I was at Toyota Center last Friday (Aug. 6) and I had the opportunity to talk with a person who worked for the Rockets. In general conversation about the team I asked why Francis was traded? Immediately the reply was "bad attitude", I said, real bad? "(nod yes) yeah real bad attitude", I asked, with the coach? (big nod yes). That's all that was said about that. Don't start asking for more on this, the person is a long time employee not on the basketball side of things. How in the know? What they heard last season? How they felt? I don't know and I dropped it. Point of this is... If (and I mean IF) Steve had a serious rift with Van Gundy all season long (they tried pretty hard to spin it and down play it) Then I think the chemistry of this team will be totally different than what we saw last season. We may be on to some serious team play. Unity and chemistry that could elevate each players game. When (and again if) the team captain, team leader is in a rift with the coach I believe every player is going to be affected. Please don't look back, and start the bash bash bash posts... Let's look forward- Could Sura, TMac, Yao, JHoward, JJ seriously gel- I think so. These guys could get after the team D the way Memphis was hounding people last season. And actually Ward can bring a settle down get back on track effect when we stray. MoT could have a big year with both Yao and TMac drawing defenses. This season could be really big if team unity, chemistry and determination are all aimed at the opponent.
chemistry can happen. I get chills when I start thinking about Yao throwing an alleyoop out of the post to TMac. Or, with an intelligent team that actually understands spacing, maybe Ward going backdoor for a layup. Howard and Jackson getting a million more open looks than they did last year (well, Jackson last year). In a system with spacing and with decently intelligent players on the court, Yao's passing will finally be utilized...and will be ridiculous.
How the players feel about the coach shouldn't really have a bearing on how they play on the court with each other. They may not do what the coach tells them to do, but since Mo, Steve, Cat, and Cato had been playing together for 4-5 years, their on the court chemistry really shouldn't be blamed on the relationship with the coach.
Ideally, that's right.. But you're telling me that if 4 guys on the court are on board with the way the coach wants them to play, and the 5th hates the coach and wants to do his own thing, that's not going to affect the results? For the record, I was for trading Steve, but not because I thought he had a bad attitude or rift with JVG. I just feel that it was too good of a chance to get Tmac, and that Steve might be better utilized playing in a different system.
shouldn't effect? I agree Reality- human nature, attitudes, rifts in some way eventually affect performance. Corporations spend billions of dollars trying to develop employee chemistry.
The thing I like is our roster has more guys who can move w/o the ball instead of having too many players who want to dominate the ball. JJ got his shots primarily last year by being pretty much the 3rd to 4th option by just moving w/o the ball. T-mac dominates the ball but he always slashes and cuts to the basket better than any of the 2 guards we traded away. sura is athletic and while maybe doesn't move w/o the ball as one would like is still an improvement over francis and mobley as far as movement. Unfortunately he isn't as sharp a shooter as mobley is . I can see better passing in our future already but that doesn't necessarily mean that the passing will be accurate as of yet. Our guys still need to figure out where each guy likes the ball since a lot of our guys are new. But it is nice to have 2 guards in sura and ward who have played with each other before. Makes the transition a bit easier. You know these 2 guys will be on the same page as one another.
What would be really nice is if TMac and Yao both get star treatment from the officials.... You know its a foul if it doesn't go in because there was some contact with a star player...
Alert the media!!! Francis has a bad attitude! No kidding...he's more talented and experienced than half, (or more) than the players at the Olympics, yet was never even thought of. You wonder why. Chemistry has got to be better, now that SF3 and his little buddy Mobley are gone. Addition by subtraction!
Ugh. Where to even start? Francis' problem on this team was that he couldn't hit an open jumpshot and didn't take care of the ball. It was that he had no idea how to run a fast break or play an inside-outside. It wasn't because he was some kind of cancer on the court that killed our chemistry. Mobley wasn't a problem here period. Having watched some of these international competitions, I do think that Stevie would be a train wreck on the olympic team. Not because he has a bad attitude, but because he's a one-on-one player, and one-on-one play doesn't fly in international competition. If we had a chemistry problem last year, which I'm not altogether sure we even had, I don't think it was because of Steve's attitude towards JVG. Steve's talent didn't fit here, and the fact that he and Jeff didn't get along might have made it that much easier to trade him, but I think it's going too far to imply that he was some sort of cancer that was killing our team chemistry.
Having brought in 6 new players, our team chemistry is going to take a while to formulate. However by playoff time, we should be exciting to watch. It's going to be fun to watch this team progress. I can't wait for the season to begin. "THROW IT UP, REF!"
Because his game didn't fit into the system or mesh well with Yao's. Because we had a chance to get a much, much better player. But not because he was some kind of cancer that killed our chemistry.
I'm not so much worried about chemistry as I am about athleticism. Who's athletic on our team outside of T-Mac? I guess we can deal with it for one year, but we should go after Desmond Mason, have him play behind JJ for a year and learn what we want from him, and then make him a long term starter.
not sure what you are getting at Sane we have Yao, Howard, Mo, Sura, JJ, Lue and Ward... damn we are athletic... wow .... Boki and Gaines are the next most athletic players on our team
I've always liked Desmond Mason in college and pros. His acquisition would be a sharp-shooting, fast-running, quick-leaping boost to the rotation. What is his availability ?
My point on team chemistry is with relation to the players full buy in to what the coach is trying to execute on both ends. When players sell out to a good system and learn roles and play to strengths and cover weaknesses well- then they usually develop a chemistry or identity- Once Dream had some players to pass to out of the double and triple team (roles) and they perfected their court spacing (execution) then we started to click. When your captain is bucking the coach and the system it can all get inconsistant. Inconsistancy in the NBA means about 7-8 seed to lottery depending on your talent. I expect a team that meshes and finds ways to win.
I can't help but think you are not in touch with how athletic the league has gotten... Let's take the Blazers.. Theo Ratliff, Zach Randolph, Darius Miles, Qyntel Woods, and Damon Stoudamire.... Do you realize how athletic these guys are? Is JJ really athletic? Can Yao even get off the floor? Take any team you like... Everyone is getting real athletic, I suggest we join the bandwagon, or we'll eventually get outrun by every young team. T-Mac is the only player who is outstandingly athletic... Next? A 31-yr old Bobby Sura. I don't know much about Gaines, though there's no mention of freak athleticism anywhere.
How atheletic is the Shaq/Kobe Lakers? Ironically Shaq even moved slower than Yao when we faced them. He was too lazy to run back to protect the hoops quickly. Remeber in the playoff we can always slow the game down.
Sane- Francis, Mobley, Cato-- yes athletic! TMac- insanely athletic Lue- very quick (I think you count that at his position as athletic) Gaines- ???? Boki- athletic Sura- athletic that's about it- we lack guys who can jump through the rim. but we have guys that can run and d up. So may have to wait for more athleticism. Stromile Swift would have been nice.
