Obviously its gonna take us some time to figure out the new "O"...Francis and Mobes sheer talent won last nights game. Cato has been a monster inside and young Joaquin is playing some good junk yard dawg. Eddie has been disappointing...too many outside shots! The time he posted low he looked good...then he begin settling for 15-20 footers and shooting line drives. Yao has a lot to learn...his low post moves need a lot of work...waiting on a dunk. He clearly has that deer in the headlights look and needs some time to adjust to the speed and aggressiveness of the NBA. He also needs to study Mo Malone's game...its position baby...he never seems to be anywhere near offensive rebs and not as nearly as many D-boards either...although 7 last night is not too shabby. Where's a Yao block shot? I'm impatient...sorry. This team really needs KT or Mo to take some pressure off EG. Rice's outside shooting will open up our O a lot also.
Maybe someone else can help answer this questions. Is the new 5-man set a reactionary offense, in that its dependant upon what the defense allows (similar to the triangle) or is it a set of structured plays with secondary options? I have a feeling thats its reactionary and because of that, the its heavily dependant upon the judgement of Francis, Moochie and Mobley since they are the primary ball hanlders. Because of this, I think it makes it difficult for a player like Griffin, Nachbar and Ming to get quality shots on a consistent basis. The only way to get out of a shooting slump is to keep shooting it until you find your touch. The way the offense seems structured, it would seem that its not favorable in that aspect.
I think there is a lot different from last years offense. Everyone was envolved last night. It just so happened that everyone did not have success getting the ball in the basket. Did you notice how it looked much better after Hawkins hit a couple of shots late in the game? Suddenly the defense had to account for a third scorer and it loosened things up a lot for Steve and Cat. The Rockets then went on an 8 - 0 run. If the Rockets can not produce a third scoring threat that the defense has to account for then we will see a lot of games where the 5-man offense looks out of sync.
You know what the problem i see is? The defense is not going to respect our offense, whether its ISOs or movement or 5-man, because in the end, the same players will be taking the same shots and in that, the defense is not going to respect the other 2 or 3 guys on the court and cheat a little towards Francis and Mobley. Francis and Mobley are working REALLY hard for their points so far. Can you honestly remember either of those two guys taking or making an uncontested shot?
Winning notwithstanding, I hate to see us stray from getting the ball to the open man just because they arent shooting well. I was watching Kobe play last night. His teamates werent exactly shooting lights out, but he kept going to them. Kobe shot 15-18 and alot of his shots were not contested very much because that defense had to respect the fact that the guy was on his way to 12 assists. Steve and Cuttino are working too hard for their shots right now and so far, they been shooting a good % in doing so. They need to learn to make things easier on themselves so they have more in the tank and the end of games.
This will change when KT, MoT, and Rice are in the lineup. Those guys are money when they have open looks. Rudy's offenses have always been dependent on jump shooters making open shots and opening up the lane. Remember how good the rockets looked two years ago when the Wiz was lighting it up from downtown. It changes everything. Unfortunately our best front court shooters are on the sidelines right now.
Yes, there are some different sets, but it seems Francis and Mobes fall back into their 1-on-1 efforts of last year. We need a consistent outside shot to help them...Rice? Boki? KT? someone? Francis and Mobes ignored Yao...it wasn't until Mooch got in that they tried to feed the post. We still don't move the ball around as well as we could...better than last year, but not as good as we should be by mid-season.
if Rockets will only consistantly moving the ball, opponent will have a hard time beating the odds. i think Mooch held the ball to long before he passed it.
