36 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: Are the Houston Rockets in Danger of Another Fatal Collapse?

[rocketrick]

9 of the next 10 games are at home. Going 8-2 or 7-3 should further cement us into the playoffs. There are actually 3 back to backs left, the 3rd one is a second try at Phoenix the next to last game of the season. Then the regular season ends in LA vs. the Lakers. If it comes down to the final 2 games of the season, well, I don't even want to contemplate that. Ideally the Rockets can lock in a 6 seed and match up against anybody other than San Antonio or OKC in the first round.

 

Being at home for such a long stretch should afford some much needed practice time with the youngsters, too.

[timetodienow1234567]

While Patterson wasn't great, his loss disturbed the consistency that was there. We've had a revolving door at the PF/ backup C spot ever since. How can this team gel when there is no set rotation. Guys aren't sure what their responsibilities are and therefore aren't playing within themselves. That's just my opinion though.

[rockets best fan]

this artical is taboo. I didn't want to mention last years collapse, but it has been in the back of my thought process. I hope we overcome this time .......keep hope alive 

[2016Champions]

So we're 5-12 in the second of back to back games. Thank goodness there's no back to back games in the playoffs!

[phaketrash]

We're not so hot with 3 days of rest for some reason. We're 2-2 I believe. With 2 days of rest, we're like 6-3. But for the rest of the season, we have 4 games left w/ 2 days of rest, and 1 game left w/ 3 days of rest. 

[thejohnnygold]

The way I see it--after the trade happened we became highly susceptible on defense and with each passing game there is more film to study.  Our back door defense is non-existent.  Weak-side rebounding is non-existent.  I wish we had snagged Juwan Howard off the wire just so someone could stand down there and know what to do.  I'm not giving up hope, but the PF trades hurt us more (at least in the now) than anyone anticipated--I think we grossly under-estimated what they brought on defense...now that we know what no defense looks like.

 

Oh, and the league should be ashamed of the blatant bias against Asik in the post.  On both ends he gets hammered and nary a whistle blows.  He's no rookie.  He has established himself as a solid defender and rebounder in this league.  Let's give him some respect, refs.

 

People can, and will, blame McHale...but it's not his fault he has 1 viable defensive big man and a bunch of lost kids trying their best to defend in the NBA--Morey must take the credit for that.  When you're playing SG's at PF in the NBA you're gonna have a bad time.

[ale11]

Well, I get that we have no defensive certainties apart from Asik, and that is by Morey's design, what I don't get why Delfino is playing PF when Parsons is on the court. I mean, advanced stats showed that our team performed well when Parsons plays PF, so why stick to him at SF and Delfino at PF when Chandler is taller and a better defender? Seriously, I don't get that...could anyone provide a good explanation to that?

[2016Champions]

I read somewhere that Patterson was looked up to as the veteran of the locker room, and it seemed like he got that veteran respect from the refs too because he didn't get so many iffy travel calls or questionable touch fouls in comparison to D-Mo who seems to get alot of them.

[thejohnnygold]

Well, I get that we have no defensive certainties apart from Asik, and that is by Morey's design, what I don't get why Delfino is playing PF when Parsons is on the court. I mean, advanced stats showed that our team performed well when Parsons plays PF, so why stick to him at SF and Delfino at PF when Chandler is taller and a better defender? Seriously, I don't get that...could anyone provide a good explanation to that?

 

I can only put forth that Delfino plays because he at least knows how to do it--even if he is physically unable to do it very long or very well....otherwise, it is mind-boggling to me also.

[Sir Thursday]

Well, I get that we have no defensive certainties apart from Asik, and that is by Morey's design, what I don't get why Delfino is playing PF when Parsons is on the court. I mean, advanced stats showed that our team performed well when Parsons plays PF, so why stick to him at SF and Delfino at PF when Chandler is taller and a better defender? Seriously, I don't get that...could anyone provide a good explanation to that?

 

I suspect it's because McHale wants to put Parsons on the best wing player on the opposing team a lot of the time. He's a better perimeter defender than Delfino, and it makes sense to use him as such - when you don't have a huge amount of length inside you want to try to limit the amount of penetration as much as you can. If you did it the other way round, you'd get a lot of perimeter players blowing past Delfino and finding that the help defence is not particularly imposing (often it will be the PF defender that has to rotate to stop penetration, and Parsons is not going to strike fear into a driver's heart with his shot blocking prowess or anything like that). So this way you get the benefits of reduced penetration thanks to Parsons on the outside and the undersized PF has less to do. Or at least, that's the theory.

 

Then you have to look at the actual defending a PF will do. Parsons does a good job when you put him on a low post threat (like Carmelo), but if the opposing PF is not going to be posting up multiple times a game then that doesn't matter so much. In that situation, the most important skill a defender can have (other than the aforementioned help defense) is the ability to keep a larger man off the boards, and I haven't seen anything that suggests that Parsons is much better than Delfino at that. I do think this is one area where Patterson was underrated though - he may not have got a lot of boards but I think he was usually pretty solid at getting a good box out on his man. Not sure that Delfino or Parsons can duplicate that.

 

ST

[ale11]

Assuming those advanced stats which said that we had great numbers with Parsons at the PF, I guess he knows how to play the 4, even if he is to skinny to handle natural PFs.

[ale11]

Dear ST: I'm recalling the Wizards game at Verizon center precisely, seeing Nene posting up against Delfino was very ugly, and in my opinion, uglier than having opposing SF drive through Delfino, at least that way someone (Asik preferently) could come to help, just like when someone passes by Harden. In my humble opinion, it's tougher to defend a mismatch in the post.

[2016Champions]

I suspect it's because McHale wants to put Parsons on the best wing player on the opposing team a lot of the time. He's a better perimeter defender than Delfino, and it makes sense to use him as such - when you don't have a huge amount of length inside you want to try to limit the amount of penetration as much as you can. If you did it the other way round, you'd get a lot of perimeter players blowing past Delfino and finding that the help defence is not particularly imposing (often it will be the PF defender that has to rotate to stop penetration, and Parsons is not going to strike fear into a driver's heart with his shot blocking prowess or anything like that). So this way you get the benefits of reduced penetration thanks to Parsons on the outside and the undersized PF has less to do. Or at least, that's the theory.

 

Then you have to look at the actual defending a PF will do. Parsons does a good job when you put him on a low post threat (like Carmelo), but if the opposing PF is not going to be posting up multiple times a game then that doesn't matter so much. In that situation, the most important skill a defender can have (other than the aforementioned help defense) is the ability to keep a larger man off the boards, and I haven't seen anything that suggests that Parsons is much better than Delfino at that. I do think this is one area where Patterson was underrated though - he may not have got a lot of boards but I think he was usually pretty solid at getting a good box out on his man. Not sure that Delfino or Parsons can duplicate that.

 

ST

 

This actually makes a lot of sense. The more I come to understand why McHale does what he does, the  more I start to truly believe he's a good coach.

 

Would you happen to have an idea of why McHale doesn't rotate Harden and Lin's minutes the way Spoelstra rotates Wade and Lebron's minutes? It just seems like common sense to have one on the floor at all times and I can't figure out why McHale doesn't do that.

[Sir Thursday]

Dear ST: I'm recalling the Wizards game at Verizon center precisely, seeing Nene posting up against Delfino was very ugly, and in my opinion, uglier than having opposing SF drive through Delfino, at least that way someone (Asik preferently) could come to help, just like when someone passes by Harden. In my humble opinion, it's tougher to defend a mismatch in the post.

 

Yeah, that late game bucket Nene got by backing down Delfino did seem a bit easy. Possibly in a late game situation like that they should have anticipated the Wizards throwing it into the post and put Parsons on him instead (dunno if Parsons would have been able to stop it either, but we'll never know). 

 

I haven't focused enough on the general defensive strategy to make out the Rockets' strategy as far as defensive rotations, but I know that a lot of the time teams will try to attack small-ball lineups by drawing the centre away from the hoop in order to attack the undersized PF. Often that means you can't bank on Asik being the one doing the defensive rotation to cut off a drive.

 

ST

[2016Champions]

There aren't that many centers who can truly draw the opposing center away from the basket (Bosh and Garnett come to mind, but shooters like them are rare at the 5). Look at Aldridge for example, he's considered a good shooter for a big man but he only makes 41% of his shots from 16-23 feet. If we're smart we just play the odds and give up that shot. If you look at the Spurs style of defense for example, it's designed to give up mid-range shots and it usually works really well barring the occasional hot hand ie. Ibaka in the WCF. 

[Richards]

This actually makes a lot of sense. The more I come to understand why McHale does what he does, the  more I start to truly believe he's a good coach.

 

Would you happen to have an idea of why McHale doesn't rotate Harden and Lin's minutes the way Spoelstra rotates Wade and Lebron's minutes? It just seems like common sense to have one on the floor at all times and I can't figure out why McHale doesn't do that.

McHale used to do that with Lin and TD on the floor. He played Hard the whole 1st qtr, rest Lin at 8 min and start 2nd qtr with Lin and TD. I remember those rotations were very effective. Yep. McHale stopped doing it. Not sure why. Some pairings of Harden-AB/Bev, Lin-AB/Bev would be interesting.

[Jeby]

I agree with a lot of the sentiments below about missing Patterson. His one glaring weakness is that he doesn't have a nose for the ball when it comes to rebounding. But he did every other thing you expect from your PF: defend the post without fouling, rotate correctly, box out, set solid screens, hit open shots, make the right pass. He has become almost like a bigger, slightly more athletic Shane Battier. For all of the talent that D-Mo and T-Rob (he seriously needs a better nickname) bring to the court, they're still learning all those "little" things. D-Mo can't defend without fouling and gets lost on rotations. Robinson slips way too many screens, doesn't take care of the ball, and his late rotations on defense are only papered over by his extreme athleticism.
McHale's like a director who's been given half of a cast that hasn't even read the script, and the show goes on tomorrow. I would hate to have his job.

[Rahat Huq]

^Have to agree completely.  People here hated Patterson with a passion because he couldn't rebound worth a lick.  But there's a reason why coaches and the Rockets fell in love with him from the start of his rookie year.  He doesn't make mental errors.  It's hard to lose that and throw in rookies in the middle of a playoff run.  

 

With that being said, the trade was still a no-brainer.  You had to gamble on a #5 pick.  We'll see if it means sacrificing the postseason, though.

[2016Champions]

Morey in regards to the trade and how it affects their race for the playoffs.

 

"Our goal is to get a championship, that's goal number one, goal number two is to make the playoffs this year. The good thing is I don't think those goals are in conflict with this move. We feel that Thomas Robinson has a lot of upside for the bigger goal of getting back to being a contender, and we feel that we can be just as solid... if we've made it harder it's only a little bit harder"

 

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