I don't think the rockets are doing anything particularly bad, the rest of the league has basically figured out how to beat the rockets. 1. They've figured out how to penetrate at will on the rockets , it involves basically creating an angle for the drive where the YAO help is one step too slow, if you see the games, Yao is always one step too slow on the help, basically teams have figured out the rockets defensive scheme with Yao anchoring. That's because the entire defensive scheme is aimed at funneling the driver towards Yao, but other teams have figured out how to beat this. 3. They've figured out how to make tmac be lazy, in the first 3 seconds of tmac catching the ball, if you can stop the other rockets on motion, especially prevent Yao from establishing position quickly, tmac will not be patient enough to reset and rerun the offense, but instead will iso or look for the quick pass, this happens often enough in a game to basically disrupt the rhythm of the team. The team can never get into a rhythm of running the offense for multiple possessions in a row. Basically if tmac sees no one moving, he will not be inclined to force the team to run the offense instead he will take it upon himself to force the offense.
That's why defense and good 3 pt shooting is so important. Everyone knew under JVG what our play was. But they still had trouble stopping it. Watch the Magic and Celtics play right now. They are so damn predictable. But they have such good defense and so many good shooters that even if you know what they're doing, they'll still beat you.
The biggest thing other team's have figured out is that if you double T-Mac, the offense dies. It happenned tonight when he came out on fire in the 1st quarter, but because of no PG, he had to dribble the ball up the court, and when he actually got iso's on the wing he was immediately doubled, which caused 4 TO's.
2. Let Yao get the ball so that he can turn it over after he has waited for the double team arrives. 4. Let TMac get the ball and play off of him so he'll chuck. 5. Let MJ get the ball and get ready for the rebound. 6. Have any decent sized PG because the Rockets only have midgets 7. Have someone who has offensive skills on the floor so TMac guards him. He'll be open all night. 8. Front Yao with anyone. Even a 6' PG. Yao is too weak and klutzy to make anyone pay. Alternate this with 2.
Stop McGrady stop houston. without tracy playing well this team falls apart. if hes not setting up yao, you would look like a stiff. like he did tonight. it's sad that our best player is a mental fruit cake like mcgrady. he is a joke.
Basically Rox needs another passer who can also score. Right now, there is only T-mac who can pass and score. Alston can only pass but not score.
I think that's only one part of the problem. If TMac and Yao can get their %FG, we can still compete. Currently, I strongly believed that our players have not grasped Adelman offense and Adelman does not focus on defense. Hence, the disarray offense and the brickings. I am not sure how long it will take for them to grasp it and it looks like our guys won't learn it even after All Star Break.
You can see what he means though. Yao and McGrady are way too easily gameplaned out of their comfort level. They don't respond to nuisances like double teams. Instead of punishing the opposition we come off exposed. Can't capitalize. Simply regress.
good thread. i was definitely thinking the same thing recently. somehow we're just worse. it's not like we didn't rely on our big two all last year, but like someone said, at the very least we had decent 3pt shooting and solid, consistent defense. this year we have bad shooting, lazy defense, and uninspired superstars. you can make a point that yao's angry and all, but the fact is ... he's 7'6 and this game is all about guard play. and if tmac is going to have that given up body language, this is going to be a long season. Not really sure what's going on with this team. You look at our roster, our 6-1 start against 7 decent-good teams and now we're back at .500. sigh. i guess all we can hope for now is some spontaneous wake up call. i don't know.
Just make sure T-mac handles the ball alot and you'll win. Its really just that easy. He takes so many ill-advised shots just because he's the "man" that all you have to do is bet that he'll be off on any particular night...and when you doubleteam him with the ball its almost guaranteed he'll be off.
