Why do the rockets win?

Based on point differential, their record should be more like 18-15 rather than 20-13. They've done well in close games. But winning close games isn't a great indicator of overall success, so we can't count on that going forward.

The one thing the Rockets do well is they win what Daryl Morey has referred to as "the possession game". That means they win the rebounding battle (top-half of the league in both offensive and defensive rebounding), and they win the turnover battle (top-half in limiting turnovers and forcing turnovers).

 

Chemistry and style of play will be tantamount to any player DM brings in....

If you can get a more talented player than what we have currently playing that also plays hard and with passion, the team gets exponentially better.

I get tired of people saying we are overachieving, we aren't, we are simply achieving.

And our guys are not just role players, they are talented players who work hard....and sometimes they get lumped in as role players because their hard work overshadows their talent.

Is it hard work or talent when Carl Landry moves to the open spot to secure another offensive rebound?

Is it hard work or talent when Luis fakes his man numerous times to get the up and under score?

At the end of the day, our team is very talented.......it is just not recognized as such.

DD

 

Your post says one thing and your sig says another.

 

Not really, I think that you can be both talented and work hard.....

My point was that sometimes people look at the hard work and think that is the reason for success, when it is just as much talent as it is hard work.

When you combine the two you get special players....

For example Scola and Battier are getting the most out of their talent...but when a more talented player also works hard, say Hakeem and Jordan, you get a superstar player.

Does that make more sense?

DD

 

That makes sense. I interpreted the sentence in your sig differently.

 

Agreed the Rockets have been lucky in close games. However, their schedule, both in terms of strength of opponents, and the amount of travel and back to backs, probably depressed the team's performance somewhat. I am thinking that as both luck and schedules even out at the end of the season, the Rockets will be win at about the same pace as they do now, perhaps a bit better.

Another note: it seems the Rockets play the way Morey manages. Morey gets talent despite not having high picks by buying multiple 2nd rounds and do well with enough of them to make it work. Rockets make up their lack of an offensive superstar by getting multiple 2nd chance opportunities.

One more thing about point differential: Maybe it got depressed by Tracy McGrady's half-ass performances and Chase Budinger's absence?

 

I don't think with the Rockets, it is more of a combination of overlooked talent, a lot of hard work to hustle and learn techniques, and experience. I would use intelligence, but that doesn't include a few players on our team.

For example, when people like Battier, Scola, or Hayes are in the right place at the right time, it is because of a combination of intelligence and experience to predict what is going to happen and then hustle to compensate for their lack of athleticism.

 

Let me just say I love THIS team for all of the reason you're guys are stating. Houston has been missing a scrappy, hard-working, all-heart team.

 

We win because we lead the league in opponents technicals. By a wide margin I might add.

 

well those are the stats morey said contribute to winning.

he focuses on rebounds, turn overs, and free throw attempts. win those battles (which this team is built to do) and you have a chance at winning the game.

the lowry trade was to get a guy who's among the league leaders in FT per minute.

 

They believe in the philosophy of their coach and leader.

 

I'm nitpicking here, but technically the higher avg of FTs is probably attributable to the team as a whole - Landry leads the way with 5.3 FTA per game - which is certainly above average, but not up there with the 'elite' free throw merchants (8-10 attempts per game).

And Brooks is technically the deputy sheriff with 4 fta per game.

Lowry and Ariza are third with 3.6 each!

 

yes, Rockets are very talented. But all NBA are talented. Rockets still are full of role players. Some of them might be closed to be all stars. But they're still role players. A superstar is a guy so talented that many times they can change the game by himself. NBA history said that you need one or two this kinds of player to win WC. And Rockets don't have it now (Yao is a superstar if he can keep healthy).

Now Rockets' fans are very lucky. So many good players are underpaid. It will not last forever. DM will break the team in next two years.

 

So after all, it's still Coach JVG's stragety. Winning the possession by rebounding, hustling and less turnovers.

 

Two important points:

1. As Morey said on a radio show somewhere, because we've had the hardest schedule in the league to date, our team stats, simple as well as advanced, are going to be suppressed for some time until our schedule balances out and we can improve those EffFG% and off/def efficiency numbers against more of the cupcakes.

2. Although we have done better this year than our point differential would indicate, this is due to two main reasons I can think of. First we have been blown out quite a few times, badly, and if you were to normalize those losses as "blowouts" capped at say, a 20pt loss maximum, as well as doing this with our blowout wins, you would have a more accurate assessment of a team's ability in my opinion. This is something I've been saying the past few years that we should do to adjust the point differential more accurately, because honestly what is the difference between a 20pt and 30pt blowout? The answer: the quality of the scrubs getting their halves of garbage time. So this year the Rockets have been blown out much more often than they have blown others out.

(Awkward moment hmm.)

Ok and the second reason we have outperformed our point differential. We've significantly improved our late game effectiveness! Well, not significantly, but I can recall at least two of the JVG years where our differential predicted more wins than we actually had. As a Rockets fan I attributed this to our awful awful late game strategy of "put the ball in McGrady's hands and iso him, usually resulting in a 22ft chunk shot with a hand in his face and a foot on the line." The last couple of years with Adelman it turned into "put the ball in Yao's hands and see what the defense does", which was better but still a very predictable course.

This year, it seems we've narrowed our first option down to #1, but beyond that it's anyone's guess. As the team has evolved though it's shifted from pandemonium (remember Ariza hitting that three off the offensive rebound to send the first LA game to overtime?) into a kind of controlled chaos, where we know our team better than our opponents do and can run through our options (Landry post, Scola elbow jumper, Battier three) as Brooks and Lowry do their pick and roll dance.

Oh yeah and we also play some nasty lockdown defense at the end of games now. So long as the refs steal the game by making BS calls on Battier and BS no calls on Brooks. Go to hell Mark Cuban.

 

Brain fart. Corrected below.

 

They win when they score more points than their opponent

 

Yet with the huge difference in limiting overall number of possessions for the game.

 

We have a lot of pretty good players. Together that makes for a really good team. Not quite elite, but good.