The biggest hurdle was getting T-Mac to internalize the team ball philosophy. Now he's looking to pass, he's trying to set up his teammates, he'l playing unselfishly. All he needs to do now is get used to getting the pass while he's moving/cutting and then shooting. By contrast I think that's a smaller adjustment. Tonight's game was very encouraging.
Um. Aside from a couple instances where he hesitated and the single pullup transition 3 his jumpers WERE catch n shoot. These are arguments we heard in the offseason. Get with the program people, T-Mac is NOT shooting as many of those quick pullup jumpers that you seem to think. I am not saying he doesnt shoot them at all, but stop pretending that its the lion's share of his offense. He actually drives the lane more than he does the pullup stuff, at least since he came back from his injury. Which if you were to rank his 3 basic moves in order, pullup/hesitation Js would be at the bottom with Catch n shoots and Drives being the better 2 options. Dont forget also that when he drives, he will often find an open player for an easier shot since he is getting the defense sucked onto him(Landry for the dunk anyone?) Today is one of the worse days to criticize T-Mac's shot selection. Criticize his rebounding, he only got 3 of them today.
Wow great analysis. Tmac needs to drive more and Yao needs to be more aggressive and turn the ball over less. That is the first time that has been mentioned on this board. You should see if Adelman will fire Sikma and add you to the staff. Whats hard about driving the ball all the time is Tmac is playing against NBA defenses that often times double team him. Why doesnt Dwight Howard just catch the ball and dunk it everytime. Then he would shoot 100% from the field. Why doesnt Steve Nash just dribble to the rim everytime and shoot a layup. His assists would go down, but he would score 70 a game. Maybe they will learn that with your help.
I think his days of getting 6+ rebounds (heck, 5+) consistently is over. The guy has kind of gotten softer when it comes to grabbing rebounds. Just a couple of years ago in Orlando he was grabbing close to 8 (7.9 to be exact) that one year
That last game they tried to involved Yao and I don't think the stats showed accuratley his T/O's but he fumbled some catchable passes
If you are being sarcastic, I don't appreciate it I know Tmac gets double teamed a lot, but most of the time when he's isolated, and he drives with a will, he usually gets to the hole or atleast draws a foul. He still has the talent but he has just lost confidence in it. When you're long and talented as he is, driving to the hoop when you're 10-15 feet away is not as hard as you think, especially now when Yao is drawn out to the perimeter, freeing up the inside. I also realize that Yao-or heck, even Dwight- can't dunk it everytime. But in my observation, most of his turnover problems comes from being too unsecure with the ball or not going up strong enough. He's learned to put the ball up high, but unfortunately he didn't do that enough during the Jazz series (I'm not blaming it on him more than anybody else on the team btw)
I live in Fort Worth so I dont get to see any Rockets games, but I follow them religiously. I usually get all my information from this site, and my opinions about our beloved franchise usually matches the consensus of the board due to the lack of exposure I have to watching them play. Last night was my first night seeing the Rockets play since they have been on this winning streak, and I made a few observations of my own. 1. T-Mac was catching and shooting, and eventhough he had his moments where he stopped the ball as one of the superstars he has the right to do this. I think there are moments when the shots were out of the sync of the offense, but if those shot were falling he would be praised as the second coming of MJ. 2. Battier is a great defender, but why does it seem like every player puts up big numbers against the Rockets. Wade had Battier in his pocket last night, but its tough guarding an all-star. I propose better team D. 3. Our Power forward situation is amazing. We go from no one to a log jam in one year?!? I agreed with the announcers the Bonzi trade will hurt short term but long term Landry and Scola need their minutes. Overall I cant wait for the playoffs and im bleeding rockets red... right now....
Um...we have been playing GREAT team defense...... during this win streak, we've only had one team go over 100 (Miami of all teams) Overall, we're holding our opponents to a 42.9% FG (which is slightly lower than last year)
Actually I think because it WAS Miami we let up on the team D. It's hard to get up for a team that only has 9 win in order to put up your best defensive effort. We should see better defense tonight.
McGrady has become increasingly aggressive in the last couple games. He still takes his share of jumpers, of course, but he is making more strong plays. It will be interesting to see if he maintains this aggression against NO tonight.
The reason you are being criticized is that every team always has something to improve on. You bring up things that have been talked about for the past two years over and over. You say Tmac needs to shoot less jumpers and drive more, yet the solution you give is he should just do it cuz its easy. You dont think about the fact that those jumpers help set up his drive and also the fact that he is in a slump right now, but that jumper has killed teams in the pass. Do I want Tmac to drive more, of course, do I think a new thread needs to be made pointing that out, of course not. As for Yao's turnovers, he has admitted over and over his biggest problems are turnovers. You give the advice that he should secure it better. Again, no duh. But its not like he is out there thinking "I dont need to secure the ball that much". It would be like me saying Adelman needs to be a better coach. I dont understand why he doesnt just tell the team to score more and give up less points. Then we would win every game.
The point of this thread was to point out some lingering problems that need to worked out. This is purely my observation about certain things that still need some work on despite the hot streak. Yes they may sound redundant and cliche, but when its a consistent problem like Tmac's heat checks that sometimes cost us the momentum. I actually did point out that Tmac needs to stop shooting those three in transition and start curling off screens more. I know its been harked on a lot but does that mean I shouldn't point out certain things that I see can hamper the team? I realize that if things were as easy as I stated them, EVERY team would win if they fixed certain weaknesses. The fact, is everyone is bound to have off games. Like I said, this is merely a reality check to keep us humble-not a complaint of any kind. I always want to see my team improve, like how I live my life-always try to be better than yourself everyself.
