Jerry West Chimes in: defend Eddie with a SF, KT with a PF

I think you'll see SF's on Eddie as long as he's known as a guy that just stands out on the 3 point line

why send your big guys out to defend the low percentage 3?

Eddie is going to have to post and punish other teams for putting smaller players on him

 

Griff only took 2 of his 10 shots as threes tonight, which I am comfortable with given that he actually stroked it fairly well from out there last season before he hit the wall.

Anyway, if other teams want to guard EG with their 3 then more power to them - it can only help his post game, form what I saw in the first half did look significantly improved, just the shots off his post moves were just the slightest bit off.

 

It was good to see Eddie want the ball in the post a few times. However, when he got the ball, and got in a good position to take a good shot, he faded away. He needs to learn a jump hook.

 

HP i agree Francis pushed the ball up the court a lot better than he has in the past, made the right decision to slow up a couple of times, but still looked weak in decision-making and the ability to change speeds at all.

first half looked good over all. mixture of some good movement and some of last year's stuff. second half wasn't so encouraging, but all in all at least it looked like there was a conscious effort to change some things for the better.

 

I remember this play. In fact, I recall saying (in classic Murphy fashion) "Reward the big man!"

Unfortunately I do not have the benefit of tape to see that it was the wrong decision.

 

Tough break on Beta falling out of fashion Behad

 

At least my 8-track still works.

 

Posting, Posting, Posting....keep Eddie posting, Rockets!!!!

this guy needs to get inside more. bottomline. he got outworked at times, because he is letting the defender off easy on the offensive end....make 'em pay inside.

 

I noticed the 3 guarding Griffin also. In fact I couldn't understand for the life of me why they weren't posting him up. Although he looks stronger and quicker, he doesn't appear to have the confidence of someone who should know his game and it isn't at the 3 point line.
He appeared to me to be content with being the 4th or 5th option on the team. I was disappointed in the 4th quarter when I thought the Rockets should have been getting the ball inside to Eddie to give him some post up experience especially since we had a big lead but they were content to just allow Francis to free wheel. Thank goodness Mobley hit a couple of big shots down the stretch. It seems to me that we already know that Francis and Mobley can score we need to use the preseason more to develop an inside game which we'll need if we really intend on moving up the food chain.
After watching Kenny T, I now think the comment Francis allegedly said was true, "once I give the rock up inside it NEVER comes back out". Talk about a black hole.
Nachbar is going to have a hard time getting minutes during the season. Too many forwards ahead of him.
Good all around game though for a first preseason game. This of course is all IMO.

 

Kenny T dose not like giving the ball to the opposition either, note the 4 or 5 offensive rebounds. If they want to defend in that fashion, both Eddie and KT will do well.

 

thats why eddie needs a post game. put wesley person on jermain o'neal and see what happens.

 

jsb The reason is that the Point Guard did very little to get Griffin involved in posting up. Why should anyone make the effort just to make the showboating Point Guard look better, when he is ignoring you most of the game?

The Coach needs to invent specific plays for Griffin and then the Point Guard might know just what to do to get Griffin involved! Youngsters like Yao Ming, Nachbar and Griffin need to be coached, thay are are future!

 

Griff needs to be more aggressive offensively period. I have high hopes for Griffin as well, but he is to passive when it comes to his offensive game. By the way Francis is the future of this team and the present. When his contract will be up in six years he will just be in his prime at 31.

 

It seems that the offensive scheme they ran did not allow many post-up options. They start by spreading the floor so Steve has room to work. And the players will rotate trying to get different looks. Eddie was more part of the rotation than working his way in for inside position. At least that's the way it seemed.

 

god man did you even watch the game? give up the hating. ming will receive the ball when he gets here.

 

God, you are such a hata. I'm getting sick of you posting crap like this and then saying you're not a hata.

 

IMHO

I had several impressions of the game and here are a few:

1. The Memphis defense in the first quarter was tight (and a step closer to their man than anything they did last year). But they quickly faltered their coverage because they didn?t know who to match up with. The Rox ?motion offense? probably should be more accurately called ?movement offense?.

2. In fact, I thought the Rox defense against the middle was surprising for a first exhibition game, considering they didn?t have much inside at all last year. But the thing that got me jumping was their switch offs (assignments) in defense when penetrated and the assist help when the Grizz got close to the basket. Battier got his at times but not without some banging and rattling in the paint.

3. As to HP?s assertion that the forward?s were guarded in a switch-off fashion - the fact that both KT and Griffin were ?off-forward? guarded had more to do with Kenny and Eddie?s positioning than the defender?s assignment. IMHO, anyway.

4. I thought Stevareeno?s pass selection when Nachbar was on the floor was deplorable. Nachbar was open on the weakside several times and couldn?t get a touch if he had paid top dollar and screamed blue for one. IMHO, Francis feeling his oats looks good as a V-bite, but to be a leader he better learn to INVOLVE the newbies more, especially in an exhibition game.

5. I was shockingly impressed with Gooden. Actually in a side bet during the draft I thought he would place in top five in draft selection(which he of course did), and top three in ROY this season (may be well on his way). He?s rangy and showed as much talent as Spree, Marion and Odom had when they stepped on the court their first game.

 

I only saw parts of the game (1st and 4th quarter).

The Eddie-KT situation was one of the first things I noticed. I think it'll depend on who we're playing and such, obviously. For example, if Eddie/Rice were playing, Battier probably would've been guarding Rice.

This will probably be something that occurs until Eddie starts punishing. Eddie is still only supposed to be a Junior in college, and still has time to add strength. He needs to show he can take advantage of his size advantage over SFs-his height and length makes his post up moves very difficult to stop for anyone, especially a SF. He needs to be able to use his physical gifts to dominate SFs, and I think in time, he will.

I think Steve is trying to make up for the time he waved Griffin off early last year. He's trying too hard to be the good teammate, and reward EG for the good play. Hopefully, he learned to hit the open man, and reward EG later. The offense was definitely much more high octane, but just needs refining. Then again, it's preseason game 1.

I'm waiting for Ming before I make any real opinions on the offense. Replacing someone limited like Cato, with a 7 and a half footer with a sweet jumper and passing skills could possibly alter things even more.