How about an offense that doesn't put a Center ISO'd in the low block with the other 4 players motionless on the weakside so that the entire defense can sag into the paint forcing that Center to shoot fadeaway jumpers and negating has passing abilities? How about an offense that hasn't been dead last in the ratio of assists to made Field Goals for two consecutive seasons? Young team? Parker is younger than Francis. Jackson is younger than Mobley. Taylor and Duncan are roughly the same age. Bowen has a whole 3 years NBA experience over Posey. Yao is young but you can't have it both ways. He has shot poorly and committed some mistakes at key times but if youth is an excuse for the entire team (which I don't buy), then it is more of an "excuse" for Yao. How come this young team got outscored 22-8 in fastbreak points vs the Spurs? Clearly younger than the Lakers, they only managed to outscore them 11-8 in spite of Yao having 7 DRebs, Steve 6 DRebs and Posey 5 DRebs? How come this young team is 8th of 14 WC teams in fastbreak points even though they are the 3rd best defensive rebounding WC team? How come most of the posters here can identify the 4 basic Rockets plays? That's FOUR whole offensive sets including the one where Yao (or Taylor) is left 1on1 in the low block with no weakside movement. How come Greg Popovic is backed up by PJ Carlissimo? How come Don Nelson is backed up by Del Harris? How come Rick Adelman is backed up by Pete Carille? How come Jackson still has Tex Winter on the bench? How come when Jerry Sloan was suspended for a week, the Jazz did not fold? With no disrespect to Rudy T (who embodies everything that is a Rocket) or his terrifying circumstance, but in any other NBA city with a history of being in the playoffs and under any other circumstance, all of these questions wouldn't be on a BBS, they'd be lead stories on the sports pages of local newspapers. And my final how come.....? How come we get Yao and a healthy Francis and the Warriors have more of an improvement in the win column with Dunleavy and Coach Musselman?
Larry has lost one game, that the the Rockets should have won since he took over. That's Seattle. We lost to the Lakers in close game. The San Antonio game looked bad but part of it can be blamed on fatigue. If you guys aren't complaining about Rudy's robotic substitution pattern you complain about Larry when he takes a clearly not up to the task Yao out of the game. Houston fans are so impraticle its ridiculous.
Daskota I have been calling for this for over a month!!!! Les needs to get on the ball or his club will hit rockbottom.
I don't think anyone should point the finger at Larry smith. He is just running the exact same gameplan as Rudy (no can make major adjustements in 1-2 weeks). That's not the issue. The issue is whether Rudy, Larry, and the rest of the gang can instill a gameplan that will best utilize the talents of their players.
Give Larry some credit! He benched Steve after he dribbled the shot clock out and threw up a brick. It's about time a coach did that. Yao was super tired, he could barely get up and down the court, Larry had to bench him. Larry obviously sees the need for a true point guard, that's why Moochie is getting a lot more minutes now and Steve is getting called out for his mistakes. But Larry did not build this team! So give him a break!
Addendum to my previous post. I think it's imperative this team add a veteran NBA coach to its staff to offer a different perspective. A complement to Rudy that may not have the right personality to run the ship but can help with the x's and o's.
Are former coaches like Jeff Van Gundy, Mike Fratello, Danny Ainge and John Thompson qualified? Or maybe former players like Bill Walton, Calvin Murphy, Kenny Smith, or Charles Barkley? If they can point out the same weaknesses we see day in and day out, maybe the weaknesses do exist.
With all due respect to Rudy and his crew, I think a new coaching staff is necessary for us to go to the next level. During Wednesday's game against the Lakers, Walton pointed out something that bothered me the whole season. He said on several occasions that Rox wasted so much time on each play dribbling with no obvious purpose and ultimately were forced to take bad shots as time ran out. We have been talking about low BBall IQ on this Rox team. Maybe it is the coaching staff who is deficient in BBall IQ. Most NBA players are selfish ball hoggers, but they will share the ball if they believe in a system. Just ask Kobe and Shaq before Phil Jackson came along.
DreamWeaver, That is what I am saying. I don't think this coaching staff is getting through to the players. I do like tha Smith benched Steve last night. I wish Rudy had more of a backbone. DD
How many times have we seen the Rockets dribble up the court slowly and by the time the play is setup there's about 10 seconds left on the shot clock. How many times have we seen the Rockets not go for the 2 for 1 with about 35 seconds left. How many times have we trailed a game with about 35 seconds left and dribble the ball to half court before calling a timeout, wasting 3 or 4 seconds when we could have called it right after the basket and still gotten it at half court. How many times can 1 person dribble at the top of the key while everyone stands around. How many times can 1 person penetrate and have everyone stand around. How many times have we seen Eddie Griffin continually take 3 pointers when we know he cant make them on a consistent basis. Why do we have the same issues 72 games into the season.
You're right. And I think it has a lot to do with Steve's slow development as a point guard. The ball is usually in his hands, after all. We know he is a poor at the fast break, maybe he is also poor at pushing the ball up and getting the fast break started. They are both closely related, IMO.
Sadly but truly, I agree it is time to out the staff. Where is the 'the team nobody wants to meet in the 1st round of the play-offs' growth, development, expectations, reality. Reality is if Rox are in they are four and out. I still love Rudy and Smith etc, but this team requires new perspective.
I like Waltons other quote about how this team needs a PG (in the worse way), so they can move Francis to the 2 and Mobley off the bench. He went on to say that Moochie does not cut it as the 3rd guard.
Why do so many experts see what we see, but Rudy and the staff stubbornly refuse to see it, or to make the necessary adjustments. I actually think the new Rudy...the super nice guy, is a terrible coach for a young team. I love Rudy, but it is time for him to take over the GM job, and bring in a new hard nosed coach....like Musselman. DD
People, get a clue. The Rockets don't have the players to be a contender. You can bring in John Wooden for crying out loud and we'd still be a marginal team. For some people, it's just never enough. Last year we absolutely freaking SUCKED... We've been in a downward spiral ever since the Barkley trade, and here we are this year finally even talking SERIOUSLY about the playoffs and everyone's b****ing as if this is the freaking Cavaliers or Grizzlies or Hawks or something. I mean, we are NOT that far removed from back-to-back championships, and our rebuilding process is proceeding VERY nicely. Sure, we got our asses whooped against the Spurs and Lakers, but who DOESN'T? What rookie center DOESN'T get abused by Shaq? What good team doesn't get beat by one of the best, if not THE best team in the league (the Spurs)? I know I've been repeating this AD NAUSEUM but for crying out loud give it some time. This is a work in progress and we ought to be grateful that we have an owner and an organization that wants to win and has actually brought us back to a decent level in under 7 years. A lot of teams have been rebuilding since the '80's, like Washington, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, LA Clippers. And, a lot of teams that haven't won a championship in recent years are on their way DOWN, not UP, like Milwaukee, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Orlando, etc... Here we are, with a young team on the rise, making progress toward getting back into contention in the near future, and a lot of people are acting like this is the end of the world. Mark my words - the 2005 - 2006 season will see the Rockets finish in the top 4 in the West. That's right, TOP 4. You can bank on that. But, it's not going to happen overnight.
