The Rockets struggle with all their best players on the court

OP, good post... but so many lineup iterations you went through there. Curious as to the minutes, as I suspect many of them are way too small a sample size to matter. With a small sample size, one bad stretch of 10 minutes against one team and the whole thing is skewed.

 

Over the last 15 games, the Rockets have 14 different lineups that have played atleast 12 minutes (1 quarter) together. Of those 14 lineups, here are the best...

13 minutes: G. Green, .P. Tucker, .J. Harden, .A. Rivers, .C. Capela = +48.3 net rating

21 minutes: C. Paul, .P. Tucker, .J. Harden, .K. Faried, .J. Ennis III = +47.8 net rating

16 minutes: G. Green, .P. Tucker, .J. Harden, .A. Rivers, .J. Ennis III = +47.0 net rating

12 minutes: Nene, .C. Paul, .P. Tucker, .E. Gordon, .J. Harden = +39.9 net rating

12 minutes: C. Paul, .P. Tucker, .J. Harden, .C. Capela, .G. Clark = +12.0 net rating

13 minutes: G. Green, .P. Tucker, .J. Harden, .K. Faried, .A. Rivers = +9.1 net rating

12 minutes: P. Tucker, .E. Gordon, .J. Harden, .K. Faried, .J. Ennis III = +7.1 net rating

14 minutes: C. Paul, .P. Tucker, .E. Gordon, .K. Faried, .C. Capela = +6.7 net rating

85 minutes: C. Paul, .P. Tucker, .E. Gordon, .J. Harden, .K. Faried = +4.8 net rating


Our worst lineup in the last 15 games that has played atleast 12 minutes together (1 quarter)...

24 minutes: P. Tucker, .E. Gordon, .J. Harden, .K. Faried, .A. Rivers = -48.1 net rating.

 

Nah.

He's having an awful shooting season.

He's just playing a lot.

 

I mean if he was truly awful on the floor I don’t see how that would make him a net positive by him playing more minutes.

 

Um, you probably want your best players outscoring the other team's best players in the Playoffs. Most of these cute benches basically fade away when the rotations are shortened. That's why the Raptors struggled last year. They relied on their bench too much. This is definitely concerning.

 

I feel like this team is built to beat the Warriors and to survive beating everyone else. So these stats don't seem to be very important. How are our starters versus the Kings? Who cares! Lakers? Who cares! Brooklyn? Who cares!

How we match up with Golden State is everything and the rest of the league is about figuring out a way to win. So what are our ratings when we play Golden State?

3-0 with a plus 28 for the team. Doesn't matter who's starting.

Now MDmA and the players are asked to figure out the rest of the league on their own because the GM got us over the hump as far as being highly competitive head to head with the Warriors. All these numbers in the OP's post are based their success against the league and I'm not really sure we're going to struggle with them when crunch time hits.

This is a solid championship contender when healthy at the end of the day. Let's just hope for health above all else because health will take care of winning. The grass is not greener in San Fran, Philly, Mili-walk-ee, Okee State, Canada or any other contending area of the world. We've got beautiful green grass here in Houston that we need to enjoy and take care of.

 

I would agree with you on your point except this level of ISO wasn't there last year. This year nearly every possession is Harden ISO. Again, that is the result of injuries, but with full health, we don't need almost all possessions to be Harden ISO. I have more faith in Harden ISO than any other player playing ISO game in the NBA. However, as almighty as Harden is, he is human and this does put extra strain on his body, we want to leave some breath in him for playoffs. Some will argue that the more he's on the court the better shape he will be in. That's not proven. Anyways we both want the same thing, we disagree on the most optimal way to doing it. At the end of the day, our defense needs to be where it was last year for us to have a change like last year. Our offense will be there, I have no doubt about that.

 

Wow, fun fact, but not surprising at the very least except River. I'm surprised about that. Usually, I cringe when I see him going ISO ball. He has good ball handling like Gordon, but both are average at best at finishing in traffic. As Rocket's fans we are just absolutely spoiled by Harden's and sometimes Paul's ISO games and superior finishing in traffic abilities that it's elite or bust.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26173297/10-things-like-including-chris-paul-swagger

1. Chris Paul has some of his snap back

Paul's shooting hasn't come all the way around during the Houston Rockets' climb into the Western Conference's No. 4 spot, but he has his quick-strike swagger back:

http://media.video-cdn.espn.com/gifs/mp4/9_10_9_02_4Q_HOU_TOR_3_5_CP_2GIF.mp4

What a freaking genius. Look at what Paul sees -- or at least what we can see of Paul's passing angle -- when he slingshots this baby to Eric Gordon:



I mean, come on.

Paul isn't as fast as he once was. He can't blow by defenders -- including big guys on switches -- as easily as he could even last season. He's not a leaper. But when he's healthy, Paul snaps from a standstill into a high-speed lunge with alarming suddenness. He moves in sync with the ball on defense, or even just before the passer releases it. He is almost always anticipatory, not reactive. His brain makes his body faster.

Paul is doing his best work when James Harden rests. The Rockets have outscored opponents by 11 points per 100 possessions in those minutes, and that number has been even beefier -- about 17 points -- since Paul's return from injury in late January. He has a massively positive effect on Houston's wobbly transition defense, a consistent trend through Paul's career, per Cleaning The Glass.

Houston's best lineups haven't quite clicked, even during this streak. The Rockets are about even for the season when Harden and Paul share the floor, and their starting group -- Paul, Harden, Gordon, the indomitable PJ Tucker and Clint Capela -- has been a net negative.

That will change if Paul keeps playing this way.​

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ins-key-keeping-houston-title-window-open-nba

Paul is averaging 16.6 points, 9.9 assists and 5.6 rebounds in the past 11 games, which coincides with his minutes restriction being lifted following his recovery from the late December hamstring strain that sidelined for 17 games. The Rockets' second unit, with Paul running the show, is dominating opposing benches again like it did last season. His net rating during that stretch is plus-11.7 points per 100 possessions, by far the best of Houston's starters.

Since Paul returned to the lineup on Jan. 27, the Rockets have an offensive efficiency of 117.1 when he is on the court and 106.4 when he is off the floor. And according to Second Spectrum, he has created 6.8 "wide open" looks per game for his teammates this season, most in the NBA (that number jumps to 7.4 since Jan. 27, which is also tops in the league during that span).​

 

More HARDEN hatred

Rocket River

 

Are these for the entire season? Or is this since our 6-gm winning streak? Since CP + Clint returning?

Just asking since the level/intensity of basketball we're playing at now is significantly different than the beginning of the season. Though, I suspect a similar distribution you outlined given the style and rotations have been largely the same.

 

Agreed. These old vets slack off to start the third quarter.

Thanks OP, for real data.

 

I love reading this stuff. Thanks, J.R. and the OP. I can't help thinking of all the damn near countless posts we saw here slamming Chris, saying he was finished, that he was over the hill, that Morey was an absolute lunatic to sign him to a max deal that was promised to him if he would be willing to "eat" money his first season with the Rockets, and so on, ad infinitum. If healthy, CP3 is a huge plus for this team in different lineups, at different points during the game. While he's likely lost a bit physically as he's gotten older (Father Time does that to us all, dammit), he hasn't lost a bit of his "basketball brain," which can stand up to anyone's, in my opinion.

I agree with the couple of comments earlier that we need to back off a bit from ISOing as much as we do and get back to increased ball movement. When we do that, it makes decisions for the opposition more difficult and gives our guys even more open looks than they get already. It also gets everyone on the team more involved, which is a good thing, in my opinion. Heck, I've even see Green make a couple of passes to an open man. Green! A guy who never saw a shot he thought he couldn't make. We just need to stay healthy. The Rockets mantra these days.

 

If we had the fountain of youth and the training staff Phoenix employed in the 2000s this team would be on the quest to repeat.

 

If only. You find some of that magical water, splash some my way, OK? ;-)

 

I noticed in the game against the Raptors, that when the shots weren't falling late in the fourth, the Rockets players clearly weren't worrried, because they trusted their defense to make the necessary stops down the stretch. With plenty of games left in the season, they're defense will be elite like last year!

ITS HAPPENING GUYS!!!!!