You need to slow down, not sure your miscreant heart can handle this much stimuli after it's been in hibernation all this time. Just admit you are a coward and only come out when Rockets lose. Otherwise you are no where to be found. You are not here to discuss basketball, only to spew hate. And if you do not count yourself as a Rockets fan WTF are you on here at all?
Theres not many guys that can really exploit in the post, but what are we going to do when we face those ?( AD, Jokic, Nurkic, Porzingis for example) . Also as shown today, competent big man like Nurkic or Jokic can easily get 15+ rebounds ( today Nurkic got 19 in less than 30 mins). I feel like if this team gets hot can beat anybody, but if they get a bit cold they dont have other tools to pull through games. I hope im wrong, but on a 7 game series, is a bit scary.
They boxed out much better in the second half. I feel like MDA needs to act more like a hockey coach with his substitutions.
Even though I started this thread I'm not going to claim that last night showed the Rockets' strategy is a failure. The Rockets had plenty of chances to win and the loss had far less to do with the Rockets D and giving up rebounds than it did with going cold from three down the stretch and with cold free throw shooting. I agree with other posters that playing this style requires a very low margin of error. Frankly one thing I've been bothered by the D'Antoni Rockets is even before this season there was always a low margin of error. Granted this is the NBA with the best players in the world so any mistake gets magnified but it would be nice to see some more flexibility in how the team can win games.
I am worried that the type of deense that we play in some ways undermines the wide open jump shots that we are getting. If the 5 man can hit the 3 at least 5 to 10% better based on the volume of threes we are taking, the margin for error will increase.
This has always been the hallmark of the D'Antoni Rockets. We live or die by the three. I agree that a danger here is tiring out our three point shooters by expending a lot of energy on D. I also would like to see some more second chance points rather than a miss from three and then back to D. That's why I'm not totally sold on the idea that rebounding doesn't really matter.
If the Rockets didn’t make the Covington trade, they wouldn’t have any shot of winning a championship even if Capela was healthy. Capela was a liability offensively, and he was not the same defender on the perimeter as he was in his first few NBA seasons. Also, you couldn’t play both Westbrook and Capela in the same lineup because of floor spacing issues. The trade for Covington has unlocked the team’s maximum potential. It’s an unconventional way of playing, but it is a nightmare for other teams because containing both Harden and Westbrook is next to impossible. If the new GreenHouse connection can keep their level of play up, the Rockets absolutely can beat anyone in a seven-game series. They’ll lose games that they shouldn’t because that happens to every team in the NBA. But, other teams want no part of the Rockets in a seven-game series. It’s very similar to how no Eastern Conference team is eager to face Toronto in the playoffs, despite losing Kawhi in free agency. That team is really sound defensively, still has a lot of length, and they have great chemistry on both ends of the floor. The Rockets have an advantage on Toronto because they have two superstars and the Raptors don’t.
Truth. We have the formula. We might not quite have the personnel to win a championship just yet, but we are way closer than we were in 2019, and the first half of 2020. I really hope EG gets going. We are paying him what Covington and Tucker essentially make combined. He needs to hoop or we need to figure out how to make use of that cash.
If the Rockets can convince McLemore and Rivers to stay as free agents, Morey should look to move Gordon for either another 3&D wing with length or a stretch five that can play in this system.
They might extend this bubble concept beyond this season to next season. The team plays better in this environment.
This risky D is ranked 6th in the bubble. Better than offense ranked 12th. 2nd in pace, 2nd in generating TOV.
Rockets have big problems on the defensive side defending bigs and allowing too many offensive rebounds. However, the biggest problems are not because of playing small ball in my opinion. Seems like the biggest issue is that the perimeter players that we have don't have as good fundamentals on post defense. Especially when it comes to positioning and knowing how to guard bigger players. A lot of times the defender lets the big men get way to deep into the paint without any resistance. This usually leads to an easy 2 with no post up required. When defending big men 6+" taller than the defender more effort should be made to keep them at least 5 feet from the basket. Also non shot blockers leave the bigman deep in the paint to help contest an already contested layup. This usually ends up with a foul or easy put back by the big man, sometimes both. Another issue, fouling on jump shots from taller players. I know we have guys with long arms and some deceptively good shot blockers on the team, but for the most part our guys should not be leaving the ground when contesting 2pt jumpers from bigger guys. Just stay on the ground get your hands up and don't let them grab the rebound if they miss. The Rockets get so many fouls on jump shots leading to extra pts allowed by free throws.
