So I hear the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem in the first place. Well, I have a problem. I admit it. I love watching absolutely horrible movies. I’ve seen Battlefield Earth an unhealthy amount of times. There aren’t many Nic Cage movies that I’ve missed. I’ve seen Gigli almost three times.
I know visual pain when it comes to entertainment. In a sick way, I kind of seek it out.
Which is why I recently sat down and watched, on purpose, every single one of the Houston Rockets' defensive transition possessions this season. Spoiler alert: it was beyond hard to watch. But it was humorous, at least. Watching James Harden look lost in space off the ball is almost Oscar worthy. In fact, Harden ought to be up for a few Oscars with some of the acting performances he puts on. But that's another story.
Back to Houston's transition defense, which, if you're not really paying attention (and why would you be?), is the most damaging transition defense in the NBA. It's not the worst, technically. When this viewing experiment occurred, the Rockets ranked 25th in transition defense (points allowed per transition possession) -- better than only the Bucks, Jazz, Kings, Pelicans and Suns. But it hurts the Rockets worse because 15 percent of their defensive possessions come in transition, which is the second-highest percentage in the league.
Plus, none of those teams have the expectations the Rockets have.
Or at least the expectations the Rockets used to have.
For the sake of comparison, Houston found itself in transition on 15.6 percent of its defensive possessions last year, but they also ranked ninth in overall defense in these situtations. So what's changed? What are they doing differently this year that has turned them into a hot pile of transition-defense garbage?
I can tell you this: If I haven't figured it out by now, I never will. I watched 552 Houston defensive transition possessions, which equates to two hours and 33 minutes of viewing time. I sort of kept a diary as I watched. It was awful. But this is the down and dirty of Houston's truly horrific transition defense. Read on at your own risk ...
RUNNING NOTES
...We start off with a bad pass toward half court against the Denver Nuggets, Will Barton leaks out and we get a thunderous dunk. But I'm not sure we can hit them with a poor effort, other than on the offensive end of the floor by being sloppy. We continue.
...Rockets are incredibly sloppy and lackluster with the ball and that’s where these transition chances are starting. So far, it looks like the malaise in those offensive possessions just transfers right over to getting back on defense, but it's early. Plenty to figure out.
...Let's check out a few examples. There are three plays in this video and they're pretty indicative of how the Rockets play transition defense. Patrick Beverley is almost always looking to get back and break up a play. Sometimes that doesn't happen and Corey Brewer is sprinting back to get a chasedown or interrupt the play. If neither of those things happen, the effort becomes laughable and the opponent gets an easy bucket.
...After 13 clips of the opening game against Denver, I feel pretty good about this viewing project. There is some effort. Beverley, Brewer, and Clint Capela actually care. We move on to the Golden State Warriors game.
...The Rockets are just trotting mostly. In fact, on this play you can see the first real egregious example of James Harden sort of just watching instead of actively defending. He sort of guessed where Stephen Curry might be but even then was he going to really provide resistance?
...It's hard to kill the Rockets on some of these plays I'm watching, as we make our way through clips 14-35. Some of it seems to happen from poor design. The Rockets are crashing the offensive boards with a couple of players and it's leaving the gates wide open for a track meet going the other way. However, there are also just things you can't explain:
- There's a 1-on-4 break -- yes, that's four Rockets defenders against one offensive player -- in which a trailing Festus Ezeli gets a shot inside that he simply misses.
- The Warriors get a transition jumper off a made basket by Houston, which is just inexcusable.
- There is Klay Thompson running and James Harden jogging that results in Thompson dunking.
- Houston got really lucky in this game because the Warriors missed a ton of open transition shots. That's right. The Rockets were lucky in a game they lost by 20.
- I'm not convinced the Rockets know they're allowed to box out opponents in transition because a lot of tipped rebounds and second-chance opportunities occur.
...The Rockets simply look disorganized on transition defense against the Dubs. But it's possible the Warriors just make everybody look this way so I don't want to chastise the Rockets just yet.
...In fact as we move into the game against Miami (clips 36-50), they do look more organized in transition, which is helped by the Heat’s lack of shooters. Houston can pack the paint in transition. But the laziness is still there.
...Almost everything begins with some guard or wing driving wildly into the paint hoping for a call. Call never comes. Rockets react slowly. Opponents run and run and run.
...We move ahead to the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder (clips 51-67), and we're noticing a trend. Unless Dwight Howard is already back due to some kind of fall or complaint about a call as a quick turnover is happening, he's not giving much effort. Trevor Ariza also doesn't seem to be particularly concerned with whether the Rockets get a stop in transition.
...The majority of the Rockets' transition defense looks like a dog lazily trying to bite its tail without getting up off the ground. There is faint effort but nobody is really trying to accomplish anything. But to be fair, since there is a fair bit of picking on Harden when it comes to this stuff, we should show him getting a stop with some effort in a seemingly hopeless possession.
...This could be so much worse. Rockets get bailed out often by opponent mistakes in transition more than they get stops. Maybe that's how it is for most teams in transition but when you're watching Trevor Ariza wander around like Mr. Magoo and Dwight Howard get pushed around like he's 180 lbs., it's hard to give the benefit of the doubt.
...In case you were wondering, it's not just the Warriors that make the Rockets look disorganized in transition. The Sacramento Kings (clips 85-110) are putting it on them as well. This is like watching a guide to procrastination. That's what the Rockets' transition defense feels like right now. They're not quite in the mode to begin their big writing assignment, so they're just finding other things to do while the clock ticks away. That never backfires on anybody though, right?
...Here's an example of the Rockets poorly crashing the boards and how it affects their transition defense:
...Rockets are doing a great job against the Los Angeles Clippers (clips 111-123). Clips want to run against them but the Rockets are forcing turnovers. This is turning positive because of how important this matchup can be, especially given the two teams' recent history. I suppose it would be highly unfair to ask guys who are getting paid tens of millions of dollars to actually try this hard on a consistent basis.
...Ariza back to going through the motions like a couple just praying for a divorce once the kids go to college. He's the hardest one to watch, surprisingly. There's a 3-on-5 for the Clippers and Wes Johnson gets a trip to the FT line. There's another 3-on-5 and DeAndre Jordan gets an open ally-oop. How does this happen?
...25 percent of the way through these possessions and I’m contemplating taking up smoking. I stopped at this point to use the restroom. I then decided to floss. I haven’t flossed outside of a dentist’s office in probably four years unless I had corn stuck in my teeth. I’m just procrastinating to avoid going back to this. The Rockets are a bad influence on me.
...Back to it. Part of the problem is Ty Lawson has the defensive resistance of a garden gnome.
...Why am I doing this to myself? It’s not too late to switch assignments. My editors are pretty cool about switching things up. The Rockets are just dying inside more and more as this goes on.
...The Denver Nuggets (clips 142-157) have turned this into the last two minutes of an And-1 Mixtape Tour game. Oops. Dunks. Murder. Duke Tango is running on the floor and yelling into a microphone. OK, maybe two of those things didn't happen.
...A lot of these start off with a dejected Rockets announcer saying, “Well there’s a lazy pass,” and then an easy score happens, and you can hear Clyde Drexler sharpening a knife.
...Zaza Pachulia just beat Trevor Ariza down the floor. Don't believe me? Watch.
...Boston Celtics (clips 168-193) ran this team stupid. Twenty-five transition possessions. Thirty-five transition points. This is brutal to watch. It's not even so much that the Rockets are bad in transition in this game (which they are); they just look completely overmatched.
...I’m not sure I text my parents and tell them that I love them enough.
...Portland Trail Blazers (clips 194-210) are peppering Houston with cross-court passes for open jumpers. There’s no way Houston is organized enough to recover to these attempts. They just have to hope Portland misses. When your only hope is the opposing team missing, you're not in good shape.
...It’s been an hour. I need to cleanse my palette with something. I’m using a lifeline here at the suggestion of Twitter. I’ll give myself one more of these at some point but that will be the limit. Do not let me have a third no matter how much I beg.
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) December 30, 2015
...MEMPHIS (clips 211-233) HAS 22 TRANSITION POSSESSIONS AGAINST THE ROCKETS. MEMPHIS! Memphis hasn’t run like this since Jason Williams was slinging the rock around the court and Hubie Brown was screaming at him.
...Conservatively, I’ll estimate 40 percent of these possessions begin with Harden in the paint turning it over or throwing it against the rim/backboard.
...I know this isn’t the case but I feel chained to a radiator. This is Cary Elwes in Saw territory. I’m not reaching for the saw but I’m eyeing this room like a crazy man trying to find an out.
...I was once driving across the country and I hit a bird. Really the bird hit me. It was flying across the highway and went right into the grill of the SUV. It’s possible I killed it or it’s possible it killed itself. Now I’m thinking it watched these possessions and then just decided to go for a flight and see where it took him. It took him to heaven.
...As the Detroit Pistons (clips 288-301) get a putback in transition, I just realized that they don’t count these offensive boards and second-chance points as transition points. They go to the offensive board stats and the transition possession is considered over. This is so much worse than the numbers tell you.
...I’ll say this: December 4th the Rockets and Dallas Mavericks (clips 314-325) played, and Houston was all over the Mavs’ transition opportunities. It’s encouraging to see them do this after a month of it being so painful.
...OK, the Rockets just conceded a layup up nine as time expired and that counts against them but it shouldn’t really be counted against them. All it took was 326 possessions before I felt like the numbers were skewed against them. Wait, I just remembered the offensive rebounding again.
...It’s been nearly two hours and we’re only up to December 9th. I’m looking through the schedule to see if they randomly took two weeks off of playing games. It has to be later in the year. I see a light at the end of the tunnel but it might be a freight train coming my way.
...John Wall (Washington Wizards clips 379-405) looks like he’s doing an easy fast break drill in practice. This is the stuff for Harden that is embarrassing. It's not awful that Wall beat you on a fast break when you were already back. It's looking like you're not trying to do anything.
...My hands almost feel like they’re melting when I look at them. There is definitely a melting visual in my eyes right now.
...Rockets are now playing the Los Angeles Lakers (clips 406-427). After every stop, Kobe Bryant is just flinging the ball ahead and there’s nothing the Rockets can or are willing to do about it. That's right. The Lakers, in 2016, are making the Rockets look helpless in transition. Kobe could’ve easily had eight assists in this game simply from transition opportunities. He also took six transition shots. 37-year old Kobe was running on them.
...I need my second lifeline. There will not be a third.
...The three Denver games are probably the biggest indictments in this entire endeavor. Denver didn’t respect Houston at all. Houston was in the Western Conference finals just months ago and this Denver team is treating it like the JV squad.
...Remember that Jason Terry skirmish with DeMarcus Cousins' manager. Sadly, this gave me life during this experiment.
...Down to the final 100 possessions during this and all I can hear in my head is my brain bleeding and Europe playing "Final Countdown" on a glorious loop.
...The one positive is it appears the Rockets have the Clippers’ number. That’s very apparent in these possessions, if you can even glean that from just one type of possession.
...DeAndre Jordan just dunked in transition and yelled "And-1!" That seems optimistic considering the 40.8 percent free throw shooting this season.
...To be fair to Houston (as much as I can be at this point), it’s been two miserable months and their best effort so far seems to be a San Antonio Spurs Christmas Day game (clips 519-528). Maybe there is hope if they can get up for a daunting opponent like the Spurs.
...The effort was pretty good against the New Orleans Pelicans (clips 529-537) too. That’s back-to-back games. I feel the change coming. I have faith in humanity.
...Never mind. It’s not better. It’s still bad. Ten possessions left in this experience and it's reverted back to being just utter laziness against the Atlanta Hawks. The final play in this viewing experience is the Rockets making a poor decision in transition and getting extremely lucky not to have to pay for it.
...That is the end of this horrible experience. The one thing I learned is that unless the Rockets start putting more effort and care into this season and make it consistent, they're going to have to rely on a lot of luck to be successful in the playoffs.
Please don’t ever do this to yourself. Volcanoes will end us all.
