https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...eaways-from-the-Rockets-overtime-13417851.php When the Rockets ended the Carmelo Anthony experiment, choosing Gary Clark's defense in the rotation ahead of Anthony's potential offensive contributions, they knew there could be nights when the bench does not bring enough firepower. They need more, however, than they are getting. Eric Gordon's season-long shooting slump defies explanation. With a 1-of-6 night from the 3-point line Friday, he is making 26.7 percent of his 3s. Gerald Green had a strong night last Saturday, scoring 17 points against the Kings, and he made a pair of 3s on Wednesday. But he took just two shots, missing both, on Friday and is shooting just 29.3 percent on 3s. Other than Green and Gordon, the Rockets' bench consists of rookies Isaiah Hartenstein and Clark, neither of whom is expected to bring much scoring. The Rockets bench averages just 27.4 points per game, the fewest in the league, with the worst shooting percentage (37.7 percent) and worst 3-point percentage (26.8 percent). The Rockets don't need a great deal of scoring off the bench. In some ways, those numbers are misleading with Paul basically the Rockets' backup point guard. But they need more than they are getting, especially with two starters (P.J. Tucker and James Ennis III) defense-first players. Gordon's importance to the Rockets offense had been clear the past two seasons when he was the Sixth Man of the Year one season and runner-up the next. His shot is as obviously necessary since it's been gone. _______________________________________ DO SOMETHING DARYL!
This is just staggering. -Gordon is a former 6th Man of the Year player and has been in a SLUMP for almost a QUARTER of the NBA season. That is not a "small slump." -Green is who he is. He gives you highs but you get lows. Still, would like to see the 3pt % up a bit. -Clark gives you the nuts and bolts. Some blocks or rebounds. But, like Ennis, can be invisible offensively at the end of the game. -Hartenstein is a nice energy role player. But not counted on for scoring. So there you got! That is the bench. No wonder it is last. Morey needs to add REAL DEPTH to this team. Playable depth. If you are going to be a 3pt shooting team, get shooters THAT MAKE SHOTS, please. Rockets "blunt force" the math with 3s. But it would be taken to another level with guys that can make just "LEAGUE AVERAGE" on their 3pt shots. Player X is in a "slump." Enough. They have played almost a quarter of the season.
We need a 3point scorer off the bench. For all the hate we had towards Ryan Anderson - he was hot for the first half of the season last year
Nene was bad all of last year. He won't be able to help much this year. On some nights he'll be better than Hartenstein but not every night. As for Brandon Knight, I hope he can do something. But I doubt it. I think he's an inefficient volume shooter who is bad at everything else. I am not counting on any on court contributions from him this year since his injury status is still so uncertain. Maybe next year.
Currently a healthy Anderson is getting DNP-CDs for the last place Suns. Hate warranted. Scrubberson is still scrubberson.
My point is not that we need Ryan Anderson, it's that we sure could use someone who could fill that role - before he lost confidence in his shot
Yes and he plays his role well but I am not referring to that. We had Eric Gordon last year as well if you recall. I'm referring to ANOTHER shooter in addition to our 6th man.
Yes, I believe I recall that....... My point is, we can complain about lack of bench production. And can look for answers and say "if only we had Ryan Scrubberson to pump fake and hesitate to jack shots" we could be better. But the REAL answer is ERIC GORDON. I don't expect Ryan to do jack squat. I DO however expect EG to produce.
Looking at the bench stats for all NBA teams, we get an even dimmer picture: We are dead last in: mins, pts, rbs, assts, stls, Drbs, Orbs, FG%, 3PT%, EFF and DEFF. Also: Orbs: 29th FT%: 24th PFs: 27th blks: 8th TOs: 1st (actually makes sense, since we play the fewest minutes) Ugh. Let's average it out by looking at the per-48-minutes stats. Keep in mind per-48 does nothing to help the team, since it's only the results during actual (not hypothetical) playing time that matter. This is more a matter of looking at where our bench would rank if given the same minutes as other benches. Still last in assts, stls, FG%, 3PT%, EFF, DEFF. Also: pts: 27th Drbs: 27th rbs: 26th Orbs: 26th FT%: 24th PFs: 7th blks: 2nd TOs: 1st Still ugh. But that's only one side of the equation. How are our opponents doing against our bench? TOs: 26th FT%: 21st stls: 18th FG%: 17th 3PT%: 16th pts: 16th assts: 13th Drbs: 13th rbs: 8th PFs: 7th blks: 6th Orbs: 5th No matter how you look at it, our bench has not only been sub-par by league standards, it's been horrendous.
The more you dig....the dimmer the picture...how lovely. Remember the days when we saw posts like "man this bench is Deeeeeeeep." L.O.L.
To put it another way: EG is awesome when his streak switch is in the "on" position. But since he's pretty much our entire offense off the bench, when he's not hitting those shots, all we have are the prayers that Gerald flings up. That's simply not going to get it done against good teams, and MDA's only method of addressing that is to play the starters extra minutes. The good news is that these same figures (and other more complex and revealing ones, I'm sure) are sitting on Morey's desk right now.
Rockets roster breakdown. STARTERS PG: Chris Paul SG: James Harden SF: {VACANT} PF: PJ Tucker C: Clint Capela BENCH PG: {VACANT} SG: Eric Gordon / Gerald Green SF: James Ennis / {VACANT} PF: {VACANT} / Gary Clark C: {VACANT} / Hartenstein (5) Wasted Roster spots - MCW - Chriss - Knight - Melo - Nene (if he can't be counted on due to health/age) - {Open Roster Spot} (though likely to be used on Clark's conversion) Morey needs to fill the {VACANT} slots. 1 starter and 3/4 bench players.
ryan shot 39% on the season from 3 that was an AWESOME PRODUCTION ( and i was telling you that at the time) ppl were really just scapegoating him and hating for making superstar money and producing a like role player
Scrubberson fell off when pushed to the bench. And he is STUCK on the bench in Phoenix. If EG played better, like last season, then the Rockets would be better. Scrubberson was not going to produce 39% 3pt shooting for this team now. If he was, they wouldn't have traded him. They traded him because he sucked.
Melton is sitting on the bench along with Anderson in Phoenix. Melton can't get ahead of Okobo. And can't get ahead of Canaan. This is a team that needs a PG to play with Booker and Melton can't come close to sniffing a spot. Rockets need a "playable" backup PG.
