I hate the Rockets lost to the Mavs. But on the positive side, the rockets just got the chance to beat more better teams to win the championship. I think the Rockets are good enough to do that. But in order to do that, the rockets must impletement proper strategy. My thoughts of the winning strategy are: 1. Dicipline; no bonehead play whatsoever, team success must come first to everyone. Coach must punish those who make such plays immediately, no matter whose name is Yao, Ron or uncle D. 2. Responsabilty doesn't mean to avoid risk at all cost; high risk get you high reward. If teams double or front Yao, don't shy away from Yao, and please don't wait for yao to hold opponents for a while, then prepare to make an entry pass. Anticipate an open, pass the ball with no hesitation. The reward will be far bigger than the risk. 3. Move the ball fast, run the floor smart, and find open spot. By doing this, the offense will be much more fluid, The shots they get will be more open and clearer, and it will somewhat release the presure on Yao from the fronting or double-teaming. 4. Yao is the ancher on the offense, but he is not the only option. When it is getting really difficult to get the ball to Yao, One or more of Scola, Landry, Ron, etc. will be most likely open, they need to get the ball fast before the opponents switch back the deffense on them and make quility shots or attack the basket. By doing so, we can force our opponent loosen up the D on yao. Their performance in Mavs' game is not acceptable, let's hope it was just one rare poor performance from Scola and Ron. They must have big impact on the game too. 5. Attacking the basket relentlessly. It is always great to see the players attack the basbet. A basket or a foul or a pass to an open outside shooter is the most likely result we get. And it will cause the opponents lose positions deffensively. 6. Don't force a shot, but if you are open don't hesitate to shoot the ball. The Rockets still need to make better shot selections. 7. Don't gamble on deffense; try to stay in front of the opponents when they attack our basket. This way, our deffense will stay structured, and Yao can avoid one or two fouls from his teammates' losing positions. 8. Don't let opponent's hot hand get the ball easily. If someone played a Terry on us in the playoff, don't let him get the ball at all. Maybe other players of our opponent will score, but at least their hot hand might cool down. 9. Sometimes Ron might have to guard the opponent's PG or PF. Ron is good in deffense and the Rockets is bad sometimes in deffending PG or PF. Let Ron rough their star out a little bit. 10. Coach RA please give players clear instructions more often and don't wait too long for them to correct their mistakes on court by themselves. Our PG's are too nervous after they made mistakes, they would avoid some plays totally or become hesitant. 11. Manage the time and lineup of players wisely. A fresher Yao is better than a Yao playing 40 mins straight. It has proved our bench is tough and often gets back the lead our starters surrendered. Playing the blazers is kind of like playing the Mavs, Hayes might be better to get in the game much earlier to take out their big gun, perhaps we gain more than the loss in offense. 12. Trust teammates, be even-headed and always keep the fighting spirit high. This is the most important. Help each other and don't point fingers on the court. Always be aware of the game plan, stick to what works. Don't be intimedated by our opponents. Always believe we can beat any opponent. These are some points that I think can benefit the rockets. Speak out yours.
juice the whole team up with roid. Maybe that will get us thru WCF. Else you can stop dream. I love my ROX but I'm more of a REALIST
Make changes for each game. Change the game plan after a loss. Change the plan of game after a win. 7 games need 7 different plans. Chances only favor prepared mind.
Do you honestly think you've discovered something that Adelman and the players don't already know? Those guys study and play the game at the highest level for a living, unlike anybody around these parts. You make some valid points but nothing that would be groundbreaking to Adelman or any of our players. I'm sure you also missed a multitude of things that they discuss and try to improve upon on a regular basis. It's easy for an average fan to point out a few obvious things that need to be done better. Actually executing those things consistently against some of the best players in the world on the biggest stage in the world is an entirely different matter. If it was so easy to execute everything to perfection, every team would be doing it. I'm not specifically pointing to the OP, but I find it funny/ridiculous when internet posters seem to think they know more than Rick Adelman, a guy who has played and coached at the highest level for a longer period of time than most posters around here have even been alive.
No strategy can get Rockets 16 more wins in this playoffs. Our PG position is way too weak. And it's one of the most important positions in today's game.
Think about all the best PGs in the game over the last 2 decades. How many of them have won championships? Stockton, Kidd, Nash, Paul, Williams, etc... Think about the last several championship teams. How many of those teams had elite PGs? I'd say an elite scoring wing (SG or SF) and a dominant big man are more important than PG. How many championship teams have had an elite scoring wing and a dominant big man? Kobe, Jordan, Wade, Pierce, Shaq, Garnett, etc... There are exceptions to the points made above but more often that not it seems like dominant wing scorer + dominant big man is the best recipe. You can get by with a mediocre PG.
Billups and Parker are Final MVPs. You may or may not win championship with the best PG , but with the worst PG in playoffs you'll never have a change to win championship.
Elite PGs seem to be the ticket to the Finals at least...GP/Stockton/KJ were all denied by Micheal's greatness. Just sayin, we're at the stage where we shouldn't even think championship. First things first, get the others stages done. Of course, there was a guy called Magic...
Like I said, there are exceptions and Billups and Parker are two good exceptions. Going back, you can throw Isiah in there, too. I'm just saying that very, very few championship teams didn't have at least one elite scoring wing player and one dominant big man. When Jason Williams won a championship with Miami, he was falling apart physically and in the twilight of his career. Derek Fisher was never an elite PG even if he does a couple of things well. Rondo would have been a relative unknown last season if he didn't play alongside Garnett, Pierce and Allen. I'm not saying Rondo doesn't have a bright future and hasn't done some really impressive things, including during last postseason but he was by no means an elite PG, especially at the beginning of last season. The Bulls had some average PGs on some of their championship teams. Even our own Rockets didn't have the greatest of PGs when they won it all (Kenny was good though). They did have Olajuwon (dominant big) and Drexler (scoring wing) at one point.
That's a fair point but what was Jordan? An elite scoring wing. I'm not saying great PGs can't win you championships. I just think those other two positions are more important. Plus, I think that Lowry is good enough to be a PG on a championship team. Morey struck gold on that deal. I believe we need a dominant scoring wing to replace McGrady more than anything else. Von is nice but at this point, he's still best-suited to be a spark off the bench until he proves he can play both ends of the court and do what he does on offense consistently enough to warrant being our go to guy for 35 mpg.
What you said are true. I am 100% sure the rockets don't need my or any poster's advice. But it's painful to watch the rockets making the same mistakes over and over, I think there are things the team is not doing/emphasizing enough. Just wrote my thoughts to vent a little bit. And at the same time I was trying to be supportive to the Rockets by pointing out what I thought that might be helpful to the team.
I don't presume to know more than the Rockets coaching staff, but I think (the statics gurus will help with this) we could be among the best at losing a game after having a double digits lead. I think as someone titled somewhere in the forum " it is the Rotation Stupid". If you have watched the Rockets closely over the regular season, there's a similar trend of how we blow big leads. First, over relying on Yao too much to the point that the offense becomes very predictable. Dump to Yao strategy normally is taken away by fronting defense. It comes as no surprise to how ineffective Yao becomes defensively during opponents fronting defense bcse he consumes too much energy fighting the fronting defense for the ball. Second, the sense that the game is in the fridge already, and players start to relax defensively as well as inexcusable trying to overdo their individual talents offensively. I think we need to accept the bitter truth that at some point Yao should be used as a blue collar center (use pnr Lowry/Landry or Brooks/Scola), or better take him out of the game for Chuck / Deke who are more suitable for that. I understand they won't score much, but what is misleading is that if a player is limited in scoring ability can't contribute other ways offensively.
