NBA Small Ball Transformation

I think D’antoni is moving the needle in the NBA…this will be something to watch.

The Rockets are going to play super-small, and launch an ungodly number of 3s. As is, about 44% of their shots are 3s – the league’s highest share. That number jumps to an even 50% with P.J. Tucker at center, per Cleaning The Glass, and it might jump higher now. Mike D’Antoni has often said his regret from his Seven Seconds or Less days in Phoenix is that he did not take the small-ball, 3-point revolution far enough. Now, he gets to oversee its natural endpoint.

Will be interesting to watch and see how it develops but I do wonder if it has more to do with how tall the players are or their given skill set? Meaning if someone of length was available that could also shoot the 3 with reasonable efficiency would the Rockets be interested?

It should be a fun experiment and possibly impact how the big man is used. I definitely think the trend for 3 ball is on the rise.

The real test is going to come in the playoffs when they have to defend Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokic or Rudy Gobert. Are Isaiah Hartenstein and a 37 year old Tyson Chandler enough? I would think not, but we’ll see.

They just played AD last night and won. They’re not going to put Chandler or Hartenstein in. They’ll double if they have to, then try to outscore you.

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Playoff basketball is a whole different animal. That was my point in the original comment, we won’t know how this works until they have to go through a best-of-7, gameplanning against a team who can exploit the potential weakness they’ve created. FWIW, AD certainly got his last night. Scored 32 on 67% shooting with all but two of his makes in the paint.

I’m sure AD will average 30/10 at least if they played a playoff series against them. I agree it will be fascinating to watch in the playoffs. But I think this gives them a better chance then otherwise.

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Hate that style of ball.

I thought the Lakers game last night was unwatchable. It might actually work, but it was iso iso iso one guy while four stand and watch every possession, resulting in tons of open threes (and it seemed like they shot the lights out).

It was more interesting defensively to me - the Lakers had mismatches with LeBron or Davis or Javale McGee the whole game and got tons and tons of wide open layups and dunks. But they also force fed the post into double and triple teams and it resulted in stagnant offense with less threes.