Rudy T. There have been lots of discussion on how Steve didnt distribute the ball or how Eddie's shooting was horendous or how Yao didnt play enough. But, I think the true problem last night was Rudy. I think that may have been the worst coaching job that I have seen in a long time. Last year, I was away at school, so I only watched about 5 games. I had heard about how frustrating it was to watch the games. Well, after the preseason, I thought that we would finally have an offense. Last night blew all the confidence I had in this so called "motion offense". Indiana's offensive game plan was in midseason form. They had players cutting, going back door, setting picks, coming off screens, etc... There were countless times where they would have a shot with the defender 5 feet away. Our offense was the exact opposite. It was a 1 man show. Steve vs. Pacers. I believe that Francis is extremely talented, but, he cant beat another team by himself. There are four other guys that need to take off their panties and start playing some ball. I was shocked to see the offense go into an ISO for 90% of the game. Its extremely frustrating to watch. Its also extremely ineffective. The fact that Rudy didnt call plays that involved everyone else is truly worrying me. His play calling sucked along with the fact that Yao's minutes were cut by Jason Collier. Now that is scary. It was one game. If it happens against the Nuggets, I will break stuff.
Dawg, Thank you for going straight to the point. He makes excuses of time limitations, injuries, the weather and he is allowed to keep his job. Amazing! The fans have voted with their feet. It will be sad that the new stadium will be empty. Rudy is not a tenured professor, he can be fired! Take his pal CD with him too! Les should be able to find a GM who didn't work under the head coach as an Asst. It is really scary about Ming/Collier. He needs to be examined.
It could either be Rudy T's fault, or it could be the fact that the Rockets were so undermanned that they had to play 3 guards, including 2 PGs, against a big team that is a playoff team on the road. It could be that to. And for crying out loud people Francis didn't distribute the ball last night because he DID NOT play PG, MOOCHIE played PG. Francis was the 2-Guard, and he played that position because we were missing 3 major scorers and we needed offense.
Rudy needs to grow some and tell moochie, steve and cat to stick with the offense they've been practicing. Its not going to look pretty at first because is takes time to get down, but once they get it rolling we'll be great. I think steve and co. didn't run it more because it felt awkward, so they went back to what they were comfy with. Maybe Rudy needs to start...gasp...benching players that don't want to play team ball. It will ruffle a few feathers at first but when the wins start coming nobody will be complaining about getting enough shots or monopolizing the ball.
yes but their backups came in and outplayed their starters normal production. strickland played one hell of a game and ron mercer came in and nailed jumpers that usually are created for miller. add to that artest was hitting ridiculous shots over good coverage. the rocks were missing significant front court players. not only did we start a backup point guard as well, but we missed 2 deep, players at both small forward and power forward. eddie shooting 10% from the field did not make up for no inside presence. the injury comparison is not even close.
Maybe Rudy wanted them to play that way. Why would he not want points out of his two and three. Put some blame on EG and MT. Yes, MT, the 5 game suspension for being a bone head really hurt last night.
Missing 3 double-digit scorers is HUGE for this team, especially considering they're all frontcourt players. The Rockets were running out there essentially without froncourt offense. The Pacers can survived without Tinsley because he isn't a major scoring threat, and Reggie Miller plays well but usually isn't a major scoring threat in teh regular season. When you're missing guys projected to give you about 30 to 40 ppg, about 17 rpg and give you the froncourt production to balance out your offense how is that an excuse? At least the Pacers had O'Neal, if Griffin plays like he normally does the Rockets might steal that game because he would have balanced out the offense with an inside game. But the Rockets were so thin, they have an offnight from their big man and lose. Same goes for the Pacers who were playing at home, if O'Neal has and offnight they're so thin they lose.
What, is Nachbar not a small forward? Nachbar is a 6-10 small forward with decent offensive capabilities. Who gives a **** if he is a rookie. I don't think theres another coach in the league who would have started and played Moochie over Nachbar. Moochie ended up playing 36 minutes of that game, for what? He surely wasn't running the offense with Francis smothering the ball every possession. So what is the point of having a third dribbler in the game who is a disgrace to all players who take pride in playing a thing called defense? Theres not one. It was an asinine move that did nothing but leave the coach and the guards with an excuse to b**** about how they had to go to a zone in the fourth quarter because they were undersized and because of that they couldn't get important rebounds.
Yeah, I agree with the statement above about starting Nachbar and letting Moochie come off the bench. With Moochie starting and so many guys not playing, who was supposed to be the spark plug off the bench? We didn't have one. And we were grossly outsized when we went small. So although Moochie is a veteran and has more NBA savvy, I think it may have been better to let Moochie come off the bench. But other than that, I don't have any hind-sight-type coaching feedback. We got outplayed. Role players didn't step up, and some didn't even fulfill their roles. Francis played great. Cato played strong down low. Cat had a decent game. Think how well we would have done if everyone else played to their potential.
Re: the Moochie/Nachbar thing...I'd once again state that Rudy, like many coaches, is very much a pro-veteran biased guy, but I'd be given the same old Francis exceptions, despite the fact that I have always qualified my criticism of Rudy in this regard with the proviso "except when forced to by injuries"...He has many strengths as a coach, and has shown the ability to develop rookies when he has had no other choice, but when it's up to him they usually sit a lot more than I think they should...I fully expect this trend to continue this season...
I don't like this excuse. Moochie was the starting PG, technically, but when Steve was in the game, HE was the one handling the ball the majority of the time.
I seriously have never seen so many people freak out and overreact after losing the first game of the season, on the road, by 9 points to a playoff team. I mean look at all of the teams that have lost in the last few days that were expected to be good, the Clippers, Jazz, Celtics, Spurs, Lakers, and Wizards. I can understand people going bonkers if the Rockets lose to the Nuggets, but they lost to a team that is expected to be a player in the East by 9 points on the road. And they were undermanned! But after one game people want to call up Rudy and tear into him, move Francis to 2-guard because he isn't a real point guard in their minds, trade Mobley or bench him. ONE game people ONE game. If this is happening after 5 or 6 games I understand but it was ONE game! People don't understand when you're playing with injuries to key players, you're relying on roleplayers to suddenly come in and produce, meanwhile you have nobody off the bench. The Rockets main guys off the bench? Jason Collier, and 3 rookies. And we started 3 guards. And people wonder why this team struggled!?
Indiana is not a serious playoff team... Indiana is a team the Rockets should beat. I will give you the short handed bit, but so where the Pacers. The fact is that the Rocks lost a very winnable game, and in the end all of these games count. This is going to take time, but I hope the Rocks get it sorted out BEFORE the all star break. DaDakota
RocksM, You're starting to be as repetitive as our offense. The pacers were without the entire starting backcourt...what's the big deal? We were missing a hobbled power forward coming off an entire year on the bench, a small forward who's "starting" status is seriously in question in my mind, and KT (who I will give you is a stud). Those 2 situations are basically the same. And it should have no bearing on our ability to run an offense because everyone else that did play in the game supposedly went through training camp and learned the plays (except Ming). Find something else to blindly spin your rose colored optimistic head in the clouds, pie in the sky fantasy world dream...where was I...
I'm not speaking for everyone else here. It's not that we are upset that they lost. We are upset at the WAY they lost. You have to admit that the game was a horrible display of teamwork. Doesn't matter who played or started, but how they worked together. To win and lose together is looking to the future. To win and lose apart from each other is just a temporary moment.
Although I admit that Rudy can be questionable at times, I don't think that it's entirely his fault. People tend to blame the coach when a team loses, but forget that there a five millionaires on the court that have minds of their own. You can only lead a horse to water...but you still cant make it pass the ball and spread the offense. If you listen to Rudy...he admits the iso doesnt work and has directly targeted moving the ball around, but I think Steve and Cuttino are gonna fall into the iso because thats what they've known for the past few years. Unfortunately it will take time for it to sink in. Defense could use some improvement though, and if they could find a way not to over use the zone, they might be able to grab a rebound or two.
