actually if he worked for the "Crooked E" he would have left the country and his middle managers would be in jail right now !
We need a time machine so we can switch back to June before Chise was traded. Everything would be reset to normal and this mess would never happen. Also tie CD and JVG up and lock them in the Toyota Center Basement before anymore stupid decisions are made.
I agree completely... but that isn't everything. - The Rocket's rebounding really really really sucks. Hence their last place in the NBA statistically, but unless they get 0 rebounds for the entire game, then they have some opportunities. Despite their incompetance tonight, they still had 25 defensive rebounds to Detroit's 24 defensive rebounds. That is 25 blown fast breaks if you ask me. - Barrett can be the last guy to start going upcourt, and be the first one to get to the other end. The guy is tiny. He could run a marathon. He could go at 110% for ironman minutes. Barrett walking up court is like someone driving 20 miles per hour down the freeway in a Porshe 911. Beyond absurd. - Sura may not be a bullet, but he seems to have a good nack for changing the pace. He just needs to change it a little more when he is in there. - Despite our PF's pathetic rebounding because of their lack of defensive intensity, we have a million of them and they are quite mobile. Mo Taylor can fast break better than most PF's in the league. He is also has an excellent fast break dunk which I would love to see more than once a month.
I totally agree! Free Yao and T-Mac! I'd also start Howard for a change. MoT is too inconsistent on d and rebounds. JVG wanted MoT to start and shoot 3s. That is a failure. Put MoT with Mutombo masks his rebounding woes and gives a spark in the second unit. MoT had his time at the starting role, it's time to see what Howard can do. Showcasing MoT only exposes his deficiencies on one end of the floor.
There are tons of things we can do differently, but I won't make any of those detailed changes. The biggest problem I see is that JVG doesn't see to know how to utilize players' strength, hide their weakness. Case 1. Defensive scheme. The way JVG wants the Rockets to play defensively requires a lot of physical contact, which is not suitable for this group of players. Heck, it wasn't suitable for last year's team, we got away last year because of the athletism of Francis/Cat/Cato. This year, we are totally exposed. Just look at our lineups, JJ is the only one can be physical defensively, but he is too old, too slow to keep up with the young legs. When you have a group of non-physical players, you need to adjust your scheme accordingly, say mix some zones? Case 2. Offensive scheme. I don't know any of JVG's offensive sets, but I believe all of them are fine if the team can execute it to perfection. I see two problems here, one is that JVG doesn't seem to leave room for players to think/react, every \thing has to be exactly according to the sets. When you do this, players get tense, then mistakes follow, then more tense, more mistakes. In the end, players get very tentative, no creativity, no excitment. This is exactly what's happening with the Rockets. We have extremly gifted offensive players in TMac, Yao, and Talor to a less extent, why cannot you just trust their talent, give them some room to operate? The other problme I see is game time adjustment. I don't seem to see much adjustment from JVG during the game, maybe I missed them, maybe JVG just believes his pre-game plan was good enough, the problem was the players' execution. To overcome this, you have to trust your players, give them enough freedom to do things, make mistakes, at the end, they will come though, won't make the same mistake again. When they need to adjust, they will have confidence in themselves to make the adjustment. Thoughts?
One other thing... SCREW IDEALISM. I don't care about what JVG thinks is good basketball, and I don't care what Larry Brown thinks is "The Right Way". I think they should do whatever works right now. Then try it again. Pick that scab 'til it bleeds. JVG seems to be turning into the GWB of the NBA.
Willis? Kevin Willis? Get Mo Williams. This doesn't relate, but I think Ty Willingham could do a better job than JVG. **** it, a rock sitting on the bench could do a better job -- FREE TMAC and let him control the offense at least for some time. I don't care if Yao doesn't become a great player; at least decide if he or TMAC will be the No. 1 option.
Id change the starters to: Yao TMac Sura Boki Spoon Why Spoon? Hes the only banger/rebounder that we have that can rebound at the PF spot and hit the 10 footer. We have to have a rebounding presence. Yeah, Spoon is too short, yadayadayada, but he is the best rebounding 4 we have and he sure isnt any worse defensively than Mo. Mo has to go. Spoon, Sura, and Deke are the closest thing we have to nasty attitude boys on this team. He has to be on the floor unless we make a trade for a better 4. Boki needs to start at the 3. He is hitting the 3 bomb and he can slash and finish. He can run the break. And he is the second best or best entry passer to Yao. Him and Yao have chemistry. They play the 2 man game nicely. Sura is self explanatory. He has grit, and compared to what we have had at the point he is an upgrade. JJ should be the first backup off the bench subbing for either Boki or TMac, whichever one isnt hot. If he subs for TMac, then you have Padgett to back up the 3 spot. Padgett can shoot the 3 and actually board. That leaves Deke and MOT/Howard to man the back up big man spots. You play one of MoT/Howard, whichever one is hot. If one guy isnt hot, yank him and give the minutes to the other one. This makes our second team Lue/Barrett JJ Padgett Deke Mot/Howard a much more balanced second unit with offensive skills and defensive skills and more rebounding. (Deke will board) Our first team would suck defensively, but we already suck anyways defensively, so we might as well put the most cohesive offensive team on the floor and get some boards out of Spoon and some points out of the other 4. Spread the floor Sura at the top, TMac and Boki on the wings, and let TMac move to the top as he desires. TMac and Sura would be interchangable top and wings. Throw Yao the ball as soon as he comes down and sets up at the elbow or just below the elbow midway between high post and low post. Let Yao make decisions with the basketball. He is very smart. He can scan the defense and either take the turnaround, or go the the spin move, face up and look for the wings cutting to the basket or fading to the corner. Spoon should be the one laying the screen for the cutters and turning around for the pass off and the 10 footer or going inside to board. Simplify and spacing. If the defense is going to guard the wings and the top then that leaves Yao 1 on 1 at the elbow with possibly Spoons defender helping. Spoon goes to the hole for the layup (Lord knows he probably cant dunk). If Yao sets up and they front him, then one of 2 plays. Either Sura or TMac gets the ball at the top and dribble drive right at Yao and the defense. They are 6-8 and 6-5. They should be able to get to the hole or take a nice medium range jumper. Play 2: They have to work on the pass to the rim. When the defense starts to set up the fronting D, Yao has to dive for the rim and the ball has to be swung to one wing quickly and immediately thrown to the rim. Im not saying throw a lob pass that gives the defense time to recover. Im talkin about a bullet pass right at the rim. Yao just lets it drop off his hand into the basket. The lob pass gives the defense too much time to react and reset. Yaos got good hands. If they practiced that simple play, they could get it down quickly. Screw the front, move the ball quickly and force the defense to react. If they can get in position to intercept the pass, all it means is the defense is guessing and anticipatin and somebody else is open for a little jumper. They have to spend time working on rebound positioning to be able to run the break. Van Gundy should spend all practice having someone throw up a shot and letting the big men take turns playing the defense and setting up the boxout......like harry highschoolers.....until they get it. Spoon and Yao......Deke and Howard/Mot, although Deke knows how to do this right. And then practice throwing the outlet pass and running an effective break. I believe Steve when he said they never practiced running the break. Thats part of the reason we aint rebounding worth a hoot up until tonight. Back to the offense, Yao has to touch the ball early and be able to read and create, and TMac has to touch the ball early and often. We can use all the perimeter screens we want to free up TMac but quit dragging Yao out there. Let Sura and Boki set the screen for TMac to give him the step for the jumper or the drive, and then let him create. TMac and Yao do not set screens, they play off the screens set by the other 3. And the other 3 players on the floor play off the creativity of Yao and TMac. Take the first good shot that comes and do not even worry about running the shot clock. If Yao can post up and get a 1 on 1 turnaround short range jumper with 20 seconds left on the clock, give him the ball and head for the boards, to either rebound, or get a give and go back from Yao. Then Yao takes shots with more rebounders under the basket. All the play can be modified with cuts, backpicks, and fadeouts. With TMac and Yao on the floor, it is a matter of getting them the ball early and helping them do their thing. This will lead to better looks for the other players and more shots for the 2 superstars, and much more effective offensive play. Now the defense. I dont know how much can be done to fix the defense this year. We have no one that can defend the other 4s in this league. And in 14 games out of 15, we are gonna be outmatched at the point. There is no way that we are going to be able to fix the D without a trade, free agent signing, good draft pick, etc. That is why the offense and the break are critical to these players. So, on defense, I would say we need to drop into a zone and try our best to force an outside shot by a bad shooter, unless we are playing a team like the Sonics. In their case, we need to man on man and force them to drive and hopefully shoot quickly, before our rotations are revving at 100 rpms and we dont have a chance to board. We have to practice not over rotating.........that is except when the game is tied and they have the ball with 5 seconds left in the 4th quarter. The only thing we can hope is that they could be taught when to rotate, and when to stop the rotation and let the opposition have a slightly more difficult shot, instead of insisting on trying to challenge every shot. This team is not good enough, it is not quick enough, to challenge every shot. And they get in trouble when they try to do so, and get out of position and the opposition stacks up offensive rebounds against us. The concept of challenging every shot is a great concept but you have to have the personnel to do that. It wont happen with this bunch and we wind up giving away too many easy shots by trying to rotate and challenge everything. Force the game uptempo by slowing the rotations and forcing the offense inside and let Yao and Deke do the intimidating. Gut out the fouls, sign another 7 footer for foul distribution and move either MoT or Howard to the IL whichever is the least effective because they replicate each other. We should play extremely loose on the defensive the first quarter to help PROTECT Yao from foul trouble. And then gradually through the course of the game tighten down defensively as much as is possible with this group. Yeah, we will give up some easy buckets. But if we actually knew how to release and get the ball inbounds quickly, with TMac on the floor, we should be getting back some easy buckets too. Keep Yao out of foul trouble so he can really start to open up defensively in the 4th quarter. Just simple ROCKET SCIENCE. Play to the players strengths and cover up their weaknesses.
