Heard Jalen Rose say we can't rely on our ISO offense against the Warriors if we make it to the WCF. He feels their defense is too good and will feast on us trying to beat them by going 1 on 1. I do think we ISO James and CP3 a little too much but it's been working so far so it's kinda hard to hate on it. Thoughts?
Every team needs to have an identity and follow through on it. The Rockets won 65 games playing this way. They know what the best version of themselves looks like. Be that. Don't try to be anything different. If the Warriors still win, you tip your cap to them and retool in the offseason.
Iso beat the Warriors two years ago. You have to be able to isolate their weaknesses and exploit them because their team defense is that good. At the end of the day you need to at least have that threat at least.
ISO offense has had the most success against GS...see OKC in the 2016 WCF and Cleveland in the 2016 Finals
Stephen Curry knee injury means more ISO against Curry, lateral defense is slower, plus he can't block James shot, or body up when James drives to the basket. Klay Thompson hand checks all the time, Draymond Green dirtiest player, pulling jersey, pushing, shoving, kicking nuts. Zaza Pachulia is a mugger, Dirty Goon.
Too late now. I’ve been pushing for a *Post Up presence or attack since January .The last 3 finals teams have had a solid option in the post to take advantage of defensive mismatches. Rockets have started to rotate CP3 defensively in space, much like the Warriors hide Curry. I’m still a believer that can be exploited as the rotation is happening. Hard to trust Harden, Ryan Anderson, Nene or Joe Johnson (JJ wasn’t very successful when used sparingly at end of season) for any sustained period of time. Meaning you probably shouldn’t decrease Iso and PnR too much. Rockets Iso scores a high amount due to CP3 and Harden taking advantage of a mismatch. Opposing teams have to send help or Harden and CP3 will possibly go off for30+ points each. Ultimately the Rockets success will be the role players shooting success from the perimeter......same as it was with Cassell, Horry, Elie, Jet, Mad Max. Warriors will clog the paint by leaving the poorest shooters open (give token close out/ block-out, so that player doesn’t get the rebound). PnR and Iso need the perimeter shooting to keep spacing open. *Thunder could have done a lot of damage if they posted up Carmelo as a main staple of their offense. Thunder never sustained that post up presence.....in the end the Thunder never learned and often abandoned any attempt of running plays in the 4th quarters. Rockets can handle Utah as they have no Post Up presence that can hurt Houston. Pack the paint.....stay close to Ingles. Crowder went off as a result but that’s ok. Crowder can’t score enough to carry the team. Warriors will be another story........more weapons. Cross that bridge when we get there.
This idea of "balancing" out the offense cuz there's "too much" iso is a bit stupid. If there are good options off the pick n roll or spain pick n roll that has been consistently working throughout the game, JH and CP3 run them repeatedly. Or if the defense keeps trapping, they pass the ball out. In addition, if their isos aren't really working or their shot isn't falling, they make adjustments. Harden did not shoot as many step back 3s during the Twolves series as he did yesterday against the Jazz. The reason? His shot was working, so he kept doing it. When CP3's shot is falling, he keeps isoing. When the Capela alley-oop is working, they keep going to it. The Rockets' offense patterns aren't hard to figure out because, well, they'll keep doing whatever is working, more or less. Traditional iso players (like carmelo) hurt teams because they can't do anything but isolation. Our 2 iso players are outliers in that they're really smart and have great passing and playmaking along with great isolation skills. They can adjust, and they'll stop doing something if its not working or try something else. If the Warriors defense wants to take away the iso, then JH and CP3 will adjust. If they don't, then they'll have to live with JH and CP3 (mostly Harden) going 1 on 1 for most of the game. So ya, if Harden or CP3 has a cold series, we could be in trouble. But in my opinion, we lose if they're not making shots. Period. Regardless if whether or not we're running isolation.
The Warriors run post plays a whopping 5% of the time. The only teams to rely heavily on it in the playoffs include luminaries like the Grizzlies and the 2016 Rockets.
We need to mix up the offense somewhat primarily to get others involved. One of the reasons that our role players have been so inconsistent in shooting is not being involved in offense for long periods because of our heavy reliance on ISO. Gordon besides Paul and Harden is the only one that can create his own shot and some for others. Running some screen plays for him should keep him in the offensive flow and help with shot consistency. Although, it his up to him to make those shots. To lesser extent, same goes for the other role players. By watching the past Warriors game, I don’t think relying solely on a particular offensive style will make it easier to beat the Warriors because they are so quick on rotations and contesting shots. They could double Harden or Paul and still be able to rotate quickly to contest shots or cause turnovers. Our offense will need to solve this defense while McGee, Durant, or Green stay back in the paint.
The Rockets offensive output vs. the Warriors this season has been 122, 114 (no Harden) and 116 points - but yeah they gonna crack the code and we're pretty much doomed on offense.
Isolations normally shouldn't be so potent. Harden and CP3 are not normal players, both posess an ORTG north of 110 in isolation, and Harden is north of 120. Against a switching defense like GSW, isolation/P&R are the only ways to force mismatches against them, running a pass heavy motion offense like the Spurs will only result in a ton of turnovers and no penetration thanks to the switching. Can the Warriors contain Harden and Paul better than other teams despite switching all the time simply due to the number of quality, like-sized defenders they have? Probably, they ran through the west three times for a reason. Our switching defense is an intrinsic advantage over their pass heavy motion offense then they do over us. We are at the advantage when it comes to scheme. There is a reason we won two of three games and won the rebounding battle every time. Harden and Pauls' efficacy in isolation keeps the likes of Javale and Zaza glued to the bench. This forces the Warriors, already a very bad rebounding team on both ends, to go even smaller while we can still run Clint thanks to his quickness. This allows us to never give up offensive rebounds and get quite a few for ourselves which we will need if Steph Curry decides not to miss for a night.
Our regular iso offense is one of the best halfcourt offenses in league history, so mixing it up just for variety's sake is bound to make it less efficient. However, it is useful to have alternate options that can be deployed against particular matchups. That's why the post option with JJ is helpful. If teams go completely small to reduce switching mismatches on Harden, then JJ will have a post mismatch. But there's no point in posting JJ if the other team sticks with a traditional bigman. GS poses a unique challenge in that they can play Green and Durant as their bigs, and Harden will have more trouble taking advantage of switches vs them than vs slower players like Favors and Gobert. Assuming we get there, the series is going to hinge on how well we can force switches to Curry / Nick Young / Livingston / Quinn Cook and then take advantage.
I'm confident in ISO-Harden and ISO-Paul. It's worked all year. If the role players are hitting 3's, then of course it can be relied on.
For those wondering, the Rockets have the highest PPP in the playoffs when you exclude garbage time: https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/fourfactors?seasontype=playoffs Obviously small sample size, as the Warriors have turned into the 2016 OKC thunder on the glass, but our offense hasn't been bad by any measure.
I don't think people understand that the Warriors defense you saw in the regular season will not be the same defense we see in a WCF matchup.
