Time to Stick a Fork in the Houston Rockets and Morey’s Analytics Dream -

Hot take !!

It amazes me that people like this have a following and can post articles etc . What a poorly researched ,highly opinionated piece .

His advice is " to build a real team " .....wow great insight .

His plan to do so ... Be like the Warriors , be like the panthers .. Those guys have good GMs . What an asshat

 

Sounds like they just copied someone's rant on CF

 

The thing about "Morey ball" is that for a team that covets 3 point shots so much we had horrible personnel to fit that style... Like GS is doing "Moreyball" they just have guys that actually are good at shooting the damn ball!

 

This offseason sucks already everyone seems to know everything about the Rockets now and yet they also seem to know nothing at all.

 

I agree the Rockets major problem was due to personnel problems. We didn't get lucky last year Harden carried us and then Josh Smith and Brewer stepped up for one half of a game.

 

The whole league engages in Moreyball - tops teams are shooting 3's like crazy. It's a validation of analytics - this article writer is a fool.

 

the only time I feel like morey overly "trumpets" analytics is at/through the Sloan conference. other than that you don't really hear him beating the analytics drum.

He has the association with analytics because he was maybe a pioneer of it in the NBA, but this guy doesn't have evidence that he "trumpets" it. That's totally a misperception

 

The article was terrible - truly awful - but that quote was sorta true. The actual deal was a no-brainer. I would have done it. You would have done it. Pretty much all of CF would have done it. Now, Morey had done the right thing by collecting the pieces we could trade. But it did not take a genius to pull the trigger on Houston's part.

 

I believed this to be true in Orlando, and I believe it still. Why would someone resist the style of play that they excel at? He looks like a beast when he plays the pick and roll right. What, or who, warped his mind into hating what he does best? I'll never understand this.

 

writer doesnt know what he is talking about...problem with morey is that he didnt get shooters

 

No the difference is GS actually runs plays that utilize the other 4 players on the court. Moreyball is Harden playing hero 95% of the time. Being Morey isn't a coach, and has no basketball background, not sure why he'd implement a offense as GM, but that's just me.

 

Time to stick a fork in the Huffington post

 

This is not necessarily telling the whole story and is oversimplifying it.

Teams don't just "shoot three's like crazy", the Rockets do that. The Warriors have Steph and Klay to jack 3's but they also pass the ball around freely to get others in good rhythm, same with the Spurs. Rhythm is something that's never taken into account when explaining the bad shooting of the role players.

And no one needs validate analytics, because stats have been around forever now. Because that's what it is, new stats we have developed to help us possibly understand parts of the game better. It's not the end all be all, every stat still has a story to be found below it. It's already been validated before it was re-branded, so let's stop arguing about that.

What's really being argued is how much should analytics play a part in the various decisions of a team.

In the Rockets case, analytics trumps chemistry as shown this with this year's team, whether or not they hated each other, they sure didn't play together a lot. Even team strategy is based on analytics, which I would argue just makes you more predictable, and is foolish when you have personnel that doesn't fit, namely Dwight.

The Spurs and Warriors do not make their all of their decisions based on analytics, you only have to listen to Bob Myers, RC, and Pop to see the differences in how they decide to build their team, and Morey's way.

Ask more questions, think more for yourself, unless of course you have some kind of agenda, which seems to be the case in clutchfans. You either like Harden or you're a hater. Sorry, but the world doesn't work like that.

 

Ummm, of course it is simplifying it. It was a short response.... deerrrrr. :grin:

The analytics don't need to be "validated" so much as the on the court product and use of the methods behind the analytics simply back up the use of them.

A team like GS that has smashed records from behind the three point line is not a validation so much as proof of the method.

This GS team is pretty much the SAME team that the Rockets set or tied a three point record against, but now the roles are reversed. When we did it that game we were running up the score and GS tried to dirty up the game. Now they do it and it has revolutionized the NBA.

Our problem is we don't have the personnel to properly emphasize the use of those methods. Ariza and Beverly and Dmo/TJones/JSmoove are not knock down shooters.

I would point out that in the past chemistry came second to assets and bringing in big names. We sacrificed Parsons and Lin to make a run at Bosh. This past offseason we went the chemistry route and brought back a team that made it to the Western Conference Finals, but obviously that was fake chemistry in that success builds a false image of brotherhood... Everything is fine when you are winning. But adversity is where chemistry either really is built and shown or you show your cracks.

You would blame this on Morey I suppose, because if anything this was outside his usual practice to stand pat. While Bob Myers and RC may not base their decisions on analytics, you would be daft to think they don't play a part.

As I mentioned above we don't have the proper personnel for the method... Morey brought back guys this year that seemed to do well but regressed. You can't predict that however. And the transition from guys we used to have to spread the floor including Lin and Parsons then Covington (a stretch 4 at the time) and Daniels to guys like Ariza, Beverly, Dmo and company is a downgrade.

And your point of Dwight not fitting... technically he doesn't have to fit if you are surrounding him with quality shooters. And the other part that seems to be missed on here is coaching.

Morey can preach all he wants about analytics, but he still leaves it to his coach to implement it properly. So if movement is needed to get open 3's then that is on the coach to implement... sadly the last two guys we have had have not been great with X's and O's to say the least. THAT does fall on Morey.

I would say the same of you, because as well said as this post is... it's repetitive of the same narrative of the article above.

Because my only "agenda" being a Rockets fan is to want the Rockets to win, but also being a Rockets fan I am here no matter what. Good with the bad. From Pippen to Kelvin Cato and whatever is next. And yes the world can work for anyone who simply likes Harden or hates him, that's THEIR world, who am I to judge. I don't have to like it... but oh well.

 

Even people who hate Morey can't be happy with this click bait article. Probably written by some staffer at huffington post who knows nothing about the NBA

 

Take that Morey, analytics is dead. You need to be more like San Antonio and GS who... wait... they use analytics too.. Wait a minute here...

 

Both teams have the same end goal (to take uncontested 3s and layups), but the roster is a lot better for that style in GS, and SA which impacts the coaching game plan and player development. The rhythm theory I don't think is valid. What IS valid is knowing to distinguish between a good shot and a great shot and that's the difference between Houston's shooting versus more successful team's. Houston's roster are
A.) not good shooters
B.) don't seem to understand the difference in quality between a 3 pt set shot, and a rushed out of position 3 point shot(probably what makes them "A" in the first place.

...part of B is coaching, but it's also personnel. Morey was spot on in how he made teams understand the true value of layups and 3 pointers - he didn't acquire the right personnel though and that made it hard on the team to execute the strategy and forced us into a highly specific and predictable style of play making it even tougher on coaches. Steve Kerr himself couldn't come in and make this a Warriors like team even if he installed his own system because we don't have anyone outside of Harden who can create a shot, or make smart passes, or understand the difference between a good shot and a better one(or for some players on this roster, a good shot and a horrible one - Looking at you Brewer!).

When I reflect on it, Morey seems to have done a really good job at understanding what measurable skills are valuable in the game of basketball on the whole and how to gain value in assets from clever contract negotiations(which was crucial in us landing Harden)....where he really failed though is in how he assembled this team to meet those goals - how he built a team around Harden. I think he was so caught up in the asset/acquisition/contract flexibility game, that he assembled a bunch of pieces that gave him maximum flexibility but don't seem to fit - even with the success of last year's team. He needs to be able to forsake flexibility in route to putting together a more complete roster.

 

The stuff about analytics was pretty horrendous writing, but the stuff about Dwight Howard was on-target.