Hard to criticize Howard's effort level when he's a spectator on offense

We need a coach! That is all there is to it. BICKERSTAFF lacks maturity. This is a team that could compete for the title, yet we are making so many amateur mistakes. Give me Thibs.

 

I agree one of the best posters on Clutchfans.

 

hard to really take the guy serious after the Dwight party video.

 

Always good to see heypartner and yoyo put people in their place

Others (not aelliot) are too lazy or stupid to see where they're wrong

 

Well even Deandre Jordan gets 6 attempts a game haha. That being said, I know where you are coming from, but in this specific case with the Rockets, something else may have been going on affecting Howard's mental toughness.

It wasn't just freezing out Howard due to game plan; I got the impression he was just being frozen out by Harden (and/or the team). Like, I saw multiple plays, they went out of the way to NOT get him the ball when it actually made the most sense. It was weird -- like watching a couple fighting lol.

Not sure what the issue is there, but that certainly worries me...

 

It's not Rockets science, they foul him when he gets the ball he can't shoot free throws. It's either a brick, an offensive foul, or he gets fouled. He rarely ends a post up where he makes a great move and a shot for the finish. He's just not an offensive player. Forcing him to be one is rather stupid. We need another scorer next to Harden and it's not Dwight Howard.

 

http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/possessions/

 

Let me make sure I'm following:

- I post a quote that shows that Miami ran heavy ISO in winning the '11-'12 title vs OKC.

- In response you post an article that discusses how much Miami has changed their offense in the '12-'13 season. The article even states "The Heat look almost nothing like the 2010-11 version that melted away against Dallas in the Finals, and they don't even look much like the team that took the floor for the bulk of their championship campaign last season"

The article that you posted just says that the Heat changed their offense for the '12-'13 season. That's all fine and well, but they'd already won a world title running heavy ISO the prior year which is what I said.

You stated that you couldn't win running ISO and I gave you proof that the Heat did it. Your article just shows that they later changed which had nothing to do with my point.

If you want to believe that Cleveland lost last years finals because Lebron was running ISO you're welcome to your opinion but most everyone realizes that he had an historically great finals but injuries left them too short handed.

The fact is that the Heat went 1-1 in NBA finals while running heavy ISO and then went 1-1 in the next two finals running less ISO. I'm not sure that there's anything being demonstrated there, teams can obviously win using different approaches. What it did prove is that you can win while running lots of ISO.

BTW Why do you keep saying "Stats don't tell the whole story"? Has anyone claimed that? Even Morey says stats aren't the only factor. There's lots of other things that go into evaluating players and situations.

What stats are great for is to disprove things incorrectly stated as fact which is what they are doing in this thread. If I said "Nobody could score 100 points in an NBA game", then stats would quickly prove that to be an untrue statement.

There's a huge difference between "proving everything" vs proving a discreet point. How many touches Dwight gets in the post and paint are facts and stats do tell the entire story. The fact that Lebron runs heavy ISO is also fact and stats do tell the entire story.

Every NBA team spends millions each season to capture and analyze stats. If stats didn't matter then they wouldn't be doing that. For questions about things that are tracked and quantified by the NBA, it's silly to dispute their numbers, they are facts. You can perceive that things happen more or less frequently but the numbers don't lie.

Can you build a team solely on stats, no there's too many other factors involved. Can I use stats to disprove the fact based statements that you made in this thread? I already did.

 

This logic is stupid. DO YOUR JOB DWIGHT. If you don't the ball that doesn't excuse you for playing lackadaisical. The sooner A) Dwight realizes he sucks on offense and should be nothing more than a defensive player or B) the Rockets trade him, the better for the team.

 

I agree if Dwight were aware of his limitations he would be a great player. Instead he sulks about not getting post ups. He's mentally weak and the whole league knows it. I used to wonder why it seemed like everyone hated Dwight. No matter who we played whether it was Kevin Garnet or Kevin Durant players just disrespected him. The Media has been right about the Rockets we as Rockets fans just didn't want to admit. James Harden is a horrible defensive player and Dwight Howard is mentally weak.

 

Is there any evidence he's sulking?

His rebounding and blocks are UP from last year.

His defensive real-plus minus is up from 2.08 last year to 3.55 this year.

His offensive efficiency is only down slightly, he still shoots 59% from the field and his TS% is 59% (higher than Harden's BTW).

In conclusion- NO. He's not involved in the offense but he's playing as good or better than last year on defense and on the boards.

 

He cannot set a decent screen this yr, his body position is always off with Harden trying to set picks. Last yr they were mostly on, not sure what's changed...

 

IMO...think he leaves his screen looking for the ball way too quickly on P/R