Okay, we've had an unbelievably interesting offseason...we've added Ming and Nachbar, got Stevie in the fold for the forseeable future, Griff's growing and putting on weight, Mo's not growing,but at least he's taking some weight off, Rice is shooting well, Stevie's back in full form, and it looks like Lewis is not coming here. So, what does that leave us with..Well, the man who's gonna be sorting it all out is a man we all know pretty well. There are many, many ways to go with the current talent we have, so let's look at Rudy's tendancies, and see if we gain any insight... Rookies Don't Play Unless They Have To One thing Rudy has in common with many coaches is that.contrary to his professed love for the teaching aspect, his rookies don't see a lot of court time, unless as in the case of Francis, injuries dictacte that they have to. What does that suggest about this year? Will Ming get a lot fewer minutes than we all are expecting? Will Nachbar be seeing time only behind Rice, Griffin, Taylor, and possibly Morris? History would suggest yes, as a quick look at any of Rudy's rookies pt early on will attest...Look at Griff last year, despite the injury riddled froncourt, he saw fairly limited minutes. On the other hand, this trend of Rudy's might get run over by another trend of his... Rudy Loves Tall Shooters... They don't come any taller than Ming, and aside from the emotional bond he had with Dream, and that weird thing he had going on with Matt Bullard, Ming might already be the player who has Rudy the most excited. I think he will love everything about him except that he's a rookie, and as such, it might even be possible that Ming is, or will shortly be, The Man. Rudy Loves Isolation Offense..Especially Inside Out With a great low post player/passer, I see Rudy having a nearly orgasmic experience when he contemplates running the ball through ming on the high or low post, with the guards either staying back for the 3, as of old, or more likely slashing to the hoop through the void left by Ming drawing his man out to the high post. If they double Ming, he passes to a cutter OR a shooter...pick your weapon. If they don't double, then he either beats his man or allows Steve or Cat to beakdown their man enough to get off a good shot, or let Ming Re-set and start over...Great offense, as far as I see it. Like so... Ming picks his position based on opponent...Against those he feels he can take inside, he sets up at the low block. From there Griff swings to the right elbow for the quick relay if his man saggs on Ming, Francis and Mobes take the perimeter, and whoever else is there,say Rice, floats. Or actually, Rice takes the perimter, and Francis floats. Okay, down low,Ming takes his man if he feels he can. If he can't or they come with the double, he has several options...If the double comes off Francis or Mobley's man, they either park for the passout if they've got a lane open, or slash to the net if that opens up. If the double comes off of Rice's man, Rice sets up for the deep ball coming his way. If the double comes off of Griff, he has the option of popping out for the mid to long range jumper, or heading right for the rack for a mini-alley. As long as Yao plays the read and react well, we're home free. Against those he feels he can't take inside, a la Shaq, he takes up a high post position...If he's isolated, he can drive past his man, take his beautiful j over him, or look to create with cutters, a la backdoor cut, pick n roll, or just conventional coming around screens. Say Stevie sees Yao's not comfortable getting a shot off, he signals Griff and Mobes to set a double pick for him to curl around and come off of heading straight for the hoop. If the defender on Yao doesn't react, and there's no reason he should, Ming simply passes the ball to Steve as soon as he clears the picks, leaving him open for a dunk, as Yao's highpost position in the first place left the lane clear, and the double pick precluded the 4 guy coming in, he's still trying to get through the Griffin/Mobley wall. If the center comes off Ming quickly to contest Francis, or the 4 guy gets through quickly, Francis either takes the shot if it's a dunk/layup, or passes back to whichever big man's cover left him to collapse for a jumper or drive... Seems easy, no? Unstoppable, no? Whish I could show it with Xs and Os, but oh well... What do you all think?
has the quality of JAGs post exponentially increased since he changed his name to Macbeth? or is it just me? great post
Rudy gets unfairly rapped for allegedly not playing rookies, but look at his history. Rudy played Sam Cassell a ton as a rookie, he played Matt Maloney as a rookie. He started an all rookie backcourt in 1999 with Dickerson and Mobley even though he could have easily have signed a veteran PG like Kevin Johnson and started him. Rudy played Francis, he played KT. Oscar also got a lot of minutes until he faded down the stretch. The reason he didn't play Griffin that much was probably because he knew how valuable Griffin was, and Griffin wasn't shape to play a ton of minutes his rookie season, and Rudy ran the risk of having Griffin get seriously injured in a meaningless season. Instead he played Griffin just enough where he couldn't get injured, yet he got a taste of NBA action and knew what he had to do. Now Griffin has bulked up and Rudy can play him alot. Ming will play a good amount of minutes. Nachbar might as well depending how he comes along.
Um, okay. The play calling is especially good, IMHO. I'm not sure I would agree that Rudy has a rookie rule. Horry got some big minutes. Sam the alien child got obvious rookie minutes. Cat played almost 30 a game once he started playing. Nevermind Steve. Rudy might have a gee-this-kid-is-19-and-still-calls-me-sir type of rule for keeping people safely on the pine. edit: ugh, RocksMill beat me to the punch when I looked up Cat's #s.
Great post, MacBeth. I could see the plays unfolding as I read it. Could it be that Yao and Nachbar's pro careers will get them on the court for major minutes a lot sooner than most of us think? Both of these guys have been playing for years.
That's ok B-Bob, I didn't realize that Cat played 30 minutes. I guess it made sense, the only back-ups I remember the Rockets having was another rookie, Bryce Drew, and Matt Maloney I believe was injured, I can't remember.
Hmm, Ming holds the ball, reads the defense and decides what type of play to run. Sounds a lot like a point center there.
Yao and Boki in a way are not true rookies. Rudy played Griffin enough to get him only the 4th 100-100 in the league...
Dickerson, Mobley, Francis, Horry, Thomas, Griffin all ended up with over 20 min per game their rookie year. Griffin didn't get many minutes till injuries set in, but he was also not as experienced as Ming and Boki. Minutes with Rudy has always been very player specific, especially with rookies.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Griff ended the season with 80-something 3's, not 100, so he didn't get 100 rebounds and 100 3's. I remember being pissed the last 5 games or so because of Griff's limited playing time. It was obvious that those games were meaningless. I felt Rudy should have had Griff jack up a 3 every trip down the court until he got that 100. At least then the kid would get something out of a horrible season.
i think griff was going for 100 blocks and 100 3's. he would have gotten it too if he played the whole season.
My question about the Rockets' offense this season is this: who is going to get the offensive rebounds? I totally agree that Ming is well suited, at least early on in his NBA career, to play the high post more often than the low post. His skills clearly dictate that, and it makes perfect sense. Problem with that is, it leaves your 7'6" center playing too far from the bucket to be an effective offensive rebounder when the kickout 3 or other outside shot fails to drop. Unless the guys on this team suddenly learned how to shoot straight, there are still going to be plenty of misses to go around. Hopefully the mere presence of Ming will loosen the defenses enough to allow for better shots from the major offenders last year. But that assumes that the sole reason for our lousy shooting % was due to the opposing defenses. Somehow I don't think that was necessarily true every night. In any case, even on a good shooting night, half the shots we jack up are not going to go in. And I am not saying that Ming is going to be a great rebounder anyway, but even with all the new pieces we have on the team, I still don't see who our night-in, night-out inside banger/rebounder is going to be. MoT ? Heh I doubt it. Rice? no, and the 3 is not really for that anyway. Ming (or cato) ? Maybe, but if Ming plays the majority of the time out on the high post, then that would be a challenge. And as for cato being the guy.. well, my theory is that 'The Kelv' was somehow frightened by a rebound as a small child, and now he avoids them instinctively. So no hope there. KT ? Good hustle and energy player, but he is just flat out not big enough. Maybe it will turn out to be EG. But is that really going to be Eddie's game? Maybe. I hope so. We'll find out soon enough. But if so, then for him to be a meaningful contributor in that role, then he wll have to be playing the 4 more than MoT or KT, which then reduces MoT's impact, and everyone keeps talking about how much improved MoT is this year. And that quandary just keeps going around and around, you plug a hole here, it opens another somewhere else. I don't think our offense is going to be our big problem this year. I don't even think the defense is going to be bad. The big problem I see is the offensive rebounding. Maybe we pick up a veteran banger like Popeye Jones, someone who can at least help out on the boards when Ming is on the floor, I don't know. I dunno, I just look at our roster, and right now I don't see that role-player, always-hustle guy that I believe we need, the kind of player that Dennis Rodman was for the Bulls and the Pistons. Hopefully this is wasted worry, someone solve it for me and make me feel better, quick! ciao
Nero, I'll take a stab at calming your nerves.. When the Rockets were preparing to face Orlando on the way to our second championship I was quite worried about our defensive matchups. I figured Shaq and Hakeem would cancel each other out, and that was a problem for us. We did not have anybody who could "stop" their number two option, Penny Hardaway (who was excellant and had unlimited potential back then - think Tracy McGrady). I though maybe Drexler could slide down a position and slow him down but that would create other holes on defense. It got better when I turned the question around and saw that they did not have anybody who could "stop" Drexler. For the record Drexler flat out won games for us. Also I underestimated Hakeem who was just better that Shaq. I'm sorry, I'll never do that again. The point is. There are always areas of concern. What you have to look at is the overall team. Our championship teams couldn't rebound worth a lick, but our overall defense was strong enough to win, even giving opponents a second, and sometimes third shot. Yea, I share your offensive rebounding concerns, but I think this team, with a little time and confidence can overcome its short comings. Besides, maye Francis can make the key offensive rebounds for us. Especially if Ming is pulling their center out.
One of the reasons for Griffins tail spin at the end of last season, was that Francis came back and was reluctant to pass to an open Griffin! This is not Francis bashing it just fact! I noticed several posters talking about Francis for MVP. Does this mean that Steve Francis will become a scoring machine, or will he still be our Point Guard,running the Team and making others better? Of course he could lead the league in Assists and Steals and be in the top 3 for MVP! I just wonder what his mind set is for this season?
Nero, We were one of, if not the worst rebounding team in the NBA the year we won our first title. So, stop worrying.
