I hear a lot of people, including McHale, implying that a twin tower line-up could work for Houston like it did for us with Akeem and Ralph in '84-'87. I mean, I trust McHale and all, because he played (and defeated) against the twin towers in the NBA Finals, but still, I need to point something out: Twin Towers Free Throw Shooting %: Ralph Sampson - 66% Akeem Abdul Olajuwon - 71% D12/Asik Free Throw Shooting %: D12 - 57% Asik - 52% Add to that the fact that the Hack-a-X tactic is much more prevalent now, and I am not sure if this is going to be a winning strategy. Some may remind me, or even post youtube videos of Asik draining the FT's in the OKC series. In response I will copy and paste: "Asik - 52%"
the hack tactic is done by grabbing the guy when the ball is 90 feet from the hoop, does it really matter if it's Dwight or Omer?
I also believe when the Thunder were doing Hack-Asik the Rockets were less than 1 ppp for the quarter. Even at 50% shooting that's 1 ppp. Heck Dwight is .1 ppp better than Asik so we improved in that category
Wasn't Stern planning on stopping this tactic from being used? My God...Stern was on our side the whole time!!!
Yes he was, although I do not believe that he will be able to pull off a Josh Smith to Houston move as your siggy suggests
Asik already proved that Hack-Asik doesn't work. It's totally up to Dwight to improve his FT shooting. Even though Hakeem is here, maybe he should learn from Duncan on how to improve foul shooting.
1. Dwight's FT % is higher than Asik's, therefore 2. Dwight is more likely to make a shot when fouled, therfore 3. If anyone has made progress toward proving Hack doesn't work, its Dwight, therefore 4. Your comment fails.
we won't see much of this tandem together but it won't be the "horrendous" FT% that keeps them off the court at the same time. it'll be b/c of spacing issues and redundant skillsets
I heard this before regarding Josh Smith and I don't really get it. If you have a FT shooter below 60% you're vulnerable to hacking. It doesn't matter whether you have one or two. I guess it makes it a little bit easier but really, when teams want to hack they rarely fail.
Thats a valid point, however its easy to comment on just one point to pick on, as the first replier did. If you read the wording in my post, I am not resting my concern on solely the hack-attack, the fact of having both on the floor will open them up to non-hack fouls. Do you think we could withstand all of those missed free throws?
Last season the Rockets scored 1.067 points per possession per Hoopdata. That was good enough for 6th in the league. In order to have 1.067 ppp shooting free throws via Hack whoever, you need to shoot 53.4%. If Asik and Howard shoot their career averages, hacking helps us. The only way it hurts us is if Howard shoots as poorly as he has the last 2 years. Even then, it gets us into the bonus sooner.
Dwight proved it doesn't work too if it is done in volume. http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400278669 If a guy hits 50% from the line, it's the same thing as shooting 50% on a bunch of 2-point shots...and then you've got the 3s thrown in and the displacement of the opponent as they are stacked up in foul trouble. If you take the hackee off the court in crunch time, the opponent cannot defend anybody because they are in the bonus against and they're in foul trouble. The ONLY way hack-a-player works is if the game is close the player's teams is lighting the nets on fire and you can funnel the ball to the poor free throw shooter down the stretch and put him on the line. And then....it only works part of the time.
I've never been a big believer in the hack strategy. As WinkFan just showed, it generally just does not pay off unless the player consistently shoots below 50% (well below would be even better). It is better to destroy the rhythm of the winning team and give the losing team a chance to make some crazy plays. It is a desperation move. I think the threat that we lose anything significant due to the hacking strategy is simply overblown.
If DH is a 57% FT shooter, the other team has to hit more than 38% on their 3's to make it worthwhile. So it can work but just depends on who is shooting the 3's.
Teams also do it to slow down the game in order to give the other players some rest. Still a lame-ass strategy IMHO.
I agree with your post for the most part and am a little worried about overall FT%. However, I don't think you should totally write off the clutch-ness of Asik's ability to shoot FT's under pressure. He stepped up when it was needed most. That counts for something.
I'll take 1 point-per-possession; the Rockets averaged 1.067 points per possession last season, so it's not really all that much worse. The hack-a-X strategy really only works if your team's defense sucks, and with Asik/Howard on the floor, our defense will not suck. Thus, I am not worried about such gimmicky strategies. Additionally, I think Howard will make a concerted effort to improve his FT% like Asik did.
Think this is being a bit too much weight. You realize he simply hit one extra FT more than his FT%/avg. across the whole season, right? I mean, good on him for not crumbling, but this is a strategy that imo, fails more often than it works anyways, and whether Asik missed that one extra FT or not would not have mattered much. If he missed a bunch and was below his FT% though...ew.
