Mike D'Antoni's extreme small-ball experiment

The Houston Rockets have gone to extreme small ball, or Micro Ball, playing no big men since trading for Robert Covington in January. How has the experiment worked out? And is Micro Ball a flash in the pan, or is it here to stay? This scouting report for James Harden, Russell Westbrook and the 2020 Rockets uses analytics & stats to assess the overall success of the team.

Twitter: @elgee35

Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.

Stats courtesy:

Player art by @CrumpledJumper

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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for commentary and education.

Music: Hair Fairlight

[ThinkingBasketball]

Coach Gibson Pyper (of Half Court Hoops) will be on the podcast tomorrow (9/1/20). Leave any questions for him on my twitter @elgee35. 🙏

[adnanbegovic]

Its cool seeing Jeff Green playing well again

[jacksondowdle]

I love how you gave a quick shout out to Coach Daniel. Respect.

[Terror]

Lakers vs Rockets gonna be real interesting

Size vs speed, inside vs outside, James vs James

[chrissullivan]

The fact that the Rockets are a bad shooting team really blew my mind.

[纽约失眠人]

People tend to forget the rockets didn’t have that much talent as a normal championship team with deep and explosive bench, also the owner didn’t want to play extra taxes. Their main newly signed players were Meclmore and Jeff green which were all bets with low price. If they have a talented big like ad they would definitely use him but with this lineup I feel like small ball is the most effective way of playing to keep them as a championship contender.

[DreamWorldSyd]

I’m kinda stoned and I saw the thumbnail and legit assumed Micro was one of the Ball brothers nickname, or maybe there was a new one.

[Rayzajw]

It's nice to see the rockets using the New Zealand national basketball team model. We've done this in the last few tournaments out of need because our best Center Steven Adams is busy with okc. We played so well small that greece and serbia had to bench their really good bigs in fear of exploitation

[PieChiefcountergamer]

5:06
"and then kick it out for a high percentage shot"

*airball*

[jonathanlovelace]

Finding forwards/wings who can defend bigs and protect the rim as well as Covington and Tucker AND are good 3-point shooters seems like a major challenge.

[ImBarryScottCSS]

Just an fyi, when I heard the "40 is a big number" opening line I thought; I've seen this video before and nearly closed it before I realised it was the ad. Not sure what you can do with that info but just thought I should say.

[wrst]

On that take about a ferrari with a prius engine

The Warriors are pretty much the ferrari engine, but they dont play that microball so aggressively as the Rockets

[adrianhogue]

Wow i legit just logged on youtube after months and THIS IS JUST WHAT I NEEDED

[andreingramakadjscrewrip]

If the Rockets somehow finnesse a championship this year, I will legitimately be scared that big men will go extinct in this league

[JoeTheBroken]

Weve already seen the Warriors start lineups in finals with the tallest player (Barnes) being 6'8 so people shouldnt be suprised by the rockets doing this now

[dhlawrence]

Coming back to this realizing microball was actually the opposite of what the nba is today. Crazy evolution.

[club]

This kinda reminds me of OKC when they had Harden, Westbrook, and Durant. That fixes a lot of problems with small ball(rim protection, rebounding, and shooting)

[Tcify]

And....they got unsurprisingly blown away by the first team with a competent frontcourt...

[mli]

In the relatively early years of roundball, players were usually 6' and under as teams favored more coordinated, quicker players. Big men were largely used to hack and bully the opposition rather than get buckets. Then George Mikan came along as the first successful center and hoops changed forever.

80 years and a three point line later, we find ourselves moving back to where we started. Crazy how things work

[simonamorim]

I think he's making the videos just under 10 minutes just to spite me at this point.