2 PG’s, 2 SG’s and Tucker on the floor at crunch time. Somebody tell RJ it can work!
Rockets Guard Lineup
- Thread starter Sparkaces
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It would be nice to see James harden pass the ball and play with a team. Dude is the biggest ball hog of all time.
Curry missed dunk and Warriors let the clock run out to shorten his embarrassment.
Yeah they just threw in the towel after that embarrassing fail
It's interesting to watch. Tucker's basically the center in that lineup, and he's only about 6'5". Size-wise, it's the equivalent of a five guard lineup.
But that tiny lineup has been working for Houston throughout the season. I don't know why it doesn't get exploited more underneath. You'd think teams would attack it by going to post ups (which is how shrimpy lineups were dealt with in the old days) but they usually don't.
Is Houston good in spite of Harden's ball hogging or BECAUSE of Harden's ball hogging?
Apparently Dantoni and the team think "because".
People say we can't go small because of matchups, as if there are any good post players on college basketball.
We wouldve been better using Knox at the 4 in 2018, and playing Keldon some at the 4 this year.
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I can't stand watching him play. Makes me half mad just watching him; if he was my teammate, I'd beat his *** for some of the fool shots he forces with wide open teammates with much higher percentage shots available to him.
I hit the floor laughing my *** off when he missed that. He looked like such a little ***** getting blocked by the rim, and I loved every second of it.
Curry (although I like him in general) choked. He missed a dunk, jumper, another layup and a fast break layup was blocked all in the final 3-4 minutes.
For one thing, a team like Golden State isn't built for post-ups. Who's going to do it? Durant or Green from the main 5, and that's it (and they probably should have worked more on getting Durant the ball in the paint, or in iso situations where he could get into the paint).
But for another reason, post-ups are overrated.
Let's say you have a really good post scorer, and he's hitting 60% on his shots in the post (and when you separate post plays from other ways of scoring at the rim, that number is way high for almost anyone). That's 1.2 points per attempt. Which is good, but no better than hitting 40% from 3 point range.
The post game was great in an environment where there was no 3 point shot, or a limited amount of 3 point shots being taken. But when 3 pointers account for 35-50% of total shots while being converted at a reasonable rate, it makes little sense to focus on it. It's why the (offensively) one-dimensional big guy is going the way of the dodo.
It's why Jahlil Okafor can barely stay in the league, and why Enes Kanter has been a vagabond. Kanter might be as good a post scorer as there is in the league right now, and he's an excellent rebounder to boot, but he has glaring defensive deficiencies, and not a lot of offensive skill outside the post.
He does this every year. Thankfully those shots fell.. But he continues to get burned in the playoffs for this style. I remember last year they absolutely gave Golden State the first game.. And then when they went back to ball movement.. Golden state couldn't really beat them.
Well, I agree with this in principle. But it sort of seems to me an exception should be made when your opponent is just daring you to post up with a five guard lineup like the Rockets did last night.
I've been intrigued watching how Durant's been guarded in these playoffs. In that Clippers series 6'1" Patrick Beverly was guarding Durant throughout the series, and for awhile, giving him fits. I know Durant has excellent post scoring skills, he's demonstrated that plenty. Yet he was choosing not to use them, still floating around the perimeter while that little dude pestered the **** out of him. Watching that, I was in complete agreement with Charles Barkley's comments in this clip. Why are you trying to dribble into that little pest 25 feet away from the basket? Instead, go post his *** up.
Similar thing in this Rocket series where they're putting guards like Eric Gordon on Durant, and Durant's simply declining to use that size advantage in the most logical way.
Today's players are better overall than ever before, but this is one area where today's game can baffle me. Kevin McHale knew exactly what to do when he saw a shrimpy little guard on him, he'd post him up and make em pay for it. Which is why nobody dared put shrimpy little guards on McHale. But seems that ain't how it works nowadays.
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Houston is a good team, but I think they're incredibly boring to watch. Harden and Paul try to create for themselves for 20 seconds, and if they can't get a shot off they kick it to someone else for a contested 3 with like 2 seconds left on the clock. I guess it's pretty effective, but I hate watching it.
Durant averaged 35 ppg in the Clippers series and is averaging 36 ppg in the Rockets Series. This Post Season he’s shooting 51% from the floor and 41% from 3. It’s hard to argue how Kerr is using him. I think teams are picking their poison. If anything, the defensive strategy teams are using against the Warriors is causing Curry & Thompson to have less shot attempts and ppg than they are accustomed to. Maybe they’re hoping it throws the team out of rhythm but Durant has just been super efficient.