Rockets still defining themselves by Randy Hill Veteran columnist Randy Hill is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com OK, the Rockets, at 13-15, would like us to believe they're legitimately bad. We're eager to embrace this self-effacing maneuver, but still recall how first-year coach Rick Adelman had Jeff Van Gundy's old defensive-oriented team looking pretty sweet at 6-1. For a better understanding of why these things happen, let's get a closer whiff of the Rockets. It should be noted that widespread preamble to this season offered Houston as a legitimate threat to win a playoff series or two. This sort of made sense because the Rockets suit up gifted wing scorer Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, a 7-foot-6 guy with loads of skill. In T-Mac and Yao, the Rockets have two superstars without portfolio and by portfolio I'm referring to a history of playoff success. But it was assumed that Van Gundy had been wise to assemble title-building role players such as undersized power forward Chuck Hayes and defensive-minded three-man Shane Battier to do the dirty work while T-Mac and Yao scored most of the points. Point guard Rafer Alston, whose leadership potential may always be overshadowed by his work on the mighty And 1 Tour, was an official reason for concern, but Houston did add scoring point Mike James, resurrection candidate Stevie Francis and crafty four-man Luis Scola. At 6-foot-1, Adelman, whose most recent coaching run occurred in Sacramento, looked golden. The Rockets killed that notion, however, by losing six in a row. Then they won three, lost two, won two and so on. During this process, Scola and James have been busts. Hayes is overmatched as a starter. The third-leading scorer is the historically reliable Bonzi Wells. Alston continues to prove he's no match for the point guards lining up for the conference's top teams. And a bum knee continues to be an albatross for McGrady, who — despite Houston's 0-3 mark without him — has become the lead candidate in a trade for which many Rocket fans now are chanting. Well, let's see if we can use a few stats to make a case for jettisoning T-Mac. Always considered an eager marksman, the Rockets are a solid 8-5 when McGrady squeezes off at least 20 rounds from the field. They're 7-3 when he makes at least half of those shots and 6-9 when he doesn't. Is he settling for jumpers when he should be attacking the rim? Sort of, but the Rockets are a cozy 6-5 when T-Mac takes at least eight free throws and a swell 8-3 when he has five or more assists. Yao, who — unless you favor consistently dominant rebounding and defensive intimidation — ranks as the top center in the league (I'll take Dwight Howard, by the way) may not be getting the ball enough. Houston is 3-7 when he takes fewer than 15 shots per game which makes us wonder how in the hell the Adelman can allow Yao to take fewer than 15 shots in more than a third of their games. Our best excuse should be foul trouble. Anyway, while trading T-Mac might not seem like a crazy idea, his tender knee (a recent MRI revealed no structural damage) makes him even more difficult to move for anything within hollering distance of market value. It also has been posited that the Rockets are suffering from a transition in philosophy from the guard-'em-and-grind-it-out blueprint of Van Gundy to Adelman, who favored a brisk pace while coaching the Kings. But ol' Rick is wise enough to realize his most valuable player is as large as an apartment building and — while Yao is quite agile for 7-foot-6 — not quite as fleet as Phoenix big man Amare Stoudemire. So the Rockets currently are a Van Gundy-like 22nd in scoring and fifth in scoring defense, while coming in at fourth in field-goal percentage defense. The killer is Houston's own field-goal percentage, which has slipped to 26th-best in the NBA. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7604718
This is my biggest problem I have with our offense. I cringe every time I see Yao not taking at least 20 FGA. Tonight, since it's just Yao, there should be no reason why he should not get at least 25+ shots. Also, it wouldn't hurt to put Yao down low more so he can actually draw some fouls. Our best free throw shooter is not getting to the line enough because he takes too many of those outside jumpers.
It's Yao's own fault that he doesn't get to the free throw line much. Yes, he gets fouled a lot when trying to establish his position, it's seems like he sometimes gets fouled when bringing the ball up for a lay-up/dunk but gets stripped. That's on refs. But Yao isn't exactly helping himself either. Take the Detroit game for example. How many times did Yao fade away? And although he got blatantly pushed by McDyess at least once, most of the time contact on these plays is marginal. And even if he gets fouled, the refs rarely call it. He needs to go straight up or even lean a bit into the defender. A fade away is a bad shot.
Scola is anything but a bust, the guy can play and should be starting. He rebounds and scores.....and is adjusting to the NBA.....each game we see more and more of what he can do. BENCH HAYES !! DD
I'd be interested to see what would happen if someone ported the RPI index from the NCAA to this season for the Rockets. We say we have the hardest schedule in basketball, the RPI could help prove that. It probably already exists, anyone know of a link?
Adelman must change who starts at power-forward with Tracy out. When Yao went out last year, JVG benched Hayes to compensate for Deke's lack of offense in the lineup. Real coaches make adjustments, not stick their head in the sand.
Randy Hill = idiot I don't put much weight in articles that are total bashes on the Rockets. It's just a nitpick article on the obvious issues. Another knock on Yao...Yao needs to stop holding the ball until the double team comes, if the double team doesn't initially comes, start making your post move right away.
With the Tmac out, it is time to start Scola, Rick A has used the same starting five from the last year, and got the worst result. It is time to make a change.
Don't you mean tomorrow night? Since T-Mac is expected to be out for a week, I'm expecting Yao to go an offensive rampage, much like he did after he came back from his knee injury. Though that won't happen unless he steps up and call for the ball, no matter what kind of defense the opponent is giving him.