Tag: Small Ball

Rockets GM Daryl Morey has hilarious reaction to ‘tall ball’ Nuggets

Small Ball, meet Tall Ball? Rockets GM Daryl Morey had quite a reaction upon seeing Wednesday’s giant lineup for the Denver Nuggets.

In the 2019-20 NBA season, the undersized Rockets have become best known for “small ball.” Two years ago, Houston GM Daryl Morey even produced his own musical by the same name.

On Wednesday’s opening day of scrimmages at the NBA “bubble” complex in Florida, the Denver Nuggets presented an alternative with what might could be referred to as “tall ball.”

With most of Denver’s usual guards such as Jamal Murray, Torrey Craig, Gary Harris, and Will Barton all sitting out for various reasons, the Nuggets started the scrimmage with a lineup of 7-foot-0 Nikola Jokic at point guard, 7-foot-2 Bol Bol at forward, and 6-foot-11 Mason Plumlee at center. The smallest member of Denver’s starting five was usual power forward Paul Millsap, who still stands at 6-foot-7!

A Twitter user shared an image of that tall lineup with the caption “Daryl Morey bout to have an anxiety attack,” and Morey replied with this:

In contrast to Denver’s lineup, the Rockets start 6-foot-5 P.J. Tucker at center, and they often play 6-foot-3 Eric Gordon as a third guard next to an All-Star backcourt of Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

[lawrence-related id=24287]

At the moment, the No. 3 Nuggets (43-22) and No. 6 Rockets (40-24) are currently slotted to meet in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. (Both have already clinched their spots.)

While both teams could easily move up or down in the tightly packed West standings once the 2019-20 regular season resumes next week, it’s certainly well within the realm of possibility that they could face off in the playoffs. In fact, shortly after the NBA’s COVID-19 hiatus in March, Morey indicated that the Rockets were preparing to play Denver.

[lawrence-related id=27547]

Should that happen, the Nuggets would likely have Murray, Barton, Craig, and Harris back, so the height discrepancy with their normal roster probably wouldn’t look as extreme as Wednesday’s scrimmage lineup might suggest. Nonetheless, the possibility makes for high comedy, and Morey showed his signature sense of humor by playing along.

The “tall ball” Nuggets did win their scrimmage over the Washington Wizards, 89-82 (box score). Bol Bol, somehow a 7-foot-2 small forward, led the way with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 blocks.

The first scrimmage for the “small ball” Rockets is set for Friday night, when they play the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Central, with the game shown on NBA TV.

[lawrence-related id=34512,3354]

[vertical-gallery id=34181]

Boston’s Tacko Fall no fan of ‘Pocket’ Rockets’ small ball approach

It probably shouldn’t surprise 7-foot-5 Boston Celtics two way center Tacko Fall hates small ball, but it’s not just about his height.

It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that exceptionally tall Boston Celtics two way center Tacko Fall isn’t a fan of small ball.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Athletic’s Grant and Tacko Show podcast, Fall and podding partner and teammate Grant Williams debated the state of big men in the modern NBA, and the inevitable scourge of old-school, back-to-the-basket bigs came up.

That scourge being the rise of the style of play made famous by the Golden State Warriors from the mid-2010s to the present now being taken to an even greater extreme — before the pandemic, anyway — by the Houston “Pocket” Rockets, as they have come to be known.

“I’m not going to lie,” said the 7-foot-5 big man, ” … but I hate small ball.”

“I wanted us to beat Houston so bad the other day,” he continued, referring to a 111-110 overtime loss to the Rockets which saw the ultra-small lineup deployed by the Texas franchise pull Boston out of their usual style of play.

While the interruption of play caused by the coronavirus has made testing the theory impossible for the moment, the Senegalese center may be on to something.

RELATED: Boston’s Tacko Fall, Grant Williams start new podcast

As Boston learned the hard way, mirroring how Houston wants to play has mostly played into their hands, but another clue supports Fall’s distaste for meeting the style of play the Rockets are embracing with lineups not geared for pulling down rebounds.

Of the Rockets six losses since doubling down on centerless (at least, by traditional standards) basketball at the trade deadline, five came in contests Houston lost the rebounding battle.

This doesn’t mean that slower-footed bigs like Enes Kanter are the answer necessarily — we saw how the Turkish big man struggled against the Rockets in that game, for example — but lineups better-suited for corralling boards in general might be.

Fall also correctly points out it’s not a strategy that works for every team, even if it had been producing largely positive results for Houston.

“Not everyone has [Russell] Westbrook or [James] Harden on their team. It makes it so much easier for everyone around them.”

[protected-iframe id=”74a97b650c8b5293cedff1dbcfafe650-134770808-157869264″ info=”https://tunein.com/embed/player/t140443289/” scrolling=”no”]

A lot of Houston’s success ought to be attributed to the way their opponent on February 11th has changed the way they use Westbrook as a non-shooter coupled with the already-effective way Harden games the system getting to the line.

So, while Boston (and Tacko Fall) may not get another crack at the Rockets this season barring some incredible postseason luck, the UCF has some excellent points about the limits of small ball as a strategy.

Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to see some other teams learn whether the board man gets paid against the Rockets with a resumption of league activities sometime this summer as well.

To hear the rest of Fall and Williams’ discussion on the role of big men in the modern NBA, click here — or listen in the player embedded above.

[lawrence-related id=31812,31794,31771,31765]

This Houston Rockets small-ball thing is really working

I’m going to eat crow now.

The Houston Rockets made it clear that they’d be leaning into this small-ball lineup thing about a month ago after Clint Capela got hurt.

They beat the Mavericks using the smallest lineup ever trotted out on a basketball floor with not a single player over 6-foot-6 touching the court and they were promptly roasted by NBA experts and fans alike.

We heard it all. Tweets were flying. Everything from “how are they going to grab a single rebound” to “oh, Anthony Davis is going to WAX these dudes in the playoffs” was on the table. I was one of those people.

Now, I’d like to use this platform to promptly eat some crow with a touch of mumbo sauce on the side if possible.

Houston’s strategy is actually working! The Rockets’ ultra-small lineups haven’t just been good — they’ve been dominant. They’re 8-2 in their last 10 games when playing this small-ball lineup and are 5-1 against playoff teams in that span. They’ve played against the likes of Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert and Kristaps Porzingis and have still come out with wins driven by their 116.6 offensive rating over the last 10 games.

They’ve shown is this can work. Why? Because nobody really knows how to guard them.

The Rockets are trotting out lineups with five shooters who are all perimeter players and that means there’s literally always a ton of space for them to attack in the paint.

Like, what are you really supposed to do here? James Harden gets a smaller guard on him and starts to drive right to the rim. You come over and help? Boom. Lob.

That paint looks like it has as much space as the sky at night.

That’s an easy cut for Ben McLemore and an easy pass for Harden with pretty much no good help on the floor. You’d think that changes with a real big man on the floor, right?

NOPE. They did it over Rudy Gobert, too.

I have no clue what you’re supposed to do with James Harden coming at you in  an empty paint with a cutter on the way. Apparently, neither does the reigning defensive player of the year.

There are still legitimate questions about how the Rockets will fare over a 7 game series against, say, a Nikola Jokic or an Anthony Davis. At the end of the day, height is height. And that’s much of what basketball comes down to.

But it’s time to stop doubting whether this formula is the right one for the Rockets or not. It works — for now, at least.

[jwplayer Ut7nJb8v-q2aasYxh]