To be honest, offense is a mess for Rockets!

The reason we did so much 1 on 1 against the Lakers was because it worked. They had no answer for Stevie. 2 of their best defenders, Kobe and Fisher, had no answer for the Franchise. So, as long as thats working, why not stick with it?

 

You are right on. They don't seem to really be organized or have the mindset of a team that is completely together. Often it they will try to set somethig up but it doesn't work, so they dribble around for a while and put up an outside shot.

I really don't know how they are winning so many games like this, but hey, it's working. And once they finally do figure it out it should be scary. I don't know what the source of this is, I'm inclined to blame Rudy, but then it may be the guards not setting up the sets right.

 

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to hire an assistant coach or consultant off of New Jersey, Dallas, or Sacramento.

I don't want to ever become a run n gun team like those teams, but I'd definitely like for us to be able to go to that in the first 3 quarters.

 

The Rockets did show off a new play designed to get Yao the ball at a different angle. So far this season, 99% of entry passes to Yao have been on the left block. Against the Lakers, Yao was setting up at the left elbow and as the ball was swung from the left wing to the top of the key, he would flash across the lane looking for an entry pass. This looked like a new angle to get him the ball.

Rudy mentioned on his last call-in show that they were developing new angles to get Yao the ball, as well as working with Yao on the pick and roll. Rudy is trying to get Yao to take more of an "banana-shaped" route to the basket after setting a pick, instead of a moving in a straight line to the basket. This will create greater separation between him and the defender and allow for a passing lane.

 

You have to treat Friday's game differently. It was like playoff intensity. Rudy T obviously planned to have Yao draw Shaq outside instead of low-post to open up the lanes for Francis to drive, which worked great.

Rockets best offensive games came from Spurs, Kings, Celtics, and 76ers at home. Lots of motion offense, very balanced scores.

 

This has been happening since December. It is our double high post set. In the Orlando game, Rudy said we did the double high PnR 20 times. The 99% to the left block is a very outdated observation.

case closed.

 

Not true. The pass to Yao that we've seen at the high post has not been an *entry pass*. I define entry pass as being a pass intended for the recipient to shoot. When Yao had previously caught the ball at the high post, he was looking to pass it. The play that they were running Friday night had Yao cutting diagonally across the lane looking for an entry pass from the high post. This was a new look.

 

Yeah, I notice this a lot too. When the guards are out there dribbling, no one really knows when a shot is going to be put up, so our offensive rebounding and transition defense is not as good (not to mention they are low percentage shots). When Steve was passing off a lot before shooting last week, everyone looked like they were on the same page.

 

I agree with you. But we won. There were other games, we moved the ball pretty well, played balance basketball, I bet you didnt see any of those games. This is a young team here, a rookie center and a team hasnt made to playoffs for last 3 years, which is still learning how to play with a big man(Francis never played with a real threat big fellow like YM in his whole career, the last year of the dream on Rox dosnt count). Rudy.T's words "We are not even running the plays right now", Isiah's words " I wont be surprised if they(Rockets) they make out of the West conference this year" I have already seen big improvements Rox has made compared with the beginning of this season

 

You are absolutely right!! Although we won, Steve isn't gonna shoot like that every game. Much less, 1/3 of the games. So i hope the Rox dont think that they figured out a way of winning. Granted, having Shaq in there does neutralize our post game..

But what scares me about all this is after the game, Stevie credited the win to getting the ball inside. He said something like "we just wnat to get the ball to our big guys". But I didn't see much of that?? Not that it would have worked against Shaq but did he really think we were giving the ball to the big guys insdie or is it the same old iso plays that we have used for years?

 

As Francis keeps saying, he takes what the defense gives him. He scores when he is able (which was most of the time Friday) and dishes when someone else had a better opportunity. For the position Yao had under the basket, of course he wanted to pass it. I'd remind folks that Francis had 11 assists in that game to go with his 44 points.

When I was watching our game against Phoenix, I thought the ball movement was pretty good and was a bit surprised at how bad the Suns looked at distributing the ball.

 

I pretty much disagree with this thread completely. To me, I'm finally seeing some consistent improvement on the offensive end during our winning streak.

There are a couple fo things I've noticed:

1) Balance - Rudy has done a very good job of mixing plays in at the right time. His philosophy is very go with what's working over and over again, and sometimes this works (ala Lakers). But even for that game, I've haven't seen as much come down and do the same thing over and over and over again. Now they will come down and run the double high post, the next time do a wing PnR, followed by the fist play (or thumb down, I don't know the exact sign), which is for Yao in the block, and the next play hit Griffin or Taylor in the block, followed by that nice triangel play they have working with Yao on the high wing as a picker when he hands the ball off, followed by isolation and kick out. To me, it's amazing the variety of plays I've seen the last week. It's keeping the defense off balance.

The best metric to measure this is number of shots taken. Despite Steve's career high 44 points, he only took 21 shots. Mobley had 17 and Yao, on a bad shooting night (again...) had 14. That's balance. You saw a lot of balance in the previous three games on the win streak as well.

2) Movement - Without a doubt this starts with Yao, but it has an effect on the whole team. I can't recall the number of times I've thought to myself "Yao, you got the ball 6 feet fromt eh basket, just throw it up", whereas Yao realized his shots been off, so he qucikly swings it out to an open Steve for a three pointer, or the guard swings it for an open shot elsewhere. As a result, the team is shooting above its average for the year and only once in the 4 game streak has it shot below that average.

3) Creating opportunities - Steve has really shined in this area recently, and, if you ask me, is one of the ONLY areas wher other point guards may have advantages over him. Steve is excellent at recognizing the open man off of known half court sets - i.e. hitting the open three point shooter, generally hitting the post man when he drives, etc. What someone like Jason Kidd does much better, is threads a pass to an open PF under teh basket when no one else is even close to expecting it. Steve's been doing this better recently. I've seen a couple of those types of passes, and the key is to do it, but do it intelligently, with a very small chance of turnover. This area still needs improvement, but has gotten better.

4) Integrating Posey - obviously, this has started to happen offensively, and hopefully it will continue. He has proven to be a better spot up shooter than expected, a much better rebounder than expected, and runs the break like a gazelle.

Obviously, there still needs to be improvement in certain offensive areas - the main one, imo, being a consisten fast break game. In the last four games, we've had fast break numbers of 7, 21, 8, and 18. And there are still circumstances where there needs to be better recognition of where to get the ball and when.

Nonetheless, it amazes me that having watched the Lakers game in person on Friday, I didn't get any sort of iso feel until overtime, at which point, it became a necessity for Steve to have the ball in his hands at all times and make the right decision, which he did every play.

Just my $0.02.

 

I kinda think this a good thing because it prepares us for how the playoffs are played. Defense tighten up and most plays during crunch time become busted where you really need a player who is used to creating his own shot.

Prime examples are the 7th games in the LA-Portland series and LA-Sac series. The Lakers really clamped down in the fourth quarter which disrupted Sac's and Portland's offensive sets and those teams really didn't know what to do because they weren't used to that situation.

Our chemistry and passing is improving with every game, and Francis and Mobley aren't scared of putting up a big shot when they are left open (ala Webber).

Rudy's offenses are geared to milking what the defenses give you. The problem is sometimes the players milk it even when it goes dry. They will learn and mature and get more easy buckets, but when those easy buckets don't come, they will be ready to put up the clutch shot.

 

What surprises me is how often people watch every game and still think all we run are ISO's and 1 on 1's. In fact, Francis almost NEVER runs an ISO preferring the pick and roll over the one-on-one.

Where's heypartner when you need him?

<font size=1>did I say that?</font>

 

Jeff,

I think people are mistaking scoring off the dribble and ISO's. Rudy's "movement offense" is built on the dribble. It is not a passing motion offense. I think he believes that the dribble penetration by our guards causes defensive break downs that lead to open shots for other players. From the last few games, I would have to agree.

The only thing that concerns me is that sometimes the guards wait to long before they try to penetrate.

 

Agreed. Moochie is the worst at this. Cat is definitely getting better. Steve has been improved this season.

What I wish I would see more of is the secondary break. The Lakers in the 80's used to KILL people with this and there are a few teams that try it, namely Sacramento. Magic used to bring the ball down on the fast break, start to set up the offense and then blow by the defense right before it was completely set.

It was a very effective way of catching defenders out of position and on their heels. I guess it is kind of a lost art which is too bad because it often led to easy baskets. Of course, that was in the days when teams averaged 112 points per game!