When the Rockets open their preseason schedule Tuesday night at Memphis, their objective is to play faster on offense.
“Oh really, that’s right down my alley,” said forward Corey Brewer, who sneaks down the floor off missed shots to get in position for fast-break opportunities as effectively as anyone.
The Rockets' goal of playing faster seems unreal considering they ranked second in the NBA in pace last season (at 96.5 possessions per 48 minutes). The eventual champion Golden State Warriors were first (98.3).
Last season the Rockets played at a faster pace than any Rockets team in the last 25 years. Houston had 2.6 more possessions per game than the NBA average (93.9).
Coach Kevin McHale is pushing for a faster pace, if you can believe it, and it’s not about getting shots up more quickly.
“Get more guys running,” McHale said. “Get the court spread out and attack the defense more and get the ball in the paint quicker. It doesn’t mean shoot faster, it means you attack faster. If you get the ball in the paint within three to four seconds of the other team scoring or getting a defensive rebound, good things will happen.”
McHale has plans to utilize point guards Ty Lawson and Patrick Beverley together with shooting guard James Harden in different groupings against Memphis to push the floor.
McHale doesn’t mind using Harden again as a ball handler; he had a team-high usage rate of 31.3 percent last season. However, Lawson is expected to take pressure off Harden by handling the ball more often. During training camp practices, everyone has praised Lawson’s ability
to create in terms of driving to the basket.
This allows Harden to get more catch-and-shoot opportunities, and the coaches want to see him move around in half-court sets to curtail double-teams once he gets the ball. If Harden gets the defensive rebound, McHale wants him to push the pace, which enables Lawson to play off the ball more.
“You just have to get out and run the lanes and we’ll be all right,” said Lawson, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Nuggets. “Me and James are pushing the ball and we’re going to find whoever is ahead of us, whether it’s Dwight [Howard] in the lane or Corey.”
Brewer said when he played with Lawson in Denver there were lots of backdoor dunks and layups because of the quick pace to the offense. Lawson was third in the NBA in assists last season at 9.6 per game
“We got a team that can run and put the ball in the basket,” Brewer said. “So might as well play fast.”
When you push the pace as fast as McHale wants it, turnovers become a factor. Last season the Rockets had the third-worst turnover ratio in the league at 15.0, yet McHale believes that spreading the floor allows the ball handler to cut down on turnovers by using his vision to see where people are located.
Harden finished third in the league with 4.0 turnovers per game, and that is at least partially attributed to how much he handled the ball.
By adding Lawson as the main ball handler, turnovers should decrease. Last season, Lawson turned the ball over just 2.5 times per game.
McHale has stressed that his team isn’t changing its up-tempo offense -- he just wants to get into it faster. It seems the blueprint of the Warriors is taking effect, even for the team that was knocked out of the playoffs by the champs.
“When you play faster, you need five guys playing faster or at least four guys,” McHale said. “Playing faster, you need to collapse the defense and your wings, out on the side, and you need someone pushing it. It’s how effective our team is playing and we’re going to do more of it. It takes everybody to run. Running is not left up to Ty and Pat. As a matter of fact, Ty and Pat are going to be wings at times. If James gets a defensive rebound, he can push it to [power forward] Terrence Jones and to everybody.”