27th fastest team in the league with some size issues up front. Good lord, what's that I hear? A guy who's going to be available when the Rockets draft. Warmly Welcome the Boilermaker Behemoth the East Lafayette Leviathan the Extra Large Engineer Purdue Pivot Zach Edey https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/st...otebook-edey-nba-future-bronny-debut-sleepers There are plenty of teams that have little to no desire to invest in more traditional centers, but Edey has broken convention to the point that more open-minded front offices have to strongly consider him -- potentially toward the end of the first round and most likely as a Boban Marjanovic-style situational reserve *** At this point, Edey isn't going to be a great fit for teams that want to get up and down and play fast. He has worked himself into excellent shape and has good base athleticism for his size; however, his foot speed is unlikely to improve -- he can run the floor and play for long stretches, but he's not especially fast. He's more likely a situational reserve for that reason -- someone a team can use during stretches to try to change the style of play, but not the type of big a team would necessarily feature in a starting five. Edey has gotten better at punishing teams on the dive and as a massive screening presence. He occupies a lot of space as an offensive rebounder, though he doesn't always pursue the ball well out of his area. *** Defensively, Edey will have to play in drop coverage and try to keep the ball in front of him -- he's not going to be switchable, and there will be matchups in which he gets played off the floor. While not a prolific shot-blocker in terms of covering outside his area, he does have a physical presence on the floor and serves as a deterrent for drivers in the paint. If a team surrounds him with big, athletic defenders, it's possible he can hold up for stretches and his team can win those minutes.
Pace isn’t a measure of how fast your offense is. If it were, then why are we “faster” than *all* the D’Antoni Suns teams?
Do we have a 2nd round pick this year or did Stone trade them all away salary dumping 20 year olds? Turns out we have three this year, wouldn't be the worst pick at 40 or 44.
Pace is absloute, but pace rankings are relative. The Suns ran at light-speed in an era dominated by molasses slow teams like the Going To Work Pistons and the Duncan Spurs.
Thanks for repeating that Pace is not a measure of how fast your offense is. Can you now name some things we do well that make our Pace slower?
SOFs: Talk about being counterintuitive ... you have one of the younger high flying squads and you choose to play grandpa, baby hook offense and then want to chastise a guy like Jalen Green for not playing well in that style. Comedy.
Yeah, we play really good defense. We have the 2nd best defense in the league right now. Good defense means the other team goes deep into the shot clock very often, resulting in a slower pace. We also have the best transition defense in the league, we give up the least fast break points in the entire league. Transition possessions usually last like ~5 seconds instead of 20+ seconds, and since we're really good at eliminating those, it reduces pace. Like you pointed out, pace is not a measure of how fast our offense is. I'd like to see the actual stats on how fast our offense is. But our outstanding defense is definitely lowering the pace pretty significantly.
The Rockets rank 27th in offensive Transistion rate, at a mere 15.9%. In comparison, the top transition team is OKC at 20.6%. We have far more posessions in the half court on offense as well than the average team. What's insane is that OKC is 1st in offensive transition rate and tied with Houston for 2nd lowest transition defensive rate. If I had to guess, it's thanks to Ime's emphasis on getting defensive boards. The more dudes that stay back to box out, the fewer guys who can leak out on the fast break.
Thanks, good to know. I wasn't suggesting that we have a fast offense. I'm just pointing out that pace is not a particularly good measure of how fast your offense is. There is a stat for average seconds per offensive possession, but I think its on synergy or one of those paid services that media members get. I'd like to see where we are on that.
I can be exxxtreme too. The Wizards and Pistons lead in ' pace'. Rockets were 1st in pace last season or the season before that, great year all 19 wins or so
Offensively, we were pretty sluggish against the Spurs, even with our purposeful walk-it style. When in doubt, check the player tracking miles-per-hour stat. You can always tell who’s running and who’s not. Faster doesn't always mean better or smarter, but I think it's generally easier to get into a flow on offense if you run as a group. If you walk, you're easier to cover. For whatever reason, we just looked tired last night. Minutes played and speed from the Spurs game. Fred VV 39:17 4.07 Jalen G 24:26 4.43 Sengun 30:25 3.93 Jabari 35:39 4.15 Brooks 29:35 4.01 Holiday 15:26 4.35 Tate 9:28 4.64 Eason 26:35 4.28 Amen 10:21 4.37 Notes: Every Spur’s player ran better than a 4.2 average (Wemby). Most were in the 4.6s. Last year, the Rockets had many guys in the 3.9s or worse. Lots of standing around and walking both ways.
Yep, having an atrocious defense will do that. Other teams will get tons of transition points against you, but will also score quickly even in the half court because all their actions immediately generate open shots.
