and over.
This is what I was getting at and it seems it got lost by a lot of the replies...and man I thought the exact same thing when he made those threes. Truthfully I have no doubt in my mind we win that game if we had told him you only take layups moving forward or Ben is coming in.
He went 2 for 12 from deep in 2018 during game 7 but they all went cold - Ariza had no business taking as many threes as he did and absolutely killed us. What pisses me off most about this team is I swear we take more three pointers when we are UP than when we are DOWN which makes absolutely no sense. He also went 2 for 8 from deep in the game 3 loss and in the other two losses he shot well but managed to somehow turn the ball over 4 times both games which makes no sense because he doesn't make many passes...
I think I've become a huge Russ fan just because he finally stopped taking the stupid 3 PT shot he wasn't making and goes to the basket which should be easily with James taking all of the attention...this is why Gordon pisses me the f*** off. Never in a million years did I think I would be telling you Westbrook has the best shot selection on this team.
+/- can be very deceiving...Gerald Green shot 1 for 7 in game 7 in limited minutes yet let the team at +10 while everyone else was negative. It's because he wasn't in the game in the 3Q when Ariza shot us out of the game...wonder what would have happened if MDA actually tried bringing him in. Also, I can't stand looking at these box scores that are effectively 6 man rotations. If the Thunder can play Dort and Bazley (39% on FGs...not efficient in TS neither is Dort he's a 29% from the arc and under 40% for all shots with hardly any FTs) then why the is McLemore and Rivers getting under 15 minutes? Ben shot over 40% from 3 and lit it up game 1...I just don't get it man.
MAN!!! I said that to my buddy watching the game thinking it really was his last year and I was getting excited but was reminded quickly that once again Morey handed out a dumbass contract. Morey is going to be kicking rocks with MDA if they choke this series off. I will say with a different coach that holds him and others accountable I think he could be a really good player for us. Check out his TS % for his career...notice his years with the Rox aren't his best. http://bkref.com/pi/shareit/Qkqno
he has no situational awareness...that’s the case for the whole team, but with him it’s especially problematic because he takes so many shots...Covington takes a lot of dumb or horrible shots too, but his shot attempts are low...it’s not a coincidence that our offense has been at it’s worst when those 2 are on the court this series this is 1 of the problems I have with MDA...he never puts a stop to the team stupidity no matter how many bricks, the message is always keep shooting or we’re getting good shots...man, at this point, u can not call a three pointer from Eric Gordon a good look...the worst part is that he takes so many from like 27 or 28 feet chucking them up like he’s on fire when in actuality he’s giving the rim a severe beating every night there’s a point when confidence becomes stupidity, and Gordon crossed that line a long time ago
I am sure MDA would point to a study that shows that numbers say theres no such thing as hot and cold... just like he claimed for the timeouts... that numbers prove they do nothing....
