Hey all, Less fun blog post for you today but I looked back at some of the lowlights from the loss to the Lakers, highlighting the negative spacing, the poor pick n roll work, James Harden's offball nothingness and more. And also wrote about some counters I hope they lean into more tonight. Please let me know what you all think! https://www.teaandrockets.com/post/...ng-houston-s-woes-in-their-loss-to-the-lakers
Shooting cures all woes. If we actually had shooters on the court, we would be fine. Woods should be the worst shooter on the court at all times since he's our center.
Should AD be the worst shooter on the court for LA at all times, just because he's their center? While generally true, you can't universally apply that just because a guy is super tall and/or plays center, he's a poor shooter.
b-b-b-but we traded WB i thought john wall would fix our shooting/spacing needs ? how can this be possible ?!!!
Finding 4 players to put around Harden who can all shoot 37%+ from 3 is tricky. Finding 4 players who can all shoot 37%+ and bring stellar defense is impossible, especially with our lack of roster flexibility. I write in the blog how jealous I am of Dallas's shooting last year and how they were the best offense in the league, but the flip side of that is they were 18th defensively and were a worse team than Houston. My point being, we're going to have to figure out adjustments and tweaks to fix the offense. There's a better balance for sure, you can have good defenders who don't shoot 25% from 3. But when a playoff defense sees James Harden and role players, they are going to try to get the ball out of the three-time scoring champ's hands. We need to prepare for that.
Wall is a better floor spacer than Rusell Westbrook. We didnt see the 4v3 trap situations that the Lakers threw out in the playoffs. But we had Nwaba and Tate who bring negative spacing, Wood who was 1-5, Brown and McLemore missed shots that usually go in. John Wall can't fix that.
I'm just asking that 3 of the 4 guys on the court shooting average or above average percentages. The 4th guy should be a lob threat like Woods. That is it and that was the formula we had when we were a hamstring away from the championship.
This team just has never had a great shooter beyond Chandler Parsons in a lone year. Everyone else has been like 37% or under. Need a 40% threat from deep and we never chased those types. Funny how Morey did the moment he left our team. My biggest complaint about this dude gets addressed on his new team.
Just to add, when we were a hamstring away from a championship, Eric Gordon was our worst shooter outside of Clint at 36 percent. Unfortunately, percentages were horrible after we got to Gordon, so when Paul and Prince went down, our offense was somewhat broken.
Agree with this. Having Wood play on the perimeter for pick and pops is definitely a wrinkle we need to keep using assuming he can't find at least average 3 pt. shooting. I think we are having 5 players behind the 3 point line too much. It is really easy to collapse the lane and force turnovers when teams aren't really scared off our 3-ball just yet and no one is really a threat to put it on the floor and drive except for Harden. Wall and Gordon at times. We need to use Wood like we have used Capela in the past. I realize Capela did a ton of pick and roll and so is Wood. This seems to be by far our most effective way of scoring with Harden/Wood or Harden/Wall running a pick and roll and 3 capable shooters surrounding them. In addition to this, we need Wood to just keep his man away from the basket the way Capela would at times by basically standing on the baseline ready for someone to drive and dish to him for a finish. His man would have to be outside the lane and once his man commits to Wall, Harden, Gordon driving the lane they can get a layup if too slow or dish to Wood for the finish. Basically, I feel like we should use Wood as a lob threat without pick and roll like I have seen with Capela in the past. These are mostly isolation plays for Wall or Harden but moving Wood all over the court will only improve our offense. Don't just sit him at the 3 point line and don't only just pick and roll, pick and pop with him. There are other ways we can provide spacing and sometimes that means Wood just needs to be a lob threat decoy near the paint with Harden or Wall attacking and Wood's defender too deep in the paint to really do anything about it. Happened a lot with Capela and Wood is a better finisher around the basket due to his athleticism and touch around the basket. If/when he adds more strength it will be scary to think of what he is capable of. Below is what I am talking about. Capela just outside the lane, Embiid is in no man's land not sure to go to Harden or Capela and then Capela with the stuff. I realize Wood has potential as a stretch 5 which is awesome, but let's not only use him in that role. https://www.nba.com/rockets/video/wsc/teams/7186af0c4ef60731ef16054b3a50942e7a3278cd
Right now team has no idenity. I think its normal at this point with all the changes that was made and are about to be made... Harden plays like he already put in his 2 weeks notice and no ammount of HP posts will convince me otherwise
Make no mistake MDA is an awesome coach. He's Hall of Fame for sure after what he did with Phoenix. Has a way of getting his players comfortable and in the rhythm. He just refuses to move his chess pieces differently if need be. Use the whole team. We are a team. Guys have to be ready. There was no excuse for us to go cold and miss 28 3's in a Game 7. I know he is not the one out there shooting but he has to have a back door play or something get the guys a open shot instead of contested 3's.
Why can't we just stick Harden in the corner when Wall has the ball. He's absolutely useless when he's at the top of the key not even getting ready to shoot and never runs back on transition. At least in the corner his defender can't really help out. But as the pictures show, they are essentially double teaming Wall and Gordon when Harden just hovers at the top of the key
Crazy how Morey could get Seth Curry and Danny Green on the same team. If we had those two we would be scoring 150/night. Now the sizers look like championship contenders.
Good job OP!, really OC that I like to read. What I kept thinking while reading your piece was we need to run more Double Ball screens, Spain PnR, and Horn sets using PJ and Wood with Harden or Wall.
I think he just means in general wings and guards are almost always better shooters and for us, Wood shouldn’t be the worst shooter on the court for our offense to be effective. Lakers have other skilled players who can do things. We don’t apparently
