The defense has gotten slightly worse, we're 5th in the league in defensive efficiency, at 103.6 (efficiency is points per 100 possessions, so it accounts for everything). This is a little worse than last years 101.6. On the offensive end last season we were: 17th Team Pace EFF EFG% TO OREB% FT/FG Houston Rockets 90.4 106.8 49.2 15.1 29.1 20.0 This season we are: 8th Houston Rockets 90.4 108.3 49.2 15.3 26.2 25.8 The points per 100 possessions is up 1.5 points. It doesn't sound like much, but Miami is at 16th with 106.8, so 1.5 points is still the difference between 8th and 16th. I think the key difference is the fact that we are getting to the FT line more and we are MAKING THE FTAs. But here's another thing: considering we were last in the league in FG% for the first 10-13 games of the season, and we've now recently caught fire... our "actual" offensive effeciency might be even higher. The more games we play with our new offense, the less significant those first 10 games are. So the effeciency should go up. And I think this is key. We will always be a top defensive team because we have the personnel to play defense, but the offense has always been the problem. In the playoffs, defense is just a matter of effort while offense (in our case) is a matter of knowing how to get easy baskets, and move the ball. I'm getting my info from Knickerblogger.net if you are curious.
It was always Morey's agenda to increase that particular ranking. I don't like that the defense has taken such a hit. The defense the team played during the 22 win streak, that was inspiring. Where did that go? As the defense declines our identity diminishes. Anyways, ya, offense is on the way up. Hopefully we end the season shooting 46%.
I always expected we would get better offensively, but I wouldn't have been surprised if we had stayed the same. It was like that last season after the acquisition of Scola and Landry and the year before it was like that after trading for Battier. Our offense is predicated on getting easy baskets and getting to the line, so I don't think this is a fluke. We aren't hitting contested 3s all the time all of the sudden. And Artest and Tmac havn't been able to nail that contested jumper they have been hitting their whole career, so it can only get better.
It shows us as 11th in offensive efficiency according to Hollinger: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...teamstats?sort=offeff&seasonType=2&league=nba What I don't get is that both Hollinger and Knickerblogger define offensive efficiency the same yet have different values and rankings for the Rockets. They also have the same defintion for defensive efficiency and have us ranked 5th in both cases but the values are different.
Wow, thats weird. I don't know who's stats I trust more. Knickerblogger is a pretty solid website, yet Hollinger is known as a stats guy. If it is 11th, I still call that a massive improvement.
I have no idea, either. I figured you might know. Yea, it does look like an improvement. It's been a long time since the Rockets were ranked above average offensively this far into a season. I imagine this is mostly due to us shooting 3s and FTs well. Let's see where we stand in another month or so.
The Rockets offense has taken a major leap forward in the past couple of weeks, especially since McGrady returned. In the win streak before the Cleveland loss, they were averaging 109.5 points per game on 53% shooting. I can't remember any such stretch in the past few years where the Rockets averaged better than 50% shooting for more than 3 games. If this trend continues, expect those rankings (both on KnickerBlogger and Hollinger's page) to continue to increase. I also suspect that Battier's injury has had a lot to do with the regression on the defensive end, although the overall team defensive intensity has left much to be desired (in many games, they really don't turn it up until the 4th quarter). Hopefully this improves as well.
ESPN has had bugs in their stats calculations before. I'd trust Knickerblogger's numbers before I trust ESPN's. But I think discrepancy is likely because they're calculating possessions differently. I like basketball-reference for all these advanced stats: http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2009.html
Yea... basketball reference has us at 8th too. The point is, this is awesome. And considering we started the season nearly last in FG% and we've come back from that to make it to 8th in the league in such a short time... thats awesome. You know... you guys can have your "Tmac is a quitter" and "Yao and Ron are inconsistent" and "Alston is the worst starting PG in the league" attitude. The goods this season are far outweighing the bads.
After todays game, I feel like I have to bump this. No, I don't think we ran our offense today, but the point is that our offense is much better than this. So there is no need to freak out over this loss. If it was part of a greater run of bad play that would be one thing.
Right now, our offense is STRUGGLING. 1st unit is horrible - we don't move the ball, Tracy is missing everything, so is Shane. Even Yao hasn't played all that good. When 2nd unit comes to the game, at least they are agressive, they try and show heart. But overall, offense has been horrible past 2 games.
True, only Brent Barry make alot of movement when his is on the floor. Others just stand there and waiting the ball.
Brent, Aaron and maybe Head. Generally the 2nd unit is moving the ball. The starters are gettin the ball into Yao, and that is all. One thing, Shane Battier has to sit. He is not really at all. His foot is still sore, he came back too early. He can't make any 3 even when WIDE OPEN. As for the 1st unit, everybody is just standing. McGrady knows he is not in the right shape, so he just doesnt try which pisses me off. He is passing out good shots at the basket and taking bad jumpers. If we wanna be sucessfull, he needs to step up. He needs to be agressive. Jumpers will come. The main thing is to lead your team, stay agressive because he can make shots for himself or teammates. If he cant do that, than just FORCE him to sit. But when he says he feels fine and guy makes 2 shots in a game (actually one of them was goaltending) than something is wrong with his attitude. Rick needs to make a serious conversation with him (but I am sure he will no do that). But not only with Tracy, with the entire team. We are playing well, even extremly well, and than as horrible as you can imagine. It all starts with Mac. With him playing like that we ain't going nowhere.
Tmac is out of shape and his status is bad, if he want to regain his right shape, he may on the court or do exercise more, but also he is a injure-prone guy, so this is a trouble. let him play or not, Adelman should make decision. Head is on the edge of bench, he need to prove himself, so when he is on the floor, he want himself to do well, at NO he helped us much in the 2nd qtr, Then talk about Battier, he missed too many attempts even there are no defender, only made one 3 pts shot.. We always talk about once our injuries over come, we can be much aggrative than ever.
When the Rockets play teams that don't play defense, the Rocket's offense looks pretty good. Otherwise, they look like a car with four flats.
Once we sign Mutombo things will start to be alright defensively. We still need to play hard and stop with the freakin health issues.
