I know I am a true Rockets fan because anyone that can sit through the last couple of weeks of this garbage and still count the days until the next massacre has to be a true Rockets fan! A couple of points I would like to make: 1. I don't think it is fair to blame everything on Rudy since his offense was designed around Franchise, Cat and MoT. Now with two out for considerable time and Cat just getting back into the games I don't know how we can expect much more than what we are getting. 2. We have four rookies eating up a lot of time on the floor right now and most of our regular subs are starting. How smooth does anyone really expect our offense to look right now? 3. How valuble is Franchise to this team? With Franchise we are 7-6 with losses comming against Minn, Den, San, LAL, Sac and LAC. Of those 6 losses 4 came against arguably the best four teams in the NBA right now and only 2 came against opponents we should have beaten but we were on the road and Francis was severly limited in both games with injuries and migrains. Of the 7 wins four were against play off caliber teams in Pheo, Dal, Phil and Port 2 others were against teams that are suppose to challange for the 8th playoff seat LAC and Den. With out Francis we are 0 - 6 with losses to some of the worst teams in the NBA. 4. Did Rudy T and CD mis-judge what Glen Rice is physically capable of? He knows how to play the game he just seems to strugle to move around the court now. He seems very stiff legged. 5. Its frustrating to watch three players stacked up at the top of the arc while Moochie dribbles away on one side of the arc and some one else on the other corner of the arc and no one down low. It is also frustrating to almost never see Eddie recieve a pass in the low post. I am hesitant to critisize though since I don't know the pace that Rudy T has been able to impliment all of the tools of his offense with so many rookies playing so many minutes. I will continue to look for that silver lining and I still cant wait until the next game.
All I know is that i'm heart broken, watching the Rockets do nothing while the Bulls hit jumper after jumper with nobody on their face reallly piss me off. Rockets had no leader on the floor, and they just stood their watching the Bulls score on them. I wonder what the hell happen! I'm a true Rockets fan just like many of you out there. But right now I have lost hope of the Rockets making the playoffs. I hope Francis stops hurting and get back soon before is really too late to make a run at the playoffs.
I'm glad I has class during the game or I might have had a heart attack as mad as I would have been. That was the nail in the coffin. I hope now the guys wake up because I was fairly confident that this team is around .500 without Steve. *Maybe, just maybe they'll be forced to get in gear and start tearing things up.
I just cant agree with most of your post Crash. I think it is very fair to blame Rudy. I don't know if he got the memo or not, but the league changed the defensive rules to stop the iso offense. He did nothing to change our dependancy on it and therefore we get no good looks. This was true when Francis was playing and it would be the same if MoT were playing. No we don't, and thats what most people are pissed about. Since Francis has gone down, the only person to see substantial playing time is OT. I just did some math, and in the last 5 games OT is getting 29.4 mpg, Griff 14.2 mpg, Brown 12.8 mpg, and TMo a whopping 5.0 mpg. I'm happy with Torres, but Grif should be getting closer to 20 and Brown should be getting at least 17-18. I won't even start with TMo, he really hasn't show enough to earn more pt. I agree with you there. Of course Rice is stiff legged, we knew that when we got him. Rice's game isn't suited for an iso offense, hasn't been for years, I still think he could be productive if we had anything resembling a playbook to use. Once again I have to point out that 1. We aren't using the rookies like you point implies. and 2. This is the exact offense we run all game long, with or without our best players, and it just doesn't work anymore. Not trying to dog out your opinions here, just don't agree with them. We will never be a quality playoff team with the offense that Rudy seems content to run. Sure, we may win some games, but in the end the other teams discipline will win over our athleticism 80% of the time.
The minutes you describe are substantial. That is 4 rookies taking up the bulk of our bench minutes and the bench on any team is crucial. The only players off the bench with more than a few weeks experiance are Willis and Walt. Something else to remember is that the starting line up that we started the last six games is not even close to the starting line up that one 45 games last year. The last six games: Moochie Oscar/Cat (2 games) Rice Kenny Cato Last year: Francis Cat Shandon/Walt MoT Dream How can you just expect a team that starts a rookie subs anouther rookie at the PF and PG positions as part of the regular rotation be expected to function like a well oiled machine. The team that is currently on the floor is not what Rudy T had in mind during the off season. Here is the team that would be on a roll right now: Francis Cat Rice MoT Cato That should be our starting line up but due to problems out of Rudy Ts control it is not.
Those minutes would be fine if everyone were healthy. And I'm not saying tank the season and start the rooks all the time. What I am saying is at this point it just doesn't seem smart to not use this as a chance to get the young guys some serious minutes. Now if Francis and Taylor were playing, I'd be happy with the guys getting small minutes here and there. I fail to see how playing Mooch all game long instead of getting Brown some pt will help us down the road. I don't understand why Griff isn't the first 4 off the bench considering our starter is out for the season. I don't understand why it took Mobes going down completely before we even got a look at Torres. If now isn't the time, then when would be the time?
Yesterday I was ready to throw in the towel and give the rooks more playing time as well but Im going to trust Rudy is on top of things and will eventually pull us out of this. I think when we say things like give Torres, Griffin, and Brown more playing time what were doing is underestimating the amount of highly experienced and competive individuals these rook kids are facing out there, and also at the same time, from the outside, percieving that our rooks are little better than they actually are right now. Maybe it's best Rudy gives his capable vets the neccessary amount of opportunitys to right this ship before it's too late. I still believe.
Could this be due to that OT has earned his minutes in practice/games, while the others are not ready yet to contribute. Remember it is rookies we're talking about. I say let them earn the minutes, it will be better long term. How about getting Langhi some minutes Rudy? Damn, I guess he's not earning them either.
crash...that's a great first sentence. imo, we out-executed both the Kings and the Spurs with Steve out. That's a good sign. I'm just not that worried about a game plan as much as consistently sticking to it, and improving on it. I don't mind our forwards facing the baskets, nor do I mind offenses with PGs dribbling around searching for something. Steve does it. Stud PGs can be successful dribbling around searching for something. Our problem is doing it within a game plan and team coordination. Meaning, how much of it is the PG dribbling around unpredictably making a coach simplify things for the rest of the team. The good news is that if the PG is indeed knocking the team out of their timing with too much improvisation, then one person can fix that. In my lonely world of actually liking the basic strategy behind Rudy's system for *this* team, fixing the problems is not that unachievable. Then again, I could be clinging to faith...but that's "How I know I am a true Rockets fan," and true BBall fan. As for Griffin, who else remembers Kenny playing in our "iso" system his rookie year and getting himself to 8' away to make his crazy, quick-footed moves that kept landing nothing but wows about foot speed. He also got a rep for too many 3s, showing that he played the same role as Griffin. So, why isn't Griffin getting himself into those Kenny positions? That's a legit question. That's why I'm confused about Griffin.
