Rockets live by the three taking almost 50% of their shots from there. With a do or die mentality. In some cases it's die and we've seen that. The most vital thing is our defense. When we play good D, we play good in offense (mojo). We're hearing that more and more during post game interviewers with the players. Game 6 and 7 against GSW was a prime example of that. We were horrendous from there but we still shot a record amount what kept us in was our defense. I believe the last stat I read a few days ago, we were 14th in defense, that needs to go up to top 10 at least. tl;dr: Better defense will result in a better offense for Rockets.
LMAO! I thought I was the only one who noticed that. Truth. I think with some guys they just need more space to be comfortable taking the shots. And clearly Tucker likes the corners versus above the break. Rivers' really is hesitant at times. But he has been shooting better lately so perhaps that will change. And Gerald Green? LOL he is #GreenLight for a reason. The Anti-RyanAnderson.
Of course when someone is wide-open (6+ ft), they should shoot. But when a defenses close out well enough so that the shot is semi-contested, having the threat of the drive is important. Rivers has shown plenty of ability to playmake off the dribble. House did too. That’s a nice wrinkle to add to the offense and it makes us less predictable.
Agreed.. except against the GSW who close the rim better than any team I've seen in the spread offense era. With long armed Durant, Donkey and Klay Thompson you're not going to get there with an open basket. You have to be a Harden level finisher to make that rim look reasonably open... so you shoot from the outside until they play you properly. If that's what we're geared to do, we should do it. No need to change anything up this season with who we have. And right now we don't have House and Rivers doesn't dunk. So hoist threes when they're open. Or even longer 2s. We do plenty of driving and dishing... is this what you mean?
I would like to give Shumpert the opportunity to ear that spot but I am not so sure he earns those minutes over Rivers and/or Green just yet. I thought he would but with this knee issue and the small sample size of the first couple of games he played, I am just not so sure. Rivers brings a semi reliable ball handler behind Paul and Harden. Easily the 3rd best ball handler/decision maker on our team IMO. While I would like Shumpert to earn minutes I also don't know if he will with they way Rivers and Green are playing lately.
Rivers is a slasher/ finisher first. He needs to play to his strengths, but he needs to shoot with more confidence. MDA should keep on telling him, that he can do it and there is nothing to lose. Tucker and he have gotten a bit better at shooting threes, they have keep it up. Clark is an up and down player. I wanted Morey to go after Reggie Bullock. His quick release is really nice. Even Troy Daniels could have come off the bench for some extra 3's.
My issue with Green is really his shot selection. I do like that he understand he is out there to score (since he can't do much else honestly) so he gets in his shots. But there are far too many times where he just gets the ball and jacks up a contested 3. Far too many - those are really low percentage looks which the Rockets want to avoid. Sometimes he'll shoot when others are not even in positions to rebound. Same thing and it leads to transition opportunities for the other team. Yes there are times when Green hits those crazy contested shots but that is nothing that any team wants to rely on consistently (that goes for any player not just Green - Contested 3s are not a good thing) Harden and Paul set him up often for good/open looks. He needs to take every single one of those when he is on the court or pump fake and attack the rim. If its not Harden or Paul he needs to understand he probably is getting the ball to move around for the better shot. My issue is Gerald just does not pass out of anything - and that is a problem. Rockets want to take the highest % shots possible thats been the philosophy of their offense not just take as many 3s as possible. Open and corner 3s are what the Rockets want to take (or in Harden's case step back) from the 3 point line. To put it into perspective how little Gerald passes he has 37 assists TOTAL on the season for the Rockets. Out of all the players who have at least played 1200 minutes this season Gerald Green has the fewest assists at 37. Notable passers such as JaVale McGee, Enes Kanter, Juan Hernangomez, Torrey Craig, Justin Jackson all have more assists than Green in fewer minutes played than Green this season.
Thats what a team with obedient role players are like. Just look at the Celtics for example, all those young guys are role players but think they're superstars. They all want a piece of the ball so they struggled for a long stretch mid-season. The problem with our role players is, if they are cold like in G7. Harden and CP3 (healthy) both need to step up big time to carry the load.
We just don't need a ball handler behind Paul and Harden. They do it all and Gordon is a better backcourt mate for both of them. On most days those 3 leave 4-8 minutes for someone to play. We do need someone 6'5 who can play defense, because that player can guard many different people which means we can hide Harden anywhere on defense. If the bar on offense is 39/31/54% shooting, Shumpert will take that spot from Rivers easy. Green as much as I love his attitude is rarely an NBA player. The way they've been playing lately is better, but that's not their usual contribution. Shumpert was having a great season shooting with the Kings, his defense is better than Rivers and he has championship experience. Hard to ignore that.
Paul and the bench mob have been killing teams because they have been attacking hard close outs and penetrating. By all means shoot when you are wide open, but if the defense is selling out to stop the three, driving to the hoop is a great alternative. Maybe you won’t get a layup yourself, but you force the defense to rotate and another outside shot opens up. Force a defense to rotate multiple times and they’re more likely to make a mistake, which opens up a great shot. As long as our players are decisive in what they do, shoot or drive, I’m cool with it. I’m just pushing back on the idea that our role players driving to the hoop is a “bad idea” relative to shooting a semi-contested three. Layups are efficient too!
Tucker was scared to shoot in the last game, so even when he did, his shot was off because he didn't have any confidence in it. Hopefully, that's temporary, because he was shooting so nicely after the break. Rivers has clearly never felt confident in his three. The coach doesn't care and will have him out there at the arc, anyway. What I like about Rivers is that he's not just throwing his hands up in the air and flipping it back to whomever passed it to him. He says, "I don't want to take this particular three, so I'm instead going to use this spacing to drive past my defender to the basket where I feel more confident." And it works a lot of the time. He's taking a situation that could be nothing and turning it into something. I like that. He's the anti-Ryan-Anderson.
