Dear Morey, Please get rid of McHale. Also, please refrain from influencing our offense with your love of high efficiency and let the new coach run the team how he pleases. Thanks, JJ23
I think you're reaching a bit here. Other than transition, the difference is pretty negligible IMO. AFAIK Synergy tracks what the possession ends up as, not what it starts out as, so a higher ISO% does not mean that more Isolations were called for -- just that more possession ended up in isolations, which could be play-calling, but it also could be (failed) execution on the player's part. Also, and I could be wrong here, but I think if you run a pick&roll and hit a spot-up shooter, who then blows by a defender who's closing out too aggressively, that counts as an ISO. I'm not 100% on that one, though, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
torocan, off topic, but just a quick question, as I'm interested in the Knicks as well. Many are worried that they are now losing regularly at home, and that when they get Felton back, with Shump and Amare getting fitter, that they'll get back to their early season form. My opinion is that they're better than where they're at now, but that they also overachieved early on -- would you comment on how you see the Knicks and how you think they'll end up this year? Thanks.
Maybe it's harder to pick and roll since opponents are figuring out that all you need to do is go under screens and let Harden/Lin shoot. Opponents are packing the paint and willing to give up perimeter shots. So many other factors.
As this is a Rockets board, it's not really appropriate to talk about the Knicks here. All I'll say is that players recover from injury more slowly than people expect, fitting multiple paint dominant players on the same roster is problematic in terms of spacing, and you don't know that Age is an issue until you're late in the season and significant parts of your roster is on the injured list.
A LOF slowly changed to Rockets fan. Hopefully rockets will have more fans like you. Too bad you dont work with coaches, they have no clues what they are doing. Postgame interview became a blame-players show. "I dont know " is a normal word now.
I think you could make that argument for the declining PnR Handler numbers, but there was a larger decline in PnR Roller numbers as well. I don't think it's shocking that we're seeing Asik take fewer shots as of late given his catching woes, and I think that reflects into those numbers to some degree. Interestingly, Patterson hasn't had a single PnR roller play since the Mavericks game. And Morris hasn't had one since Indiana. As for how Synergy breaks them down, they treat every reset of a play as a new play. It's a little bit subjective in terms of how long and when a play morphs from one to the next. So yes, it may be play calling, or execution, or any number of factors, which is why I said I hope it's just a blip. We should remember that the sample size is very small. As for the Transition game, the drop in pace isn't small, it's Very Large. Going from 100 possessions per game to 93 taken as a season average today would take us from #1 in pace to #24 in the league. IE, from the fastest to one of the Slowest in the NBA (slightly ahead of Toronto and Detroit, and behind Indiana and the Knicks).
Woodson likes vets, so that is the problem he has to face later on, they will nver have a complete rosters ever, not even from the season start. LOL. Even their rookies are old.
We've run a lot less lately partly because of tired legs but I have a feeling it's mainly because other teams have adjusted and are getting back faster in transistion. Because of this we have to play more halfcourt and consequently because Harden handles the ball the most more ISO. Other teams have also adjusted to that hence his low FG% lately. Of course we played a brutal road schedule and rest + playing at home will certainly help. But let's face it - other teams have adjusted and we have to adjust as well to win.
Are you trying to imply that more P&R's would've gotten us more wins? If so I disagree. I would like to run more P&R's but I don't think thats why we're losing. We ran 20% P&Rs in the Indiana game and our offense was still crap. I think its more that defenses have scouted and now can read our "gimmick offense" They have adjusted and we have not.
This is one of those instances in which the numbers aren't telling us something we didn't already know. The more interesting question is why are they isolating more? Is it play calling? Is it dead legs? I'd like to know if the team is opening every game with ISOs or if that is something that develops as the game goes on. Does the team try to run some more interesting sets, but when the shots don't fall, default to isolation plays? Against what defenses/coverages did the ISO play come into the picture? Is it a response to good defense? A response to poor shooting? What?
is it possible that players/coaching is deferring to ISO to generate offense where spot up shooting has been unsuccessful for the most part of the game? outside of patterson nobody really do spot up shooting inside the arc. players need the green light to shoot open mid range J's imo to combat bad 3 shooting nights.
i still attribute the losing streak to our defense. our defense has never been good. we win when we can get going on offense (and specifically our 3's), but when that's not falling we lose a big chunk of our scoring and can't stop the other team from scoring. getting defensive stops also contributed to our transition points and we just haven't been able to stop anyone lately.
To me without looking at stats, it seems pretty clear that when we are running relentlessly, no one can keep up with us and we are at our best when Harden and Lin are attacking constantly. Lin is the X-Factor here, when his shot is not falling, his driving game is limited as the defense just backs off. The Rockets then seem like an iso machine with Harden which becomes really predictable to defenses. My 2c.
