When we think of these young Rockets in reconstruction, we imagine an “up-tempo” team that plays very quickly, with Kevin Porter Jr. at the wand and athletes like Jalen Green, KJ Martin or Josh Cristopher at the finish.
On paper, it is in any case the ideal scenario for this team, the identity that the club coached by Stephen Silas wants to embody, in this second year of reconstruction. But in fact, after a month in this 2022/23 season, the reality is very different: the Rockets are (almost) not running.
Indeed, the young troop of Houston registers only 11.1 points on counter-attack this season, that is to say the 7th weakest total of the league. An unnatural game that can be explained in particular by a defense that is far too permissive, not far from being the weakest in the league: 115.8 points against 100 possessions (28th out of 30). As well as a crazy amount of lost balls that prevent the team from picking up the pace: 22.9 points conceded in counter-attack on their ball losses (last in the league), and 18.5 points conceded on transition (last in the league ).
In other words, the Rockets run little, because they cash a basket almost every possession…
” I want to run more, to have more options when you have leather in your hands. Quite simply, I want us to be a transition team. But for that, you have to defend better, take more rebounds, make more interceptions declared Stephen Silas at the end of last week, before his team played two games, against the Pacers and the Warriors, with… 10 then 13 points only in transition.
A cruel lack of realism
There is no doubt that the Rockets love and want to run. But between wanting and being able, there is a world, and in the case of this young team this world is called “defending”. The Rockets’ beleaguered defense effectively offers them very few transitions: so far, they’ve only recorded 15.2 such possessions per game, the second-lowest total in the league this season.
” For us, the key is to make stops and secure the rebounds » noted for his part KJ Martin, while the Rockets are pretty good in the second area, with 45.8 catches per game, fifth best in the league. ” Once we have the rebound, we have several guys who can push the leather. »
But the other problem, and Kevin Porter Jr. sums it up nicely, is that the Rockets are only doing half the job. They manage to secure rebounds well, but are then terribly inefficient when they have rare opportunities to push the leather: they score less than one point per possession on transition (0.99 points / possession, the second lowest total in the league )!
” In fact, we didn’t execute these transition phases very well. Sometimes we lose the ball, or we make a hazardous pass. We waste these opportunities “Detailed the young leader of Houston. ” When our execution will be more fluid, it is certain that we will offer ourselves more baskets on transition. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jalen Green | 16 | 34.3 | 41.9 | 35.8 | 80.0 | 0.6 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 21.3 |
| Kevin Porter, Jr. | 15 | 34.9 | 41.0 | 33.8 | 73.3 | 1.5 | 4.7 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 4.0 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 19.1 |
| Alperen Sengun | 14 | 26.6 | 54.5 | 25.0 | 78.9 | 3.5 | 5.1 | 8.6 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 15.6 |
| Eric Gordon | 14 | 30.7 | 44.2 | 33.8 | 87.2 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 12.9 |
| Kj Martin | 16 | 25.2 | 53.1 | 32.7 | 65.7 | 1.4 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 11.0 |
| Jabari Smith, Jr. | 15 | 30.1 | 31.3 | 29.9 | 84.4 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 6.9 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 3.7 | 10.2 |
| Jae’sean Tate | 3 | 22.7 | 50.0 | 40.0 | 75.0 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 8.3 |
| Tari Eason | 16 | 18.1 | 41.9 | 40.0 | 82.6 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 8.1 |
| Bruno Fernando | 2 | 18.4 | 83.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 2.5 | 4.0 | 6.5 | 4.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| Usman Garuba | 14 | 16.0 | 61.0 | 85.7 | 46.2 | 2.0 | 3.6 | 5.6 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 4.4 |
| Garrison Mathews | 14 | 12.1 | 32.6 | 34.1 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| Daishen Nix | 14 | 14.5 | 36.4 | 43.3 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 3.4 |
| Trevor Hudgins | 1 | 3.8 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Josh Christopher | 12 | 7.8 | 39.5 | 21.4 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 6 | 3.2 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 60.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| Tyty Washington, Jr. | 1 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
