The talking heads will have a field day on the Rockets for but deservedly so given how bad they were vs. The Cilppers. But the adjustment to be made is. A. Go with Hartenstein, Jeff Green and Tyson Chandler as your regular 1,2, 3 center combo. Tie Harty's minutes to James & Jeff Green's to Westbrooks rest patterns. Tyson only plays if Harty is in foul trouble. Play the best combination at the end of games. This will mean Mclemore or Rivers ( maybe both) falls out of the rotation. The "4" spot should be Tuck & Carroll The other forward Covington & House. (3 veteran defenders plus House.) The 3 guards of course are James, Russ, & EGO. This adjustment will give Harden a viable pick & roll option on bad shooting nights. Harty or Tyson aren't Clint but should do fine. B. The Brain trust should stop trying to marry themselves to tactics and let the game come to them. This game has been around longer than anyone in the organization and there are many ways to play it, STOP ACTING IS IF YOU HAVE TO PLAY ONE WAY! Do whatever it takes to win that game. You may have to use a different tactic on a given night. Morey should stop doing press runs when the team is playing well on how this is "THE WAY" to play in today's game. It's unnecessary. I'm not saying the Rockets would go to the Finals with this but it is an adjustment they can make. They just have to remember it's not a sin to play a big and you can ALWAYS go small.
Well ... don't think Harty would be a difference maker last night. Might make a difference against NYK, but they are nowhere in the playoffs. It's the Clippers and/or Lakers that we need to beat to get to the WCF. To me, we need to perfect our small game plan, not just in the pretense of it - merely taking the center out. Clippers last night exposed it. Small ball predicates on pace, offensive advantage (open lane, open shooter), and offensive pressure on the opposing team. We were no where near good execution of it last night. I agree with Coach that they smacked us hard and we just reverted it back to the "old" way of playing without a center. So to me, it's not that we don't have plan B. In that, I will say we haven't executed our plan A to the spirit yet. Maybe we will never, or maybe it will take time considering the mid-season change of plan. If somehow we are able to do play small ball correctly even under pressure like last night, we don't need a plan B to play center in the middle. It's not our identity and only going to make it more confusing to our players. It's one system - play it well. We haven't done that.
If you are not sure you can beat Clippers in May, prepare for June draft day trade or July 1 free agency. 5 year plan would be trading for young players and picks.
Every team that has played "small ball" such as the Warriors and the Clippers, have a non-small ball line up also. They don't always go to small ball because they know it doesn't always work. I honestly believe Dantoni doesn't have the word "context" in his vocabulary. It's a foreign concept to him.
Our small ball is fine. It's really full commitment to competing at a high level. No offense or defense can do that for you sure there are things from a gameplan perspective that they can do better. But you have to play with an edge or chip to never let someone disrespect you like what happened yesterday.
When small is not working, you run pick and roll with the true bigs that we have. James Harden has to attack the rim FIRST and not shoot 3's all day. I think he settles a lot. When the Rox attack the rim first we usually win with ease. It's called inside out not outside in.
the clippers game is not close, can not be fixed by MDA. Game 5 and 6 against GSW are close, can be fixed. MDA is good enough to fix it.
I like this idea IF small ball is not working and if the team in general is building houses from 3. What is crazy about last night was in the second half there were a ton of open 3's but we could knock them down. Kawhi and PG3 are great defenders but damn James got fouled a ton with no calls and at home no less. That is a concern if the NBA is going to look past that SHIZNAT!
I agree. This roster isn't meant to be very flexible in terms of playstyle. Our best chance at winning a championship is to perfect our play style - not to drastically change our approach based on the opponent. That's when you become a jack of all trades, master of none. Small ball might not always work, but our best chance to win a championship is to perfect it - not to learn how to properly incorporate Tyson or Hartenstein into the offense.
Too late for Plan B. Morey knew what he was doing when he decided not to pull out... from the deal for Covington.
We lost one game and no reason to panic yet. We are already fully committed to small ball as we traded Capella. There were few talented young bigs like Cap so once we got rid of him, we were on a path of no return. Harden will be 31 soon. Westbrook 32, Eric Gordon 32, Robert Covington 31, Tucker 35 We traded away our draft picks So we are in WIN NOW mode so that is our Plan A, Plan B, Plan C.... Plan Y. Our Plan Z is to trade Harden, Covington etc. for young guns/picks and rebuild and content for championship in 5 years if this small ball concept or Harden concept doesn't work out.
The rockets should of played harder than this. It was an embarrassment. Why not this... > Post up Tuck/Covington, Let them alley oop to Russell in a screen > Run a play to isolate the defense where as it opens 2 guys to the basket for a layup > Set Picks for open drives to the basket. > Get Tucker to post up and or Covington to force it to the basket for a hook > Run screens for guys to drive, and or open up for a 2pt jumper. > Let Harden continuesly drive to the basket forcing the defense to foul him or he gives it up to brodie for a quick 2 pt shot. >Get harden and Brodie to slip outside to the deep corners on both sides of 3pt line let Rivers pass to them while they drive in or back for fast 2's or layups.. - I actually think this would work for to the basket layups or dunks.. * Break out Rick Aldeman play book for the hell of it. Give up on the 3pt shot if it doesnt fall.
True but they didn’t just lose they got destroyed and LAC didn’t even really have to play lock down D...If the 3 doesn’t fall this team seems to have no idea what to do and we have a group of players that aren’t all that effective off the dribble creating their own shots even if there are lanes to the hoop. PJ is a nightmare, RoCo really hasn’t looked that fluid off the dribble, House is inconsistent and blows dunks/layups quite frequently, Ego is UGH - who knows what’s up with him anymore, BMac isn’t much of a dribble penetrator, and small sample size on Green and DMC but I i doubt either are world class at it (although Green has looked pretty decent at times). Only Harden Russ, Rivers are solid off dribble and Harden gets blocked a lot lately so he settles for the step back... they can get away with it against weaker teams but last night was scary to watch how bad we were trying to adjust... which we didn’t, we just kept jacking 3s. Not gonna work against these better teams I see a lot more beat downs coming if relying on 40% from 3 is the only plan. Also for those people hoping a change of pace in Harry or Chandler might help for a few mins that crazy, neither one of those guys is capable of being a solid PnR guy against a good team neither has the athleticism necessary like a long did, and both are major defensive liabilities
Interesting is that talking heads do not doubt Budenholzer when Heat stymied Giannis and the Bucks the other day. What was his Plan B? Especially when the Raptors used same zone defense to eliminate the MVP and best team in the East so easily in a 7 game series. There were no calls then or now to remove Budenholzer.
Small ball is a fault against Clippers in playoffs, come up with plan b to kill them please. Clippers take 2 years to build championship team today, 5 years? No.
