Why Did We Even Trade for James Posey If We Are Never Going to Play Him?

No Easy....I'm saying that you should open your eyes to the possibility that maybe Rudy is doing a crappy job with the team, and holding them back. Too many people are assuming that, since he's an NBA coach and we aren't, that his way is automatically the right way.

Case in point....we are apparently running one of the most complex offenses in the league. Is that necessary? It has gotten us 91 points/game. There are 22 teams in the NBA averaging more than us. Not much more needs to be said.

 

And we considered top 4 or 5 team in the West after 3 years of rebuilding. Not much more needs to be said.

 

rocketfat,

Where am I contradicting myself? The Sixers had not one body to back up the 1 and 2 off the bench (the starter at the 3, McKie, filled this role in the Laker game). The Sixers had not one body to back up the 3, when McKie slid over to the 2, which is the reason why they HAD to play Thomas, because the only other bench players they had were Coleman and Skinner who cant play the 3. The Rockets had Rice, Morris and Hawkins to man the 3. We didnt need Posey. We had enough bodies to backup the starters and the 2 and 3. Morris, while not a great player, at least is familiar with our system. Same for Rice.

In the end, Posey is not a good enough player to warrant giving major minutes to when hes not remotely familiar with our offense or defense.

Actually I am very familiar with match-up zones. So familiar in fact, that matchup zones or any other type of zone for that matter vary from team to team and are never, EVER, EXACTLY the same. Each team, NBA, college, High School and whoever will always throw their own wrinkle into their zones so it doesnt become predictable. If the way Denver played zone was the exact same way that we played zone, then Posey would have played. Plain and simple. I cant belive you dont see this. I have no doubt Posey has played in a zone defense before, he hasnt played in ours though.

And with regards to the "waiting period" for learning the intricacies of a team's given zone and when is a given player ready to play that zone full-time, I could not answer that question. However, I feel fairly confident in saying that one would need at least 2-3 practices under his belt before he receives substantial playing time in that type of system. At the time of the Minnesota game, I dont believe Posey had even one practice yet.

Rudy has done a poor job this season? His team has the 5th best record in the conference. He has implemented a defense that is currently one of the top 5 in the league. His team is on pace to win 20 more games than it did last year. We have beat teams like the Lakers, Sacramento, San Antonio, Indiana and the only team we have lost to, that we shouldnt have, is Memphis.

This is a poor job?

 

Phenomenal point rockbox.

All credit goes to Rudy T for that. He willed those ping-pong balls to come out of the machine to land Yao Ming, didn't he?

Nice point. I look forward to more of your insight in your future posts.

 

Strange, I seem to remember not long ago people are dissing Rudy for running a "boringly simplistic" offense. They said Rudy is not a good X and O coach. Now you are dissing him for being too complex?

rocketfat, you are free to disagree with the coaching decision. But as you have indicated, coaching is not an exact science. Some people criticize Rudy as if they know exactly what should be done for the Rockets.

Again, no one is saying that Rudy is always right. But I notice some people on this board think that Rudy is ALWAYS WRONG. They use every opportunity to bash him whenever something appears to be wrong with the Rockets and never give any credit to him when there are so many things that are right with the team.

Maybe we should start a S.M.A.R.T. (Serious Members Against Rudy Trashing). Anybody wants to join?

 

Look, I think that we have to wait for the end of the season to make a qualified judgement on wheather rudy t has done a good job or not. For those of you who think he is, all you have to say is that we currently have a good record. Okay fine, but if we loose 5 straight, then is he not doing a good job. I think that he is doing alright, not teriffic and not ****ty. In the sport of Pro basketball, I think a coach has less to do with a team's record than in other sports. It is more the players. In college, a coach has a lot more to do with a team's record.

 

Hmmmm, before Yao was even a factor this season (before his breakout game in Dallas), we were 10-6, a .625 winning percentage. Since then we have gone 5-5.

Seems to me Rudy was winning before Yao even became a factor on this team.

We are winning this year because of our defense. Very simple. Not only because of Yao. Who set up our defensive scheme? Rudy T.

Nice job Rudy. Keep up the good work.

 

I agree with you Easy. I am not claiming to know what is exactly right. I am stating my opinion.

I don't have much of a problem with the fact that Posey didn't really play the last two games....I expect his minutes to come. This is just one more thing in the string of blatant errors in coaching errors that Rudy has made this season. He has been far too liberal and patient with the minutes that he has given to #1 RICE, #2 Moochie, #3 T Mo. At the same time, he has been far too conservative with experimenting and giving players like Boki and Tito Maddox (for the brief period he was on the active roster) significant playing time.

And, give me a damn break, Codell. Do you TRULY credit Rudy with the Rockets currently being 5th in the Conference?? Or is it thanks to Yao Ming? Are you also one of those who say that the Lakers and Bulls won thier championships because of the coaching mind of Phil Jackson?

 

Heypartner would be jealous with his F.A.R.T. club and all. Heh heh.

 

And when Yao wasn't doing jack **** at the beginning of the season, we still had the same winning percentage. This team would be in the playoffs, even without Yao. The Yao factor just makes our road to title contention a lot shorter.

And Milwaukee averages 99.5 points a game and Golden State averages 98.6 points a game. What is your point? Do you want us to go back to the ISO plays so Posey gets to play???

 

I do credit him. We were winning before Yao became a factor on this team. We were 10-6 when he played sparingly and are 5-5 since then. Yup, sounds to me like Yao is the only reason we are where we are.

Lets see, Pippen and Jordan played together before Phil came along. How many titles did they win? Zero.

Kobe and Shaq played together before Phil came along. How many titles did they win? Zero.

Answer: Phil Jackson's coaching was a reason (not the only reason) those teams won titles.

Good players dont win titles without good coaches.

Good coaches dont win titles without good players.

 

codell, it is apparent that you are just arguing for nothing more than the sake of arguing. you can't honestly believe that this is a playoff/future championship caliber team without Yao Ming.

I think Rudy is a good enough coach, but you are giving him too much credit.

Anyway....here is a statistic that should pretty much seal your mouth shut from the crap that is spewing from it:

In our 2nd championship season, Hakeem Olajuwon missed 10 games. Our record in those games????? Whaddya Know.....7-3.

That was higher than our season's total winning percentage. I guess we didn't need Hakeem at all to win that championship!

Chew on that for a while, codell.

 

I too don't think Rudy is the best coach for this team, but he's better than most.

BUT, Rudy's decision to play 5 minutes in 2 games was perfect. Can't argue about it.

Argue against this: Posey had ONE practice with our team.

As for his overall coaching, honestly, I wouldn't have predicted a 15-11 record at this point in the season. The schedule has been easy on us, to be honest. But still, even with Yao Ming's improved play, I couldn't see us 15-11.

It's still early to tell, but if this team is 5th seed or better, there's no complaining. Changing your offense during the season and still haveing a 15-11 record? That's incredible.

I always rooted for a guy like Van Gundy or Riley, but if Rudy can keep these guys focused on defense, then he's done his job. Excellent X's and O's, focused defense, incorporated a rookie as a main piece of the puzzle, 20-win improvement over last year.. It just doesn't get better.

Hopefully, if we beat the Jazz tonight, we'll be 5 games over .500, and 4th place in the West. Tell me, how high could we possibly be if we had another coach?

 

Where did I say that this was a championship caliber team without Yao? Please do not put words into my mouth.

What I said was, Yao is not the sole reason as to why we have a winning record this year. What I said was, defense has led us to where we are.

Are you clear now on what I DID and DID NOT say? If so, then your point about being 7-3 without Hakeem has no relevance to the discussion at hand.

 

great stat IS.

how high of a seed could we get with another coach Sane? i guess we may never know. we could be the 1 seed with a different coach for all we know.

would you have predicted the kings would be the 1 seed before the season started last year? doubt it.

 

the "Yao" factor is:

before that, we cried we couldn't beat a team with
winning record, but did a good job to beat sub_par teams.

After that, we can beat strong teams, but lose
to bad teams as well.

conclusion:

Yao makes the Rockets more dangeous but
also more inconsistent. Maybe after the
transition period, Rockets will become a
true legit contender.

 

codell....c'mon man. know when you're beat. now you are just sounding pathetic.

Israel's post had all the relevance in the world. You made the point that Yao isn't the main cause of the Rockets success, because we have only been 5-5 since he has been playing well. He made the exact same analogy to Hakeem.

Give it up already dude.

 

Easy,

No thanks. She will just want to sleep with me and bungle my case.

 

Derrock,

Let me get this right. I agree with you. You agree with me. I don't accuse you of being a RT lover and you curse me because you lacked other intelligent words. I was stating to the other posters that they would defend RT at all costs. At least you agreed that mistakes have been made. For the last time, love the Rox ship, the captain is lost at sea.

 

Pip,

Thanks! Your daughter determines player moves. I'm glad someone has a memory. I would have cut off my left arm for the Bulls Finals Matchup. Harper would have been perfect! Rudy has killed the Rox with his lack of common sense.