ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Wizards 1/8/2008

Now that is FACTUALLY correct. I remember those plays clearly.

 

Rafer has been largely awful since becoming a Rocket, BUT, and it may be short lived, he is playing very well at the moment. Always a good ball handler, but a terrible shooter and finisher. Currently he is driving and actually finishing. His shooting percentage is up. I am encouraged, but not convinced. Keep it going.

 

battier and hayes leading the defense on butler and jamison is probably what won the game. when they showed those 2 as the leaders in scoring forwards before the game i just knew that neither of them would touch their averages.

i like a good offense as much as the next guy but i love having confidence in our defense even more. thanks jeff!

 

3 in a row. hope they get the 4th win tomorrow.

i thought everyone played to his par except yao. he did step up a little in the 4th, but overall it's a sub-par game from yao imo. i suspect he's pacing himself a bit in a b2b; but i could be wrong.

 

What a shame I missed the game...We win with 21 turnovers? And What the hell happened to Wizard's rebounds-only 28?

 

Strange and frustrating game to watch. Periods of just beautiful movement, cutting, and passing, setting up nice baskets. Followed by periods of bonehead play after bonehead with sloppy passing - too many stupid turnovers.

AB was a non-factor. Rafer had a nice balanced game. Liked Head's scoring, but his passing is scary bad sometimes. But I LOVED the 24 assists.

this team is still a work in progress, but it's showing growth and (dare I say it) heart. We're headed in the right direction.

I'm a little scared to see how T-Mac will fit into the mix. He could cause our recent growth to crater. However, if he tries to fit into the system and not be the primary ball-handler, we could be in store for some really great times!

Meanwhile, keep bringing on the bottom-feeders so we can make up some ground.

 

Rockets play alot i mean ALOT better with Tmac out! Rockets seem more fluid without tmac, if he comes back and we start playing different then its time to let tmac go

 

With the problem being that the original statement should read "Head cost us the CHANCE to win a couple games down the stretch." I dont remember him throwing a bad pass and the other team hitting a shot to put them ahead on the last play of the game. Which the original statement implies.

 

tmac and francis at game tonight

 

I think that is alittle drastic... no need to give up on the guy when he is injured. remember, when tmac was playing, much of the rockets dismay arised from a lack of a supporting cast (alston, head, battier were in a big time slump, and brooks wasnt on the roster)

the way we are playing, a healthy tmac will make us a scary team.

 

He's the best shooter and slasher on the team. Has been for two years. When he got minutes under Adelman the team shooting percentage went up and the offense has started working better. Those are facts. You can look it up. He's a two guard. Shooting is his job. Shooting is the team's main weakness. Head is good for the ball club. He's not perfect, or without flaws, but he's good for the team. His defense against the Wizards was hardly "pitiful." Head got a couple of steals and competed on every shot. Hell, nobody got more than 14 points on their team! I guess the difference between you and me is that you would rather b**** about a player who had a good game in helping the team win. It makes you look like a turd.

 

You are right. He didn't throw one bad pass on the last play.

Instead, he actually made several bad passes, TOs and missed defensive assignments down the stretch.

I actually remember counting 6 bad plays (offense and defense) with under 3 or 4 minutes left in that game. I posted that number and the breakdown of the bad plays out of frustrations in the game thread. It was no less than 6 plays and others saw it, too, and were calling for Head's Head.

I can't remember who we played but northeastfan may recall.

 

The problem is how to run the Adelman offense through T-mac. The adelman offense usually runs through ball movement and getting into open spaces. T-mac's never played in a system like that, he's always played where the entire offense ran through him and that's where the Rockets are stagnant due to them watching T-mac do his thing. But if we can run T-mac at a position where he is at his best imo in which he just playmakes, we could be scary. If t-mac comes back and is willing to adapt, the Rockets could be what everyone thought they'd be befroe the season, and that is contending for a championship, though that may be stretching it due to what we've seen so far this year but I think it can happen. Due to the open spaces and the rest of the team being a threat to score unlike in seasons past, it'll take double teams off T-mac and allow him to take it to the basket where everyone agrees he's at his best. But this is all dependent on T-mac himself. Btw just wondering what do you guys think our most dangerous lineup would be when he comes back?

 

About Luther:

I am perfectly willing to forgive him for his boneheaded mistakes as long as he continues to shoot aggressively like he did tonight. Yeah, those ridiculous bounce passes were infuriating. But I'm glad that he knows what his role is. He's a *shooter*, and he needs to keep on doing that. Luther Head jacking up a 3 pointer is a high percentage shot, and that's fact. Even his midrange jumper is money now, and he can shoot off the dribble. Just try and eliminate those bounce passes in the middle of traffic and we'll be fine.

Adelman's game plan was perfect tonight. Our superior defensive front court shuts down Washington's high scoring front court, and our superior offensive backcourt goes to work on offense, regardless of what they try to do with Yao.

 

when he gets the pass at the arc, he needs to shoot....not drive and dish...errr drive and turn over the ball.

 

did yao give elbows in 2 different occasions in the game? if he does this again tomorrow to curry and randolph, then maybe he's finally learned something from deke? the last one he gave to marion was not all that impressive...

 

4 blocks back, it's fair,

 

At the time T-Mac started missing games, we had the #1 SOS in the league. Since then we've beat the Grizzlies, Raptors, Magic, Knicks, Wiz (and lost to the Warriors and Celtics) and STILL have the #1 SOS. Basically we've beat the teams we're supposed to, but also lost to the teams we were supposed to lose to. The Rockets in this stretch have proved nothing except that they are a mid-level team without T-Mac. When we did have T-Mac we were able to beat SA, Phoenix, and Detroit. Maybe it's just me but I think we still need T-Mac to compete with the best teams. In that Boston game if we had one guy to just make a shot when the rest of the team was cold, we could have pulled it out. Wait and see how good we are when he comes back.

 

anyone happen to catch really loud screams during Wizards free throws? The arena was deathly quiet.. I was loud sometime during the 1st quarter (maybe the 1st 2 free throws they shot?)... and then on the 3rd of Antawn's 3 free throws definitely (among other times). But those 2 times I was loud enough and the arena was quiet enough that there's an outside chance you could hear me..



I definitely got yelled at by the Wizards fans to shut up

 

Ahh, personal shots. Nice touch. I won't stoop so low.

I'll stick to basketball talk.

1. Luther is a great spot up shooter. Agreed. Never disagreed.

However, LUTHER HEAD IS NOT THE BEST SLASHER ON THIS TEAM! If you are talking about that occasional play where he cuts to the basket after an entry pass to Yao, I will acknowledge that he does that well. So, Luther Head can do two things. I was so wrong about this guy.

The bottom line is that LUTHER HEAD IS NOT A GOOD SLASHER! The slashing I am talking about is slashing to the basket with the ball. He is terrible at that and usually finishes drives to the basket with a miss, a turnover, a blocked shot or an out of control pass. He almost never beats a man off the dribble which he should be able to do with some proficiency, or at least occasionally considering he is trying to make it as a tiny shooting guard. He lacks the ballhandling skills to do that which is why he didn't do it at Illinois and why he doesn't do it now. It's hard to be successful as an undersized SG in this league if you can't penetrate effectively or beat a defender off the dribble and get to the basket.

Again, if you are talking about slashing OFF THE BALL, yes Luther does that occasionally and he does it well. That doesn't change the fact that he is mini two-guard that has shown zero ability to penetrate and finish.


2. You keep talking about it but have yet to show me those stats that directly correlate Luther Head's increased minutes to an increase in team shooting percentage, independently from the increased minutes of other players.

Head's OVERALL shooting percentage this season, and for his career, is not good so I don't see how that is possible. He is well below McGrady in this category. He certainly isn't an assist machine that makes others shoot better. He doesn't create better shots for others, either. If you are talking about him camping out on the perimeter and opening things up for others, let me see the stat that proves this is making the team shooting percentage better. The opponents don't pay any more attention to Head defensively than any other player that would take his minutes. Head is easy to guard because he can't penetrate. He doesn't open things up for our other players.

If your stats are based on the recent stretch where the team shooting percentage has increased, then you also have to consider the other players that got more minutes, too. Again, this is your opinion and not a FACT until you show some evidence. I'll admit it if I see irrefutable evidence.

Until then, I still say that Head's weaknesses over time far outweigh his contributions.

3. You say shooting is THE team weakness.

What about the the team's inability to get to the free throw line. That is one of the reasons that we often fail to finish off games. Take for example that home game against Dallas where we gave up a 17-point lead late in the 3rd quarter only to lose the game. I remember multiple Mavericks going strong to the basket and getting free throws or easy baskets. Harris, Stackhouse and even Dirk were doing it.

How about the Utah game where we settled for jump shots down the stretch of Game 7? We needed a penetrator in that case, not another outside shooter.

I'd say the inability for our guards to penetrate and finish or get to the line is a much bigger problem than our shooting. With Battier and Alston launching shots from the perimeter all day, I think we would be better off to have a guy that can break down the defense and finish over another midget launcher that can't do anything but shoot from outside.

Luther Head will never be able to drive aggressively to the basket on a consistent basis and either finish strong or get to the free throw line. Even Rafer is better at that than him. I imagine Brooks is, too. So is Bonzi. And T-Mac. And Snyder. And James. And Francis. Many of the guys that don't even play finish around the basket better than Head. And, finishing around the basket is a bigger weakness for this team than outside shooting.

4. As far as Head's defense, I acknowledge that I went overboard on this point by saying that he was horrible tonight. But, I have seen him get schooled many times trying to defend perimeter players. He picks up fouls or just gets overpowered or beat with speed. I will acknowledge that he is good at slapping balls away here and there but that doesn't make up for the fact that he is not a good one-on-one defender and is too small to defend most opposing SGs.

Head creates a defensive mismatch for us because he can't play PG which forces him to pick up a bigger player more often that not. If Luther could play PG, this would be a whole different story. The FACT is that he can't because he doesn't possess the ballhandling, vision or passing skills to do so. He never will, either.

Head will always be an undersized SG that doesn't have the ability to do much more than shoot jump shots. He can't shoot off the dribbe. He can't create his own shots. He can't beat a man off the dribble. He will always create a matchup problem for us on defense because of his lack of height for a SG and his inability to play PG.

Over the course of three seasons, I have seen no reason to believe he will ever be able to overcome his poor decision-making. He may improve slightly but he is so bad at this point that any marginal improvement won't even bring him up to par. The same goes for his passing abilities.

Aaron Brooks is already a far better decision-maker and passer. Luther hasn't improved a lick in almost three years. He wasn't good at the aforementioned stuff in college and has done little to improve in his first three years.

How much better do you think he will get? How long is his rope? When do we acknowledge that he lacks the size and the overall skillset to be starter in this league. He is barely a rotation-caliber player. I think Head will end up on the bench for some other team within the next season or two and may end up in Europe to finish his career.

Finally, I don't want to b**** about a player that had a good game. He shot the ball well tonight. He didn't do much else great and did several things extremely poorly. I used to pull for Luther because I am a Rockets fan. Over time, I have come to realize that he is a below average player with too many weaknesses to really help this team. He just isn't a long-term piece of the puzzle and I predict he will get traded sooner than later.

As you correctly stated, the Rockets' management and coaching staff know a lot more than you or I, so let's see what they ultimately decide about Head's value to this team.