Does anyone think we're catching teams by surprise?

catching teams by surprise, yes. how the rockets will keep it up for a full season is the bigger question.

 

so games 3-6 last year didn't serve notice? how much more can we surprise people?

what are we going to do? half court offense? everyone knows we're going to run. it's been said since training camp.

 

NO. It's the NBA, any team on any given night can win. This isn't college ball. There are no surprises. Teams spend tons of money to scout other teams, even if the other team is the clippers. Aside from a lack of Ron Artest, this is the team that contended against those Lakers and went 2-2. Everybody knows this. The only people we are surprising are sportscasters and fans, but to be fair if either group had any insight about basketball they would be asked to actually run a team.

 

I think teams don't know how to handle the Rockets yet. When Yao was in the game teams knew their defensive focus needed to be on stopping the ball moving to Yao. But, know because we are a much more free flowing team, I think the scouts have yet to figure out who to key in on.

 

I would think even if the other team was caught by surprise they would make adjustments by the second half to correct it. It didn't look that way for the Utah game, and the Rockets beat Portland on their second meeting.

 

The only reason we are winning so many games is because teams cannot contain our fast break offense. If other teams just played good transition D and forced us to play slow half-court offense. We will get destroyed... 7 times out of 10.

 

We are an enigma because we have no go to guy so they can't focus on one guy. This reminds me a little bit of a more uptemp version of the the Piston team in 03 where every night they had a different star.

 

This is my reaction as well.

I think teams are still adjusting, but that doesn't mean that we can't continue having the same types of games we are now.

If anything I think our fate is simply hanging on the ever-fickle 3-point shot.

 

we'll definitely struggle when we play the better defensive teams in the L. so far, all the 3 teams we have faced have proven to be mediocre defensively. but that shouldn't take anything away from us.

however, we need to shore up that defense. 47% fg for the opponents is not going to get it done if we're going to have a chance v. the elite teams in this league. gotta get that down to 43-44%.

 

I think so, Rick having the team scrimmage a bunch in the preseason probably gave them a leg up on the regular season.

Teams will probably take us lightly until we get a good record then they will have to respect us more.....

Still, I like the way these guys play.

DD

 

If I were a scout, I would have figured out since the 2nd round of the players that Brooks is the guy to key in on. I don't understand how much more obvious this has to be.

Get Chuck Hayes in trouble and the interior defense suffers.

The fact that the Rockets are winning can be attributed to their excellent execution of Rick's game plan.

 

yes and no, i mentioned this already in the game thread, i think the unpredictability of this offense isn't in not knowing who the team is, but in having so many guys involved. Any time you have more players involved, and most are pretty versatile, then you're also bringing in more options.

For example, when Chase starts to get involved, you're not only bringing in another option, but that option's abilities. In this case Chase has several. He can fast break, play half court, he can shoot from anywhere on the court, finish, and shoot freebies. So if we have a lot of options with each having a range of abilities, then we're always going to be unpredictable.

So right now being a new lineup is also helping us, but i don't think teams are going to ever really adapt to us and start beating up on us all the time, or anything like that.

 

I think the Rockets are as dependent on the 3 point shot as the run-and-gun "7 seconds or less" Phoenix Suns used to be, so I don't really see that as being a problem. Furthermore, 3-point shooting has always been a staple of this team, and the Orlando Magic have proven that offenses reliant on 3-point shooting can find playoff success. I will also say that the 3 point shot is anything but "fickle" -- in my view, Brooks, Battier, Ariza and Budinger are all now very reliable shooters who will burn you if left open.

I do think, however, that it will be interesting when opposing teams start to concentrate their defenses on containing Brooks and getting the ball out of his hands. From what I've seen so far, he is clearly the key to the offense especially in half court sets. I like the little I've seen from Chase in terms of being able to create offense off the dribble, but Ariza still looks really awkward in that role. Scola and Landry I think are the two guys who will have to really elevate their play when defenses are focused on Brooks.

 

Of course we are. It's great. It will even out when teams get a little more film on player tendencies and all that. The team will also have to contend with injuries and slumps like everybody else. .500 would be great to me.

 

I think it's obvious that we are catching teams by surprise. One of our players even admitted (as far as I recall) that the scouting report on the team is not very thick yet. They should take advantage of this for as long as they can.

 

On one hand I think well fer sure. But then you gotta think the other teams arent studying film of the Yao-Rocket offense. Or even Rocket tape from when Yao was on the bench. So I think some of it is new, but some of it is just these guys are good.

 

it's because we do all the little things to win a game, play hard defense, and are even better offensively. 8 players in double digits says it all.

 

I think many teams struggle in the first 10 games or so, getting back into the regular season flow.