[Grantland] The Rockets Reach for Greatness

Let the good times roll!

 

Learning the playbook is not an issue, because Houston doesn't really have a playbook. "We don't have to stop practice and say, 'OK, now let's go over our plays,'" Sampson says. "We don't have any plays. During the flow of the game, very rarely do we run an actual play."

Wait What?!!

 

I wonder if that's true, about the "we call no plays" excerpt.

That's pretty interesting.

And I'm sure the coaching staff will find something for Robinson to do lol.

 

As expected, they run no plays because they are just swinging the ball around for a 3. I wonder if they will start implementing more plays (like the Spurs do) when we get more talent on the roster. If they don't, it's time to look for another coach.

 

He likes our red and yellow uniforms as well!

We really need to switch to these full-time. I love that we are using the a lot more this year.

 

Great writing.

 

Good to see he is realistic. So, what have they really done?

"What's the system!? What plays are they running?!" "What is McHale drawing up!? Nothing.

"It was a learning experience," said (Anthony) Carter. "He didn't really know all the X's and O's, but he had a good assistant coaching staff that was helping him out with a lot of plays. He kind of let us run whatever we wanted.

"He was trying to draw plays, and it was like a little Etch and Sketch. Like a kid just messing around. . . . He just gave the clipboard to the assistant coaches sometimes."

"Practice, it was kind of funny," Carter said. "(McHale) didn't warm us up and just let us get to playing five-on-five. He'd just sit on the sideline . . . and the other coaches would be coaching."

Asked how the Timberwolves managed a decent record with a novice coach, Carter said, "All the guys just stuck together. We didn't want to get embarrassed."

Doesn't fit. Bad trade. Not long for here.

It "could work" because of the Mike D'Antoni Suns. Ha! If there was a coach NOT to model around or after....all offense, no defense, good luck. Lowe goes on to rip the Houston defense(especially James Harden).

 

It's called read and react. Just like Adelman without the guys in the high post.

 

Nice find! Thanks.

 

Fixed.

 

If the coaching staff and Morey are on board with a no set play offense count me in too. Not having plays requires that the roster must have a very high BBIQ, but it certainly hasn't hurt the offense. And it is really fun to watch.

 

I was surprised about the "very few set plays" comment. Team shows excellent spacing/passing. Good ball movement with the PnR. You would think if there were few set plays, a guy like Harden would be taking over on more plays. Shows that he's a team player and can adjust for team sake. If Kobe was here, he would be getting 50 every night

 

Haha.

Yeah, when it only rolls it's bad times indeed.

 

The "we call no play" reminds me of Parsons' " we don't know what we're doing" comment.

 

The Houston offense is basically the basketball equivalent of the Hurry Up offense in Football.

It works if you have a team filled with high BBall IQ players that are willing to share the ball.

Luckily, we just happen to have that. :grin:

As for the defense, that should continue to improve over time, especially with the addition of Robinson and a back up center.

And let's not forget our cap space... lots of room to further improve this already impressive and young roster.

 

No set plays but they know what they have to do. Move bodies and the ball around, and attack the space that is created.

Guys just need more coaching up when defenses stymie their first attacks. They need to know counters.

With the 5 months that this team has been together, they haven't learned much defense yet. But it's more the lack of personnel to do it. We're relying on individual defensive talent at this point.

 

You're kidding, right?

 

Great read

Lowe does a really good job breaking down how bad our d is without asik

Both him and Simmons seem to like morey and the rockets a lot

 

Note the next part:

But Houston wants to be a top-10 offensive rebounding team, Sampson says, and Robinson can help there.

Personally, one thing I like about the trade is that it forces the staff to deal with the issue. If it's a "bad trade", it'll be because Robinson simply doesn't live up to his potential -- not because he doesn't fit from a talent standpoint. It's not as if he's a bad shooter, either -- he absolutely has range out to 18 feet and perhaps a step more.

It's nice that Patterson developed the range to hit a corner 3, but in the big picture, there are very few PFs that both have that extreme range while simultaneously defending and rebounding at a high level. I can't imagine that the Rockets' blueprint for contention is that narrow. Motiejunas gives them that option when he's on the floor, but they also need to work on incorporating bigs of a somewhat different skillset into the offense. Considering this is still a season of development, I'm glad they get to work on this. Moreover, I think it's pretty pessimistic to typecast them based on half of one season. They can figure this out.