Dribble mania is back. I hate to rehash this but Stevie Francis is still not a point guard. Mobley is still crazy. JVG turned clueless and was out coached. I am in shock (yeah it is just one game) not because we lost but how we lost. We bassically regressed from all the good things this team has done in the last 3 weeks. Steve is still .....well dumb. He prefers to do things the wrong and hard way. Why dribble cluelessly and endlessly? Why trying to make the highlight play all the time? Is simplisity to hard for you. I wish I was not saying this. It is not ONE GAME - but the return of the dreaded dumb basketball and low basket ball IQ. He is a great 2 guard lets get a true PG in Feb 2004. Lets end this experiment. Steve will play good "PG" in spots and merely tease us occasional but it is looking more and more that HE WILL HARDLY EVER be an effective PG CONSISTENTLY. If Steve is dumb.....then Mobley is dumber. I was not sure about relegating him to the 6th man role or outrightly trading him but I am now convinced that that this will not end soon. He is bound to show occassional flashes but will continously cost us because he STILL THINKS HE IS THE SHOW STOPPER. He is a role player but I doubt if he will EVER GET IT. I lay the blame the majority of the blame on JVG (50%, 40% to Steve & Cutino and 10% to the rest of the team). JVG just flat out got out coached by a supposed 'relic'. He was clueless and he was unable to get a hold of his guards to play under control when the game was still salvageable. I was very dissapointed to say the least but I expect him to react strongly to this dissmal and disheartening outing. The rest of the lads played a variation of discomburbulated (sp)basketball - completely out of sinc to a large extent stuborn. What hurts the most was that this was a winnable game but the good news was that it was not against Phoenix or T-Wolves. We were not able to get into our offense most of the night until 10 seconds or less on the shot clock thanks to our patientless and dumb guards. Just felt like I was watching Rudy's team of last season all over again. Yao needs to find a way to improve his stamina and his team has to freaking find a way to run 110% plays through him even though his freaking panting or not (at least he is smart enough to make a good decision with ball). Please I don't want to hear that it was just one game - because it not; it is the begining of a potential cancer and failed season if not rectified and curbed early. Damn!!!!!!!
When I watched the game, what I thought was the old rockets were back. We even had difficulties to pass the ball across half court. And what the hell were those "fancy" play? No look pass, Lob. No look my a**. Those many stupid turnovers! My prediction, Cat will be traded before all star break and we have a PG in return. Who take Cat? I give them a Moochie for free!!!
In addition to bashing Steve and everyone else, lets give credit to Memphis defensive effort. One of the best Ive seen in a while. I think you can possibly say we were outcoached. However, in defense of JVG, its not like Memphis was known for this kind of D before. They threw stuff at us that they never displayed last year. So I think we were caught of guard. Its hard to be prepared for something when you dont have advanced scouting on that.
Codell With all due respect this is not bashing - it is IMO telling it like is. I truly love the team and her players but I have to state the obvious. Truth be told if we play like we are capable of and with one accord there is no way Memphis can stay with us. Sometimes if you play bad (like we did tonight) you make teams like Memphis look like Dallas Mavs. They are not the second coming of the Kings either - we just did not come to play as one team.
Fegwu, I completely disagree. Memphis D forced alot of our errors. Not all, but most. Give credit where credit is due. We absolutely were not prepared for that kind of defensive effort from Memphis. They played excellent half court D, they denied Yao every chance they got, their players rotated quickly on D and when they threw the full court press on us in the 2nd half, they were simply awesome. Sometimes there just isnt an answer for a good, solid ass kicking defense. This is a good example of how sometimes good teams lose games they shouldnt early on. Teams change personnel and philosophies during the offseason and are often unpredictable the first time you play them. I will be more willing to blame JVG or SF if the same thing happens next time we play them.
People who make excuses for the coach and team dont know what they are talking about!! This team wont change unless we break up steve and cuttino. If they stay together we will NOT make the playoffs. Cuttino is a show off and everybody knows he is!!!
I kinda agree. What irks me the most is that in the last 2 months JVG has been 'patronizing Steve alot. I thought he was trying to be diplomatic with his words and actions towards Steve but damn that now. All that is hogwash - Stevie should be relagated to what he truly is - A FREAKING BACKUP STAR. Steve is not the most important player on this team now - Yao is. We will win more games and make the playoffs when we get a true PG or put the ball in Yao's freaking hands 150% down court. Yao is our best and most important player - that is the person JVG has to be patronizing. He should treat Stevie and his dumb cronies just like what they really are, PAWNs, put in place to enhance and serve the QUEEN, Yao. If we are going to lose 81 games lets lose with a our best player, Yao. I prefer to go down with Yao than those other dumb and stupid pawns/scrubs he has been forced by Rudy to play with. Damn!!!
I watched this debacle and we deserved to lose. We got outhustled, outplayed and the Griz simply wanted it more than we did. As masochistic as it sounds, an ugly loss like this should serve as a great wakeup call. Like last year, we played as if simply showing up would produce a win. Memphis played GREAT defense and exposed our weaknesses esp. with The Little Dribbler playing point (yes, he's worthless but that's for another thread). They also did a wonderful job of denying Ming position and fronting him most of the night. Credit Hubie Brown and the Griz for outpreparing and outworking the Rox even on the back end of back-to-back games. Like any change process, the results are never immediate. And when we got behind, THE INMATES REVERTED TO RUDYBALL. One on one, overdribbling, dribbling into traffic and turning the ball over mindlessly, even ignoring Yao. JVG is RIGHT ON with respect to the changes he is instituting, and last night served as a reminder that he/we have a long way to go. In the long run, it's really up to Francis to "get it" and lead by example. Last night exposed everything wrong with SF' game. It'll be interesting to see how he responds in the next few games. I imagine there will be some serious ass kicking by JVG in todays practice D R
Have to agree with Fegwu: The Rockets were doing their best when Yao was getting the ball downlow. Whenever SF, Cat and Mooch try to do their best AND-1 impersonations thats when things went awry. For some reason those guys don't want to make the simple passes that make the game much easier instead of this alley-oop **** that goes over the backboard. Bottomline - If SF & Cat continue to play like this then trade them ASAP for some smarter team-oriented players. Mooch is pretty much worthless so we might as well cut him.
I literally fell out of my chair this was so funny!! Ha ha ha ha! Seriously though, people, the Rockets just ran up against something they weren't prepared for last night. The Grizzlies took the Rockets right out of their system and Houston, including Yao, couldn't cope. Not a good game offensively from the Rockets. But gimme a break. Everyone on the team from JVG on down has to take the responsibility for this one. They knew our weaknesses and exploited the hell out of them. It's not "making excuses" to say that the guards were under constant ball pressure all night, particularly during the full-court play. They made some stupid mistakes, but so did Yao, so did Jeff Van Gundy, so did everyone on the Rockets and so did many Memphis players. That's the plain truth: it was an ugly, ugly game and the score reflects that. Yes, the Rockets will have to figure out how to get Yao the ball when he's fronted. That clearly hasn't been practiced at this point. But you know: I bet it will be after last night.
I agree with Fegwu and Codell. We played horribly and their defense was good...with a variety of guys playing. The Grizzlies seemed very happy to get a win...very happy.
Lets break the team up because we lost the second game of the season. Sounds rational... BTW, thanks for the new sig, Freak.
Right. It's time to bring in a new coach! JVG had his shot and blew it! C'mon, folks, let's be a little realistic here. Sure, this is a disappointing loss, but surely you didn't expect the team to completely lose it's old mentality in just a few weeks. If they play like this at mid-season, that could be a problem, but this early in the season, it's to be expected. ima_drummer2k -- I've been trying to get in touch with you. Please send me a note at chris@topfive.com when you get a chance.
