Ime Udoka after Amen, Jalen spark comeback win in Portland

Personally I don’t believe it was about injuries as much as just a dead offense. FVV-Sengun PnR was ran more than any other play in the league at that time and executed very slowly. It started trending down before injuries happened (my thread was before the injuries) because scouting reports got detailed and teams were easily beating both guys to their spots.

With Amen it’s hit and miss, he can raise the pace but also he can kill the spacing so to me everyone has to push and they can. FVV and Sengun are still not fast but they are thinking faster and at least trying now. The team was constantly ignoring Green and Cam running hard in transition and that was demotivating and that has changed.

Transition is easy points, everyone is supposed to maximize it. Udoka wanted to keep a tight leash on turnovers and transition defense (he talked about this) but it was suffocating the us along with the opponents and not generating extra wins or net differential anymore. Didn’t work. We don’t have ultra skilled players, we have lots of explosive athletic players. We’re moving in the right direction. I heard someone say the other day coach wants to play as fast as possible (like the Thunder) and you can see the offense is now motivating a return to good defense. I love it.

 

No one claimed that. It will just help and it was not helping him to play slow with the starters, as Udoka said. Sorry you don’t believe in it. Jalen is scoring better since we started moving up those pace rankings.

 

It could be because pace is a terrible stat and doesn’t accurately measure what people think it measures and is often misunderstood. But anyway, you’re right on this - transition offense was key to our win yesterday. Pushing for transition opportunities was basically why we won yesterday. We should probably look at stats that actually measure that like transition% or, as you mentioned, our season high in transition points.

 

Interesting thanks for that. I was also thinking net transition must be a very telling stat to look at. By that I mean:

is it really impressive if you’re #1 in transition defense while you’re also near last in transition offense and pace and don’t bother much with offensive rebounds? Is that actually valuable impact or is what we’re trying to achieve is to be as good as transition defense while being as high in transition offense as possible?

 

Wtf? Pace is one of the most important things in basketball.

 

Oh no, fix it again Tony!

 

I like how the Rockets attacked the Blazers in transition. Just for reference to be objective, Portland is one of the worst teams in the NBA in transition defense. And typically higher-paced teams are younger bad teams, which gets exposed in the playoffs when the game slows down to half-court offense and every possession counts.

I agree with attacking the defense's weaknesses game to game, but keep developing both weapons in the skillset, half court slower paced and faster transition pace based on what's effective.

Here are the stats for transition defensive PPG, one thing that has helped the Rockets this year is going from one of the worst transition defensive teams to one of, if not the best so far currently

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-fastbreak-points-per-game

 

Just because pace is important doesn't mean higher is better. Pace is an important concept, controlling pace is important. Playing to a pace that is advantageous to your roster and the matchup is important. That does not mean "higher number is better" when it comes to pace, which is why you see the wizards at the top. That does not mean pace is not important.

 

Your counter argument is a **** roster that plays with pace? It's a **** roster and a horribly coached team.

 

Yes, so pace is not as important as you think it is. That's the point I'm trying to make and you seem to agree with my point with your post.

 

Pace matters situationally. You can benefit from a faster and a slower pace in the same game with the same roster against the same opponent. There are lots of posters on this board who are convinced the Rockets would be a worldbeater if they played at a faster pace. That's just not true.

 

So Coach Roosh was right after all?

 

I don’t think “pace” is gimmicky but it’s just not sustainable (I don’t mean physically exhausting) and is more of something that should be supplemental to your overall offense.

It certainly benefitted the rockets this game, as our defense and athleticism was very much on display.

 

Pace is super important. It is not an opinion. It's one of the things you learn when you play at most levels. Using a team with a terrible roster is not evidence to the contrary. No stat can make up for a bad roster.

 

It's wacky how the Rockets were able to create turnovers and get transition baskets against a bad team missing most of their rotation that is intentionally trying to lose games.

Must be because Coach finally agreed with my strategy

 

Some lineups are better suited to play fast (or slow). However, the point I was making is that just playing at a faster pace doesn’t solve anything if you don’t defend, limit turnovers and make smart decisions.

Basketball is basketball - you still have to execute and play on both sides of the court.

This was a very entertaining second half - but the team that the Blazers had out there was probably the worst in the league because of injuries.

Further you better know how to execute in the half court or you aren’t winning in the playoffs.

 

Pace is neutral - there is no real good or bad pace overall.

Creating mismatches, exploiting them and executing is what is important.

Both teams try to set the pace according to their style of play - but over a 7 game series it is ultimately the team that executes down the stretch that wins - and great teams can win even when they don’t control the pace.

 

No pace can make up for a bad roster. You can be the slowest or fastest paced team in the league and whether you are winning will depend on execution.