They simply don't know how to do it effectively. Plus it's probably just bad strategy since it will inevitably lead to break downs leaving Curry open. Just one mistake and Curry will punish you. Just in the first 6 minutes of the game, Josh Smith lost Curry on a switch, leading to a wide open 3. A few possession later Smith correctly switches on to Curry, yet Terry doesn't switch to Draymond. You then have 2 guys on Curry and NO ONE defending Green from the top of the key. This leads to Draymond driving to the paint, and when Dwight comes over to pick up Draymond leaving Bogut WIDE OPEN for a lob pass. It's a terrible strategy to switch EVERY single possession. Rockets need to start Nick Johnson and play Curry straight up. Ariza can play Klay straight up. I don't think Josh Smith is capable of doing anything right, so you probably don't want to be starting him right now. The Rockets are so hell bent on using this strategy in part because Terry and Prigs can't stay with Curry. Nick Johnson can. Curry will get his, but hopefully it won't be nearly as devastatingly easy for him. Maybe you go with NJ/Harden/Ariza/TJ/Howard. I think this is your only real hope of stopping Curry defensively. Offensively you just have to rely on NJ to hit open shots or effectively drive to the hoop and make plays. I see a glimmer of a playmaker in NJ. He may not be there right now as a playmaker, but at this point you might as well try something DIFFERENT.
Why don't we just put our best defender (Ariza) on Curry straight up? I do like having Johnson in there to chase him also. Game 3 was supposed to be Klay Thompson's breakout game since they decided to have Barnes guard Harden so Klay could focus on offense. Well, he was still pretty awful. Sooo why are we wasting Ariza by having him guard Thompson? Just cover Curry and force the role players to shoot. Basically, the complete opposite strategy of the Clippers series where the key was shutting down all their shooters. Whether the Rockets want to admit it or not, Curry won the MVP. You might want to focus on stopping him first, and it should start with putting your best defender on him.
You can't leave Ariza on Curry the entire game. I think you have to try throwing different looks at him, including switching at times when it makes sense and you have high IQ players on the court. Anytime you have Josh Smith on the court, you probably shouldn't try to do anything too complicated. Guy is dumb as rocks. Where was the trap that worked so well at the end of Game 2? McHale just confounds me. Who knows though, maybe he's just doing what Morey tells him to do based on computer algorithms.
They set multiple screens to free up their shooters. And their shooters MOVE. It is extremely hard to defend those offenses. That said, I'd like to see some defensive adjustment about one game ago. My question is, why can't our offense use more effective picks?
Rox are playing streetball. GS is playing a highly efficient system. Looks like streetball is losing. Seriously though, I think GS has guys with high basketball IQ who know when to stay home on defense and when to help. Our guys don't even know who they're supposed to pick up.
Indeed! Our offense is free flow and watching Harden so nobody moves since they will not get the pass or at least they are not certain since we call about a handful of plays tops per game.
Against the Clippers, against a dominant 4, starting Smith was the right move. Against the Warriors, TJones might be better as he meshes with that unit a little better. Also, we need to start playing 4 on 4. What I mean by that is sacrifice a player and tell him to stick to Curry like glue. He may get occasional help on blow byes. Nick could be that guy. I thought he played Steph well. He blocked his shot and didn't fall for his hesitation dribbles. Steph got him once on a drive but weak-side shot-blocking could have helped him on that.
This. This is the whole series. This is what McHale's "energy" mantra leaves out, and can never fix. And if you blame it on McHale, you're an optimist. The pessimistic view is that we don't have the personnel to reliably execute a system.
Jason Terry's turnstile defense isn't helping the cause. He's been helpless & Terrence Jones is clueless.
Yes!!! And after multiple screens it gets confusing on how to rotate to so we're always a second late!!! So frustrating
kerr runs plays that maximize his players. we're street ballers getting exploited. point guard position is just killing us on defense.
I've been wishing for this for so long. i would love to see Harden running off of multiple screens to get a good shot rather than always doing ISOs to create his offense.
I don't buy this at all. Running sets is NOT rocket science. I ran them as I played middle school and high school basketball. This "they're not smart enough narrative" just excuses McHale.
Rockets should also employ hackabogut a few times and employ full court presses strategically. If you can force a few turnovers off presses and traps it would make a big difference.
I agree and disagree. I agree that the coaching staff must do a better job this offseason constructing an offense that doesn't consist of passing the ball at the top of the key to Harden and saying GO (aka the Mike Brown offense). However, with that said we lack the players that can execute such an off the ball, ball movement offense that GSW does. Every player on GSW knows how to play off the ball. As simple as it sounds playing off the ball is a skill. It's not something learned overnight. LeBron and Wade had to learn it to coexist. Melo doesn't know how. And the our great James Harden the MVP will have to as well. Whereas Curry/Thompson/Green/etc can impact the offense without the ball in their hands, there really isn't a player on our roster that can do with the same efficacy.
What's killing this team is 7 seconds or less offense, 1 pass and a chucked 3. No flow, no rhythm, no teamwork, allows GSW to get an easy rebound and get back to their strength of transition basketball. Run some clock, run some offense and act like a team. Then you can worry about things like hustling for boards and getting back on D. Nick Johnson might play D but his shot is even more broke than Terry's is. This team needs a ball handler to take the pressure off harden and lessen his turnovers and an accurate shooter to take some of the offensive burden. Canaan is sorely missed right now as he was doing both pretty well for a while....
many good posts in this short thread. some threads after last night were just dumb. guess some need to see and know more bball, frankly.
The thing is james harden KNOWS how to play off the ball. He can't because he's the only damn playmaker. It's embarrassing. I was confident morey wasn't going to into the post season with out guard situation the way it is. But nope.
