[I'm ignorant] Educate me on Silas' offensive system

This is exactly right.

 

Silas doesn’t like Garuba for some reason. Maybe he plays too much defense.

 

This team should also be taking pages out of GSW playbook.

Multiple off ball screens, pin downs, elevator doors, cuts, etc.

This allows a skinny player like Steph to get space.

And like Steph, Green needs 4 long active defenders that can space floor and handle the ball.

 

i think silas also missed the game. can someone tell him if we won?

 

I have to ask: Were you even a Rockets fan during the JVG years?
I kinda doubt it or you would get the joke already.

But just in case, tell me if any of these names jog your memory:
Charlie Ward (34)
Clearance Weatherspoon (33)
Vin Baker (34)
Mark Jackson (38)
Dikembe Mutombo (38)
Rod Strickland (39)
Charles Oakley (40)

That's a list of the seemingly unending parade of ancient former Knicks that found a home on a JVG roster in Houston. And that doesn't include other triple OGs like David Wesley and Jim Jackson who suited up for Jeff.
Point being Jeff Van Gundy has a well established and frequently expressed love for NBA veterans over young inexperienced players.

And as far as Aply specifically, JVG let us know how he felt about him during the broadcast. He acknowledged his rebounding and passing ability but openly questioned whether his defense would allow a team to play him consistently.
So yeah, that is what we do know..."for sure".

 

silas is clueless?

 

I agree with most of what you said until you got to the lineup. WOOD IS NOT A CENTER. His post defensive instincts are HORRIBLE (Im not yelling at you just using caps as emphasis lol). Sengun should be starting Center and KJ or Tate should be starting small forward. KJ can shoot and I want to see what he can do with cuts to the basket what Sengun has the ball at the top of the key.

 

Wood averaged 20/10 and Rockets were on win streak prior to his injury.

Wood is a 5.

Sengun will be the 5 of the future, not ready to start. Still needs to fix his jumper and 3ball.

And this is coming from Sengun fan.

 

‪it's likely silas could hardly keep his his job before Christmas, n this team gonna move on after that…tho it's meaningless preseason games, silas should prevent letting rookies experience the kinda of stupid collapse (third quarter) like heat game.
‪As head coach of a rebuilding team, silas should let kids get ready for every game, learning from loses while keeping their passion for wins, grabbing key Ws so that kids can respect yo n have faith in your system. I doubting he could achieve that, the lose all on him, should not lose cluelessly.
p.s. We need a legit PG n a SF.

 

I feel you. Wood is definitely flawed as a player. My hope would be that Garuba can help take the pressure off Wood on the defensive end and on the boards. Offensively Wood is better optimized at the 5 where he can score both inside and out. Instead of having Theis in his way.

I agree that Sengun deserves at shot at the starting spot too. The eye test shows we’re better on both ends with him on the court. His intangibles are ridiculous. I’d love to see more sets ran through him from the top of the key/high post.

One thing I noticed is when Sengun has the ball in players get caught watching instead of moving to the open spot. Our halfcourt offense needs more motion to maximize his Playmaking ability.

Only critique I have is that Sengun needs to take the 3 from the top of the key instead of always putting the ball on the floor.

 

Again Wood is not a 5, Averaging 20 and 10 and being tall does not automatically make you a 5. He cannot guard fives and you can get ten rebounds from any position. This is why we got Theis because Wood is not a post defender. He is a stretch four by his game alone. If Wood was a 5 we would have tried to keep Kelly. Since neither can guard a center they needed Theis. Again just like the other guy everything else you said is correct Sengun is the 5 of the future.

 

I love his energy off the bench

 

true

 

Stretch 4's can score inside and out but it would be better for him to have a smaller defender on him in the paint because as he has shown he can basically just lay it up over their heads or dunk on them. When the guy is bigger his post game isnt as good. The Rockets clearly know this because if they didnt we wouldnt have Theis.

 

@steddinotayto - saw your comments in the game thread about this - glad you turned it into a thread. It's a fair point.

I'm not sure if we are going to know if he is a good coach until later this year at best....I did see the foundations of some plays being run out there on Silas' watch against the Heat but I also saw A LOT of poor attention to details that render those plays fairly ineffective - poor spacing, poor screen setting, poor habits using the screen to gain an advantage other than forcing the switch, and ball handlers looking to follow the primary paths of the play and not reading 2nd and 3rd reads to find open guys. When you got one young player not nailing those details it can be hidden, but in most lineups we have 3 or even 4 such players missing little things that adds up to just clustering the defense around your scoring options. I certainly don't want to rob minutes from the young guys, but it does feel like it's much harder to teach these guys when DJ Augustin is the only vet who played the last game besides Wood(and I feel like Wood frankly still struggles with some of those same fundamentals)....and hey - we have another problem because Green is not a very effective PnR player at this stage in his career so there is still a learning curve there.

On the plus side, KPJ and Green both seems like they will develop fairly good iso skills and their shooting seems legit but if our spacing is so bad, it's kind of hard to see that because it's so easy for help defenses to slide and even when we do space well enough, our players aren't rotating immediately to the new spots away from the help defense so it limits assists out of those opportunities. My point is Silas may be a great tactician but if he or his staff/vets can't get these kids(and Christian Wood who frankly still needs work too) to pay attention to details, then NO system is going to work aside from the D'Antoni 'give it to the HOFer and go sit in the corner and wait for a pass' system or the McHale "play harder" system.

 

So you've come to this definitive conclusion after two preseason games with a rookie shooting guard and a 21 year old pg covert going through On-The-Job-Training?

Cool.

@napalm See?

 

Wood is a face up big not a post up player. And He has the quickness advantage again majority of 5’s. Wood performs best offensively in a 4 out 1 in set.
We saw this last year

Bam just happens to be one of worst matchups for Wood.

Also Theis and Wood do not play well together at all. Theis is in his way offensively and neither guards the perimeter very well. They both close out poorly and leave the corner 3 open. Our offense is stagnant and has poor spacing with both of them on the court together.

 

That's why not re-signing Olynyk was a mistake. Theis does not provide the same level of spacing that Olynyk did.

 

Listen i know he liked his vets. But he still played Luther Head, Chuck Hayes and Steve Novak when he had a good rookie. He wouldnt bench No 2nd pick Jalen Green

 

To be honest I didn't see any system at all. It seemed like we are just randomly running 2-man PnR with the other 3 players camping on the perimeter. There weren't many off-ball movements/screens at all. And because Theis isn't an effective spacer, most of the time he was the roll man instead of Wood while Wood was forced to stand out far away from the basket and was completely taken out of the play. Wood should be our main roll man because he is one of the best lob threats in the league and so effective in finishing around the basket. It can also create mismatch opportunities for Wood against smaller guards. Theis also clogs the lane and cuts off driving lanes for other players. I hate this signing so much.

I also think KPJ picks up his dribbles too easily. He should study tapes of Steve Nash to see how he keeps his dribbles alive.