Despite Jordan Hill’s struggles during his short stint with the Knicks, Jordan Hill came to Houston and played better with the increased amount of minutes. While he didn’t set the world on fire, Hill’s averages of 6.4 points and 5 rebounds a game was a vast improvement over what he did in New York, and Hill is looking to build off that improvement this upcoming season, however, he might not get the minutes to do so. Yao Ming looking to return for training camp and Patrick Patterson (who with Scola returning has a chance at being the first big off of the bench) being drafted Hill is going to have to earn his minutes, and if Summer League is any indication, he might not be seeing the court too much this year.
Jordan Hill’s biggest problem offensively seems to be his inability to get a good look after he receives the ball in the post with his back to the basket. He was so raw offensively coming out of college, and it seems (at least to me) that he still hasn’t done any back to the basket work. Hill doesn’t know how to use his combination of size and strength in the post to his advantage just yet:
Here, Jordan Hill makes the catch in a pretty good spot. Defending him is the Suns’ second round pick, Gani Lawal. Lawal probably is equal to Hill in terms of strength, but when it comes to quickness/athletic ability, that favors Hill. Hill doesn’t exploit this advantage, and instead he tries to improve his position by muscling Lawal with two shots to the body. He doesn’t get anywhere, and instead of trying a spin move to the baseline (which is there, and with Hill’s quickness advantage it would work) he settles for a fall-away hook over his left shoulder. Not a high percentage shot.
If I told you that Patrick Patterson had the fifth highest Offensive Rating in the NCAA, you’d probably think that I am lying. It’s a true statement though, and Patterson’s offensive game is one of the reasons why I think the 14th overall pick for the Rockets will come in and make an impact right away.
The first thing that you notice about Patrick Patterson is his body. He is a strong guy, and his combination of size and strength makes him the perfect type of player to use as a screener in a pick and roll set:
Here, Patterson sets the screen and quickly separates from the defenders on the roll. The roll here is important because he doesn’t roll on a straight line to the basket. Instead, he rolls towards the baseline first, opening up a passing lane and then he heads towards the rim.
With the Rockets-Wizards game tied at 92 with 33 seconds left, the Rockets had a tough decision to make. With 22 seconds on the shot clock, they had to figure out if they wanted to go quick to preserve the two-for-one opportunity, ensuring that they will get the ball back, or if they just wanted to take their time, get the best look possible, and give the Wizards the final shot. The Rockets decided to go quick, and they run a quick hitter coming out of the timeout:
Aaron Brooks comes up the middle of the court, making himself available to the basketball. After Kyle Lowry inbounds the ball, he is going to cut along the baseline, running off of a Luis Scola screen.
Against the Rockets (and some former Knicks), the Knicks ran out to a pretty big lead, but the Rockets were able to climb back in it. Part of it was because the Rockets are a pretty good team, but the Knicks helped out big time. The Knicks made a couple of mental errors that lead to easy baskets for the Rockets:
Poor Outlet Passing
On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt. The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:
Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:
This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1). This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal. However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking. For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch. The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this. This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.
In my opinion, the head coaching position is a little undervalued by casual NBA fans. I think the reason for this is because whenever you turn on the game you see guys like Kobe, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James going 1 on 1, and some people assume (incorrectly) that the players are doing whatever they want out there.
Last night’s Nuggets-Rockets game showed you how important a quality head coach is. The Nuggets were without George Karl (who was receiving cancer treatment), and without him they made a ton of uncharacteristic mistakes you don’t see the Nuggets make. These mistakes ended up costing the Nuggets the game.
Mistake 1: Letting Trevor Ariza Get His Shot Off
Here, the Nuggets are up by 5 points with a little over 1 minute to go. If the Nuggets are able to get a stop here, they would pretty much have the win locked up (after a lot of foul shots). When Trevor Ariza makes his catch, you just get a feeling he wants to shoot a three (Ariza shoots 5.9 threes a game). Carmelo Anthony recognizes it, and he crowds Ariza.
One big factor in Pacer demise against a 3-man Heat team? Tyler Hansbrough. Three terrible first half shots & two huge second half travels 15 hours ago
James and Battier came over to remind Wade that Battier wide open from the corner is a better option than Anthony finish at the rim. 15 hours ago
