7 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: The Rockets Daily - April 3, 2014
By: mitchell felker

Behind the Scenes - ESPN put together a panel to rank the different aspects of all 30 NBA front offices from 0-10.  The rankings started with the total front office experience and then broke down into the specific positions within the group, starting with owners.  The rest of the positions will be done later in the week.  The Rockets front office was ranked seventh with a score of 7.1, well behind the first place Spurs at 9.45.

San Antonio is the obvious choice for number one.  Greg Poppovich is one of the league's biggest assets and RC Buford has consistently kept a contender around Tim Duncan.  Their owner, Peter Holt, is very hands-off and has been content to let smarter people than he run the basketball operations while he polishes his rings.  The rest of the teams ahead of Houston are, for the most part, hard to argue against.  The Heat have Pat Riley, the Mavs have Mark Cuban's particular brand of enthusiasm and Rick Carlisle, and the Pacers have Larry Legend.  The two teams directly in front of Houston, however, are a little more curious.

I don't pretend to know the inner workings of all NBA franchises, but I do know that Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf has been staunchly against pushing his team salary into the tax threshold despite playing in one of the biggest markets in the Association and having a contender built around a former MVP for the past several years.  But they do have Tom Thibodeau.  And the Celtics were ready to run Danny Ainge out of town before his ole pal Kevin McHale gift-wrapped Kevin Garnett for him and saved his job.  Brad Stevens is a nice coach and could turn out to be great, but it's a little early to give him too much credence. 

Seeing that Les Alexander was ranked fifth (7.41) in the ownership rankings, and taking in to account Daryl Morey's presumed high ranking, you would think Houston would score a little higher on the overall rank.  That can only mean that the Rockets were docked for Kevin McHale.  I've been a little hard on McHale in the past for his lack of creativity at the end of games, but his understanding of analytics and shared vision with Morey deserve some credit.  His team is one of only five teams to rank in the top ten in both offensive and defensive efficiency, after all.

One-on-One with the Hair - Grantland's Zach Lowe interviewed Chandler Parsons and discussed a host of topics including being a contender, defense and inflight poker games with the guys.  It's a good read.

Quote:

What’s one individual skill you’ve really worked on — one thing you watch for on film, when you watch yourself?

I want to be able to guard one through four [point guards through power forwards]. I’ve been trying to get there all year. Tonight, I’m starting on Deron Williams. Last night, I started on Chris Paul. I have to continue to get stronger, guard the post better, guard on pindowns better. With added strength, I think all that will develop better.

Lastly, the Houston Rockets are being sued by a former caterer that worked for the company responsible for the locker room spread at the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.  The suit claims that Rasean Tate, an openly gay server, was taunted and harassed while working in the Rockets locker room in February of 2013.  He was later fired for what he says was punishment for filing a complaint with his company, Levy Restaurant Holdings.

There is surely more to come involving this story, but if it is true it's deeply disturbing.  Jason Collins was still three months away from announcing that he was gay and nearly a year away from signing with the Brooklyn Nets of all teams, but to know that this type of behavior could still exist in a professional environment is lamentable.

The NBA's history, like all pro leagues, is peppered with discrimination of all types, so you would expect more acceptance from it's players.  No one knows the complete truth yet, but these types of things are typically guilty until proven innocent.  It's unfortunate that it involved the home team.

[Texan Ensemble]

McHale I think is great at managing personalities, which comes in handy on a team with Howard and Harden, so he deserves credit there...and I do believe it has directly contributed to the teams success this year. But he is no tactician, as the things that frustrate today are things that have frustrated us all season. I don't understand why he still allows Lin to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, more times than not, he ends up with a turnover, giving someone the ball in a bad position with not much time left, or taking a bad shot himself. I don't understand why he still pounds the ball into Dwight when Dwight is in a position that he has to back his man down more than a couple steps, he turns the ball over almost every time in these situations. I don't understand why we either come out in the first quarter either flat or on fire, and ditto for coming out of half....that shows that he does nothing to get his team ready, just relies on them being hot or not. I don't understand how we have ZERO half court offense, that above all else will be our undoing in the playoffs. And lastly, since we our half court offense does not exist, I do not understand why we don't push the ball at maniacal pace at all times, play to our strengths since it is obvious that we have zero ability to adapt otherwise to teams whose strengths we can not overcome (Clippers, Grizz, Thunder).

This team is not going far in the playoffs, healthy or not healthy. We are missing a piece or two. In the offseason we need to focus on dumping Lin, and I would replace him with Avery Bradley to pair with Beverly as a great defensive rotation at the PG position, and he is not going to that much. Secondly, we need to get someone who can shoot a mid-range jumper. As a team, the Rockets shoot the least mid-range jumper by a very wide margin, which I know is part of Moreys efficiency metric.(MAD Radio on 610am had the numbers yesterday, the number is astounding) The problem with this is when you shoot so few mid-range jumpers, teams quit guarding that space, and thus can guard more versus the Rockets by guarding less. Our three point shooting has been down this year as a whole because teams have their wing players camp out on the three line. Watch for it next game, its very evident what defense are doing, and its because we are an outlier of outliers in the amount of mid-range jumpers we shoot. Even if we dont make them at a high rate, we need teams to at least feel the need to guard that space to create spacing for our offense.

[BrentYen]

I don get it, if you don make it at a high rate, why teams will feel the need to defend it? They will just funnel you to shoot as many mid range as you want. 

[Texan Ensemble]

Shooting mid-range jumpers at a low rate is going to attract defenders to that area more than simply not shooting at all from that range...and the Rockets essientially do not shoot mid-rangers jumpers at all. The team that shoots the 5th least mid-range jumpers, Phx, shoots 4 or 5 times as many as we do. The team shoots the 2nd least amount of mid-range jumpers, Philly, shoots twice as many as we do.

[Alituro]

Lin, Parsons, Jones and Harden are all threats to score the 3. These same guys are also terrific driving to the basket. By making a couple 3s and forcing the defender to close out, and by not being a mid-range threat, it opens up the space between the 3 point line and the rim and allows our guys to build a head of steam on their drives. When they beat their defender and start their drive, it forces help to come from the post to prevent a lay-up and opens up opportunities for Dwight and/or your weak side "stretch" guy parked in the corner. The initial 3, the drive, and either of the kicks out are way more desirable, effective and efficient than a mid-range pull-up jumper, that's what the numbers show, that's why we play this way. By adding a higher volume of mid range jumpers to our arsenal, defenders clog up the "No Man's Land" areas and diminish the effectiveness of the drives. I also think those same guys are capable of a respectable mid-range game, they just forego those opportunities. Not saying we should abandon it altogether, but the mid-range jumper should be used as a surprise tactic rather than the norm.

[Texan Ensemble]

Alituro, I agree with you completely, except I feel you are assuming that Dwight is a elite post player, which he is not. He turns the ball over more than any other player in the league, and is simply average at best when he is doing anything offensively other than dunking. To prove that, look at how little he is actually getting double teamed. But you are correct in your statement about the relationship between our 3 point shooting and its effect on us driving to the hoop and vice versa, but I am not advocating going and getting someone who shoot 10-15 shoots a game from mid-range, but just someone that can hit the shot and that defenses have to respect. To me, that lack of that player and that aspect to our offense is the reason our half court offense is as bad as it is. Our three point shooting and driving it to the hoop game works great when we the game is at a fast pace and we are up and down the court, but when we play the good teams in the playoffs, the game will slow down and the execution of a halfcourt offense is going to be a must.

[Mario Peña]

If you have spent any quality time on this forum you would know I'm a big fan of McHale. Considering the stage the Rockets find themselves I do believe he has shown himself to be the right leader to build the team culture. Next year if Harden and Howard stay healthy and McHale can get the Rockets to exceed expectations he could achieve Brooks type security but if he falls short he may be out like when DelNegro was shown the door after two failures in the post season. When you consider everything an NBA coach does I think I'd much rather have a guy like McHale than a Vogel type running my favorite NBA team.

[Alituro]

Alituro, I agree with you completely, except I feel you are assuming that Dwight is a elite post player, which he is not. He turns the ball over more than any other player in the league, and is simply average at best when he is doing anything offensively other than dunking. To prove that, look at how little he is actually getting double teamed. But you are correct in your statement about the relationship between our 3 point shooting and its effect on us driving to the hoop and vice versa, but I am not advocating going and getting someone who shoot 10-15 shoots a game from mid-range, but just someone that can hit the shot and that defenses have to respect. To me, that lack of that player and that aspect to our offense is the reason our half court offense is as bad as it is. Our three point shooting and driving it to the hoop game works great when we the game is at a fast pace and we are up and down the court, but when we play the good teams in the playoffs, the game will slow down and the execution of a halfcourt offense is going to be a must.

Dwight gets in trouble when he's posting up iso. He is great at being the roll man, handling dish-offs/alley-oops, and cleaning up around the rim, (situations that the current system fosters.) Posting him up is not part of the system, only another option that we should abandon more than use. I agree with you that we should incorporate more mid-range because of the toughness of the competition coming in the plaoffs, more on an as-needed basis. I also believe the mid-range threats already reside on our roster, they just don't use it. All 4 of the guys I mentioned have respectable shots and I bet they can fare well from mid-range too given the green light.