Our Pick and Roll D is HORRIBLE!!!

You won't get any disagreement from me

 

What's new about that?

 

You would think that with the new rules allowing zone D's we would be able to sneak in a 3rd defender to prevent the Catch 22 situations of the pick and roll.

Of course, this would only be useful if we could rotate on defense quickly.

 

For as long as I've been watching the Rockets ('83ish), we've sucked at playing defense against the pick and roll.

Sure, there have been the occasional game where we'd shut it down, but that was a (very) rare occurrence.

 

Whenever the Rockets guards go under the pick, their man buries the jumper. Whenever they go over the pick, the big men on this team don't show , and the opposing player ends up with a clear lane to the basket.

The coaching staff is just not communicating with the big men on how to defense the pick and roll (ie: Willis not cutting off Brandon vs Minnesota), and it's killing this team. As much I'd like to put the onus on our guards alone, they just can't do it.

 

The Rocket defense has ALWAYS sucked against the pick-n-roll under Rudy. He's even made a point of talking about how they purposely defend the pnr differently from ANY other team. Why not double the dribbler on a pnr, then rotate? I've always wondered why every team in the league doesn't do that. I believe his feeling is that he'd rather give up an open jump shot to a guard, than a layup to a rolling big man, but why not try to not give up an open shot to anybody? Why not try to guard both men effectively, rather than conceding a shot to the dribbler?

 

Exactly Freak.

Unfortunately the Rockets are a poor defensive rotation team. So they are stuck in the catch 22 situation.

I was really hoping that the new rules would help the Rockets be able to rotate quicker/easier without getting burned, but the Rockets haven't really worked on adding to anything offensively or defensively, in lieu of the new rules.

Rudy, drop the flask, and devise some new wrinkles to the team.

 

Tomjanovich is a "player's coach" -- not a strategist. He will select one player, the franchise player, and build a team around that player's talent. The offensive sets are simple: isolate and let the franchise player create. This offensive "philosophy" works well with veteran players who make good decisions (ie Barkley, Drexler, Olajuwon) and poorly, almost appearing chaotic, with in-experienced players. (To his credit, Tomjanovich calls great "last second" plays.)

The Houston teams that won two titles didn't know how to play the pick-and-roll...but they had an All-Star shot-blocker, a great help defender, and PG and SG who knew how to play the passing lanes and anticipated passes. Individual defensive talent/"smarts" compensated for poor defensive preparation. The current team has a C who plays below potential; an undersized starting PF; a SF slowed by a foot injury/age; the best defensive SF and SG sitting on the bench; and PG and SG being fundamentally out-played on both ends of the court.


University (Waiting patiently for Griffin's arrival.) Blue

 

Maybe Rudy should then REALIZE this team is different than the said title teams?

And since it's different, perhaps have a different scheme?

Rudy does have assistant coaches right?

He's trying to incorporate the players into his system. That doesn't work, he needs to incorporate the system according to his players.

The term "square peg in a round hole" comes to mind.

 

Saying that Rudy isn't a strategist and is a "players coach" is laughable. There is no way in the world that a coach that isn't a strategist would ever make it in the league this long, let alone win championships. And no having superstar players doesn't mean you can win without being a strategist, or Del Harris would still have a head coaching job. We're talking about a guy who took a team with no frontline last year other then an aging Hakeem and won 45 games with it. Yeah he used isolation, but that's called using your strengths. The guy isn't a miracle worker, he's building essentially a new team this year. We lost our entire starting frontline from last year (Dream, Mo, Shandon), lost our main offensive power up front, added new rookies, are incorporating new players, and trying to get everybody on the same page. It takes more then a players coach to do something like this. Nobody has really figured out that pick and roll, not even the Lakers. That's why the Jazz and Spurs run it all the time. You guys need to relax. It's hard to throw in new schemes when there are so many players that don't even know the old schemes. You do realize that the only key players from the team last year that know what the system is are Mooch, Francis, Cat and KT. Let the chemistry build.

 

Watch the T-Wolves play defense. They are using the zone to perfection.

I would say Flip did a good job of throwing in a new scheme.

Also, it's better to have new guys for a new scheme. Older player would have to "unlearn" the schemes they are used to.

Thanks for playing.

 

We've always been horrible? Remember how UTah used to burn us with the pick and roll during the playoffs many years ago?

 

Excellent point. I believe Denver did this to Vince Carter last night.

Keeping a double team on the dribbler has the added advantage of trying to complete a pass over a taller player. Also, since there is no "illegal defense", it should be (relativelly) easy to rotate a third defender from the free throw line or opposite lane.

Why do the Rockets remain stuck in their unsuccessful ways? Is Rudy that set in his habits? Are the Rockets good/great atheletes without the required mental abilities to play good rotating D?

 

I love Rudy, but I am beginning to suspect how much of a players coach he is. I am guessing a players coach is a motivator rite? Garnett said during the Olympics that he would swim to Australia after hearing Rudy speak. But how many times in the last couple of years have the Rockets lost due to lack of effort? My guess is that its more then any other team in the league. How come Rudy cant get the Rockets to prepare for every game?

 

You seriously think the Rockets show less effort than any other team in the league? That might be the most stupid and ignorant post I have ever read on this BBS. It takes a lot to top ZRB, but that very well may have done it.

Please, please just start watching some other teams with as critical of an eye as you do the Rockets. Hell, there are some teams out there (Nugz) who skipped practice and even threatened to boycott games-- and the Rockets are less prepared than them? The Rockets aren't perfect, but on a night by night basis they show as much heart as anyone. However, they aren't the Lakers. They aren't even the Spurs and Kings. The talent just isn't phenomenal right now, and until it is, there will be some bad nights. It just happens. We were 45-37 last year, and 5-2 so far this year. Considering that we're about the only winning team out West without a dominant post player, that's pretty damn good.