The "Big Men Crush Smallball" argument has absolutely won.

I should add, I'm not against small ball or whatever you want to call it. I'm just responding to the misnomer comment.

 

Sorry but...if you're benching Javale Magee and Dwight Howard in favor of Markieff Morris and Rajan Rondo, you're clearly not not playing small ball

Anthony Davis is a freak. He would be perfect in the Rockets or any system. If you think the Rockets and Daryl Morey looked at a jupyter notebook and took a pass on Anthony Davis, please don't inject bleach.

 

we didn't have the personnel to run "normal" ball at a really high level either. small ball was swinging really hard at an 0-2 pitch. a chance at a homerun, but likely to lead to a strikeout, but why does it matter since you were probably going to strike out anyway and a single does you no good.

whether you have great 3 point shooters or mediocre 3 point shooters, the philosophy is always going to be to limit mid-range jumpers and take more 3's. because it's a more efficient shot, whether the shooter is bad (they'll still be bad at mid-range shots) or good. the whole league, regardless of roster, is moving this direction.

we don't have the most talent in the league. small ball was never supposed to be a magical system that suddenly elevated us from 1st/2nd round exit to championship. we hoped that maybe it would neutralize the strengths of some other teams and be so hard for opponents to adapt to that it would work and maybe we somehow win. but the likely answer was always that talent would win out and we would basically do what we thought, which is a 1st/2nd round exit.

everyone think of the lakers as a team that plays big, but that's only because AD doesn't like the physicality of playing center, so they throw minutes to javale and dwight. but at the end of the day, when actually forced to play center, AD is the best small-ball center in the league, with all the height of a traditional big man and the versatility of a small-ball center. and lebron is obviously the best small-ball power forward. all we forced them to do is trade some javale/dwight minutes for some wing minutes, which is good because it forced them to play differently, but trying to stop AD/lebron never went away and is the main thing killing us (along with westbrook). that's why having AD and lebron is good, because they can play almost any way you want.

 

Ranking of small ball big men

1. (tie) Davis, A., James, L (LAL)
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362. (tie) Covington, R., Tucker, P., Green, J. (HOU)

 

Small all can work but we went too small with j skilled. Imagine if we had Carl landry or Ibaka in the front court.

 

Carl Landry did shoot 46% from deep in his last NBA season

Spoiler

though the 76ers finished 9-73 that year.

 

Exactly. The Rockets have to shoot somewhere between 50-60 threes and score about 60 points from the three-point line to beat the Lakers. They’ve only shot at least 50 threes once in this series (game 2). They shot 39 in game 1, 33 in game 3 and 30 in game 4. That’s not going to work.

 

That’s just great for DAntoni and Morey if the Lakers vindicate their strategy...!!

 

I hate midget ball and we have no versatility offensively playing this way. The Lakers have went small and are still way taller and more physical and we can't adjust to it. Now with the running us off the 3 point line the league will have a blueprint to how to beat us.

 

I personally don’t care if small ball works. I care about the Rockets winning..

 

They can’t do that. No matter the defense or situation, the Rockets have to shoot 50-60 threes to beat this Lakers team. I don’t care if some are contested, either. If the Rockets take 30-35 threes again tonight, they have no chance of winning. They may not win taking 50-60 threes, but at least the possibility exists.

When the Rockets stormed back from down 16 to take the lead heading into the fourth quarter of game 2, it was because they hit the Lakers with a barrage of threes. The Rockets have made 62/155 threes in this series. That’s 40%. The percentage is great, but the volume is a problem.

 

Houston did not even have the right players to play this way. Russell Westbrook is an awful 3 point shooter and PJ is limited to wide open corner threes and Rivers can barely shoot at all.

 

The problem is that we are not really SMALL ball, we are MICRO BALL.

Many other teams have 6'9" - 6'10" SF and PFs that can play the small ball game, we are all 6'6" or less with the exception of Covington - if we had 3 guys Covington's height or higher, then maybe we would have a chance.

But we don't we are MICRO ball and we are filled with guys who are inconsistent shooters....we don't have a SINGLE elite level 3pt shooter on the team.....NOT ONE!!

This Roster is a ****ING mess - it was put together with hope, rather than planning - there is no way, I believe that Morey put this together, he is far too smart for this.....I guarantee you this is a Fertita nightmare....

DD

 

It worked for the Lakers

 

It's the most advanced ball y'all'll see.

 

Yes, micro balls what we’re playing. The Lakers can get whatever they want inside the lane. All the second chance points and rebounds make this an uphill battle for the Rockets. No freaking way they can win playing the style of ball. The defense, for all that sprays during the playoffs, is absolutely atrocious, and I mean atrocious!

At this point you’re down by 20 so why not try someone like Chandler to defend, rebound, and block shots.

Oh wait, Austin Rivers to the rescue! I see MDA is up to his bag of tricks again. Yes sir, the worst shooter on the team is back on the court

 

Issue wasn't small ball. Issue is a lack of dependable playmaking behind Harden. The whole reason we got CP3 was to help with the doubles on Harden. Now we are back to it.

 

Of course it's ferteets. Obviously Harden wanted Russ but you don't have to actually listen to him. (Though technically Russ is taller and plays bigger than CP3, lol).

But, L. T. Savings eventually takes a toll. No Jerami Grant or no picks, none of those guys is a difference maker by themselves,but eventually they add up to a piece(s) if you add up all of the Landry's subsidization moves across 2 years. But instead, we got this.

Look on the bright side, there might not be a 2021 season.

 

ROFLOL - that was awesome!

And I agree, I think they let Harden decide too much, he has to adjust or he is on the block.

DD

 

The Rockets should've kept Faried. He was the best small ball center we had but we screwed him over