What is the single biggest problem for Rockets?

R-Us,

With You! Why are others oblivious? No matter what type of play or personnel, Rudy brings them in the door. If they don't play hard or missing shots, Rudy controls who plays. Rudy gets the credit, none of the blame? Every coach in America would love to have Rudy's hustle. Especially at $4M/yr. Playoffs are a reasonable expectation after 3 Lotto Years.

 

Yao needs to be more aggressive. He needs to be reminded he ain't in China anymore. The Mr Nice Guy routine is wearing thin.

 

come on guys, what about vince carter. we trade mobley and cato for vincsanity, the human highwire act. You would have to be a f***** not to pursue that they are looking to trade him.

 

I think the root of the problem is that Rox play selfish basketball. Which, like many previous threads have mentioned, probably derived from the fact that they have the second youngest team in the NBA. Once the maturity and experience sets in, this will be one helluva tough team to beat.

Secondly, I think Rudy T.'s decision making skills also contributes to the team's overall problem. It seems as if he just doesn't know when to put the right players on the floor. When a guy is going 0-10 (Cutino!), take him off the court immediately or at least tell him to cut back on the shoot. For Christ sakes...EDUCATE these young players. Teach them when to shoot and when to pass.

 

I think you all need to keep things up to date. If you haven't realized...we won.

And if we were talking about the New Orleans Hornets, they shouldn't share the ball. They should give the ball to Jamaal Mashburn every single time!!! He is an awesome player.

 

Winning one game against a mediocore team isn't going to make all the problems go away. We need to keep working on our problems...because we have a long way to go before we can get to the same level as the Kings and Mavs. And if we want to become a championship calibur team, it's gonna take more than just winning a few games.

 

I'm sorry. This is about the long-term future of the Rockets.
The single problem is not Cuttino Mobley.
He has been a significant factor in winning. Of course, we have lost too.

Our major problem is not playing the best we can at all times. Sometimes we slack off. We should always play at our highest level. And with all of our great players, we are an unstoppable team. We can beat anyone when we are playing at our best...except the Dallas Mavericks. Rudy needs to make more plays and just keep everyone happy. Last year, our single biggest problem was injuries.

 

Taylor occasionally scores 10 or 12 points. He usually scores 4 or 6. He should be getting more playing time, and I haven't seen him dominate anyone... ever.

Think about it... when have you ever heard an announcer say "whoa ho! Taylor is really having a great night! He leads the team in scoring and is totally dominating his opponent!" .. or "Taylor really has the hot hands out there."

no.... Taylor has excelled in nothing. Maybe he should go home, smoke some more pot and get off my beloved basketball team.

-- droxford

 

Here it is:

1. Glen Rice cannot hit open shots
2. Cat Mobley takes too many shots and doesn't make them (his game against NO is the exception)
3. Don't feed the ball down-low enough
4. Mo Taylor cannot play D or rebound

 

Give Eddie Griffin a couple of years to bulk up and he'll be be a tremendous asset to the team. He is only 20 years old after all...

 

You can not expect Yao to hold down the fort single handedly. He is only a rookie! If anything, you have to blame management for not getting him any front court help. He plays along side Griffen and Rice!!! We need Brian Grant badly.....

 

The current remedy for the Rockets: Time & Chemistry
I would really like Rudy to insert Boki for once, I think that he is going to proove to be a selfless player. I would like Posey at the 2 not the three.

Stevie-PG
Posey-SG (defense)
Boki-SF
Griffin-PF
Yao-C

We dont currently benefit by having Glenn Rice in the lineup, he is a veteran that gets torched like a Rookie. Might as well put in the Rookie. This squad would be extremely athletic, would kind of look like the Sonics in a way but with Yao in the Middle. Mobley could come off the bench and be our "Microwave". Glenn Rice has two broken knees and it could not have been more obvious than when we played the Knicks.

 

I would have to agree.

 

I think whats wrong with the Rockets will be solved this season. They simply need time to play together over the course of a full 82 game season. They have moments (sometimes entire games) of brilliance, then they have these horrible crashes. Sometimes they dump it in to Yao every time, sometimes they forget he's there. I think the Rockets are adjusting. Maybe if we were in the East we could be thinking finals.... I think really solid performances every night is about 2-3 years away, when our core (Francis, Yao, ???, ???) have played together through battles...

Getting a 6-8th seed in the playoffs this year or going farther than the first round will be a welcome suprise.

 

Rice has got the body and "clutch" shooting ability of Robert Horry (maybe not that consistent), but he's got the defensive ability of Fox (which is pretty much non-existent). Like someone mentioned previously, we need to get Yao a "bodyguard". Someone like Brian Grant would be perfect for the team. Get Posey more playing time as well, he's a smart player who can get to the basket. Put Rice in only during clutch moments...otherwise let him warm up the bench.

 

We have so many problems. Yao is a tired rookie who have trouble getting rebounds, Griffin is just so damn soft, Rice is to damn old, Taylor can't shoot worth a damn, Mobley can't shoot unless there are three guys defend him (in which case, he still misses, but at least he looked good missing the shot).

The only people who is doing great is Cato.

But you know some, even with all these limitations, we would still be the top 4 or 5 team in the league if we have Kidd as our PG.

But this is absolutely not Francis's fault. This is really the first year Francis has to play a more traditional point guard role.

It is so obvious that he is trying. When things are doing great, he is passing and dictating the flow of the game. But when we missed a couple of outside shots, Steve will panic and start to revert to the time-tried 1 vs. 3 ISOs. The problem was it didn't work before, it is still not working now.

So as it stands now, we will be unbeatable if our shooters don't miss 2 or 3 straight. Otherwise, our inexperienced point guard will extend a minor hiccup into a major draught.

Is there anything we can do about it? Not really. One doesn't acquire the mentality of a point guard over night. Steve is smart, he will get it in a couple of years.

 

Yao can't rebound!!?? What crack have you been smoking. What about all those double-doubles he's got in a row. Grantly, he's a little tired now and it finally droped to single digits for the last few games..but the dude is a rebounding machine!! I have a feeling by the end of his career, he'll be all-time leader in rebounds.

 

Francis should stop hogging the ball an give it to Yao in the post.

 

dribling!