Since TMac has been back, have you noticed that Shane Battiers' game has picked up...have you noticed that Rafers game has receded? Its some weird inferiority complex that Yao and both Rafer carry...I dont mind when Yao gets the ball frequently but the entire offense should not have to work so hard to get him the ball when he is not helping himself to be in a better position on both ends of the court...
it doesn't matter. that's how he plays. what i'm trying to say is he has tried really hard since he has been back to integrate himself into the offense in the first 3 quarters. in the 4th, we tend to look for him to create more and use the pick and roll (but that's natural, u want the ball in your best player's hands down the stretch). the purpose of hiring adelman is to not let tracy do EVERYTHING for the ENTIRE game. right now, he doesn't have to do much in the first 3 quarters. just watch the first quarter of the wolves game -> tmac only looked for his own shot once or twice the entire quarter. we want him to have energy to close games. that's the point of hiring adelman. JVG made tmac control the offense for FOUR quarters. that's just too much.
You know what I find most intriguing, for some reason Rafer plays A LOT better without Tmac (this year at least). I don't have stats to prove this because I don't feel like putting in effort to find them all, but at least this year when I've seen Rafer without Tmac, he can make his floaters, he can handle the offense, and he can hit jumpers. Now I have NO IDEA why this is the case, or if it is too small of a sample to actually be even looked at, but check stats and think about past games (if anyone wants to find stats that would be cool), anyone have any ideas why this could be the case? Because I think if Rafer can play like that WITH Tmac, the Rockets have a PG that is actually worth something.
Rafer plays a lot better without TMAC because he can play his actual role as a PG, once TMAC is on court we now have 2 PG and rafer most of the time became the spot up shooter. The offense is a lot better when TMAC is out, the motion offense is actually working, scola and bonzi and even luther are relentless cutting to the basket, rafer penetrating with his floater and etc. Yao switching and reposting until he gets the ball and pass to cutters if doubled. with TMAC the motion offense slows down, less cutting, less movement, while dominating the ball so much decides to jump shot or penetrate and pass the ball when the time is winding down. The houston offense right now is similar to the beginning of the season 6-1 record, it looks good but not for long, when TMAC was out we can actually see the adelman offense working. Maybe the solution is to let TMAC play like he wants it as the PG concentrate on finding the open man and distributing the ball, and score through penetration or open shots.
look at rafer's stats the last 2 games and the ones who think like u should really need to sit back and reevaluate yourselves. rafer has bad and good stretches. that's not due to tmac or anybody. the past 2 games WITH tmac, he's been ballin'. that's why dude is a role player; he's inconsistent.
Well this is more have to do with Rafer's stat, IMO the rockets should let the motion offense run by Alston instead of TMAC. TMAC should do what the other good shooting guard players are doing, TMAC should watch how Rip Hamilton plays, concentrate on easy scoring by cutting and moving without the ball and attack the basket in every opportunity. Let Alston dictate the tempo, distribute the ball and run the adelman offense.
No it isn't, because when teams catch on that all they have to do is front Yao and lay off Hayes in the high post to stop the offense, everything goes ice cold, which is why there were so many 4th quarter collapses right before T-Mac came back from injury. And with the PPG, APG and shooting % for the Rockets since Mac has returned, your opinion has no real backing.
No, we have found a remedy to the lay off with chuck hayes because rick started scola when we played the warriors and everytime they fronted Yao scola was open for drives and free throw line jumpers which exposed the front defense and inturn forced them too pay attention to luis which freed Yao for 36 and 19. Everybody must attack not just one guy,We need an agressive rafer we need the whole team to be agrerssive and make play's,Those guy's are capable we just don't have any leadership to instill this energy into guy's because we have leadership that wants their hand in every and everything.
I really hope he can change. I don't know if it's that he doesn't trust his teammates, or that he doesn't get the motion offense yet, but he's not getting everybody else into the game. Just because he gets them an open shot, doesn't necessarily mean he's really getting them in the game. Each player needs to have the ball and move around with it to keep the defense guessing. The ball is in his hands way too much. When Tracy continues to do this, after awhile it just becomes predictable and the defense can easily read what is about to happen. Then of coarse, the role-players are standing around guessing what to do, because nobody is on the same page anymore. Tracy is a very smart player and he can tell when the defense is doing this. This is when he "takes over". Since for some reason, all our players are just standing around confused , Tracy starts whooping ass left and right. At the same time though, i think it comes down to him wanting to win. He just either doesn't trust the motion offense, or he is too lazy to change his game, but he ends up trying to take over the game himself.
I think the fix for this would be coaching. Mainly for the rest of the team. They have to know that they need to be just as big a part of the team as tmac. The players need to learn to let all the worrying about who should get the ball, go. If they can do that, this offense will run naturally. If by chance, a certain player has not touched the ball in awhile(even tmac or yao), thats ok! Chances are, sooner or later, the defense will come away from him and then thats when you get him the ball! It's that simple, keep passing the ball to where the defense is at it's weakest until someone sees an easy shot. Basically, players need to stop worrying about who gets the ball, and pay more attention to the defense. easy stuff.
i'm seriously questioning if you guys are ACTUALLY WATCHING THE GAME or just saying this b/c of how he played in the past. he doesn't let others handle the ball as much? rafer has 8 assists last night and 9 assists the night before. the team as a whole had 23 assists last night and 24 assists v. the bucks. last yr, we only avg 20 assists per game. the past 9 games that tracy has been back, we've been around 23-25 assists pretty consistently. the suns are #1 in the league and they average 27 assists and we don't even run as much as them. i think you guys still have this misconception based on what happened earlier in the season. yes tracy can still do better but we're IMPROVING. we've shot better, passed better, and have executed down the stretch MUCH better than any time in this tmac-yao era of the past 3 years. i don't know what you guys' expectations are of tracy. he can't be able to run all game b/c that's impossible. he can't go off-screens all game. yes we ran the offense well w/o tracy when he was injured. but what happened in the 4th quarters of those games when teams adjusted -> we do jack and just pound it into yao -> stagnation -> chokes/blown leads. we have not blown one single lead since tracy has been back and have closed out tremendously well. it can get better and it will get better.
It's also the GSW, who give up 107PPG, 48RPG, and according to 82games get outplayed at both the PF/C positions...in other words, don't put any stock into one game against Golden State, especially when they are away. They have to want to flourish in that system, and have to want to stay agressive even when T-Mac is on the floor. As seen in the first 7 games, T-Mac can fit perfectly into the system, but his teammates have to stay agressive...they have not proven that, and the happy medium offensively, at least for now, is the JVG pick and roll offense.
i really agree with most of that. thing is, tracy really is just THAT freakin good. Doesn't matter if he's playing with his team winding down a quarter, he absolutely has the talent to take over another team. that's a great thing to have to close out clutch plays, or run a set play. What i worry about a little bit, is just the other players worrying a little bit too much about having to get the ball to Yao or Tracy, just because they are our go-to guys. I think the harder the role-players play and the more they score, the easier it will be on tracy and yao, but when we rely on them so much, it's just predictable. Play after play after play after play after play after play after play, we pound it in to yao while he still has the same center on him knowing exactly what is going on... it just seems like the team still forces a bit too much instead of just letting the offense flow according to wherever the defense is focusing.
i think the last few games are encouraging. i saw rafer in the last 2 games gave up the open 3pt shot and drove either to finish or pass it off to scola. i saw scola and landry being VERY active moving around when the doubles are on yao to the open spots to shoot that mid-range J. and i agree, that's what they have to keep doing at least for 3.5 quarters. they have to make the other team think that they are offensive options so the defense cannot key in on tmac or yao down the stretch. and u saw that the last 2 games. tmac has not had many double teams down the stretch since they know he can pass it off. again, having 4-5 guys consistently in double figures are not a mirage, at least not when it has happened THREE TIMES IN A ROW. guys are being more aggressive. when tmac passes it to them, they don't just pass it back. they actually do something about it. once yao regains his groove and stop turning the ball over, we can reach 100+ on a consistent basis.
It's funny, cause teams right now all have their strategies for playing the Rockets. Don't let Yao dribble the ball, and don't let t-mac get comfortable. Basically, control yao and mac are the keys to success against the rockets, which in the past have definitely been true. Now if we can start playing as a team, and not even look for Yao whenever he's tied up, and take advantage of all the defense focusing on him, that's when we will dominate! when the rockets can bring the ball down the court and score on multiple occasions without yao and tmac even touching the ball, that's when we will finally blow this thing open. that's when yao and mac will finally get the proper space to take total control. that's when the rest of the team needs to stay aggressive and keep going after the defense the same way. What people do not always realize, is that when someone is guarding Yao, that defender is paying so much effort into that alone, that even a pg could swing right by him for an easy, open layup. Thats how we need to attack teams.
If those stats are true (the guys in double figures thing, im too lazy to check right now sorry) then that's a very telling fact. 4-5 guys in double figures when you are shooting a good percentage and the team is getting up a good amount of assists is NOT ballhogging or icing out teammates or whatevers. Yao's in a mini slump, that's why it doesn't look as good. But T-Mac does get ppl involved and he has been winning games while Yao is on a mini slump. Same thing goes vice versa, Yao carried/carries the team when T-Mac is out/in a slump. I may be the only one, but I'd rather have T-Mac play well with Yao than Scola or whoever. No matter what, I'd rather have the ball in T-Mac's hands at the end of the game, whether he shoots or passes, he needs to have the ball. Who would you rather have with the ball at the end of games? I prefer that player to be playing well. I don't think Yao is being iced by T-Mac, he's just not playing too well lately probably because he's tired. When he gets back into shape or into form or gets a rest, he will play well along with T-Mac. I want to see some more YaoMac pick n rolls Sheesh, it goes from "T-Mac's deferring too much" to "T-Mac's ballhogging".
Team assists per game Season: 21.29 (16) Last 10 games: 22.9 (12) last 5 games: 23.8 (10) Team scoring per game: Season: 95.7 (20) Last 10: 97.3 (16) Last 5: 97.8 (15) The Rockets have had 4 players in double figures every game T-Mac has been back save his first game back(the Spurs game), and he took 12 shots and had 9 points. Several of those games they have had 5 players in double figures. The worst game since T-Mac has been back was the loss to Utah, and Yao did not play with the flu.
