Wrong. The Pistons shoot 40.9% from the 3 pt line. They've got 3 guys who shoot 43% or higher from the 3 pt line. The Spurs shoot 38.4% from the 3 pt line as a team. Three of their players shoot better than 40%. The Rockets? They shoot 34% from the 3pt line as a team. They have ZERO players who shoot above 40% from the 3 pt line. Sorry, no 3pt shooters here...
First, they dealt one away in Mike James, partly because of his contract situation and partly because they thought they needed a true point guard. Personally, on a team like Houston, with two superstars, you don't need a "true pg". You need roleplayers who hit open shots and protect the ball. Granted with the injuries this season, a good PG to allow T-Mac to work off the ball would be nice. However that said Mike James was a perfect JVG type guard. Second, David Wesley is really erratic this season. His 3 pt percentage looks good on paper, but he is streaky. Third, Derek Anderson is a midrange shooter, not a 3 pt shooter. That is apparent after watching him play earlier this season. And they miss Sura badly with his ability to penetrate, rebound and hit big shots.
Does anyone realize both Wesley (39.6%) and Head (38.7%) have a better 3pt% than JB (37.5%)? This is true despite Wesley's horrible start to the year when everyone wanted to trash him. JB's success in making 3s is the fact he doesn't force them. If he's being guarded, he'll drive instead of shooting with a hand in his face. Even so, he misses his share of them like everyone else. Don't put him too high on the pedestal. The Rockets are middle of the pack to slightly below average in 3 point shooting. Our offense has MUCH bigger problems. Our full roster is not short of shooters.
That isn't a very long list of shooters you got there. If our shooting is below average, then isn't that a problem? What else is a bigger problem? Speed and penetraion also come to mind.
I have also brought this up several times - signing Rybo over Padge was a big mistake. Padge hit how many game winners in limited minutes last year? Yet Gundy told Rybo to go home and shoot all summer. I think we would be better off with Padge having another year under Gundy's defensive tutelage and still hitting the shots. He has had some great games for the Nets including rebounding - which can be a big part of defense - ie getting the ball back. How many f*$3@ing monster games has Rybo had? Padge was the perfect 3rd PF/fill in 5 minutes for Tracy, come out and hit 3's at the end of the game when you needed him. Sounds like a versatile role player....thanks Gundy!
Enough with the "Shooters". We dont need a bunch of "catch and shoot" players where that's their only dimension. Because when they get cold, they are useless. We have to stop thinking along these lines. What this team really needs is "scorers", players that can score off the dribble and can create their own shot. We need players to grab rebounds to start the fast break and then have those "scorers" finish on the fast break. Those fast break points are missing right now, and it is those fast break points that would really rise our FG%, much higher percentage shot. It's not always about the "shooters." We need athletes, guys that will hustle and play defense, guys that can score off the dribble and keep teams on their heals. And most importantly, though, we just need a HEALTHY team. We need Yao, Tmac and our younger role players, Alston/Swift to be healthy!
Bigger offensive problems than 3 point shooting? 1 Lack of team speed. 2 Not fast breaking enough. 3 Not attacking the basket with penetration. Tracy is still our only playmaker. 4 A general lack of creativity on offense. For the umpteenth time, we need an effective swingman SG/SF as our #3 option. 5 We still haven't solved the riddle of what to do when Yao is fronted. On #3 I'll repeat what I said earlier: When Yao or Tracy is double-teamed, we need someone who has the mentality to make defenses pay. Long timers, remember when Clyde joined us? Remember how refreshing it was having a 2nd player with a killer instinct on the offensive end? Unlike all the other players, Clyde didn't just watch and wait until the ball was dumped into Dream. When there was an opening, he attacked. Right now, DA is the only role player who actively takes what the defense gives him and tries to make things happen. Problem is, DA's shooting (39.3%, 28.4% 3pt) is deadly (to the Rockets). I've whined about Padgett ever since we signed Rybo. Big mistake by the team. Padgett isn't the sparkplug Rybo is, but at least he has NBA level offensive skills. Unlike many here, I like Rybo. It's not his fault injuries have made him our #7-8 player instead of #9-10.
Deuce: Who said a thing bout a "bunch of." We need, probably, one more shooter who's lights-out and isn't injury prone (ergo, he's under 33 or so). Scorers do not fill the same role as a shooter. A shooter is there for spacing. A shooter isn't even necessarily there to score points. He's there to make sure that you can punish the other team for doubling. Are there other ways to do this? Sure. But the efficacy of having a shooter on the court, to prevent doubling of superstars, is a time-tested phenomenon. Just look at the mid-90's Rockets and the Shaq/Kobe Laker teams (among others).
I personally never felt the same way about Mike James shooting a 3 as I did (or do) about Jon Barry. Everyone loves to jump on James's jock because of the season he's having and because it's popular to bash that trade. But if James was here and hogging the ball from Tmac/Yao (when healthy)...and if word got out that we turned down James for Rafer...EVERYone here would be bashing the lack-of-a-move. Everyone would be calling for JVG's head. Enough with it. Related to this thread, James is a scorer, but not a great spot-shooter (imo). I think Wesley (esp. this season) and Head (though inconsistent, as a rookie usually is) both hit open 3's as often as James would have.
Which is why other coaches hide their shooters by mixing in some zone. JVG is too damned stubborn to do that. JVG will never lead a team to a championship....NEVER !
James a good year for us last year. Before we got him we had guys like Andre Barrett and Rod Stickland as our point guards. He was a decent three point shooter. James isn't the shooter that Barry is, but he was a good finisher and a good defender. This team needs more good all around players more than they need three point specialists.
I think they have to many stand still guys. They need a player who can get his own shot either going to the hole. When Tracy has to set everyone up, its hard and easy to run guys off the line. It doesn't help when your inside presence isnt playing either.
Answer: bad, bad, bad personnel decisions. Bad trades, bad acquistions, bad contracts. A few good ones (Ming, TMac), but far too many bad ones. The Rocket's management has failed to surround the two stars with the right mix of role players. Last year was a temporary fix that has expired. The clock is ticking and options are limited.
^ I bet you were praising CD for all the deals he made this past summer like the rest of us, but now it's all just bad, bad, bad? I don't think anyone predicted we'd have the injuries we have had so far. Why is this team so short of shooters? Barry and DA are hurt, Wesley is off this season, Alston just got back. These are 4 of our best shooters that have been hurt for the majority of the season.
The best non-star shooters on the team in the past few years: Rice Mobley Piatkowski Padgett Barry Four of them are gone. One is old and hurt. Rice was too old and injured prone. We should have traded him when he had more value. Mobley was part of TMac trade. I'm OK with it. Pike's shot took a nose dive after joining the Rockets and got very little PT. Some say it was his injury. I don't know. Padgett should have been re-signed. Period. We also have had some decent (not great as the above mentioned) shooters in Jim Jackson, Mike James, Derek Anderson and Wesley. Except for James, all of them are either too old or too injury prone. I agree that shooting is crucial problem with our anemic offense. Penetration is another problem.
If you think DA or Alston is a shooter...you've severely overrating their abilities in that direction. Both are alright, but neither even remotely approaches the caliber of being an elite shooter.
Just for the record, I was against the Jackson for Wesley deal, and suspcious of the James for Alston deal. The "true point guard-streetball legend" rep sounded intriguing, but after I saw him play a few games, it was obvious that was another bad deal. It is also obvious that the Rockets would be much better off with James. I didn't know much about Anderson except that he had a reputation for always being injured. After a few games, it was clear that he wasn't much to be excited about. I don't recall ever being excited about CD. The Rockets need a real "splash" and soon. It is not about injuries (except Ming) it is about talent, or the lack thereof. Incidently, both James and Jackson were decent shooters. And I too miss Padgett, another bad move and another good shooter, gone.