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5 Adjustments the Rockets Need to Make this Season...

AKA 5 things that drive me nuts watching this team:

1. Some variety on offense.. Most trips down the floor look like this - Jeremy walks it up the court, passes to a big at the top of the 3 point line, who swings it to Harden and then sets a screen for him for P&R. Lin goes to the corner. Patterson or Morris at the other corner. Parsons at the elbow. Harden then goes pretty much 1 on 5. The other 4 guys don't move a whole lot, they just wait for a possible kick-out. Granted, Harden is very good - but this is not very fun to watch. I REALLY miss the ball and player movement from Adelman's offense, with a lot of backdoor plays and sharp cuts to the hoop. At least you didn't know what to expect each time down the floor. Potential free agents are watching, and they'll want to be featured in the offense, not standing in the corner waiting for a James Harden pass. I still have no idea why they don't run more Lin/Harden P&R the way Brooklyn does with Deron Williams/Joe Johnson.

2. Jeremy Lin needs to play like Jeremy Lin. I'm not sure if the coaches are telling him to defer to Harden and stand in the corner, but clearly this is not maximizing his potential as a player. At the same time, Jeremy can't wait for coaches/teammates to tell him to be aggressive, or pass up any more open shots. There was one play against the Celtics in which he received a pass for an open elbow 3, pumpfaked, took a couple dribbles, passed it to Patterson (If I remember correctly?), who then turned the ball over. He also needs to develop a 10 foot pull-up jumper (or Tony Parker-esque floater), rather than drive too deep into the defense and have nowhere to go. So far this season he's had 7 games (of 23) with 0 FT attempts. Last season, starting with the Nets game in which he broke out, he had only 1 game (of 26) with 0 FT attempts. If the coaching staff can't figure out a way to make it work, they'll have to shoulder a lot of the blame. There's no doubt Jeremy has some work to do, but coaches need to put him in a position to succeed.

3. Omer Asik needs to finish at the rim, preferably by dunking the basketball. And he needs to go straight up with the ball rather than dribbling off his foot, etc.. It doesn't matter if he's fouled and misses his free throws. He just needs to go up strong. If opposing bigs get into foul trouble it opens up the lane for Harden, Lin, Parsons.

4. Carlos Delfino needs to work on his shot selection. He's averaging 6 3-point shot attempts a game. That's good for 6th in the league, all behind players who a) play a lot more minutes and b) hit a better percentage. He takes too many pull-up 3's from 4 feet behind the line, which I'll admit is great when he hits it but so frustrating when he doesn't.

5. Stop relying on the 3 ball - Rockets are 2nd in the League with 27 3-point attempts a game. Not surprisingly, they also miss the most 3's in the NBA, which isn't doing you any favors since the transition defense has been awful. Statistically speaking, layups, free throws, and 3-pointers are the most efficient way to score, but the first 2 options don't lead to easy fast breaks the other way. Again, more variety is needed in the offense.

No cursing in title. No pirated material, such as links to online game streams. Do not cut/paste entire sections of content from other websites. Thanks.

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