That's right. Atlanta and Dallas shoot 34.7% and 34.2% (we shoot 34.2%) on 28.6 and 28.1 attempts (we shoot 30.7).
We talk about how "good" they were offensively. Yet we neglect to talk about how below-average they were at shooting 3's... and they shot A LOT of 3's. They were 2nd in 3-point attempts but were 19th in 3-point shooting percentage. Morey built this team around 3's and layups, yet acquired players that were average-at-best 3-point shooters and guy's that can't create their own shot. So I think a good portion of the blame should go to Morey and Les.
Lololololololol Without Harden, Rockets = 76ers You don't deserve to own James Harden. Give back to Thunder please!
Pure myth. We scored alot of points but had alot more possessions than other teams. Our offense was overall inefficient. In addition, Harden generated most of the offense. Our offense was bad, ESPECIALLY in the postseason
notice how a player who earns the max salary while completely sucking on BOTH ENDS of the court is missing from the list? that should tell you everything about his bias.
Well, he needs the right assistance (as well as assistants). Daryl: Hey, Kevin, what about Royce White? McHale: Hoiberg says he's good to go! Let's draft him! Let's be tone-deaf techno-nerds and totally ignore that he has a mental illness! Daryl: Great! Hey, Kevin, I was thinking about trading away a sharpshooter on a minimum contract and bringing in Corey Brewer who lit us up for 51 points and used to play for you? McHale: Thumbs up! Always a great attitude, shows up on time, can really score (when nobody guards him, such as Parsons and Harden on that fateful game)!
Agree with some of the points buried in the article, but it completely de-legitimizes itself in my eyes when it blames Morey/the roster for McHale and Bickerstaff's shortcomings, but takes the complete opposite approach by blaming Van Gundy for not achieving greater success with Yao and McGrady, rather than blaming Morey for the surrounding roster. Seems like an angry rant that wasn't really thought out.
Terrible article, despite accurately putting a good portion of blame on the GM. Yao/mcgrady rockets got some revisionism. That was a solid ball club. And I think one of the only reasons why you would even consider JVG is to bring a little of that structure with him. We don't need -7 seconds and a jacked 3. Let's take care of the ball, move around and get an OPEN 3! Then go play defense. Looky there, I just seamlessly meshed the two.
...all true, except that overachievement was attained with handing out approximately 40 starts & heavy minutes to the likes of: Jason Terry Joey Dorsey Tarik Black Kostas Papanikolau Isiaah Canaan All either replacement level or sub-replacement level players ....while missing Dwight Howard for 41 games, Motiejunas' season ending injury, Beverley missing 30 games. So to say the Rockets were relying on the exact same crew that overachieved during the 2015 season is not entirely correct. They were relying on a substantially better crew, that projected to have a much higher win total.
That's why Harden was in the MVP conversation last year. People don't realize this, but from an advanced statistical point of view, 14-15 Harden's numbers were better than any of Hakeem's regular season year, including Hakeem's MVP season. I mean, it was THAT GOOD. That's why we were able to win 56 games despite lacking somewhat in the talent department overall. So, it's doesn't take a genius to know that it was unsustainable, since most of our team success were predicated on Harden playing historically well, not on team chemistry or implementing effective strategies and systems. It was a mistake to predict that Rockets would be better, because 80% of our achievement was based on Harden. So, even if all the pieces are in right place, if Harden has a slight down year, we're fu**ed. That's why Morey needs to do better with the job of assembling a good roster, your team's fate can't depend that much on a single player's performance.
The other thing is that the team defense was terrible - I am not sure how you can blame the GM for that...
This team isn't sneaking up on anyone anymore. The Eastern Conference isn't as bad as it used to be to help teams inflate win totals. The Rockets have huge flaws that many of us have been warning the homers about. Good to see the media criticizing Maury, because all this pressure will hopefully lead to him joining his failed protege Sam Hinkie in an unemployment line.
Solutions r in process. If u can do right thing, u can find solutions. If u make mistake after mistake, u can't find solutions
Morey is a great GM - unfortunately he keeps trying to play coach along with Les.... DM and Les hire 'yes men' coaches and tell them how to run the team... Hire a REAL damn coach and let them mold the strategy based on the pieces they are supplied! We have an owner who likes to play GM... A GM who thinks he's a coach... A coach who wanted to be one of the players... and a SG that thinks he's a PG... If people would just do their own damn job...
Well he did fill the team with guys who were either bad or overrated defenders. And with Dwight declining so much this season, he could no longer cover up for everyone else's shortcomings. Plus the coaching staff had no coherent defensive system other than gambling for steals and switching on every play. I'm not saying this is all on Morey, but he does share a lot of the blame.
Nobody is without blame including Morey. However, what we're getting now is a whole bunch of criticism coming exclusively from the benefit of hindsight with absolutely no solution. It's b****ing at its worst. This team just came from the conference finals. Morey did exactly what most of his detractors wanted him to do and re-signed guys that were part of the core, Beverly and Brewer. He than went out and addressed the teams biggest weakness, a secondary ball handler, by getting Ty Lawson. A move that was universally perceived as both a steal and a huge step towards the finals. Harden was coming off an MVP type season, Howard was a beast in the playoffs and potentially healthy. The reason everyone is so mad is because coming into the preseason this team looked stacked and ready to seriously contend. Now that everything above has blown up, people are honestly expecting Morey to have know this was coming? I don't get it.
You still don't want to admit there's an issue in shooting the 2nd most threes when you are 19th place in 3pt percentage and have no real shooters? what.the.f? It's extremely simple logic and basic math that teils you we would be dramatically better with real shooters, yet you don't see an issue and say everything is going well? Is that your CF account, Morey?
