I only heard two callers. Both asked about the lack of ball movement, to which Rudy replied that he thought the Rockets had good ball movement and were getting good shots. He also said that they ran the 'offense' almost all night and that because the Rockets had to use a 3 guard lineup, the guards appeared to have dominated the ball. He commented that Eddie had great looks even though he missed and was very pleased with the way the team battled being shorthanded. I wanted to throw up after I heard that this is the 'offense' that the Rockets used in pre-season. It looked like the same crap as last year. Not enough movement away from the ball and not enough passing.
Rudy should have been as mad as hell, after that game! It was selfish and lacked Team Spirit, enthusiasm and movement. Our shooting GuardS had a great game and Cato was great rebounding. The rest of the team looked like they ALL joined the Rox 10days ago!!
I thought one interesting comment Rudy had was about Yao. Rudy said he went up to Yao's "people" and asked how Yao was feeling. They said, "tired". Rudy said that was interesting because Yao had always told him he felt good and ready to play.
Omigod. The years have dulled his senses! I've always been a big Rudy supporter, but this is ridiculous. A coach is happy with 9 assists or whatever? By the way, welcome to the BBS, Kelvin. I hope you have a thick skin! Why don't you go practice your post moves instead of farting around on the web.
I think they tried to run it, but my guess is that Rudy has it set up for Cat and Francis to STILL be the primary scorers. So, watch tonights game to see. DaDakota
Did anyone hear Rudy on 610? Please report? You don't have to listen to know it went a-something like (and a-one, and a -two, and-a...) Yak yak yak bromide bromide platitude platitude half-truth obfuscation bromide cliche glaring generality transparent lie bromide... I hate saying it but the makeup of the team is wrong. Steve could be awesome at the 2, we need a real point guard (but I won't suggest something which will make others F.A.R.T. on me), and our coach needs to get on the players' cases. Granted, he has one hell of a tough job because we have half a team, a future-dominant center now on a shooting-guard's team, etc etc.
Actually, this might be bad news about Ming. His people, I'm sure, are his agent, and his parents. If they know that Ming feels tired and weak, but Ming tells Rudy he feels fine, then there is a terrible communication problem going on. The head coach of a team must know how his players are feeling, in order to get the best production out of them during game time [obviously]. On the other hand, maybe Rudy DID know Ming was feeling tired or worn out and that's why he only played im for 11 minutes in the first game! Hmmmmm.....quite possibly the communication isn't so bad after all!
Rudy's offense is not a passing offense; it is an offense predicated on player movement and dribbling. Rudy T explained this a while back. If you were expecting a bunch of passes, you weren't paying attention. This means that the ball will still be dominated by Francis, Mobley and Norris. Why I think it looked so bad on opening night is this: we had our guards but all our forwards were out. As an offensive system that also relies heavily on everyone on the floor being able to hit jumpers, it hurts when your front court is missing. If Taylor was in and Mobley out, I think we would have looked better. Mobley had a fine game, but the backcourt needs a frontcourt to complement it and prop it up. When all you've got in the frontcourt is Eddie Griffin (who shot terribly), Cato (who played well but is no shooter), and some rookies and scrubs, you don't have anything to balance the contributions of the backcourt. Not only do you not have effective scoring in the frontcourt, but the backcourt also has to work harder to score. It'll be easier for defenders to play tight on the perimeter, to play help defense and close out the lane to drives and everything.
I heard most of the interview, and I'll be dag ding dong darn! You hit it right on the money! At one point Rudy got pretty defensive when a caller asked him why there was no ball movement. Rudy was like ,"What are you talking about?" in feigned disbelief.
I listened to his show last night (which oddly coincides with CD's show on 740 but I digress...) and thought the most interesting part was the tone of the callers' questions. People were coming after him and wanted to know where the "new offense" is and why its not being run and when he's going to make these guys move the ball. One caller even questioned whether or not he was in control of the players. As mentioned above, he garbled about missing 3 guys blah, blah blah. Though it has been covered ad nauseum...it bears repeating that Indiana was missing key players at least as important as ours. Anyways... The real point of this post is that the fans were coming after him last night and I can't imagine that without some measurable improvements in said areas, this sentiment is going to snowball...whatever your feelings.
I think that's just come out of daily conversations. Rudy chatted with Pine/agent/Parents, "How's Yao feel in the past few days?". "Oh, he is just tired!". Nothing serious there. What I do worry about is the way the Rockets are playing. If the "motion" offense is really "guard dribbling with the ball all over the court" like someone said, then the Rockets can kiss their season Goog-Bye. Wasn't that the way the Rockets have been playing before?
Juan, That's a good reminder and good explanation of why the frontcourt wasn't involved more, but the offense most definitely not like it was in the Memphis game and others, when Kenny and Rice played and TMo was giving us the consistent shot missing Wednesday from Grif. A question that would have gotten more than a yak yak reply would have been, "When can we expect to see your 5-man game that you showed more in preseason?" Would he answer, "that was the offense, and the offense is for Steve to dominate the ball until the defense stops him, then we go to other option." Or would he say, "I don't believe we are efficient running a 5-man game when our frontcourt sucks it up sooo bad, so I called it off for that game."
