Small market schemes are what truly drives the NBA....wonder why Silver is not granting them more national TV games.
Only works with consistent perimeter shooters. You can't attack open spaces in the lane if the defense just camps there.
I think the point of the story is not "This is a great offense." The point is "Innovate to maximize the players you have." Not every team can run the Memphis scheme, just like not every team could run the Warriors scheme. Every team needs a good creative offensive mind.
I’m all for new. It’s interesting. I wonder if their PnR and DHO numbers go up in Clutch time. Which would give us an idea of what their playoffs will look like. Clutch time moments where you want your star to have the ball and high TOs are two weaknesses to this The reason PnR and DHO are at the core of NBA offenses is because they limit TOs while still putting high stress on defenses. lo and behold: MEM is 25th worst TOs. BOS, OKC and HOU are 1, 2, 3 best. Offenses that rely on heavy passing expose the ball at a high clip. The GSW dynasty was bottom 5 TOs every year, if not the worst. They needed elite shooting to balance that.
I wonder if there's a correlation between TO rate and shooting efficiency. Missed shots don't count as TOs. If an offense has low TO rate but does not generate a lot of good shots, causing more missed shots, then it's still not ideal. BTW, Memphis is 4th on offense but they are only 14th in 3pt% and 13th in 3pt attempts. Morant is a poor 3pt shooter. Bane has not been shooting well this season. They must be very effective scoring inside the arc.
Memphis is 2nd in Overall rebounding and 2nd in Field Goal Attempted behind the Rockets. They lead the league in Field Goals Made per game. The Rockets are 14th. They are 4th in FG% but as you said are not what you would call a good 3 point shooting team. Rockets are 26th in FG% I bet they have a plethora of 2nd Chance opportunities like the Rockets. https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/team/_/table/offensive/sort/avgFieldGoalsMade/dir/desc
Nice video. You take away the blitz if you have the athletes and skill to drive without a PnR. Doing this has made the read for the driver much more straightforward. However, the off-ball rotation, especially the counterintuitive choices made by the baseline cutter (corner three vs dunker), is brilliant. The Rockets could use some of these principles when Amen has the ball, but Jalen and FVV "need" that pick to get going. I also love seeing how Memphis has no wasted time in their fast break. They push the ball and keep moving. They've made screens and PnR into their do-something-for-variety play.
Didn't watch the video but I'm going to use this as an excuse to gripe that Memphis hot start comes against the 29th most difficult schedule in the NBA this year.
