Is Rudy still in Control of this Team

There is no excuse for this team to be playing the way they are.

 

No excuse? These guys overrate themselves most of the time. Sweeping the Central Division last year was impressive, but they had Dream to anchor them. Stevie is such a great player that he hides everyone else's flaws and makes them look good. And the worst part is that the rest of the team thinks they're really that good!

Cockiness is what's the problem. Most coaches these days can't break the cockiness. Rudy even embraces it most of the times. But firing Rudy won't change the opinion these guys think of themselves. Let Rudy carry out his coaching method with a full and healthy team before you grill him...

 

They had 12 assists at halftime against Atlanta, yet ended up with only 17 assists to finish the game.

This is indicative of two things-

1. A lack of trust in the crunch as a result of not having the same team on the floor for more than 8-10 games in a row, and this is something that should not be overlooked. Chemistry, whether or not you think its overrated is moot, is vital to the success of a team like the Rockets. When panic sets in, certain players feel more inclined to 'take control' of the game which is a double- edged sword in many respects.

2. Common sense: Some may disagree, but when I look at this team, outside of Griffin, I don't really want the guards going out of their way to 'look' for other players. Obviously, a blatantly selfish play is unforgivable, but I'm not going to criticize a player for not passing it into Cato in the post. NOT passing it to him is just reflective of a player using common sense. The only players I would have wanted them to look for would have been a healthy Walt Williams and Glen Rice; two X-factor types (The Rockets blow teams out when the small forwards hit their shots).

I'd want them to look for Torres, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, he hasn't played at all of late.

Thomas and Taylor, though I think the latter could thrive in a team-oriented set with his shot, are both direct feed kind of players. Until Griffin develops his post up game, then no one else on the team will directly benefit from a big man recieving the ball in the post.

You can pass the ball around as fast as you want 5-8 times per possession, but in the end, offensive success hinges on penetration, leaving the bulk of the scoring in the hands of the guards.

Turnovers

I don't see the selfishness being the problem. I see the type of turnovers they get being the problem, with the good news being such idiocy is easily correctable. The types of turnovers they get (ie: Francis spazzing out and hitting it like a freaking kitten with a ball of yarn) lead to easy baskets for the other team.

The Hawks had something like 21 points off of turnovers. That's your game right there. Making a bad pass that sails out of bounds does not directly hurt the team. The kind of turnovers the Rockets get do.

Just take care of the ball; problem solved.

Prediction

I'm willing to bet that the offense will 'flow' more smoothly tonight. Kenny's post-ups, whether successful or not, do throw off the offensive rythm of the team.

And besides that, the Mavs are the Rockets' b****.......

 

I haven't heard of CD retiring but I will say this:

If Rudy T resigns or is fired, he is not going to the GM spot. He HATES it. He LOVES being on the bench. There are teams in this league that would line up to hire him and he would go.

Someone asked him a couple of years ago when he had his bout with exhaustion if he would ever consider a front office position over a coaching position and he said that he would never do that because the GM job is just too tough. He's said repeatedly that he couldn't do what CD does all day long.

The guy is a coach. Period. Just because he gets along with his players and has a decent eye for talent doesn't make him GM material.

Freak: I'm really glad you brought that up. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE picked the Rockets to go to the playoffs. Most had us behind San Antonio, Utah, Dallas and Denver in the Midwest finishing 5th. Now, if you would have asked them how we would fair without Steve Francis for half our games, without Maurice Taylor and without Glen Rice, they would've likely said we'd be lucky to win 15 games.

I know we all like to criticize the so-called experts but they hit the nail on the head this year.

 

No one picked the Rockets to make the playoffs, that is true. Does that mean we should just accept constant losing? Should we accept watching the team make the same mistakes over and over again, never showing any improvement? This team has plenty of talent. Playoff level talent. That talent is going to waste because of the system. Any player that repeatedly made the same mistakes that Cuttino and Moochie do would be benched.

This core of Steve, Cuttino, Moochie, Kenny, Walt, and Cato has had two and a half seasons to sort out some of these problems. But nothing has changed. The offense has gotten worse since last year, while the defense has stayed constant since the 99-00 campaign. At least in that season, the Rockets got better as the year went on. They started out 10-24, and finished at 24-24. That included several long winning streaks. Why isn't that happening this year? This team is far more talented than the 2000 team.

The answer is simple: Rudy hasn't got it anymore. He was a great coach, but he has indeed lost all control.

How I would love to have a George Karl running the show. That is my dream...

 

Man you hit it right on the button. A lot of people on this board would at least want to see some improvements from this team. Question? Have you ever seen a NBA team make mistakes over and over and not correct them? The Rockets should be placed in the history books for being that team.

 

George Karl has lost or given up every coaching job he has ever had because of his combative attitude with players. Players openly criticize him and he does the same. Talk about a volitile atmosphere.

 

He was fired from Seattle because the management was on serious crack. Seattle never had a better coach in terms of winning percentage. His volatile nature usually inspires players to improve. Rudy's passive nature keeps the team playing the same way, good or bad. Milwaukee is a team with similar talent to the Rockets, and Karl has led them to an excellent record, including a trip to the conference finals last year. Before you say that "they're in the east", realize that the Bucks have an excellent record against the west. Karl is the highest paid coach for a reason: he is very good. Rudy's time is over. Watching the same old pathetic defense and offense game after game gets very tiresome. If I wasn't a complete Rockets die-hard, I would have stopped watching a long time ago.

 

Nope. Never. Not once. You remember when the Mavs went 12-70 one season. Amazingly, they only made every mistake exactly once and then corrected them. The 15-67 Clips of a few years ago. Amazingly, the same thing. You say, but what about the Bulls of the last 3 years. Again, never. In fact they've made some mistakes zero times. I guess you were right, the Rockets are the first team in NBA history to make the same mistakes over again.



Oh and about Milwaukee only having the same talent as us, plz.

 

Why not? Francis and Allen are about equal. Cassell and Mobley are pretty even. Tim Thomas and Kenny Thomas have similar roles, while Eddie and Glen Robinson are pretty even as well. Seems pretty even to me.

 

Karl was fired by Seattle because Gary Payton wanted him gone. In Milwaukee, he has been heavily criticized by the media and his players for going off on them in public.

They are winning because they have three of the most talented players in the Eastern Conference. There is no question Karl is a talented coach but he got all that money so that they could keep him from taking his dream job which is coaching North Carolina.

I wish you WOULD stop watching because your posting here only signifies your interest and your posts are mostly annoying.

 

By the way, Seattle did have a better coach. His name is Lenny Wilkens and he led them to a championship.

 

I hope he stays - I find his posts both interesting and insightful.

 

<B>Nope. Never. Not once. You remember when the Mavs went 12-70 one season. Amazingly, they only made every mistake exactly once and then corrected them. The 15-67 Clips of a few years ago. Amazingly, the same thing. You say, but what about the Bulls of the last 3 years. </B>

The fact that you're having to reference some of the worst teams in the history of the NBA to compare to the Rockets says something. Yeah, they probably kept making the same mistakes over and over ... <I>and they also were horrible teams</i>. They didn't just magically get better by waiting it out and hoping they gel.

 

Thanks Jeff, I'm glad you like my posts. I find your pro-management, losing-mentality posts to be equally as entertaining.

 

Actually I was just pointing out the absurdity of the original claim. I'm sure a few 34-48 teams have made the same mistakes over and over and probably even some 44-38 teams. I just referenced the worst ones ever because those were records I remembered off the top of my head.

 

Cool, I'm glad we finally agree.

 

Yes, that's what we're saying. When we say "This team was frankly not that good prior to the spate of injuries it suffered. With the number of games missed this year by our best players, it's not really surprising we're 13-28", what we mean is "we don't want the Rockets to be better, ever. We should lose constantly".

I bet your book reports were a lot of fun to read when you were a kid.

and

Yeah, that's a playoff team. A center who doesn't want to play, an undersized power forward of average talent, a SG/SF who's past his forgettable prime, a backup point guard with a penchant for dribbling out the clock while tied, and two gunners. Throw in a 19-yr old rookie forward, and you've got a team should be right there with Phoenix and the Clippers.

I guarantee you're the only person outside of the respective agents of the Rocket players who thinks that. Well, maybe their mothers.

 

Hi,
I am a long suffering Mavs fan and a Rockets fan since the 70's. I feel your frustration but maybe I can add some perspective having watched and suffered with both teams. I really want Rudy to succeed but maybe he needs to be a better teacher and that includes discipline. That is what has helped the Mavs the most and we do know about bad coaching up here. We went through Quinn Buckner and a very nice but ineffective Jim Clemmons who is a very good assistant coach. Nellie's coaching is the glue in our system. Have you wondered how he finds potential players? He transforms potential into stars. What the Rockets now have. He is not a good but a Great Teacher of the game and he learned it from the best teacher in the game Red Aurbaugh. There is never a moment that he stops teaching these players and they want to learn. Dell and Donnie and Sidney and the rest are just very good teachers. He will take a time out with a couple of seconds in a quarter to teach palyers how to score in a last second situation and these guys want to learn.

Dell is teaching about D. Did you see the T/O s last night? Some were bad passing but most were setup by good situational zone D. I know the Mavs D is stat wise very poor, but the wide open offense we play tends to make our D look worse than it really is. When it counts(crunch time) we get rebounds and T/O and that is our extra gear as the Chronicals game report indicates.

You have a lot of guys with talent but if Rudy won't teach or the player refuses to learn or work hard or trust their teamates abilities, and be selfish(C Anstey now gone from the Mavs) the players must be held accountable. Nellie holds them accountable with playing time. ie S Bradley. Rudy is a good in game coach but as much as I admire and respect him if he can't hold the players accountable with P/T, nothing will change with the Rockets. Remeber when Dirk fed TimBug for that three when the Rockest were down by 1 at the end. That was trusting a team mate.

Maybe SF is like AI and should be a two. A real point like Snow or A. Miller would help and he needs to improve his outside shooting from what I have seen and become more consistant shooting.

For the past couple of years that Nellie and since Mark has come in, at the end of the season each player is evaluated and asked to work on their deficiancies in the off season. Nash, our on the floor coach, on his midrange shot, Dirk on his D and low post play, Fin on his handles. Mark has done the extra by sending coaches to China with Wang, trainers to Chitown with Fin and Juwan.

Remember the frustration is what makes the winning so sweet.
Positivety*(new word) makes it rewarding. Don't get down on your players. Enjoy watching them learn to improve and be a team, I know I will.

Good luck

HLV
Texican2K