What Happened to D'Antoni's Offense?

We agreed before about Eric Gordon being important this series and (hopefully) it looks like he's rounding back into december shape like we talked about and hoped. Not to mention we have also got playoff Lou showing up for the first time in his career. If they can continue how they are playing right now that's enough to beat them imo from a playmaker stand point.

Also let's note that their drtg has dipped from 100.9 during the year to 107.3 against the griz of all teams. To be recognized also is that their offense is booming right now. But our defense has showed up more so than the spurs have so far. Our Drtg dropped from 106.4 during the season to 104.3.

So our defense has performed above expectations while the spurs have underwhelmed.

Okc held us to the worst 3pt%team in the playoffs. as well as well below our typical amount of attempts from 3 and our Ortg was still 109.7.

The Spurs don't have the interior defender that okc does to employ their strategy. Dedmond is their best defender and he's not as good as Adams. Aldridge, Pau, Lee? all much weaker.

They have Kawhi which is comparatively better than Roberson. But while our offense is super predictable it's incredibly difficult to defend because there is so many combinations it could go.

Very similar to the dream shake. You knew it was coming. You knew exactly what options he had, only 3-4 moves, but the random combination of possibilities leaves you stuck.

It's the same with Harden. We ran the back pick against okc over and over and we kept getting Gordon open 3s. They finally switch and guard him and hears NeNe on the roll.

It's pick your poison and hope we miss or you try to predict where Harden wants to go and sometimes get lucky with a turnover.

Our offense has been predictable all year long and still one of the best defense of all time. It's good enough to win.

Our defense was average during the year and we HAVE stepped it up. Our 104.3 Drtg would be good for 6th in the league during the regular season.

You focus on flaws and that's fine because it shows you want the team to improve in areas. I focus on results the team has made because it shows me where they have improved.

 

So if the Spurs punk us out what are you going to take from that?



How do you think I arrive at my conclusions if I don't focus on results? Bro, data and video is results.

 

What's your definition of being punked out? A sweep? A gentleman's sweep? I see neither happening.

I honestly believe it will be anywhere between rockets in 6 to Spurs in 6. And I'll take from that, that the better team won. We were the 3rd best team all year and would have lost to the 2nd best team. I would and already do consider this season a success.

I didn't say you dont use results as a basis to form your opinion. You focus on the flaws and I focus on the positives.

You take the data and results and find the flaws and exploit them.

I take the data and results and find positives and improvements.



If/when the rockets beat/punk the spurs. What are you going to take from that?

 

I'm talking about losing the series. There aren't degrees if laying in the playoffs. You lose, you're done. You're punked out.

Look, the only reason we are interested in this team is we want to win championships. Everything I'm focused on has to do with can we win a championship? Nothing end really matters. You can go ahead and feel good and claim success if you want to.

But sucessful season? What's that? We won one less game this season than we won two years ago under McHale. That represents success to you? Not me.

That's not progress. That's treading water. You take the data and find the positives? Pray tell me, what positives and improvements did you find after the 15-16 season?

Like I don't see the improvements?

Here's the difference between you and I. I can see things ahead of time because I'm open-minded about the strengths and weaknesses of the team. I don't just look at the weaknesses. I don't just look at the positives. I merge the two and get a picture that tells me whether e can compete for a title. I don't have to see the next 82 games to know that. Phil Jackson famously said you know who you are after about twenty games. Twenty games man. After twenty games last season I knew we were a .500 team barring trades and injuries and I stated we were. In fact, after three games I knew we were in deep doodoo last season. Championship teams simply don't start the season getting blown out three times. We were actually a lot worse on the court than we were according to the data. So I knew there was a serious problem. When the ship hadn't righted itself twenty games in I knew we were done. And I started calling for major trades. After the trade deadline I said we should just go on to the lottery, shut down James and Dwight and go to the lottery. Bro., you gotta get out a microscope to find any positives in last season. Because there was basically none.

I didn't have to see 82 games this season to know we fixed our shooting issues from 15-16, an issue you probably didn't notice since you only focus on positives. When we signed Gordon and Anderson I knew our shooting issues were fixed. But I also knew we had robbed Peter to pay Paul. We traded stellar paint and rim defense for much improved shooting. And we simply replaced the paint and rim defense with an aging Nene who simply cannot carry that many minutes. I didn't have to go through 82 games to determine we were weak in the paint. I knew the players. I knew their historical data. And I knew who they were currently. Twenty games in only confirmed to me the degree of deficit we had in the paint.

As far as your last question if and when the Rockets beat the Spurs what will I think? It depends on when if and when is. If that is this current playoff series I will fully expect that the Spurs suffered a major injury, or had some unknown strife in the locker room. If that doesn't turn out to be the case I'll have to re-examine what I missed in my evaluation of the two teams. And I'll be glad to do that too. Would love to have to do that.

(But then we'll have to face the Warriors and were not good enough to beat them.)

If we beat them at some point in the future, I don't know what I'll take from it. I may have already determined we have a legit shot at beating them by then if we make adjustments that tell me we can beat them.

I am very confident that I know what a championship contending team looks like. And once I see it, believe me, I'll be tooting about it, not after the fact, but before.

And that's why I'm frustrated right now. Because after the signings in the summer we weren't that far away. And we had all season to come up with two tweaks, get some more paint and run defense and get another great ball handler/distributor in the rotation. We added another scorer, Lou, which was fine. Good addition. But.....we did not address either weakness which will prevent us from winning a championship. We don't have enough paint/rim protection and we don't have enough distribution in the rotation. In my opinion, we could've addressed both things if we had been willing to sacrifice a couple non-esential pieces on the roster. Instead, we doubled down on another guy Harden could pass to so he could keep his assist (and turnover) numbers up. And we boxed ourselves into also-ran status for another season of Hardens precious prime.

You see, I'm really more positive than most posters here, including you. In your mind, we outperformed this season since last season was so bad. In my mind we underperformed because we could've fixed our problems and really had a solid chance to win the title. That means I was more optimistic that we could win a title at the beginning of the season than you were.

Here's what's going to happen. We're going to lose at some point and the season is going to end. Then there will be posters posting myriads of posts about how MDA got outcoached, how sucky Anderson is, how stupid and out of control Harden is, how disappointing Capela was, how badly Ariza has faded, etc. You're reading it from me now. As soon as this season is over I'm starting a thread about next year. Because this year will be history. It's a waste of time to think about what could have been. It'll be time to move forward. I'll be pointing out where we failed in our playoff run and what we need to do to fix it. I'll be talking about free agents and trades and the draft.

The only way you win is to learn from the past failures and move on after fixing the failures so they don't happen again. The frustrating thing for winners is to be surrounded by people that want to keep doing the same things that don't produce the desired result. And that's why I'm frustrated. It should be plain to everybody that James cannot win a championship by himself surrounded by role players and attempting to make all the plays and be everything. When is that charade going to end and we go about the business of really competing for championships by adding the appropriate skills to the rotation that will diversify our offense and make our defense stingier?

We are in danger of being also-rans throughout the Harden era. We've got to bite the bullet next year and make player transactions that actually help our rotation instead of nailing ourselves to Bobby Brown and guys that don't address our core problems that are going to keep us as also-rans if we don't fix them.

 

Our final numbers against the Spurs:

Offensive rating: 105.1
Defensive rating: 109.4
Net rating: -4.3
TS%: 54.8%
Efg: 51.5%

Before the last game blowout:
Offensive rating: 109.4
Defensive rating: 107.5
Net rating: +1.9
TS%: 57%
Efg: 54%

 

MDA, in his exit presser mentioned Rockets will target additional playmaker to lighten the load on James

 

Well no **** . Unfortunately it probably needs to come from the 3/4/5 position and those dudes are rare.

 

It's not all that rare, it's just rare that THIS TEAM has one. Anyone that can flat out play basketball will help offload pressure. Parsons, as much as we like to hate on him, could play all-around basketball (when healthy). Milsap is over the hill in my opinion, but he can do a number of things on offense.

 

But undersized point guards aren't rare and therefore they come cheap.

 

No matter where we put James Harden, on or off the ball, for whatever percentage of time, If he plays with the intensity that he displayed in the last 6 quarters of basketball, we are toast.

There is no question that we need to become less Harden-centric. Whether you do that by finding him a second superstar, or by building a more fluid, less ball dominant offense, I really don't care. I DO think Mike D'Antoni expressed the right ideas concerning adding more layers in the offense. I think he could do a WAY better job of utilizing Lou/Eric/Bev.

 

Infighting destroyed O'Antoni's offense.

 

our 20m per player avg 9 points in the po's on under 40% shooting from the field and under 30% shooting from three happened

 

Absolutely . We have too many guys that are one-dinensional and I'm not just talking offense vs defense .

We have guys that are shooters.

Aside from James , we don't really have anyone that can slash , shoot , pass .

As you said , basically just play basketball . We need guys that can move off-ball , move the ball when they get it , and score if the opportunity presents itself .

They don't have to do any of the above at a spectacular level , just need to be able to do all three ... To have to versatility in their games .

I like Hayward because of this . But think he's a long shot . Even griffin is a huge upgrade because of this .

In house , I still like Dekker and Harrell's chances . They seem to possess the old-school all around mentality , hopefully they can develop to the level we can count on them.