Not many people on this board appear willing to say it but I'm going to. I am sick and tired of the mental lapses I see from Rudy in his substitutions. I watched as Vin Baker was made to look absolutely unstoppable by Mo and KT. Obviously they are too small to guard him thus he received the ball virtually every time down the court when the Sonics built their lead. Why was Dream not inserted into the game earlier than 6:28 of the 4th quarter? Why wasn't MO given the ball in the post and able to operate considering the fact that he had been shooting well again throughout the game. Why don't the Rockets trap guards in the half court game to take the ball of of the hands of Payton like other teams do our guards? Why the hell does'nt Rudy T make freaking adjustments? What the hell is it going to take for Rudy to understand that every one in the league knows that the Rockets are going to try and beat teams with their perimeter players and consequently every team effectively takes that aspect of the Rockets game away? I have more questions but as I sit here, I'm getting more and more pissed. If someone could help me to understand just a little of this, I'd greatly appreciate it. By the way, the team is young is not an acceptable explanation, so please don't respond to that one. The offensive and defensive philosophies are not created by the players, but by the coaches. ------------------
I agree absolutely. I want the same questions answered. I think Rudy is a great person and an excellent motivator, but my god some of his decisions... ------------------ "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning how to put food on their family while being put to death."
Man, you guys are right. I mean, the Boston Celtics are doing so much better, and Rudy's had way more lottery picks than they have. Same with the New Jersey Nets and Chicago Bulls. And the Clippers...man...can we get their coach? I'm sure he could do so much better. Then there's the Nuggets and Grizzlies. Those teams are doing so much more with less talent than we have. I mean, you'd think that with one lottery player, that Rudy would be winning more games in his first full year of a rebuilding project, right?
This team has way too much talent to be under .500 at home. ------------------ "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning how to put food on their family while being put to death."
Freak: LOL! ------------------ The way to use life is to do nothing through acting, The way to use life is to do everything through being. - Lao-Tzu
le freak, so chic! hahaha, no seriously, i am sorry, i am getting hysterical. i am sick of watching the rockets lose. but really, rudy t is a hell of a coach. i think as fans though, we see how much potential this team has, and we just want them to win. i think you have to go with kt and mo irregardless of vin baker going off. mo is playing like a man, and i think kt has better mobility than hakeem. by the way, where are all those, "mo is a punk" playa-hatas now? ------------------
I expected an idiotic response like this one. First of all I haven't indicated or implied in any way shape or form that Rudy should not be the coach of the Rockets or that we need one of the coaches from the few terrible teams in the league. Stay on point. The problem is Rudy can and should be criticized for a lot of the decisions that are being made on the floor. Period end of story. If you want to rant and rave about how great he is, you'll be preaching to the choir. I think he's a great guy too, but not beyond criticism or questioning. ------------------
On other thing, Freak, talent or alleged talent is subjective. Do you consider a team to be more talented because they have more lottery picks? There are plenty of busts from the lottery. Heart, desire are the cornerstones for a player to exceed in this league. Talent is a given if they make it to this level. Rudy cannot take credit for giving any player any of those attributes. The bottom line is with the mix of players we have we should be able to make adjustments during a game like other teams do. The team that makes the correct adjustments usually wins. Adjustments are made by coaches. ------------------
since75, i sure would like to know if you take into consideration that this team is still in the newlywed stage. we haven't had enough time playing together. 'sides, when mo is playing tough, and kt being faster, why would you pull either till you absolutely have to? ------------------
Gram, I do fully understand and take into consideration that the Rockets are still a young inexperienced team to a degree. The nucleus of the starting five have been playing together for a full season and this season so some of the things I'm seeing repeated from last year shouldn't still be happening as often. Please don't misunderstand, I still believe in the Rockets and Rudy but I have concerns with Rudys' tendency to not make adjustments during games as needed. ------------------
The larger question for me is - why is Kenny Thomas defending Marc Jackson, David Robinson, Ewing & Baker? Maybe the Rockets defensive sets so complicated that Pig hasn't learned them all yet. Or maybe Pig hasn't learned which side of the floor to be on for a Mobley ISO. The Rockets have been in many of the recent losses, but as soon as Rudy uses KT at the 5 the other team goes right to the hoop without fear (usually mid 3rdQ). I like KT's game - I just don't like him as a Center. ------------------ GATER
Rudy is an excellent coach. I am sure you dont understand many of his moves, but regardless of how drunk he looks out there sometimes, the man knows exactly what hes doing, sometimes in relation to the longterm and not just that particular game. It seems the jolt of writing this crticism stems from the inability to stop Vin Baker in the 4th. I was at the game and yes it was pretty sad. However, up until about 8 minutes to go in the entire game Vin Baker had scored ZERO points. He just went off. There is nothing you can do about that, and Dream certainly wouldnt have done any better-in case you havent noticed his one on one defense isnt superb these days either. SPeaking of defense though, I think in the half court the Rockets arent too bad. THey definitely need some work, but as weve seen in some of our wins this year, when we can keep a team from running on us, we can keep their scores quite low. THe problem, in my opinion, actually stems from our offense. Too much isolation creates stagnancy. Couple that with the fact that Steve is such a big boarder--which is fine, just means someone else has to rotate back, which doesnt happend--and this allows other teams to get fast breaks against us, open threes, easy layups,etc, and we pretty much crash and burn from there. Take the first 6 minutes or so against the sonics. THe rockets barely ran one isolation play the whole time, and got off to a quick 10-2 lead. Now look at the second half, where the rcokets have been failing miserably of late. Nearyl 50% of the plays are some kind of isolation. We score on a fair amount, but when we dont, it comes back to haunt us twofold. Anyway, that is just my opinion, and it really doesnt have anything to do with substitution patterns in my mind. ------------------ "There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them." Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)
I don't know what part of this blame should fall in Rudy's lap but here's my take on the issue. ROCKETS DO NOT PLAY AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE. Take this situation. Vin Baker scores on you twice. Now what do you have to do? First of all, deny Vin the ball. How do you do that? Well for starters, force the passer away from the zone by getting on him. Gary Payton has enough moves of his own that if he cannot get the ball into Baker, he'll move away and try and create his own shot. Then, you cannot let Baker (or any other big men) catch the ball so low in the post. Thats the job of Taylor, Hakeem, KT. Third, if Baker gets the ball, double team him from the top and force him towards the baseline. In my opinion, the Rockets, do this type of defense only 2-3 time in 48 minutes, and usually they are rewarded with TOs or missed shots. Now, let me also say something else that I have observed. The other teams double on the Rockets late. Why is that? The simple reason that we have a couple of jackasses who play with the ball for 20 seconds and then when they are about to make the move, they are double teamed. Mobley is a great one on one player and has a solid first step, but until he learns to make *good* decisions with the ball, we cannot expect to go anywhere. In the game against SA, Mobley began an ISO, and who whole SA team stood around to watch. Then Walt suddenly came off a screen and Mobley passed it to him and bingo...an easy bucket. If Cuttino learns to make such decisions quickly, then we can do something with this team. ------------------
Rudy may have looked a lot smarter last night if three things had happened: 1. Hakeem makes his wide open layup. 2. Mobley makes his wide open layup. 3. Francis makes his breakaway dunk. Each of the above would have (I believe) tied the game or put the Rockets within 1 point at the time. Steve's miss was especially painful as the Sonics had built an 8 point lead and the Rockets had whittled it down. Hakeem's miss turned into a 3 pointer for Barry. The mark of coaching a young team is that you do not know what to expect night in and night out. My only complaint with Rudy is that he does not rein in Mobley. With some of the idiotic things Cuttino does, it would be nice to see him spend some bench time after a bonehead play. I seriously doubt that it would hurt Mobley's confidence to have to sit for a while. ------------------
The problem with the Rockets is that they cant stop anybody. A superstar will barely ever have a game below-average. Uusally it will be an excellent game by the opposing superstar. Kobe, McDyess, Webber, Payton, etc. We need to borrow a page from Mark Cubans book and hire a defensice coordinator. Bring George Karls mean ass over here to teach em how to play some defense (of course the bucks dont play defense either, but we aint got to get in that deep). ------------------ SUCK POLICE!!!!!! To point out individuals or teams that have managed to reach the pinnacle of SUCKINESS!!!!! ----- ROCKETS 4th quarter defense SUCKS. The offense SUCKS as well! Absolutely no excuse for the loss against Sonics at home!
While I would say "be patient this team is still young", I'd have to agree that heart and desire are the most needed component for this team. I do see them in Stevie, but it has to be the goal of the whole team. Also, from another thread I saw, some of the players may be playing for their personal stats. That's bad. That's one of the many areas that Rudy needs to fix. Rudy has been doing a fairly good job, keeping a 2-year team at around .500, though sometimes I really have no clue about his rotation decision. After all, we are not the coach. Let him do his wonder! ------------------
You haven't been reading very carefully: a lot of posters say the exact same thing and they all crop up after the Rocks lose a couple in a row. ------------------ RealGM Rockets Draft Obligations Summary http://www.gaffordstudios.cjb.net/
It's not the first time he's contributed absolutely nothing to a discussion. <hr width=50%> "In Rudy We Trust" not-with-standing, I agree that team success begins with coaching. If Houston intends to re-create the championship, Detroit teams of the 80s, Tomjanovich should take another look at their roster: Two definite HOF guards and a third guard who was solid on both ends of the court. A center with a consistent perimeter game and an intimidating defensive presence. Three solid interior players who could score on most defense. Two solid rebounders and defensive players. What was interesting about those Detroit teams (and relevant when compared to the current Houston team) was that they had great offensive players who had suspect defense. However, those Detroit teams had two great one-one-one defenders in the paint and three or four outstanding help-defense players. Daly did a great job with the match-ups against Boston, Chicago, and LA. I like Francis and Taylor as Houston's starters and Mobley coming off the bench. I'd like to see Houston sign (or trade for) a taller guard (maybe Allan Houston), an athletic (or solid) SF (maybe Austin Croshere), and a solid C. ------------------ "Breaking up is hard to do...[with] everyone trying to make it a parting befitting all the professionalism that came before. Trying to find that Olajuwon graceful fade one more time." Scott Howard-Cooper (Sacramento Bee, ESPN.com)
