Yeah, Rice looks horrible so far. Isn't he a combined 2-11 the last two games? He better get his act together, or he should just be benched completely. I mean, if he's not making shots, what is he good for? Absolutely Nothing!. Say it wit' me now. Rice! HuH! What is he good for? Absolutely nothing! Listen to me! Got a little carried away there. It's only two games into the season for Rice, so hopefully he'll start knocking 'em down soon enough.
I'll bet you $100 that Rice will be buried in the bench. His age is taking toll. He'll never come around. We need to put him in IR.
This was the first game that I think we committed to the 5 man offense. We had guys moving towards the basket without the ball, and we scored 110+ with ease-if we had actually been able to shoot free throws, the game would have been over much earlier. Francis only had 5 assists, but that didn't bother me at all-he was not dominating the ball most of the game, yet he still put up his points. The offense actually ran mostly through KT, IMO-that's how he got his 6 assists, based off how the defense played him. KT had a magnificent game. My guess is that the way we went through KT tonight, somewhere down the road, Rudy hopes to use Yao as the centerpiece to the offense- he's nearly a foot taller, and has even better passing. Look out! Griffin showed the good and the bad. He's an impact player on defense- 2 of his blocks led to MONSTER dunks that really changed the momentum in the Rockets' favor. Dampier may have gotten more blocks, but he didn't really create opportunities for his team off them. Griffin's ability to keep the block in play at age 20 is...dare I say Dreamlike? I was watching carefully how Griffin received the ball. When he got the pass in a rhythm (stepping into the shot), he usually made it. When he got the ball as a sort of bail out, he'd miss it. He also just missed a couple of tip ins. I can't think of any of his FGs that weren't assisted.Golden State was not a good team to put Griffin at the 5-Dampier is a full sized center. Griff still needs more time to put on weight to become a full sized PF. Cato has been doing well-he's had a great attitude, and has been rebounding/shot blocking with consistency. Congratulations to Rudy for recognizing that Moochie doesn't deserve to be getting the 25+ minutes he had been getting. I think in games when we have foul trouble, or Steve/Cat have injuries, Moochie will get closer to 20 mins than 12. But Cat is always in amazing shape, and you'd want Steve playing pretty close to 40 mins. every night. It'll be interesting to see where MoT gets his minutes...I think if Cato's playing well, Yao may be seeing some DNP-CD, KT may get exclusively SF minutes, and Rice may not see much hardwood.
I agree with that. As a matter of fact the only Rookie I see gaining meaningful minutes might be Hawkins. Especially when TMo gets back. Unless Rice really turns up the heat and starts making a very large percentage of his shots then I think his minutes will fade and he will find himself deep in the bench. I think we should eventually see a three-guard rotation of: Francis, Cat and Hawk with Moochie 9coming in for spot duty like last night). A Small Forward rotation of: KT, TMo and Hawk (in some situtions). A Power Forward combo of: Eddie and MoT with KT seeing spot duty. At Center: Cato with Griffin, MoT and Yao Ming splitting up the scrap minutes there. That's eight primary players in the rotation with Yao Ming and Moochie Norris picking up scrap minutes in spot duty.
Off topic, but let me highlight this further. vs Seattle: 35 min - 22 of 80 shots (27.5%) vs Golden St.: 40 min - 19 of 88 shots (21.5%) "Dominating the ball" is the key concept which many people miss. Prime example. In the second half, Cato had sealed off Fortson on his hip and Francis hit him with a perfect pass from midway between the FT and 3pt lines. You can't do this when you're rehearsing multiple crossover moves while a secondary and tertiary defender stand still near the paint waiting for you. After what I saw vs GSW, MoT better bring his "A" game quickly and often! Steve, Cat, KT, EG & Cato looked real good IMO.
The last 6 or 7 minutes of the game, they ran the same set. Oniginally it looked like an iso where the other 4 didn't move or they didn't have time to move before the shot. I was livid!! Then they started moving & setting picks for the shot. Then the ball handler started driving & passing to someone cutting to the basket. Unfortunately, the passes were being fumbled. They came away with a clean shot maybe 3 times. What saved them was their offensive boardwork & defense. It really looked ugly! After the game, I got to thinking that after they get used to that set & start expecting passes on cuts; this might look pretty good!
You guys can't seriously think we're going to a 7 or 8 man rotation soon? Come on. This team is too deep. Let's use it to run run run. I think we can go with 8 and 2 garbage minutes player. Cato Ming Griffin Mo KT Rice T-Mo (garbage minutes) Mobley Francis Moochie (garbage minutes) Garbage minutes is still 10 minutes, so it's significant. Cato (35) / Ming (13) MoT (23) / Griffin (23) / KT (2) Rice (20) / KT (18) / T-Mo (10) Mobley (38) / Hawk (10) Francis (40) / Moochie (8) That's what I'd really like to see. But of course, Francis won't sit for 8 minutes, Mobley won't sit for 10, KT, Rice, MoT and Griffin won't be happy with their minutes, and we're going to have chemistry problems. Which is why I suggest getting rid of KT. Last night was a favourable matchup for KT, because Jamison is similar is size and speed and style. But against faster SF's and bigger PF's, he's going to be a liability. Trading KT just opens up so many things for us, and we really don't lose anything significant, especially if T-Mo and MoT are back. It gives garbage minutes to Boki, gives us size at SF, gives more minutes to our F's to get into the flow of the game, and it makes HIM happy too. Make everyone happy. Trade KT.
Same kind of crap everyone was spewing out about Griffin and KT. The guy is going to break out and everyone will be saying what a great a come back he made. He's getting decent looks, and he is not going to keep missing them. As these players come back, I've noticed it takes three games before they start playing well. Don't give up on him yet. He will be part of the rotation. I would like to see KT start with EG, then have Rice, MT and Ming come in as a line. Eventually MT would start over EG and EG would join Ming and Rice. Moochie might be a good sub with that bunch. Maybe even Hawkins too for a full line substitute.
I think Morris is going to have to fight it out with Hawkins and Rice for PT. I wouldn't mind seeing him supplant rice but that means, with bot him and Hawkins, we have two SF's that you can rotate off of and dare them to take the open shot. I would rather have Kenny out there than all three of them, personally. I was ready to give up on Rice but he might be a necessary evil as a zonebuster. Hawkins? not a bad player, but I don't really want to see him out there, his limitations are already obvious, altough I guess he eats into moochies minutes somewhat so he can't be all bad. As far as Taylor Griffin? I think Taylor should be the secondary option. It sucks for Taylor, but the Rockets just absolutely NEED to have Griffins shotblocking out there as much as possible. That being said, they provide a nice "defense/offense" combo, too bad we couldn't genetically engineer them into one PF.
Dakota, Druken stupor! explains it all. Rudy just can't control his urge (to drink) to make stupid coaching moves. 7 min. is not enough for Ming. Rox should hire Newell to teach Yao. He won't learn a thing from Rudy!
Grow up. You're not even old enough to drink so what do you know? That is about as stupid of a post as I've seen. Did you even watch the game? Or maybe you were too stoned to see what was really going on...
I think statements like this are absolutely classless and moronic. Alcoholism is a frickin disease. Would you critize Rudy if he had cancer? Geesh.
Sane, I agree with you on everything except the part about trading KT. Regarding the rotation, we have to think of it as a work in progress. Everything has a progression and you cannot accomplish everything immediately. Our rotation now is different to what it would have been had we not gotten the injuries and suspension. Instead of killing Mobes and Wink, we should be grateful that they were able to keep us going in the interim. Our primary goal last week was to work Rice and KT back in and I think that has worked where the level of attention dedicated to it can now be reduced. Rice just needs to start hitting his shots. He is getting shots and eventually they will drop. When that happens we cannot underestimate what that would mean to the further upgrade of our arsenal. Also Rice is too highly paid to get stuck on the bench. Next priority would be to work in MoT and build chemistry around that. We all knew we would get to this stage and I am sure Rudy T has a plan. Barring any mishaps, by the end of this week we should have a solid ten-man rotation, that is, a list of players who will play every night. Cato, EG, KT, Wink, Mobes, Ming, MoT, Rice, Moochie and Hawk. I really do not see us going to DNP-CD for Ming. As this rotation settles down and gain additional confidence, I do believe we are going to more regularly have big leads which will give us the opportunity to get Tmo, Boki and Ming some more time on the floor, as I am sure they would have been bringing it in practice. By the way, is it me or did Hawk break out some of the globetrotter stuff?
Aside from 5-7 negative and not-board friendly posts, this is one of the best, threads of the year. We had posters agreeing to disagree, giving opinion and talking strategy. Congrats to all who have responded to this one. Great information, opinion and game/strategy talk! Note to the losers who post without regard: 1. Stay away from personal attacks on players and other posters 2. Stay away from emotionally charged responses...keep is calm. 3. It is cool if you do not know the ins and outs, have a well constructed opinion and back it up with facts
Francis Mobley Cato KT Griffin This is it. Two or three scoring options, youth & athleticism, reasonable defense &rebounding. The tweaking that remains is in the 'rotation'. Don't rush Yao. Don't embarass Boki. Don't count on Rice. And DON'T FREAKING TRADE KENNY.
Swat, I agree....although if TMO comes back and is shooting the ball well, and playing good defense, I would not be surprised to see KT get traded around the deadline. DaDakota
