Sorry to make a new thread but I think there should be a thread about the ISO problem. I just want to vent out my frustrations. Yes we won today with a mere 2 points against the Knicks and we were basically lucky. In the 3rd, Howard was getting post-up opportunities which he did good even with some misses. I began to think the players meeting addressed Howard post up opportunities. 3 minutes to go in the game, Howard does not get a single opportunity. Possible reasons for this game and all the previous games: 1.) Howard looks to be shying away from the ball. In short,afraid to take the shot during crunch time 2.) Harden automatically and subconsciously performs his ISO like it is in his body clock to do the ISOs at that time and forgets about Howard Looks like this will be the pattern unless we change coaches. I don't think we can make it deep if we keep playing like this. It also affects how Lin plays because he is usually playing off the ball during crunch time. I prefer Lin to play more PNR and Harden play off the ball. Or better yet, there should be a balance between them to play PNR not ISOs. Mchale is not maximizing Lin's talent. I think Lin will prosper in another team. I said the same thing when Lebron joined Wade. I thought that they won't mesh because they play alike. I was wrong and they played unselfishly. I think this is the opposite between Harden and Lin. They play almost the same way but Harden gets more opportunities with the ball and playing time as well. I am not saying they have the same talent but Lin should be given more opportunities since sometimes Harden makes bad decisions. At least Lin requires a screen before he does something which is better than Harden dribbling aimlessly for no reason. Howard should be getting more post-up opportunities especially during the later stages of the game I compared the FGA averages of Hakeem and Howard in their first 9 seasons. Howard 11.29 FGA Hakeem 17.85 FGA The discrepancy of about 7 shots is big. Bullard and Drexler are correct in saying that Dream clearly demands the ball. Howard does not. The highest FGA of Howard was on 2010-2011 season where he averaged 13.4. A 2 shot difference seem to be small but he averaged his highest of 22.9 points per game. Hope Howard gets more post up opportunities and less Harden ISO. If this is not solved this season then I think Mchale will be replaced if he does not get them deep in the playoffs. It is pretty hard to fire Mchale now because it might affect on how Howard plays. I think it is one of the main reasons why Mchale is still here.
I don't love ISO ball but I do see the advantages of it down the Strech. For one it gives you great clock management, something that gets lost in all of this, I wonder if morey and co know this aswell and is the reason we continue to do this. Also, harden is actually well above average for his position and in comparison to other superstars such as LBJ as seen below So to sum it up, I like it down the 2 minutes remaining because dwight can't run pick and roll in case he gets fouled and can't set screens for lin or chandler to get open as the other players can foul him but just running through him. So it's back to ISO ball and clutchfans imploding, while I enjoy watching it.
I remember in the 3rd Howard wanted the ball got it 2 straight plays. 1. Got fouled missed both free throws 2. bricked morey signed him as our SUPERSTAR so he needs to get his touches I guess, but I feel like this slows down our offense, no team has went far with a center doing post ups since dream & shaq, Howard is too inconsistent and we don't have time to gamble with his free throws at the end of games
I don't think that ISO plays are best executed in the last 2 minutes of the game. Whatever the percentages of the player during ISO plays, ISO plays are selfish one on one plays. The shot you take from ISO plays are low percentage shots. You can still run good plays in the last two minutes of the game. Just look at the Utah days of Stockton and Malone and Adelman coached teams. I understand the inability of Howard to shoot freethrows but that does not mean you can't run other plays that are not ISOs.
I bought a synergy account and looked up every persons stats individually in the top 50. Took forever but the results were solid.
Who are we going to run a play for bev, parsons or jones ? We don't have a PF we can go to for a pick & pop. Major fail with this team. We brought in a center who has free throw problems and not sure if he would his the shot if he isn't fouled any way.
Nba teams are way smarter now, no way any screens involving dwight go without someone fouling him when the game is in the crunch and they are about to get burned. There's no point running long plays to get a three ball when james has such a effiency shot as it is. As I stated before ISO ball down the stretch gives you complete clock management, which I value as a hugely underrated asset in the nba
Don't you always need a backup plan in life. If Harden's 1 on 1 or more shots aren't falling, he's not feeling it, when do you recognize it and go to an alternative plan? Is it a good plan to begin with. Do you ask Harden to go to facilitator mode on a cutter, like a Parsons or Jones? How do you use Lin (providing McHale isn't stupid enough to leave him out of a close game)? Parsons? If you go to Howard he may be fouled. And where is the 3 point shooter to trust, is he even on the floor beyond Parsons or Lin? Can Brooks be used like that as a substitution for Jones? ISO ball isn't going to work many times, it barely worked last night with Harden scoring 37.
Some clutch-time team stats from stats.nba.com: Code: [SIZE="1"] [B] Team MIN W L Win% PACE OffRtg DefRtg eFG% TS% AST% AST/TO TOV%[/B] 1 Blazers 81 15 5 0.75 99.0 129 100.5 53.8% 63.7% 50.0% 1.58 11.1 2 Spurs 52 10 4 0.714 96.0 121.9 109.1 52.5% 56.7% 66.0% 3.88 7.5 3 Pacers 44 9 4 0.692 95.5 111.7 100.7 38.2% 51.3% 50.0% 1.86 7.7 4 Thunder 65 11 6 0.647 101.6 104 105.6 38.4% 50.9% 47.4% 0.95 13.7 5 Clippers 81 12 7 0.632 99.7 115.6 103 45.9% 54.3% 37.1% 1.64 8.1 6 Heat 68 11 7 0.611 96.1 111.8 107.4 53.5% 58.6% 58.7% 1.5 13.8 7 Suns 59 11 7 0.611 94.7 105.4 97.2 51.5% 55.9% 41.3% 1 15.5 8 Rockets 70 10 7 0.588 101.3 114.4 112.8 47.4% 56.4% 43.8% 1.17 11.8 9 Nuggets 58 9 7 0.563 102.5 103 99.9 54.5% 57.9% 59.5% 1.04 18.9 10 Warriors 88 10 8 0.556 91.9 97.5 97.9 44.6% 48.7% 50.0% 1.38 12.7 11 Jazz 72 10 8 0.556 93.6 113.5 107.2 50.5% 58.4% 48.0% 1 16.9 12 Wizards 99 10 8 0.556 94.1 101.6 102 45.8% 54.1% 43.8% 0.93 15.2 13 76ers 79 8 7 0.533 103.9 115.7 92.4 55.7% 61.6% 58.7% 1.42 16 14 Grizzlies 44 8 7 0.533 92.2 119.2 92.5 50.0% 61.8% 55.6% 1.25 14.6 15 Pelicans 84 9 8 0.529 94.9 114.5 106.3 47.4% 52.5% 46.2% 1.67 11.5 16 Mavericks 75 11 10 0.524 91.1 106 94.9 47.2% 54.1% 64.2% 1.89 12.1 17 Raptors 72 10 10 0.5 92.5 95.8 94.3 38.2% 43.8% 40.9% 1.64 8 18 Hawks 91 10 11 0.476 101.8 107.3 108.3 48.8% 54.5% 64.8% 1.7 14 19 Lakers 66 9 10 0.474 100.6 108.3 98.2 44.5% 53.0% 53.5% 1.28 13.5 20 Cavaliers 96 9 10 0.474 100.5 95.8 99.3 39.9% 46.3% 36.9% 1 11.9 21 Pistons 63 8 10 0.444 93.2 87.5 116.6 39.3% 45.8% 35.9% 0.67 16 22 Bobcats 86 9 12 0.429 95.7 97.8 107 38.2% 45.5% 40.4% 1.53 8.6 23 T-Wolves 63 7 11 0.389 104.4 96.5 117 40.0% 47.2% 71.1% 2.46 9.2 24 Kings 73 6 10 0.375 94.4 104 101.1 45.3% 53.1% 51.0% 1.04 17.2 25 Celtics 64 7 12 0.368 98.7 88.5 113.8 38.2% 45.6% 47.4% 0.95 14 26 Knicks 84 7 13 0.35 91.9 101.7 103.9 39.1% 49.0% 65.2% 1.36 14 27 Bulls 73 5 10 0.333 92.5 88.6 104 35.9% 44.0% 57.9% 0.76 20.9 28 Nets 60 5 10 0.333 100.2 87 104.1 44.2% 47.0% 47.4% 0.95 15.7 29 Magic 72 6 14 0.3 101.5 83.4 108.3 36.6% 45.0% 59.0% 0.92 16.7 30 Bucks 99 4 13 0.235 91.9 90.6 104.5 37.2% 45.3% 52.9% 1.17 12.4[/size] According to this, we are 8th in Win% (though I'm not sure what exactly that means in this context). We are 7th in offensive efficiency, but 27th in defensive efficiency. We are 11th in eFG%, 8th in TS%, and 9th in limiting our TOV%, and 7th in pace. That TOV% ranking is interesting, because we are usually a very turnover-prone team. That's, perhaps, an advantage of going to a more ISO-heavy offense. Less passing, less people handling the ball, means less chances for mistakes? According to Synergy, our TOV% overall is 14.4%, but on ISOs it is 11.8%. The other interesting number here is Assist%. We are 23rd, reflecting our one-on-one tendency at the end of games. But is there any strong positive correlation between "sharing the ball" (which I'll consider her as a high Ast%) and being effective in the clutch? It doesn't appear so (r is -.140). The Spurs, notably, are very effective in the clutch and they do share the ball with a 66% of their made field goals being assisted. But the T-Wolves have the highest Ast% in the clutch at 71.1% and are bottom ten in offense and win%. Our issues in the clutch, from these numbers, would be appear to be more on the defensive side of the ball. Our offense may not be pretty, but it looks to be effective enough (at least on the average).
Harden's iso is only efficient so long as he's getting calls. He's 36%FG on isos this season and 35%FG on isos last season(synergy stats). He's 30%FG on iso 3s. You're basically putting the game in the refs hands. Last 2 min, in the playoffs, on the road, is the least ideal time to look to the refs for a bail out.
I'm not sure looking at fg% is even remotely the correct way to gauge his shooting, fg% is one of the most usless stats these days when their are now a variety of ways of braking down different shots like the ISO possession. Harden for league standard is still above average even with a poor shooting from distance in the above the break three on the right (note both the straigh on three and above the break on the left he is still connecting a similar rate to last year, and I can't embed the image ATM)
This whole "relying on the refs" thing goes both ways. There are thousands of situations where players get fouled in end game situations and the refs are more than happy to make the call. If defenders plays poor defense and let the ball handler drive past them, their only option in isolation situations is to foul the player to stop a lay up. In that scenario they are equally relying on the refs to not call a foul on them. Same scenario not long ago with Dallas Mavericks and Kevin Love. Kevin Love had a good open 3 point shot, but Marion played poor defense and fouled him blatantly right on the arm, which the refs didn't call. The Mavs won by "relying on the refs" and having their poor defense bailed out. Bottomline is, NBA is a physical game and if a player is fouled, they are fouled. Also, there are literally no evidences to suggest that in the playoffs the refs make less calls than regular season. Harden shot more free throws in the playoffs last season than his season average.
People make the assumption that the playoffs are somehow different than the regular season. The only significant way that they are different is that there are no back to back playoff games, allowing the players to play a little harder than in the regular season.
How soon we forget, he always said the true value of a superstar is only in the last 2 minutes when they can manage the clock and iso for a high %.
You keep playing the same team until one wins 4 so they can make a lot of adjustments on players with each game. You almost have to play a little different or a lot different each game if you are fairly evenly matched as teams. The games are more play or go home so they get more and more intense as the series goes on. The games seem to go at a slower pace as well.
I'm not sure what you're arguing. If you've got a breakdown of his iso possessions FG% and PPP by shot location, I'd be interested to see it. Harden is phenomenal at many things, but isos are inherently less efficient than almost anything else you can do. The #1 iso guy in the league is going to be less efficient than hitting a cutting Chandler Parsons or Dwight Howard, or getting Parsons or Lin open for a spot-up 3. Its not like we're a one-man offense where DRose or KLove iso is the best option on every play. And there are much better ways to put Harden in position to score. Screens, PnR, curls, forcing a switch for a mismatch. Nearly anything is better than an iso against a set D, with Dwight's, Bev's, and Jones's man sagging. Now if you're already up and you just want to control the clock, then thats a different story.
Game pace does not statistically differ in the playoffs versus the regular season. There are somewhat more opportunities in the playoffs to prepare for your opponent. But it is completely balanced by the opponents ability to prepare for you. It perhaps is a zero sum game.
