Today's game is all about 3pt shots, that shooting 40% from 3 is the same as 60% from 2, we lean too heavily on 2pt shots. We have the horses to let it fly, we should be running it up the court, and looking to get it to KD, Reed, and Jabari as primaries, and then if they are guarded let Sengun get it on the post to pass it back on on double teams. KD and his midrange is a losing strat - he doesn't shoot 60% so we actually lose the math game with him taking all those 2pters, same for Sengun. Three is greater than 2, we don't shoot enough 3s - our old school 1990s focus is horrible, we should be shooting 40 3pters on average per game. We have the talent in players, just not on the bench with a coaching whistle. DD
Hah, that was a joke based upon an article Clutch wrote, but thanks for that trip down nostalgia lane. I don't really give two ***** for what Ime thinks, I believe he will cost the Rockets any chance of ever winning anything because he is frankly a basketball moron. MATH isn't that hard, the modern game needs 3pt shots...and lots of them. DD
I've disagreed with you a fair amount DD but I'm with you on this one, we don't take enough threes. Some of that is Ime's fault, some of it is roster construction, and some of it is KD's stubbornness and "can't teach an old dog new tricks" ways. With his shooting ability and his ability to get his shot off, KD should be taking 8 or 9 three point attempts a game, and should easily be in the top 10 in three point attempts this season. Even if his 3P% suffers a bit, he'll make enough of them for it to pay out. But he still takes under 6 per game instead and is #34 in the league in total three point attempts this season. He's getting beat out by dudes like Donte DiVincenzo and NAW by almost a full 3P make per game. No disrespect to those two, but that's crazy, he's far more talented than they are. Anyway we've lost a lot of games this season just because our opponents will literally attempt twice as many 3Pers as we do, and 3 > 2. I don't think it's invalid to take fewer 3Pers than average, depending on roster construction and overall strategy, but the extreme we've gone to is basically incompatible with the pace and space era. It's whiplash from the Harden days when we were too far ahead of the curve.
Well he had Tate, amen , senguin in during a one possession 3pt deficit with 2 seconds to go so we can’t really assume he didn’t know they weren’t good 3pt shooters… imagine if someone yelled “hey they aren’t good shooters!!” Maybe we would have avoided the boo boo it’s not out of the realm of possibility for this advice to be fruitful
Run the play for KD, Reed or Jabari, or Tari even......we need to be running things funneling the ball to our best shooters. Also, if Okogie or anyone misses a couple, keep running it as long as the shot is open and the numbers suggest they can make that shot. RUDY T a way better coach - "RUN IT AGAIN"........ DD
I actually think you're totally on point, but it also follows through on the other end of the court as well. Ime's defense protects the paint whilst leaving the 3pt line way more exposed. It's late 90s/early 00's basketball whichever way you look at it (when defending the paint shut down the star player and few players were hitting it insane from deep.) For a "defensive coach" we're woeful at even defending the 3 at all, and as you say modern game is live and die by the 3. So not only do we trade 2's for 3's, we don't even really put up much resistance on the 3's either. It's lose-lose all round.
This is fair too. I even pointed that out as it happened in the game thread last night. We simply cannot ever compete if we miss wide open corner 3's. Those are supposed to be the "gimme" version of a 3pt shot. They should be near automatic in 2026 (like they are for every single true competitor.) Stone was here in the Harden years too, so the org has no excuse for not realising how flawed we are not to be hitting them.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48453131/celtics-tie-nba-record-29-3s-clinch-no-2-seed Celtics tie record with 29 threes. That is how you do it. DD
Why settle for 40% from Reed or KD though.. the best WNBA and wheelchair basketball players are shooting in the 50% range. Sengun can be our passer and Amen can be our athlete.
Legit CRAZY thing that T-Wolves game. Rockets shot 72% from two . So for 1 (fluke) game, Ime was accidently RIGHT lol. Just as fluky maybe, Rockets shot 4-19 from three. If Rockets made even 2 more from three, they win. It's just to show how sh*tty they shot from 3 when getting to a bad 31% is enough. But yes, agree that Okogie was not the right move that game. Okogie is a low volume shooter. And while Okogie is an underrated connective passer swinging the ball to its spots, he is not generating 3's for others. So there's probably 3-5 more three attempts not taken by starting Okogie in place of Sheppard. I have no problem trying out Okogie. Just don't think in THIS LATE part of the season, that it was good to do that. Especially with the Sheppard / Tari platoon working
I've got a better one for you. We win by double digits if Tari Eason makes the correct move on all of the fast breaks he created instead of turning them all into wasted possessions.
Please tell me you didn't watch that and think we ran a play for Josh Okogie. The rockets constantly run actions to generate shots for our top offensive players but teams just help off of the non shooters and you are left with taking a 3 with Okogie/Tari/Amen or taking a contest shot from someone else. Opposing teams know KD/Jabari/Reed are our shooters so they're not leaving them open. To run the type of offense your talking about you need 4 or 5 3pt shooters on the court most of the time. We usually have 2 and sometimes 3.
That’s an objectively good play. We should have just run it again. Also, this is where having a floor general would really come in handy. Someone like a Rondo or CP3 would bank the memory of this play and tell Josh and Bari switch places next time we ran it.
If you get angry at players like Alperen for attempting open three-pointers in a regular season game, how are those players supposed to improve?
I like that Ime is all Black and White, it is easy to evaluate his successes and failures that way. Ime treats the regular Season like gospel, I hope he can see that the regular season is only a tool to ascend in the postseason.
