There seems to be a lot of "Fire Rudy" and "Trade Francis" on this board now... Most of the problems are out of our control, but others are not... A lot of these problems are self-explanatory (young Francis, young team, etc), so I'll just go over a few of them. * Milking a player Rudy doesn't like to design plays or systems. He just likes to give the ball to his best player and let them do their thing. He likes to do what he calls, "milking the player." Don't get this confused with giving the ball to someone that's in a zone. That's different. Rudy likes to run the same play over and over if they hit their first few shots. I wouldn't call that "in the zone!" On the surface this seems like a good idea. We've seen it before. Hakeem; give the ball to him on the post and let him go one-on-one. Drexler: give the ball to him on the wing and let him go one-on-one. Barkley: give the ball to him on the post and let him go one-on-one. See, there's no coaching or system involved here. Just let them run wild. This lacks order and discipline. * Contingency Plan? So, you might ask, "What's so bad about giving the ball to your best players?" Well, for one, it removes the TEAM concept from your plays. Two, when the first option is taken away by the defense, then the rest of the team is clueless of what to do because there is no system to fall back on. Time and time again, we've seen Francis go one-on-one(or run the 1st play), and then the play will break down. Because there is no system to fall back on (reset the play), you have a lot of players "running around" like a chicken with their heads cut off -- actually there's no running, just a lot of standing around looking clueless. Because they have no system to fall back on, they look lost. They have no patience because they are addicted to the ISO to get them out of trouble. See, they rush back to the ISO when they get in trouble rather than rushing back to a system (reset the play) to get them out of trouble. Take a look at Dallas, New Jersey, and Sacramento when they get in trouble. They keep their cool and reset the play (the system; as a team). The Rockets freak out and rush into the ISO when the 1st play breaks down. Sure, Francis and Mobley have the ability to beat their defenders off the dribble. But, this is not a good habit to get into when the team gets in trouble. They need a team-system to fall back on, not a one-on-one ISO. The team-system requires patience, communication, and dare I say it, TEAM WORK. Some type of contingency plan that doesn't revolve around the ISO, but rather the TEAM. So, instead of them rushing back to the ISO (and get a shot off quick), they should rush back into the system (reset the play). It's almost like they want to please the fans so bad and score so bad that they get in impatient and jack up a quick shot in stead of resetting the play. Right now, due to a lot of factors, there just doesn't seem like there is such a system to fall back on. Today, there's just a lot of panic, 24 second violations, forced shots, and air-balls. Now, that's what I see wrong with our "offense." Don't get me started on the defense! P.S. And what's with taking 7 seconds to walk the ball up the half-court line? That's part of the problem that we rush so much? I'd swear that this was the geriatric club? The Nets, Mavs, Kings, and Pacers take no more than 3-4 seconds to bring the ball up the court. And that gives them more time to setup the offense.
Good night. That's what I was saying. We should follow what the New Jersey Nets do. I love how they play. The Rockets tried to incorporate the 5 man motion offense but I guess it didn't work out. Our defense can be as good as the New Jersey Nets. But our offense will never be like theirs. I wish it could be, but it won't happen if nothing changes. The New Jersey Nets are beating teams by at least 20 points these days. The Mavericks just have so many offensive weapons and use zone defense ALL THE TIME which is pretty cheap but it works. They have Shawn Bradley and Raef Lafrentz in the middle, which helps. The Kings just have a great coach and a very talented team with a deep bench. The Pacers....Jermaine O'Neal. I like the New Jersey Nets because their style is so easy that their garbage players can even perform it perfectly and score. They pass the ball and have good shooters who can actually shoot. And they play excellent defense and have so many fast break opportunities. I think they are an awesome team, but they still can't win a championship against the West. The Rockets need more of an inside-outside game like with Hakeem or Akeem Olajuwon. We should continue ISO too. But we need some plays that we can use after we pass to Yao. Currently, we either let Yao go one-on-one or he finds somebody open. We need a new strategy. ANYWAYS. DavidS, please go on about defense! I want to listen!
Well, Kenny Smith said it best... "Playing defense hurts!" He couldn't be more right. It's painful to the arms, legs, lungs to play defense. Using the excuse that "I'm tired" is a copout. If Gary Payton, Tyrone Lue, and Derrick Fisher can play D, then so can the Rockets. It has nothing to do with how tall you are. It's a choice. A decision. Payton, Lue, and Fisher get tired too. But they are able to play through the pain, and contribute on the offense.
Good post, DavidS. What is your honest prediction on the team, given that Rudy stays for the rest of the season?
I almost skipped this thread due to the weird thread title, but you nailed one of my pet peeves, DavidS. It is so frustrating as a fan to see this walking up the court @(#$. This is a young (and deep) team, so you would think we could use depth to tire out opponents on D, but instead we shoot ourselves in the foot and waste half the shot clock just getting the play started. Maybe we should petition the NBA to change the rule again to allow only five seconds to get the ball into the front court, so they'd be *forced* to get the play started quicker. J/K. But this walking up business just gets the fans thinking they are lazy, and that's not the image that will sell tickets. I wonder if the Rockets brass realizes this. A mitigating circumstance would be the conditioning of Yao, which keeps him from running up and down too much, so they wait for him on offense. That would not be the Rockets' fault, but I don't think that's it because this existed prior to Yao's arrival.
im glad i read this thread i thought yao was doing a got milk mustache or something stupid. yes im glad u posted this. BAD COACHING. kobe and shaq are 1 on 1 players and they are coached way better than just...give them the ball. nice posting go rox!
DavidS - I couldn't agee more!! This thread is a pleasure to read!! I really enjoy hearing from someone with a reasoned, insightful take on the team we all love to watch, and love to argue over on this board!! I think S.F. bringing the ball up the court is much more about looking "cool" than anything else. He clearly cannot be getting a play from Rudy, because, as DavidS pointed out, Rudy has NO plays!! The defense is actually pretty good, except for Rudy allowing one player to torch them over and over, rather than doubling that player the moment they touch the ball. Boki getting no P.T. is an absolute travesty!! He must not be getting it done in practice. There is NO OTHER reasonable explanation for trading for another S.F. when you have Hawk (who is just a poor man's Posey), and Boki is probably the best offensive 3 on our team!!! If someone out there has a clue as to why Boki isn't even allowed to sniff the court, please share.
DavidS, if you have read any of my posts, you know I share your observations. I have watched the Rockets since Rudy played, and the Steve Francis era has been the hardest to watch. I don't like the hully-gully, street ball, one on one type of game. Never have, Never will. While the Rockets have had some pretense of a motion, team oriented game, their hearts (Mobley, Francis, Moochie, et al) are really in another direction. When they get under real game pressure, they revert to their playground style of play. Just like B. Davis said in his post game interview, " we (Hornets) resorted to isos and we can never win that way." I would bench any player that walked the ball up the court. Here is a fantasy, I wonder what John Wooten could do with this talent? This team is so disorganized and undisciplined. I wonder what they do in practice; probably shoot threes. Win or lose, ugly ball continues. Is their anyone on this board who can honestly say they REALLY ENJOY watching this team play?
I heard that too -- from the New Orleans commentators! Actually, I was in the kitchen and couldn't hear the TV very well, but I thought I heard the commentators say something like if the Hornets go into the ISO they will be playing "Houston's game, not New Orleans's game." It seems as thought that's all we're known for around the league. By the way, Rockets-R-Us. The last thing I remember the reason that Boki is not playing is because he can't handle the physical play yet... They are working on him when driving to the basket. The coaches will let him drive and then hit him in the ribs or something like that. So far he's shown that he's shy about contact. I guess they are trying to toughen him up? Also, they are trying to make sure his surgery has healed. I'm not sure how long a hernia surgery is supposed to take, but that's the last I've heard.
