Iggy thinks Eric Gordon’s game is being dumbed down

I completely agree!

 

Did you even look at the stat you posted? Steph took 23% of his shots in the mid range. Klay took 30% of his shots in the midrange. Is that minuscule?

 

I don't think Iggy hates analytics, every team uses them, even the Heat.

The difference is we took the **** WAY too far. WAY TOO FAR. To the point where it was a running joke that no one operated in the midrange. We can go on and on about but the results in the post season are what they are. Adding some variety and taking what the defense gives you isn't too hard to ask moving forward I hope.

 

Yes the Rockets need more Eric Gordon mid range shots - he's a career 32% shooter from 10-16 feet. He was a real monster to deal with.

 

We just need more mid range my guy, everything will be okay. The Rockets would have totally beaten the Lakers with midrange.

 

This is Iggy speaking as a defender, it's easier to defend a guy if you know what he's going to do.

Is he going to shoot a midrange shot? No. You know that, so you defend the drive or the three, and it's easy to know what he's going to do based on his momentum.

 

In a different thread I posited we incorporate some free throw line sky hooks.

The analytics may not like it, but the defense will be confused as ****.

 

Ill take one step further, to further add to our unpredictability we should turn around and take backwards shots. As soon as we get inside the 3 point line, that will really get defense all sorts of bewildered!

 

This is so dishonest and isn't what Iggy said at all man.

I have no idea why you guys are so beholden to analytics, they are the story of what has happened, not a predictor.

If you really think that a defender might not find it easier to defend a player he knows won't take midrange shots I don't know what to tell you. I'm sure every NBA defender would disagree. If you know the guy is never taking a midrange shot then you know he's doing one or two things.

He's coming off a scree below the 3 point? Why worry about it, just chase him back to the 3 point line and defend the chuck up three.

 

Lol, if Andre Iguodala was not closing as hard on 3s or guarding the rim because he was worried about Eric Gordon pulling up to take a shot he almost never took ever in his career, even before he came to Houston (6%- 2% depending on the season, that's less than Harden some seasons) and that he is abysmal at shooting (Harden hits that shot at 40+ % by way of comparison) - he's way dumber than I thought.

Shane Battier is turning over in his grave at Iguodala being so stupid. Though in fairness he didn't actually say this he's just blathering and you're reading it into him.

The Warriors took a pretty analytics based approach ("strength in numbers"). If Andre Iguodala ever stood up and said "hey coach kerr, how do we shutdown the Gordon midrange shot that he does not possess" I'm pretty sure they would've drug tested him on the spot

 

I mean...Gordon is a monster to deal with if he can ever just not get hurt. There's only been two times where Gordon played more than 70 games--his rookie year and his first year with the Rockets. When you are in and out of the lineup because of various injuries I think that would take a toll on not only your body but also your mind.

 

It's not about being dumb or smart in that moment, a defender makes split second reactions, he doesn't have time to sit and think about Gordon's % on the shot, he just knows that Gordon is a shooter that might hit the shot.

Ever wonder why players EVER jump on pump fakes? Ever? It's always bad to try and block a jump shooter, 9x outta 10 it's a foul it feels like, but players ALWAYS do this. It's not being stupid, I don't know how many people played basketball here but it's a fast reaction game, the NBA I surmise would be much faster. You jump because he faked, it's a split second reaction, sometimes it works out for you and you block the shot (Like Harden did on Dort) and sometimes you're faked...The threat of Gordon taking a midrange shot whether he hits it or not makes him harder to defend. Iguodala isn't going to just lay off and let him shoot a midrange shot, especially if it's a close game, especially since gordon is a shooter.

This is why people want Simmons to shoot 3s, we know he's not going to make them, but if you know the guy is going to just drive into the lane all the time it makes him easier to defend. That's all.

If it's a close game you're also not likely giving up any open shots unless the guy is sub 300 at something. In the playoffs, every possession is defended and played (usually) as if it's the last 3 minutes of a game.

Also, IIRC the Warriors those years were taking a lot of midrange shots at least compared to every other team, along with the...Spurs...

Spurs are always top in the league with FGA in the midrange. It's just that anyone that even doubts analytics or says anything about analytics gets labeled as 'stupid' here. Yet these will be players and coaches with championships...plural...they can't be that stupid.

If the argument is EGO can't shoot them, that's fine and probably correct. It wasn't exactly Iguodala's argument, you're right there, he was making a general statement that the play is dumbed down and it's easier to defend.

And he's correct there? It's like if all you do in a football game is throw deep passes and never throw anything short, teams just play cover blitz and they never pay for it. If you know a WR is only going to run deep routes he's a lot easier to defend than a guy that might curl.

 

My argument is that Eric Gordon didn't " dumb down his game" by eliminating midrange jumpers it's that he never took them in the first place which is probably one of the main reasons why the Rockets acquired him.

The reason why he never took them was probably because he sucks at it and he realized this? Not some vengeful excel sheet driven reeducation camp.

Even so this dumbed down easy-to-defend style of play somehow resulted in 3 top 15 offensive seasons of all time in 3 straight seasons. Imagine if it had some creativity.

 

I was happy when CP3 took mid range jumpers. I’d be ecstatic if we had Durant or Klay or Curry or Kawhi putting up mid range Js for us as well.

And just like I died a little inside every time Dwight posted up or when Westbrook takes any shot that isn’t a layaup, I can’t stand for any player we employ to try to do **** they aren’t good enough to do efficiently.

 

Honestly, I don't care how historic the offense was, it resulted in nothing but stats and numbers that 20 years from now people will say "Ah yeah, those teams had a good fun offense!" other than one postseason that was an 'almost', the rest had terrible endings...not even dramatic endings...just terrible "WTF are we doing?" endings where we end up looking exposed.

As for Gordon, you're right, but he said this in more of a general term I think. We definitely have a rule on mid range shooting though, we barely take any at all. If you take Westbrook off the court this year, we'd probably go whole games without it. I don't have the stats in front of me but his general point of the game being dumbed down likely refers to the midrange game disappearing as a whole around the league.


I think Popovic had the right of it all along, some of this stuff is good and valuable, some of it is poppycock.

 

Mclemore and Harden are pretty good midrange shooters, we hardly ever see it to know. There's probably a lot of sets with Westbrook handling the ball where we can get Harden and Mclemore easy shots to keep the scoreboard moving when we go on one of our patented brickhouse 3 minute stretch when we can't hit anything.

 

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Yes and as it disappeared offenses leaguewide have gotten way, way better.

When Grandpa Iguodala entered the league the median team scored 102 points per 100. Now that's up to 110.

It might be mentally simpler to defend teams that focus on only 2 types of shots, as everyone has converged on now, but it's certainly a lot more difficult to keep them from scoring points.

 

MFs get carried to championships and start flapping them gums.

 

I think it's a combination of offenses getting more efficient but defenders just aren't allowed to be as physical anymore. Iggy entered the league just as hand checking was being phased out IIRC, so it took some time for teams to realize the new emphasis on perimeter play.

Personally, I miss the variety that teams used to have. It is harder for defenses to stop offenses though and I'm not calling for 80s-90s Jordan rules kind of stuff, I just think they should bring back hand checking.

 

more like Eric Gordon just plays dumb...he has very low BBIQ

the Rockets team make up contributes heavily to the lack of versatility...Who on the team can post up or is decent from midrange aside from Harden? Do we really want to see more midrange from brick fest Russ?

what the Rockets need to do is stop going after all these low skill specialists...I’m tired of us going after some limited player because he shot 40% on spot up corner threes on his last team or some sh*t

I’m honestly just tired of all this Moreyball bullsh*t, but that doesn’t mean I want to see guys like Covington and PJ, or EG and Rivers shooting from midrange...get guys in here that are multi-skilled and can actually create from midrange or post up...get some hoopers that aren’t useless if it isn’t a spot up three

more off-ball movement would help too, but please, bring in some dudes that can actually hoop and don’t need every single thing created for them