ESPN: Rockets spend two days trying to instill confidence

Could it be that the system hasn't changed because certain players can't adapt to a different system?

One that involves more pick n rolls, setting screens, body movement, ball movement, more movement along the baseline.

 

If you judge every video we've seen of practice since preseason it was just that. Three point shooting contests I would bet and maybe some layup drills.

 

Rockets run closed practices. Clutch is very clear about that. All his videos are after practice when they are doing shoot-around.

Guys, full-speed scrimmages are not the norm. I said this in a previous post. There are many drills to run and walk-throughs to build upon team strategy and team IQ. Full-speed scrimmages as a primary form of practice is actually counter-productive to improvement. No matter how hard to you try, you cannot simulate game situations, since your starters will be going against your bench. Plus, you simply don't have the time in the NBA to practice much. Strategy and drills to practice movement and new plays (and inbounds plays) combined with walk-through designed for a Game Plan for the next opponents is best.

Come on people. Don't be so simple to think full-speed scrimmages is how teams improve. Think about NFL practices, if that helps y'all understand basketball.

A full-speed scrimmage seems appropriate right now since we have three days off and the team damn sure needs to get back to something they can do right. Coach seems to be using this break to return to basics as remedial training. But this is far from the way you actually want to run all your practices.

 

Worse yet, it still ain't going to fix our defense. We lost, at worst, our third best defender (and you could make an argument for second best defender or perhaps second most important defender) in JSmoove.

We replaced the overall defense of Smoove, Dorsey, Johnson, Kostas, Pablo with Lawson, Dekker, Thornton, Harrell, and an empty roster spot. We have nothing to go to defensively now. Harrell for Smoove???? Significant downgrade. Dorsey was replaced with an empty roster spot (almost even exchange there but we could get 6 hacks and a few boards out of Dorsey). Dekker replaced Kostas (total minus since Dekker hasn't played a lick for us and likely won't get any significant minutes all season). Kostas is actually a decent wing defender. And Lawson for Pablo. This is another downgrade defensively. Thornton for Johnson is another downgrade defensively.

We downgraded defensively at 5 roster spots. And now Dwight is missing games again while DMo is out and there is nobody to hold down the ship in the middle. Yeah, Clint is supposed to be this monster but Clint IS NOT anywhere close to what Dwight and Smoove are defensively. It's not even close at this point. We are getting negative defensive contributions from the 4 guys (Lawson, Thornton, Harrell, Dekker) that replaced the 5 guys from last year. And to top it all off James Harden is playing worse defense than he played in 2013-14.

We could go to 36% shooting from 3 as a team and we still won't be good enough to make a championship run with this group. It's simply the wrong mix of players.

 

Maybe the confidence is not in oneself but one's teammates. Maybe coach wants to start holding all players accountable. That would be a change and take time to get use to. Maybe start to play as team, just a thought.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rockets brought In a former Navy Seal as a motivational speaker today</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/669249605511417856">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Can we take these kids to Maury instead? They need that boot camp sergeant, Thibs.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">JB Bickerstaff: &quot;Our attitude has changed over the last week &amp; a half. We've taken a more serious approach to what we're doing.&quot; (more)</p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/669254513266524160">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More JB Bickerstaff: &quot;Guys are more disciplined in what we're doing &amp; they were hungry for that. That was the 1st thing (more) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/669254534951120897">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More JB Bickerstaff: &quot;..they were calling for, some more discipline, some more structure, some more rules.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/669254556635672576">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jason Terry: &quot;We almost went to a mini-training camp yesterday.
it was a hard practice. It was attention to detail. There were consequences&quot;</p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/669256804656803840">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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All this makes Mchale sound like a big idiot. The cat is out of the bag.

Play harder.

 

^^^ LOL at the first couple responses.

Can he play PG?
Can he shoot the three?
They still won't listen.

Rockets are a "team" of weak minded, coach killing individuals.

Leaders? Zero. There are none. "Dwight and I are the leaders, the rest are role players." Hahahahahaha
Listen to the coach(es)? Don't bother.
Get the coach fired? Check.
Needed to bring in a Navy SEAL to "motivate" these guys.
Yeah, go ahead, keep trying to pull out all the stops.

I find myself asking the same thing as Clutch did on the podcast: Is this group of players the right group? ...and I'm not talking about role players.

 

What's new? You probably asked those same questions with Francis/Mobley and Tmac.

 

LOL it sounds like petulant millionaires who are trying their best to divert blame from themselves. JB was a part of the discipline structure before, right?

The only place this reflects poorly on McHale is on this website, where people form lynch mobs of anger and knee jerk themselves in to a fit. The rest of the NBA knows that Harden is to blame for this year's debacle and until he picks it up, the talk is cheap. According to McHale before he left, all these cats want to do is talk, so I'm sure this will placate a number of fans here who are grabbing at straws for confirmation bias, but until he starts playing like he gives a ****, this is a big YAWN.

 

Whahahha the Rockets are laughing stock of the league. A freaking navy dude, really?? LOL @ Terry saying there were consequences..Thornton clearly needs to start though. I don't care who you take out. Start Ariza at the 4 for all I care.

 

truth. rep

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You can't flip the switch in the 4th quarter of a raid in Afghanistan

*sound of seats creaking*
*cough*
*txt sound* <a href="https://t.co/J5BR9MjDEf">https://t.co/J5BR9MjDEf</a></p>&mdash; ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) <a href="https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/669253431752806401">November 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Lol these guys are pathetic if they need a pep talk. Are they in High School?

 

if the navy seal doesn't end up yielding the expected results, will they go all out and bring in richard simmons? :grin:

 

No but we're talking about young adults. I'm 25 and I'd have the maturity and willingness to hear what a Navy Seal guy would have to say. If he's been given the label "motivational speaker" I'm sure he has a colorful message.