My post wasn't an overreaction. It was speaking more towards how much better this team can be without too much work.
Should add Howard's poor ft shooting on the list as well. For someone who gets 11 fta/game to shoot 47% is just unacceptable.
I agree 100% I don't think it is really fair to judge McHale as a coach at this point. McHale has said from the very beginning that playing Dwight and Asik together was an experiment, and that if it doesn't work then they will go in a different direction. So, they have been experimenting the last eight games with the twin towers. I think we can all agree that if the twin towers could work it would be awesome for the team. I think McHale and Rockets felt that they owed it to Asik to try and see if the twin towers could work. If the twin towers had been a huge success then the Rockets would have a happy Asik and there would be no need to try and make a trade. Asik missed most of training camp and the preseason with an injury, so the Rockets didn't get much of a chance to experiment with the twin towers before the season started, so the last eight games we've been trying to see if the twin towers could possibly work. After the game last night McHale conceded that the twin towers really hasn't worked that well, because Asik and Dwight are both true Centers and that the lane gets clogged when both players are on the floor. McHale sees everything that the fans are seeing, but I think he wanted to prove to Asik, and maybe himself whether the twin towers could work or not. At this point I think even Asik knows that the twin towers should come to an end, but we really didn't know this for sure without giving it a good test, which we have through the first eight games. I agree that we need to give this team time to gel. Judging a coach or a team is ridiculous after only eight games. It may take the entire season before this team really starts to gel. Is this the low point of the season? Probably not. The Rockets are 5-3 and I expect we will see some rougher stretches during the season. The only thing I am really concerned about at this point is Dwight's free throw shooting. I realize the OP wasn't being negative, he was actually being positive, but many at Clutchfans have been far too negative.
Chemistry takes a long time to develop and will be bumpy. Also, while Beverley in the starting line up can be argued (though I think Lin should start at least WITH Beverley if not instead of Beverley), I don't think we can underestimate that there will be an adjustment period for the entire starting line up if you're using Beverley as the starter versus Lin. The types of scoring opportunities in terms of assists and more importantly the types/locations of assists are very different between Lin and Beverley. Lin is far more likely to push transition baskets and pace, to make drop offs to bigs, and to do kick outs off drives to 3 point shooters than Beverley or Harden. This means that Beverley results in more of a half court/slower paced offense, and there is a greater emphasis on off the ball movement at the other positions on the perimeter, and less cutting to the basket to get good shots. With Harden as the primary creator, he's much more likely to kick to the corners or do a bounce pass on penetration than he is to push transition passes or to do drop off/wrap around passes. So don't be surprised if it takes considerable time for the team to adjust their play offensively with the Beverley line up. This is aside from the time it will take to build chemistry between Dwight and the roster in terms of post up passes, reposts, lobs, etc.
- stop TT ASAP - use asik as back up center (his per 36 will be off the charts, once he knows his role) -put lin back in starting line up, not just about lin vs harden, its way bigger than that. the teams needs ball movement in that first unit and parsons pump fakes will not cut it, offense will flow better in general so other players will tend to play better and get more open looks (team game) -use bev for situational defense & spark of the bench, if bev cant score or get 2nd second units playmaking going then stagger harden/lins mins or give brooks some mins, brooks can easily come in and get the ball moving with second team. make take a drop in defense on the perimeter if opposing teams shooters are hot but the team will at least be able to get points on the board. -start playing jones/casspi/dmo at PF -give greg situational mins also he can be a great spark off the bench also
Bingo! But how long will Morey hold out? All the way to the deadline? And who is Morey holding out for, LMA? Portland is 5-2, and if they continue to win, there is no way they break the team up.
Now is the time to get all the bugs out and start playing some real basketball way to many close games this team is better than there showing.
TT should have been scrapped after preseason games. The signs were there all along and we know we can't fix them
asik is a good back up center and helps the team more than being a liability at this point, this team can do just fine with the the players we have in the right system. yes TT needs to stop, but saying oh we need to trade him ASAP for the team to be successful is a reach. We have 2 stars in H & H and good players in lin and parsons & a deep bench. im sure he will get traded eventually but just getting a PF could put you in a situation where then we have issues when howard is in foul trouble or teams use the hack a dwight earlier in the game. morey is being patient and waiting on the right opportunity to come around but this current roster can get the job done until then. dont have to have a ALL STAR at 3 spots to win games.
Put it in perspective. We are shooting worse than 3 than expected. That should increase as the season goes along. We run a read and react offense which means that players are supposed to read situations and do certain reactions based on those reads. But with new players and line ups those reads are not always going to be correct, leading to problems, turn overs, and bad spacing. Harden has been injured since the Utah game when he rolled his ankle. Yes his defense needs to improve, and yes he sometimes holds the ball too long, but once he gets healthy things will improve just based on that. Injuries to other players have also played a role. Dwight has had several games where he has shot less than 34% from the line. Just make half his free throws and they win the Lakers game. Bad shooting is expected, but not that bad. We are only 8 games in, 5 wins, and we haven't played a complete game yet from start to finish. While that might be cause for some concern, it's also a reason to expect much more in the future. Morey will make a trade at some point. Whether it's Asik or some one else, the odds are that the Rockets make a move some time this season that will further improve the team. Just experience playing together will improve the team. We are also playing a nice stretch of teams that on paper we should beat. Philly, the Knicks, Denver, Boston, and Dallas will give some margin for error and chemistry building before we face the T-Wolves, Grizzlies, Nets and Spurs at the end of the month to see where we are.
Opponents will keep exploiting the huge holes in Howard and Harden's game. Lin will not keep his stellar performance. This team will get worse unless Morey can bring in a perimeter defender who can get playing time under McHale..
It worked against the Spurs and Grizzlies. But it's pretty obvious now that was fool's gold. It hasn't worked at all in the regular season. It should've been scrapped after the Laker game where it helped give them a 19-point first half lead(after a few nights earlier it helped give Utah a 19-point first half lead).
It only worked defensively against the Spurs and Grizzlies. We had that amazing 3rd qter againts Spurs but mostly was on Harden off their turnovers. Aside from that, all games we had TT we struggled offensively. The match to Mavs Dirk was breaking our defense easily, though they didn't exploit that, and with Dirk ejected, it didn't get exposed further. We are letting Dwight guarding the stretch 4, and he hasn't played PF since rookie year. Offensively, we had a huge discussion on one thread about possibility of TT and at that time, I already mentioned neither Asik or Howard has a range game or quick enough to cut. Therefore, there is no way for the two to space, and Harden has to have that lane open for him to succeed. It is just obvious in the beginning it won't work. I guess the only chance it would have worked was if Howard has a great post game, but even that, Asik is so bad at catching the ball, it wouldn't work that well. People were arguing we would have a lot more offensive boards, but really Asik and Howard aren't great offensive rebounders. They are both top defensive rebounders. All in all, we improve defensively against "big teams", but we also lose way more on the offensive end. The experiment should have stopped in the preseason. I don't know if starting Asik is a decision of McHale trying to make Asik happy, but it's definitely not a wise one.
Right now I'm very worried considering the level of opposition those wins come from. These aren't blow out wins on teams we should be dominating. This is in large part due to the Twin Tower fiasco, unfortunately it didn't work (I wish it did). Now that, that idea is starting to get scrapped we can start a whole new ball park to guage if it was just the TT line up that was preventing the starters from geling.
I think teams are really wanting to beat us - we're a team that everyone said is now a contender and so everyone gets up to play the rockets and brings their A game. I think that's part of the reason for our offensive struggles - it's not just us it's that we are bringing out the best in our competition.
Yep, it's the low point in the season. It's also going quite well. Only the Lakers game was a sure win that should not have been a loss, but the Lakers treated it like it was the Super Bowl, terrible-ass Steve Blake sank the shot of his life - it happens. The Clippers have just had the Rockets # for awhile. I didn't expect those to be wins. But the storm has been weathered otherwise. The Rockets aren't even playing well yet and haven't figured out the best rotations, once they do...look out.
As someone who totally endorsed a TT approach I now admit not with these two TT's. Seperetely the whole team flow and mechanics seem much better a higher percentage of the time. Scrap it it now ! Post is spot on.
Unfortunately Mchale will not do the third. We had this for almost 90 games now under Mchale. He has done nothing about the ISO except going back to it in 4th quarter and then complaining the ball is sticky afterwards. In our game against the lakers last season, he chose to run harden iso like 10 times in 4th quarter even though it was obviously not working. He even drew a sophisticated play just to get the ball to harden so that harden could play ISO. Why do you think he would suddenly change his coaching? 90 games are more than enough to see what he can do with X&Os. So far he has demonstrated nothing more than run and gun.
Btw: I do think he deserves credit for run and gun. But that is not enough to contend. We sucked last season when the opposing team did a good job on transitional defense.
