Two solid wins so far, but I have yet to see a string of fastbreaks. Francis and now Mobley gobbling up all the rebounds do not give us the opportunities to even start a fastbreak. Francis is avergaing somewhere around 11 reb per game from the pg position! Mobley I think is getting around 7. Maybe Rudy can convince Steve And Cat to let the big boys do the job down there. Give them atleast a couple of games to see if Cato and Kenny are capable. We started to fastbreak a little bit when Rice hit those two 3-ptrs from the wing yesterday. That is more of what we need. This team is not going to beat the elite teams in the NBA if we dont use our biggest weapon - Speed. I know its only been two games, but we all know Steve is capable of reb. If he makes a habit of getting around 8-12 reb every nite we are not going to be scoring enough points to beat the Blazers, Spurs or the Lakers. Unless of course Cato and Kenny are not up to the task in which case we dont really have a choice.
This is a good question and it is not really easy to answer it; however I would like to offer this thought. If those guards are going to play those long minutes then they will not fast break even if the opportunity may be there. I do not credit the fact that they are rebounding as the reason or part of the reason why we are not fast breaking much. First of all we played two very athletic and young teams. My answer would be to increase the rotation, maintain the defensive intensity and limit the starting backcourt time to 34 mins per game each. Their time management is also critical. The starting backcourt should not play all the way to mid 2nd Q before a rest. At the 10 min mark of the 1st, give them a 3 min breather and let them go again. I think we will see more consistent running then.
There haven't been a lot of typical fast breaks, but overall, they seem to be running their offense much faster than last year. They are also making more cuts to the basket, and shooting more mid-range jumpers. When they start hitting shots, this team's offense will be set.
This offense is as pedestrian as they come. We're still running the same iso's but teams are running a hybrid zone. Teams just sag off on the pick and fade and wait for Steve or Cat. If you want to diverisfy this offense, it would be nice to see Cat or Rice run off double low picks on one side opposite the ball. We're struggling to score because we make the defense easy to guard us. Anytime you stand around with 3 players, it gives the defense a breather. As far as the fast break, I see Kidd grab rebounds and RUN up the floor, not that little jogging with the ball we do.
I agree completely. Torres should get some time. With rest, we can turn up the defensive pressure, and get out on the break more. Just as important, we can run a secondary break. When the Rocks have played well in the first two games, it was because they were pushing the ball and getting early shots. They have struggled when the defense was set.
I would love to see Rudy bring in Morris and Griffin, then turn up the heat. Francis,Cat,Morris,Griffin, and Cato should be able to press full court a little and creat turnovers, but when we bring in williams, this kills the idea.
You can't get a fastbreak if you don't rebound. The Rockets are a poor rebounding team. We need all 5 guys going hard after the boards. We can't let 1-2 guards run off cherry pick. I'd rather make sure we get 90% of the defensive boards over getting 10 or so fast break points.
Are we still a poor rebounding team? People may not want our guards leading the team in rebounding, but they've averaged 56 rebounds the past two games, outrebounding each of our opponents in each of those games. Granted, the opponents each had slighly lower, and very low, shooting percentages, but we weren't a poor rebounding team last year either. These are just two games, of course, but I don't see how there's any data to back up the claim that we're a less than stellar rebounding team. I won't contest the overall point that we'd be a better fastbreaking team if the big men shouldered most of the defensive rebounding (although I'm not sure I agree entirely), but I do wish to point out that Cato and Willis presently average the most defensive boards for the team. Steve and Cat are third and fourth. What Steve and Cat have been doing is pulling down a lot of offensive rebounds, which doesn't affect our fastbreak, although it might affect our transition defense. We talked about ways to deal with that last year. As long as one or two players are always getting back on defense so we don't give up easy layups at the other end, I love the fact that we have guys able to pull down so many offensive boards. Those second-chance opportunities are so important. With respect to this thread, the guards shouldering too large a bulk of the defensive rebounding is a valid criticism, but in general, I think a lot of people are way too preoccupied with their models of how each player should be playing. If the guards rebounding makes us a stronger rebounding team and doesn't come at the expense of our transition offense and defense, I, for one, applaud them.
Relativist-In the sense that we do outrebound our opponents, we aren't a poor rebounding team. But, the fact that we must have all 5 guys crashing the boards, does, in theory, make us an average at best rebounding team. To me, it seems like the defensive rebounding comes in spurts. I could swear the Rockets allowed more offensive boards than the stats say. Obviously, those stats aren't lying, but I think it has to do with the fact that in a 4-5 min stretch, the defensive boards aren't being pulled down. If we had a "standard" rebounding philosophy of the SF, PF, and C mainly crashing the boards, we would be killed on the boards.
Just because we have to have 5 guys crashing the boards DOES NOT make the Rockets a bad rebounding team. It's just another version of rebounding. You don't need a traditional PF or center as a rebounding monster to be a good rebounding team, and just because a lot of the Rockets rebounds come from the guard position doesn't make this team an average rebounding team. It puts them at a disadvantage sometimes, but it still makes them a good rebounding team. As for people complaining about the offense you guys have to relax! It's the first week of the season and everybody isn't on the same page. Rice hardly played in the preseason, Willis has only been on the team a few weeks, and we're stocked with rookies. Nobody could have expected this team to explode out of the gate with a well organized offense. The fact that this team is such a good defensive team and rebounding team actually shocked me. I expected this team to compete early, but I thought it would take ugly ball and luck, but this team is getting it done on the defensive end. Just give the team some time to gel.
RM-Point is, if the other team sends 5 guys crashing the boards against us, they will probably have the rebounding edge.
The Rox don't have the mentality to run. They don't get the rebound and run, instead they jog up one side or the other. When you watch Milw,Dallas, or some of the other fast breaking teams, you see a sense of urgency unlike houston. The power forward and centers must run to get secondary breaks which are just as effective. Jason Kidd can run a break, John Stockton can run a break, even Payton can run a break, Steve Francis hasn't learned how to run the break yet. The point is suppose to keep pushing up the middle hard until someone picks him up. That is what Kidd , Cassell, and some of the other points so dangerous. They don't have the leaping ability that Steve has, but what they do is put a strain on your transition defense. This is what Rudy and Francis must do. Keep attacking the middle and make the d make decisions , then the Rockets can get some transition buckets.
hey R3 gotta say the fastbreaks tonight were MUCH improved. francis pushed the ball constantly and did a very very good job. it is coming around.
