http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/1961716 Separating reputation from reality By JOHNATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle New Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy is well into his pledge to watch every possession of every Rockets game last season. Remember, he said he even "missed the misery." As admirable as his celebrated work ethic is, his tape work is unnecessary. The study will separate the frustrations from the facts, the reputations from reality. Having already seen every possession of every game, we offer just what Van Gundy will find. Reputation: Steve Francis is no point guard. Reality: No one else, this side of Jason Kidd, is. Francis will never be a traditional quarterback, but he is closer than many thought he would be. Kidd and John Stockton combined are still one championship shy of shoot-first Tony Parker. In short, Francis is all the playmaker the Rockets need. His six assists per game last season are not bad for a point guard averaging 20-plus on a poor-shooting, low-possession team. If anything, the tapes show how many open shots the Rockets missed. The problem was that Francis would grow frustrated and try to do too much when the shooters did not shoot straight. That is fixable, and he will mature out of habit for unnecessary turnovers. Where he needs the work is on every play, on-the-ball, point guard defense. The days of wandering and jumping picks are over. Reputation: Francis and Cuttino Mobley must learn to make Yao Ming the offensive priority. Reality: They already know that. Yao is still learning it. When Yao plays with energy, he is as wonderful as the Rockets' Rookie of the Year campaign would have you believe. But in the second half of the season, he struggled with the rookie wall. By the last month, he was a zombie. As much as Kenyon Martin battled Tim Duncan for low-post position in the NBA Finals, every team fought Yao. By the last four to six weeks, he could not fight back. In the middle of the season, the Rockets got around that by having Yao cut, or "dive," to the basket. But late in the season, he was so tired, players on the bench were screaming, "Dive, Yao, dive," almost as if shouting, "Run, Forrest, run." Next season, Yao will be able to move all the time and key much more of the offense. Reputation: The Rockets "iso" too much. Reality: Actually, the Rockets did not iso enough. OK, that might not be quite true. But a case could be made that Rudy Tomjanovich overreacted and removed too much of the isolation plays from his game plan. The Rockets seem to iso so much because they run so little. If they use 17 isos in a game with 82 possessions, it looks much more stagnant than the Mavericks' 25 iso plays in games with 100 possessions. Don Nelson has been an iso guy since calling plays for Sidney Moncrief and Paul Pressey in Milwaukee or Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway in Golden State. But because his teams run, the iso plays don't stand out as much. The Rockets also have a tendency to dribble the lettering off the ball when they do iso, making those 17 plays stand out even more. Even Larry Brown, who has always preached the antithesis of isolation basketball, ran more iso with Allen Iverson and the 76ers. The Rockets were the poster children of the evils of the iso before the rule changes. They since have become a pick-and-roll team (though some consider pick-and-roll a version of an iso). Executed well, the pick and roll is still the toughest play to defend. Reputation: Eddie Griffin should post up more. Reality: That would be nice someday. But for now, he's so bad at it that the priority needs to be getting Griffin to become a cut-to-the-basket weapon the way Marcus Camby was for Van Gundy in the 1999 playoffs. Griffin finally started to move without the ball in the last few weeks of the season. Add that, and something off the dribble, and he'll be a solid fourth option. Reputation: The Rockets are a young, high-flying, up-tempo team. Reality: The roster is young, too young. But that includes a bunch of kids who don't play. Most of the rotation is experienced enough. They are far from high speed. They are a slow-down team that did not take care of the ball well enough to score so little on the break. The Rockets were not far off last season. But they give away too many possessions on both ends to be consistent. Making the Rockets disciplined and professional every day, every game, every possession will likely become Van Gundy's Job One. But first, he might go ahead and watch all those tapes.
Is this guy serious? This is a joke, right? This is the worst article I've ever read in my life. Looks like the Rockets need a new beat writer, one that doesn't have his head up his ass.
This ignores the fact that Steve had a horrible assist- to- turnover ratio. It also doesn't acknowledge his complete inability to run a fast break. Tony Parker may be shoot-first, but it seemed like he understood the offense. Like some people have previously mentioned, Rudy T. had to give constant remedial training to his players. Obviously someone wasn't understanding the offense. It is true that Yao was tired, but this hardly explains all of his struggles. It is unfortunate that Feigen is so naive here. The bottom line was Steve and Cuttino never developed a decent chemistry with Yao, they never seemed to understand where he liked the ball, and they rarely, if ever, got him easy shots. Steve would find Cuttino at the opposite corner near the baseline double teamed by Christie and Webber before he found Yao wide open in the paint! (I exaggerate a little). Isoing Yao is just a bad idea. He is a talented passer and decision maker. He is not as talented one-on-one. Let's utilize his strengths. This is true, hopefully Steve learns to push the ball up more.
Has Feigan ever coached a basketball team? Junior high doesnt count. Im Just curious since he thinks he knows what the new coach needs to do and not do.
That was pretty good especially about the part the Dallas iso's. The iso is part of basketball, but the problem the Rockets had was the little things that really hurt the Rockets. On those same oick and rolls that turned to iso's, if the guard actually set up their men, they would get good clean looks at the basket. What used to happen was the pick would come and the guards would take off dribbling while not getting the advantage the play called for like a big man on a smaller one or vice versa. On top of that, when the rolling player would roll and get open, all the extra dribbling would result in a long contested shot from a guard. I agree its just a matter of making sure the Rockets do the small things that help execute a play instead of running it just cause.
I am watching all the games too and I am very pleased with what we have and fully expect JVG to be the man to squeeze more juice out of that orange.
did he write this in 3 minutes? this is a horrible article... feigan usually doesn't submit anything intellectually stimulating - his style is usually more a rehash of what's on local news - now we see why.... yo feigan, leave the in-depth insight to blinebury
Absolutely, an excellent article. Great job Feigen, you are right on the money. He dispells many of the myths surrounding this team.
You guys are being way too harsh. Let's rewind, to a week ago, when dave freakiing dallessandro, columnist for the Newark Star (who probably catches the rockets whenever they are on TNT or ESPN and nothing more), writes a column full of generic, armchair quarterback style platitudes like "Play better defense", "make yao be the man" and so on and so forth. After he does so, somebody posts the article on here and people start falling all over themselves to praise him like he is the amazing Kreskin. In contrast, Feigen, whose job it is to cover the Rockets, and who goes to every game, practice etc., writes an article (that contains acutal concrete tactical advice, based on his yar of following the rockets more closely than any of us, and far more closely than some dude in New JerseY) that doesn't agree with whatever preconceived notioins people here have. What happens? people start posting that he is the worst writer ever, blah blah blah, and other such crap. Even less surprising that the people who do this are the same ones who advocate trading Francis for proven winners like Elton Brand or Andre Miller. In contrast to the Chron's usual coverage, that is one of the better sports articles I've read in a while, eventhough I don't agree with each and every one of his conclusions. BTW, TexasStoke, you're the same dude who tried to argue that Steve Francis was selfish for not staying in a game to g et a triple double,. right? That tells us a lot about your agenda, and it tells us how seriously we should take your analysis.
A GREAT ARTICLE! *claps hands* good work feigen! he really observed all the rockets' ups and downs! i hope the players would read his article and realize all their mistakes.
I don't get it. If you read Blinebury, you'd think we were Cleveland (pre-Lebron). If you read Feigen, we're Sacramento. Feigen is like an alter ego Blinebury. 6 assists and 4 turnovers is still BAD for a point guard. I'm glad he thinks Francis will "mature out of turnovers", but I'm more hopeful that Griffin will develop/display a solid back to the basket game based on his turnaround. The fact is, Francis averaged 3.97 turnovers his rookie year, 3.31 the 45-win year, 3.88 the injury year, and 3.69 last year. And his assists have declined ever year. His maturation theory sure doesn't have much evidence to back it.
But it just seems to me like an article thrown together at the last second without much in-depth analysis. He goes through all the myths, which we are all very aware of, and he "dispels" them with very weak evidence. He really isn't even saying any of the myths are wrong, he is just advocating a softer perspective. Take the "Stevie is not a point guard" idea. To counter it, Feigen says "Francis will never be a traditional quarterback, but he is closer than many thought he would be." That's not exactly putting the "myth" to rest, is it? Or take his point on isos. He says "The Rockets seem to iso so much because they run so little. " That doesn't provide any answers to the problem. Is he saying that isoing is ok? Sort of. He points out Dallas as an example. But Houston isn't Dallas. Are isos good for Houston? Feigen doesn't really say. It was just a piece that didn't have much work go into it. And yes I support trading Steve for Brand. I just think Brand will work better with Yao than Steve currently does.
Anyone who knows anything about basketball could see that Yao was struggling last year. I've written here before that he will alter 5 play for good and I still think he will. He was tired the second half of the season, but also teams changed their defense and put a guard in front of him to knock the ball away when he invariably lowered it below his belt (teams did the same to Hakeem his first year). He did not know how to play position either high or low so quite often his shot was awkward or he was out of position for the rebound. Give the guy a chance, his knowledge of the game will improve greatly, but not necessarily next year. If EG is going to have breakout year and be the PF that YAO needs beside him it should be next year. I don't think there is anyone in the draft or any doable trade that will change the Rox to higher than maybe 5th or 6th next year. Why not just relax this year, work with the young talent we have, and wait until next year to make major roster moves. Maybe JPosey won't come back, but that may give Boki the chance to show his wares. I loved Posey when he first got here last year, but even he was walking around the court by end-of-season. I think anyone who thinks the rockets will contend next year is not fundamentally knowledgable about BBall. I do believe they will be measurably better though just running the same team.
before i read what everyone else has to say about the article, i just wanna say as i read that sentence i loved jonathan feigen as much as one heterosexual man can love another heterosexual man. it's everything i've been saying the whole year. in fact i should probably charge him with plagiarism because it seems as if he just copied most of my posts from this year for everything. i could not agree more with just about everything he said. and now to read the flaming.
