In the clip above, Kyle Lowry penetrates, sucking in the defense.  After the kickout, there’s no defender even remotely near Chandler Parsons.

Instead of taking the open shot, he drives in, dishing off to Patrick Patterson.

Patterson’s open, sure.  But not as open as was Chandler, and Grizz defenders were closing in close enough to prevent a dunk. It would have been simpler for Chandler to just take the ’3′.  A wide open ’3′ is as efficient as it gets, some would argue.

Parsons has been one of the team’s most important players this season, and a big surprise.  But for him to take the next step, he’ll need to learn how to shoot. Luckily, it’s the easiest thing in basketball to master.

The post Chandler Parsons’ shooting woes appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

This was an interesting sequence.  The Rockets run a side screen to get Kevin Martin open at the free throw line.  Tony Allen snuffs it out.  Martin hands it off to Parsons and Allen reacts, thinking he’s snuffed this play out too.  The only problem is that he makes a costly error.

The play is interesting because it places light upon a tradeoff.  Shane Battier might not have recovered over the Scola pick.  But had he been able to, he undoubtedly would have known Parsons’ strengths and would not have gotten over-agressive.  It leads one to wonder: is the cerebral defender who knows his personnel superior to the instinctual athletic specimen?

The post [video] Chandler Parsons makes something from nothing appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

The main thing I liked about this play is that it puts Scola in motion where he can be most effective.  If he can take the right-handed jumphook over his left shoulder without a help defender, the chances are high that he will score.

The post [video] An interesting play from the Houston Rockets appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

There were a couple of plays, however, which particularly caught my eye.

The play starts out as a high pick and roll with Kyle Lowry defending against Ty Lawson, and Adrien spying at the top of the key.

Lowry gets picked off and Adrien slides over to cut off Lawson near the paint.

Lawson then tries to juke Adrien in the paint but is completely cut off.

Lawson decides to back out entirely out of the paint to square Adrien up and attack him in an isolation.

Lawson is able to juke Adrien with a shifty crossover and get past him.  No surprise there – Lawson is an NBA point guard.

But after getting crossed over and beat, Adrien is quick enough to recover and fall in step with Lawson.

Look at these next two stills.  Lawson has already started his jump with Adrien still grounded.  But in a nano-second, Adrien is able to leap and challenge, meeting Lawson and blocking the shot.

Here’s another play that shows some more of Adrien’s physical gifts:

Here, when the ball is swung to the shooter, Adrien is still in the paint, defending his man.

In a flash, he has raced to the perimeter to close out on the shooter, contesting the shot, and forcing the miss.

This analysis isn’t meant to imply that the Rockets should no longer pursue Dwight Howard this summer.  It remains to be seen whether Jeff Adrien will remain in Kevin McHale’s rotation or if his insertion last night into the lineup was merely intended to send a message to Jordan Hill.  Regardless, on these cited plays, the big man demonstrated some of what he can bring to the table for the Rockets if given the time.  With quick feet and a quick burst-leap, Adrien can contest shooters on the perimeter while also serving as a last line of defense in the paint.  When you have a big man that can cover long distances to help out others, it adds a lot of flexibility to your defensive schemes.  If Adrien can continue this kind of production, Rockets management will have no regrets in their decision to cut the cord with Jordan Hill.

The post A closer look at Jeff Adrien appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.