Wanting to get your ideas if you were given the coaching reigns for a game, how would you utilise the pool of talent that Houston currently has? 1) Harden - Easily in the top 5 offensive players in the league (Top 3 in creating his own shots and drawing fouls) 2) Howard - Easily in the top 5 defensive players in the league (Top 3 rebounder and shot blocker in the game) 3) Asik - Easily in the top 10 defensive players in the leageue (Top 5 rebounders in the game) 4) Lin - One of the quickest players in the game. Has a high ceiling in his playmaking abilities and creating his own shots. 5) Parsons - Jack of all trades. Can score, rebound, play make and play good defense. 6) Beverley - One of the best in man to man defense. Always lively and a great spark of energy. 7) Casspi - Offensively agressive and has a good scoring mentality. 8) Garcia - 3 point specialist. Can easily get on a roll with his 3 pt shots. Also a very valuable veteran and one of the leaders in the team.
I would trade Asik for a stretch 4, like Ryan Anderson. Maybe even get a big like Paul Millsap or Al Horford.
I wouldn't play the twin towers. Asik would come off the bench. I'd want the ball to go to Dwight more. Not necessarily for Dwight to score, but run off-ball screens for Dwight to pass to for open shots or to get the defense rotating so that they can swing it around to the open man. Basically, USE the big man as part of the offense instead of Dwight either dunking on a pick and roll or dribbling off of his foot in the post.
OP. Maybe also list the weaknesses of each player. That could help. For example, Howard's horrible free throws has to be a big consideration. Or Asik's hands of stone.
Houston shouldnt have their offense going through Howard, he is horrible when he gets it in the post.
Get a halfcourt offense that doesn't consist of.... -zero off-ball movement and passing around the perimeter -while taking turns driving into a crowd of defenders, quickly retreating, -then attempting to drive again -then retreating even further all the while the shotclock continues to go down --ultimately forcing someone to jack up a 3. Hokey Pokey Offense.
5) Parsons - Jack of all trades. Can score, rebound, play make and play good defense. ? I thought you were going to say he Jacks a bunch of threes but i think u mean jack of all aces because he travels , makes bad passes, gets his eyes off the ball and loses the ball, pump fakes threes and gets guys on 3s calls, drives gets stuck and stops there with the ball and looks lost and so on. i would trade Parsons maybe after this Season. Let's give him time to see if he can play better but it is frustrating watching him play now. most of his points come from fast-break and passes. His defense is not as good as of late. i just hope he figures it out. idk whats wrong with him lately. On another note. I think the team needs to shoot the 3s more often when they have open shots. Recently they have miss a lot of 3s but they have also pump fake and drive a lot too. they look lost. they look lost when the ball isn't going in. just start Bev harden Dmo/Tj or Parsons(idk maybe make him come of the bench) Howard bench Lin Garcia Casspi DMo/Tj or Parsons Asik
Reign Harden in when the ball doesn't move. Get a real chemistry going between Lin, Dwight, Harden and Parsons and especially Lin and Dwight. Start Lin and have him play point guard, have him work through his mistakes. Show Parsons his best games last year and what he's doing differently and get him back on track. Have drills for Asik to catch the ball, have different guys throw him the ball different ways, have him work with Dwight at scoring. Diversify the offense, more PnR, more screens, more go to plays other than Harden ISO.
that shot chart is miss leading dude. Dwights back to the basket low post game is piss poor. Great defender and rebounder but those shots on that chart is when someone penetrates and kicks it to Dwight for a dunk. If we were to feed Dwight and let him go one on one with his man on the block(like we did for Yao and Hakeem) we would lose every game. I said the offense shouldnt run through Dwight I didnt say we shouldnt pass it to him when he is open down low.
First of all, great OP to get a discussion going. 1 Dump the twin towers concept except for rare situational matchups. 2 Continue starting Beverly and bringing Lin off the bench. Base playing & finishing time on matchups and whoever is performing better. When Bev isn't effective, yank him out of there sooner and give Lin an earlier chance. If Bev plays 34 mins and shoots 1/10 again, that is on McHale! 3 I think Parsons is expendable (along with Asik) if the right deal comes along but would prefer not to trade him. 4 Casspi and Garcia: Neither guy will be effective offensively the entire season. After starting off hot, both guys have hit the wall the last 2-3 games. If both continue to average 20+ mins/game, Rockets are in trouble. 5 Asik MUST be traded for a legit starting PF. 6 Rockets must make a bigger commitment to run the ball. In the half-court, McHale must take control, demand more ball-movement and fewer perimeter isolations. It was painful watching the Clippers tighten the defensive screws and the Rockets having no answer. Part of it is growing pains which I'm fine with, but cluelessness on how to attack pressure is inexcusable. 7 Playing Lin & Beverly together is OK as long as the Rockets push the pace hard. 8 I think we all agree McHale may have to go after the season, but let's give him a little more time to work this unbalanced roster into a unit. 9 Enjoy the ride. 4-3 after 7 games doesn't surprise me. We want this team to peak in April/May/June, not November. Understand that a hot start now won't mean anything when the playoffs start. Bottom line: The team may not develop an identity until Asik is traded. I like him as a player and wish him the best, but he may be the giant elephant in the room that has to go for this team to come together.
I think it's pretty simple actually. Let players play to their strengths. 1) Start Lin AND Beverley together. A line up of Lin, Beverley, Harden, Parsons and Dwight will make it hard on many teams and offers situational flexibility. Beverley can be placed on guards with very high lateral movement speed, Lin on guards that are longer and rangier. This gives us the most offensive punch and the ability to put pressure on high scoring guards regardless of their strengths immediately. This also allows us to fatigue the opposing team from the opening tip. 2) Sub *either* Lin or Beverley depending on the opposition. High speed lateral PG's are more Beverley's wheelhouse, longer/rangier PG's with strong PnR offense is more Lin's. Stay away from inflexible time based rotations, but instead adapt the rotation to the opposition. One of Pops greatest strengths is he changes the rotations based on the opposition. 3) Only play TT for specific match ups or garbage time to get them reps. Otherwise, rotate Dwight and Asik's minutes. Playing Dwight for 35 minutes it nice in theory, but it's hard to expect a Center to contest AND run the floor for that long. I'd rather see them doing a split like 24/24 or 27/21 but playing at high speed for their entire time on the floor. 5) Use Garcia and Casspi once you sub out either Lin or Beverley (1 PG on the floor). Also use them to relieve Parson's and Harden's minutes. Harden is being overplayed in my opinion. I'd rather see him with reduced minutes and playing with effort on both ends than have Harden's shooting for 40 minutes. I'm thinking something around 32-35 minutes. Harden is currently averaging 38 minutes. Parsons is also being overplayed. Parsons is playing 37 minutes. This is more than I think is ideal for both players. 6) Lin should generally initiate the offense when he's on the floor, whether it's with the first or second unit. Harden should initiate it whenever Lin is off the floor. This is mainly due to Lin being better at keeping the team involved. If you want Dwight to get lots of offensive touches other than dumps into the post, you need someone to orchestrate the offense. For all his talents, Harden is looking for his own shot first when he initiates the possession (as he generally should). However, it's best that that happens in order to offer a different look to the offense versus making him the full time initiator of plays. It makes it WAY too easy for opposing teams to defend him if you give him the ball as soon as he walks up from center court. 7) We eventually should trade Asik, but only for a legitimate Power Forward. Power Forward is the spot where we are weak on every unit. Casspi is fine and all, but he's not a strong starting unit PF yet. He might be some day, but as of today I'd rather get an all star/near all star PF if possible. 8) When they go to Hack-a-Howard, sub in either Asik (for marginally better FT shooting) or even better Smith (61% FT). Smith isn't as good as either of them, but it will hurt our team a LOT less to have him in for the 50-60s of Hacking time then letting the opposing team send Howard and Asik to the line 4 or 5 times in a row. At least until Howard and Asik improve their FT shooting. Outside of that, I would like McHale to get smarter about the use of time outs. I was watching the Spurs vs Knicks game on Sunday. One thing I noticed was Pops use of time outs to correct mistakes immediately. One example is the Spurs were up 37 points... then the Knicks scored 4 points quickly due to a defensive breakdown. The lead was 33, but Pops called a time out. He did that earlier in the game as well after a 4 point swing from 25 to 21 point lead. Pops doesn't want other teams to get momentum, and he immediately corrects the team when he sees bad habits starting to creep in. He's also fully willing to sit and chew out ANY player on the team whether it's Tim Duncan, Man or Tony Parker. He'd rather LOSE the game than let players develop bad habits or get lazy. Maybe that's a lot to hope for in terms of McHale and co, but I can dream...
Bring RA. His team whipped the inferior team. His beautiful offense put up a 47 spot one qtr. imagine what he could do with our roster
Bring DMo, he has atleast SOME off-ball movement, sets screens, if team on hot run he can bring some energy (like Nate Robisnon does). And he's much better than Asik offensively..
