Rockets to prioritize 3-point shooting in ‘summer of development’
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Even with an extremely short-handed roster, the Rockets scored 133 points in Friday’s closer-than-expected loss at Milwaukee. Houston had a net rating of 120.9 on offense, which is a massive figure.
Several individuals had big nights, but for the team as a unit, the key statistic was clearly 3-point shooting. Overall, Houston made 25-of-53 shots (47.2%) from behind the 3-point arc, including six by KJ Martin; five by Armoni Brooks, and four apiece by DJ Augustin and Anthony Lamb.
Martin, a rookie forward, had 26 points and 7 assists. Both were career-highs, as was his 6-for-10 showing (60.0%) on 3-pointers. In postgame comments, head coach Stephen Silas cited the 3-point shooting by young players as a critical factor in opening up other areas of the game.
“It’s going to be a summer of development,” Silas said. “We’re going to continue to work on the 3-point shooting, because that opens up so much, and draws defenders out for other guys to roll or drive. It causes teams to close out on a guy like KJ, who had some opportunities to drive on closeouts. He got to the rim. He made some dunks. The progression and his improvement is tangible. It’s really, really good to see.”
For the 2020-21 season as a whole, the Rockets (16-51) rank dead last in the NBA in 3-point shooting (33.6%) as a team. That matches with their record, which is also the league’s worst among 30 teams.
In the last five games, however, the Rockets are up to 38.0% on 3-pointers — good for No. 15 in the league. Much of that growth has come from Martin, who is shooting 56.3% on 3-pointers over his last three outings, and on a decent sample size of 5.3 attempts per game.
“It feels great to go out and prove what I can do,” Martin said. “But at the end of the day, the goal for me is to win the game. So no matter how good I play, if we lose, it feels like, ‘For what?’ It feels good to play good, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to go out and compete at a high level and do everything I can to help us win.”
Houston also had 36 assists on Friday, which is nearly 13 more than their usual average of 23.2 per game (No. 25 in the NBA). While assist figures from earlier in the season were likely held down by poor shooting, it certainly can’t hurt each player’s willingness to make the extra pass when they have confidence in their teammate knocking down the shot.
#Rockets had 36 assists and 25 3ptrs made last night. It was basically drive and kick all night long. No ISOs. I think this is more of what Silas has in mind for his offense. We need to see more of this going forward.
— Chris A. White 🐻 (@fyrebear) May 8, 2021
Since taking the Houston job, Silas has frequently emphasized that he wants to see more ball movement on offense, and less isolation play.
As for 2020-21, it’s too late for Silas, Martin, and the rest of the Rockets to make any sort of major change to this season’s win-loss figures. But with superior shooting and health, along with a strong work ethic in the upcoming offseason, they’re hopeful of better days in 2021-22.
