http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10080338/lebron-james-nba-most-highly-evolved-offense An excerpt from the article: "In 2010-11, the season in which Miami last lost a playoff series, the Heat ranked 25th in the NBA in assist percentage. By last season, they ranked 13th. And so far this season, they're ranked second, assisting on 64 percent of their field goals. Space has become one of the core concepts as the team has migrated away from the isolation-heavy schemes that characterized the unsuccessful first year of the Big Three era. According to head coach Erik Spoelstra, "We learned a lot from the pain of the Dallas Finals loss. One of the things that was clear was that it would be essential for us to utilize more movement, especially off the ball, and in general to move the ball more. Less self-will plays, less isolation, less dribbling, less holding. We coined it 'pace and space.'" However, the Rockets don't have a Chris Bosh at the 5 that can force a big man out of the middle, however, they can effectively use ball movement and off the ball movement to create opportunities.
That's easy to say, but the Heat's best player is Lebron James who is a pass first player. Putting in the ball in his hands more means more ball movement and assists. The only thing the Heat have done to increase ball movement is take the ball out of Wades hands to make him more of a thread off the ball and in the open court. With the Rockets, the simple solution to this would be to put the ball in Chandler's hands more as the main facilitator from the top of the key, and run Harden & Lin off the ball more. However its just not that easy and that's without factoring in Dwight's presence and how that changes the offense as compared to a traditional small-ball big like Bosh. And Harden is a guy late in games who .. of course, likes to go isolation. At the end of the day the Rockets are only going to be as good as Harden and Howard are going to take them playing off of each other. The pick and roll has looked very, very good at times, but Howard isn't skilled enough from the outside to run it every single play like Stockton/Malone or Nash/Amare. The Rockets offense is going to have to be a hybrid system of different looks every time down the floor. The Rockets offense is going to take probably a season or two before its completely figured out. What the Heat did right, and what the Rockets are doing wrong is that the Heat knew right from the beginning that the offense would take a season or so to figure out, and so right from the beginning the entire team bought into the defensive end to let that spark their offense in the open court. Not having that buy-in from the Rockets means that they probably wont have that kind of success in year 1 and will probably not be a 55+ win team until after they get settled offensively since this team is incapable of being a real intense defensive unit.
This isn't that hard, just play to the strengths of your players. Assuming we hire a new defensive assistant and get Deng/Marion/Butler for D and resting Parsons, this team would be most like the 06' Heat -Lin as your JWill/substitute Wade (At the risk of being flamed) -Harden as your Wade (when he has energy to break down his man) / Kapono (when he's tired) -Deng as your Posey Defensive Leader -Parsons as your Antoine Walker(comeback version) -Dwight/Jones giving you something between old Shaq and old Zo -Bev as your Gary Payton -Asik (or trade replacement) as Haslem Lin/Bev/Harden/Brooks Harden/Lin/Deng/Garcia Deng/Parsons/Casspi/Jones Parsons/Jones/DMo Howard/Asik?/Smith/DMo For SAS: Parker can't be guarded, but we're young enough to run them out of the gym. Parker can't guard Lin, and has been known to get tired. Nobody on their roster can guard Harden. Lin-Harden-Deng/Parsons-Parsons/Jones-Howard For OKC, Indiana & Miami: Start Harden at point, hide him on their defensive point or SG stopper, and run the @$%&ing PnR. Harden-Deng-Parsons-Jones-Howard (Deng on Westbrook; Harden on Hill, Chalmers, Thabo) For LAC & GSW: Flip a coin. Its a no-D shootout until Harden consistently defends and we work on our team D on PnR and switching on screens. But that's assuming we get a James Posey type player for Asik.
Last time I checked, we don't have Deng on roster. You just added in completely out of blue. How are you planning to acquire him without trading away anyone? Convington + Canaan + Brewer + Greg Smith?
Chandler is our best off ball player, he gets open an incredibly high amount of times through his movement. If anything, the person who needs to add off ball movement is Lin, like Chandler recognise when the defense decides to hedge Harden and make them pay for it. That's why Bev plays pretty well with both Harden and Lin, because despite his limited offensive skillset, he's generally always moving. Lebron for example doesn't move that much, off the ball primarily consists of post ups, to collapse the defense, that he might roll out to the three point line if the collapse is over the top (that's why Lebron is up there with Harden for least distance travelled). Wade has gotten extremely good at recognising when the defense is hedging Lebron and turning that into an easy 2. The thing Harden needs to most work is the get and go, he too often surmises the defense and gives them time to setup, whereas his skillset would allow him to cut through even tiny holes in the rotation, turning small holes into giant holes. More Lebron, less Kobe
Rockets spacing and ball movement is fine. It's the D that needs improvement. Not having Parsons to play D and shoot lights out has not gone unnoticed.
You know I was going to post this article but I don't have posting priv, but the heat are team ballers. Lebron will take the most shots but he will still try to keep his teammates in and knows what it takes to win. rockets are a long way from that point. very long.
I like the reasoning that since Harden is our "the man" and likes to go iso, then we have to just deal with it. That is just sound strategy on how to run a franchise.
Just like the reasoning that he shouldn't play off the ball when in OKC he was the #1 player in the league in points per possession off screens, #1 in hand-offs, #3 cutting to the hoop, and #28 spot-up shooter. All of those more points per possession than his Iso or PnR. But lets just ignore all that and accept him camping at the 3pt line.
Just did. Still not making any sense. Unless you mean Deng is the Posey kind player? And you want to trade Asik for Deng?
The one need to have more off the ball movement is Harden. He is a SG. Let the PG control the ball. Lin has no problem with Beverley controlling the ball.
Harden is better than Lin with the ball in his hands and point guards are typically weak off ball defenders. You notice how it's Wade that does the moving because the defenses are clued into Lebron? but but but Wade's a guard and Lebron's a forward....
Yes. A James Posey type player (continuing the 06' Heat comparison). Someone who can defend 2-3 positions, can hit a 3, plays off the ball, can finish around the rim, and can sometimes create his own shot. What Parsons used to be as a rookie. In our case we need someone who can rest Parsons and defend the 1 through 3 position so you can slide Harden around as needed. Bev and Parsons can't guard 2's and you can't always hide Harden on a SF. And Bev is going to be a non-factor against certain PG matchups even after we get our help D straightened out. Imagine facing these lineups: Curry-Klay-Iggy-Barnes-Bogut Wade-Allen-Beasley-Bron-Bosh Stephenson-George-Granger-West-Hibbert I went with Deng because I didn't feel like writing Deng/Marion/Butler/Iguodala/Shumpert etc over and over. Asik will be traded, and we can probably get one of these guys (except Iggy) in a 3-way.
Reporter: What happened during the 4th, your team only scored 10 points...? McHale: Ball got sticky Reporter #2: What do you plan to do differently? McHale: Get a less sticky ball. Reporter #3: How will that help the spacing issue? McHale: It doesn't. Reporter #2 Do you plan to change the rotation to give this team a different look? McHale: Yeah, Switch everything. Reporter #3: With all due respect coach you seem clueless...... McHale:
What we actually need to learn from Miami is how to defend. This team can score, we lead the league in it. Offense is not the biggest problem. We need to be able to defend so when our shots are not falling and we are being defended well, the opposition score is low. That way we just need a short burst to pull away. Everything starts on the defensive end. Miami still go through stretches where that ball and player movement is not there. The are aggressive, they rotate quickly and run guys off of the three point line etc. We would come back against the Suns, they call a time-out and we failed to stop them from scoring. In those stages the opposition can't go on those runs...we need to defend better.
This commentary is more about Miami's evolution, not this year's Rockets. The reason Miami struggled when the big 3 came together is because of Spoelstra. Had a coach like Adelman been at the helm you would have had a team that was much better right off the bat on offense. Like Spoelstra, McHale seems unable to put together a cohesive offense. He lets the team evolve slowly, allows players to figure it out on their own. It's easier when you have a distributor like Lebron though. I imagine the learning curve is larger for this team. Ultimately we still rank 1st in offense so... let's focus on what's really ailing us.
that may be discrediting spolestra too much to say all that improved with the heat came from the players' own evolution.
