Great call about the fast break, Gutter Snipe. In fact, a couple of times I was screaming at Steve for falling back to help on the boards (not his fault, just habit) instead of releasing for the break. 'Let the young fella (Eddie) board, Steve, get outta the way! You just look to push it when he gets it to ya!' And if I'm not mistaken, Cato seemed to hit the boards with a little more effort than normal while Eddie was on the floor. Hustle can be infectious!
If Eddie gets his 30 minutes a game this year he will be ROY. Next year he starts and plays 40 minutes a game. Notice who has been in all the time in the 4th quarter?
I think we still a tough minded veteran that's still in his prime( like Elie) who plays smart and make the hustle plays and get on the young guys when they play stupid. Willis maybe 5 years ago would have been nice. When we got Elie back in 93 that gave us a toughness we hadn't had the year before.
Will, great post; especially the end point. I always wonder why the team just does not seem to be able to blow out anybody and that is the reason why. They do not run the plays and have poor shot selection. The end result is a bad shot, no assist, opponent breaking on you and getting easy baskets and so on and so on. The stats show we are at the bottom in scoring, fg%, def fg%, assists and def turnovers. All this changes around if we continue to run plays and stay away from the excesses of Mobes which just makes it so much more difficult.
Thanks. I will choke on my own barf if I read another post about how we're just not knocking our shots down. Look at these shots we're taking. They're preposterous. There isn't a team on this earth that can expect to win games taking these shots. Against good teams, this is how virtually every Rockets game goes: You come down the court, move the ball in and out, and take a high-percentage shot with people in position to rebound. We come back down the court, move the ball around the perimeter, and take a low-percentage shot with nobody in position to rebound. And so on, and so on. How hard is it to figure out who's going to win that game?
Again we see The Genius of Carrol Dawson and Rudy Tomjanovich . This kid is something special, A shot blocking artist slash rebounding machine slash perimeter shooter, He is like Dream with a Three point range , Thats flat out scary, and whats more even more scary is He's only 19 . I will predict He will be The Starter the rest of the season by February and will make a serious push for ROY . He has already climbed to 4th among rookies in Blocks per game (10th in the whole league in Blocks per 48 minutes) and Rebounds per game , 5th in 3 point FG% , Hasnt shot many free throws (Oscar Torres has that part covered , He is the best FT shooter among rooks) . Still 14th in Scoring but I think that number will be well above 10 at the end of the season . His Per 48 Minute Numbers look like this 16.6 points 11.6 rebounds 3.7 blocks
I thought Eddie was gonna struggle in his first year. No, I didn't think that while he was struggling, but in the beginning of the year. His play has really surprised me. I'm very impressed.
Will, Great Points..... Basically if we play more as a TEAM and stopping worring about the STATS or being the HERO we would be a better Team. But I do have 1 problem.... In the last 3 to 4 games Rudy has used a lineup in the 2nd Quarter that either Lead or increase the Lead... But we never see this lineup anymore in the second half.... I cannot understand Rudy's thinking....
Moes, the per 48 min stat is the worse stat in basketball. No one plays 48 min.I do like his production when he is given time too play. A perfect compliment to him would be a healthy Ratliff. The interior defense would be awesome and then you would have 2 guys that didn't need to dominate the ball. I wish it was someone we could get him although he is hurt.
Will, While this team does seem to take an inordinate amount of bad shots, better shooting from one of our shooters (Walt, I am looking in your direction) would have made this game and the Pacer game a LOT easier on our players. Walt, as I recall, went 0-10 in the Pacer game, and most to all of them were wide open shots that he is paid to sink. Same thing last night. Walt went 2-6, and one of those was a bit of a layup. It seems that lately, if it is a wide open jumper or a 3 pointer, Walt cannot be counted on to make them. When the defenses are keying on Cat and Steve, preventing any drives to the lane, we absolutely need a consistent outside shooter to make them pay for sagging. But god knows that Cat and Steve take some pretty ill-advised shots at times.
I jumped up on that Sprewell block. That block was absolutely sick! I wonder if our offensive system might change some. Rudy could not have anticipated such a fast progression. Nor could he have foreseen an absolute stud big man becoming available via the draft.
He played 48 minutes against Detriot , Some games I think he will play 40 minutes a game , He is obly averaging 20 minutes a game right now, The only way to judge play based on minutes is to make all stats for 48 minutes , Of course we all know the saying, There are 3 kinds of lies : Lies , Damned lies, and statistics .
Im not surprised at Eddie Griffins play of late. This is what I knew he could do. Hes just starting to learn. The only thing surprising is that I didnt think he would break out this early. HES SO FREAKIN YOUNG!
The surprising thing is not just his D, but his ability to score no matter where he is on the court. I mean, he is averaging around 15 points per game lately, and he doesnt even really get any isolations or post-ups called for him. He just shoots from the perimeter, or a quick fadeaway for all his points right now. Imagine when he works on post moves over the summer!!!!!Thats scary.
