Let me try and put a different spin on the Rudy/anti-Rudy, Rice/anti-Rice, EG/anti-EG sentiment: I think we can all agree that the main problem with this team is inconsistency; the inability to beat all the teams we should beat. There was no question we should have beaten the Hawks last night, but with the current MO of our team I seriously doubted before the game that we could remain focused and win back to back against the Hawks and Nuggets, two games we needed badly. Then the question becomes whose job is it to get rid of this inconsistency and how do we fix it? Figure out the answer and you figure out who to blame. There's several approaches to take: a) Do nothing drastic and hope chemistry comes with time. Who knows if this would actually work, but I guess it's what we've been doing so far this year. I don't have a real problem with continuing in this vein. It shows confidence in the coaching staff AND the players to act like professionals and hopefully gel as a team. b) Make serious alterations to the rotation. Previous suggestions to the effect would be to start Posey and seriously reduce Rice's minutes, or make another trade. We already tried this once with the Posey for Thomas deal. c) Make a coaching change. This is what many have called for. In their defense, this does make sense since inconsistency, i.e., coming out flat, poor shooting, etc are all indications of lack of mental focus and last time I checked it was the job of the coaching staff to make sure the team stayed focus. The only true gripe I have about Rudy is the fact that we've yet to develop a true offensive identity that could help us find order on the court when things spin out of control. The Rockets had a solid week off, we should have spent it installing entirely new offensive sets. Options (b) and (c) are the "Shake it Up" options whose purpose is to jar this very talented team mentally in hopes that they will wake up and stay focused for an extended period of time. I think we may be approaching the time that one of these options are necessary. The team seems to not be able to go a week without falling back into old bad habits. For those of you who saw the post game show after the Orlando game, Mobley kept going on about how the rest of the team was celebrating winning a game they should have won and he was going to be a "tightass" the rest of the season and make sure the team remained focused. Obviously that didn't work. Something has got to be done to keep these guys focused. Rudy Haters/Lovers your opinions? Rice Haters/Lovers your opinions? EG Haters/Lovers your opinions?
You can't change people. Nothing will change. Rudy won't change. Steve Francis won't change. etc etc etc.... Steve Francis is not a true PG. I don't care what anyone says, he'll never be an effective passer. Why? Because he's always been the best player on his team and he's always scored the most points. How are you going to take that out of him. I remember watching Jason Kidd as a freshman at Cal. There were games he barely even looked to shoot. He's a true PG. Is it Steve's fault? No. He just isn't a PG and he never will be because he enjoys scoring too much. Some people love passing (Kidd). Some people love rebounding (B. Wallace). Some people love defense (D. Christie). Steve (and almost every other star player) loves to score. The difference is that on other teams, their job is to score. On ours, Francis is counted on to score and to pass. It all comes down to this. Unless we get a true PG, this team will always be inconsistent.
From what I see on the court, the reason the Rocket's lose to the crappier teams is simple: They get drawn into those teams game plans. Crappier teams almost always have one or two good players that can light it up but nothing else really. So, those teams pretty much go to their star player time and time again. Mobley or Francis subconciously adjust their game so that it resembles mroe of that style. The offense flutters, the one star player on the other team gets hot, an we're done for. The Rocket's defense wasn't bad last night, even in the first half. Had the team not lost so much of its focus because of their offense difficulties, I believe the defense would have been even better. Where do I place the blame...who really knows? My best guess is despite the crappy play by the players themselves, Rudy is really at fault here. I've been a Rudy "hater" most of the season, although I don't think that is an accurate word as most of my arguments have been logical and I don't just randomly dislike Rudy. But his MO is not what this team needs. I actually like Rudy's defensive coaching, and for the most part see no problem with his play-calling. But, listening to him on the radio, it's obvious that his manner of taking control of this ship is talking to the guys before the game about how they can't take so and so lightly, they got to do this, or that, etc, etc. What I've found is that younger players don't take talking as seriosuly as they take action. What this team needs is a coach who's willing, for example, to take a Steve Francis out of the game when he's playing as crappy as he was last night, to sit him down, and to tell him he's not going back into the game until he seriously thinks about making the team better and not making a highlight reel out of himself and Kelvin Cato (Steve, just because Cato's in the game doesn't mean you have to throw him an alley-oop pass). It needs a coach, for instance, who demands that every shot should be within 10 feet after missing 10+ consecutive shots from the outside. When they start jacking more outside shots instead of listening to you, you bench them. Rudy, I don't think, would do that. He is too much of a players coach. Some people in the other thread have argued that Rudy has too much of an effect on the game - to an extent, in terms of roation, I agree , but overall I argue the point. He needs to have more of an affect on a game, precisely because this team is so young. So while I'm not saying Rudy must be replaced, I am recognizing that the team has a systematic problem with being drawn into the other team's crappy gameplan when playng the lesser teams. This can happen once or twice, but it has been like a record player this season. When we play the dregs of the league, I hope Rudy learns he needs to take more control of his players to ensure we don't deviate from what makes the team good - solid defense, especially on the interior, and a balanced offensive attack with 3 players who can light it up on any given night.
