"Getting it", Grades and Splitting Batman & Robin Up

HP,

Actually, I agree with much of your statement and your point above is well taken. As I mentioned originally, the sets we have are good sets but there is no weakside action and an unwillingness to swing the ball. That is what makes them predictable.

But if Rudy is harping on this day in and day out, then I think I'm more scared than I was before because that just shows how much more Francis doesn't "get it."

The bottom line is Rudy is the head man and when times are going good you get the credit and when times are going bad well...

I don't want Rudy micro-managing the game, but when things get out of control, I do expect him to exert himself more...on the players and the offensive/defensive flow.

Either way, this ride is broken and if it can't be repaired soon, I think it's time to order some new parts.

 

When Yao buff up his upper body strength (hopefully this off season). He will be able to get good post position constantly (which he is not even close to now), then we will see what this team capability really is.

 

I hope that happens before someone gets fired or traded.

 

OP- I just wanted to repost this.

He [Steve] won't get it until it is too late. I bet he will get Rudy fired or Cuttino traded. Let me rephrase it. Cat doesn't get it and he is going to cost Rudy his job or his own trade.

DOC-
I truly believe that Garnett is coming to town next year. I got this from ESPN.

HOUSTON ROCKETS
Expires in 2003: James Posey ($1.7 mil.); Jason Collier ($1.3 mil.)
Expires in 2004: Glen Rice ($9.6 mil)
Comments: The Rockets probably made their big deal when they swapped Kenny Thomas for Posey. Don't expect much more to go down. The team is under the luxury-tax threshold and has no significant holes. It may, however, look at moving Rice this summer. It doesn't look like he's a fit in Houston's youth movement.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
Expires in 2003: Anthony Peeler ($3.3 mil - Team Option); Rasho Nesterovic ($2.4 mil)
Expires in 2004: Kevin Garnett ($28 mil)
Comments: It's really hopeless as long as Garnett is making around $12 million less than the cap. Now that Wally Szczerbiak has signed his extension, the team has no cap flexibility and no real assets to use in a trade. I think it's premature this season, but don't be shocked to hear KG trade rumors come summertime. It just doesn't look like the team can afford to re-sign him and surround him with the talent he needs to win a championship.

Speaking of potential free agents, Kevin Garnett's situation in Minnesota remains murky. He was unable to come to terms with the team on a contract extension last fall. Garnett reportedly was willing to take a pay cut if it meant that the T-Wolves would use the money they were saving to sign another star.

"You guys beat me up a little bit, Magic [Johnson] beat me up a little bit, [Kevin] McHale and Glen Taylor beat me up a little bit," Garnett said referring to criticism he took last summer after the T-Wolves suffered another first-round playoff exit. "But I felt like I was between a rock and a hard spot. I don't call plays. I'm not the coach, and I don't tell the point guard what to do. This year, Flip [Saunders] is just calling plays for me [down the stretch]. That's the difference between last year and this year."

Whether Steve gets it or not, he is staying along with Yao. I could see a trade that would involve Cat, Rice, Cato, Griffin and/or MoT. We have the players and salaries to use in a trade but so do the Clippers and Pacers. Minnesota has to trade Garnett. I just don't know to who.

 

Wow......deja vu

Good reading in the game action thread.

Could this be a harbinger?

 

I gotta say...

Great Post Heypartner. You've given me faith & most importantly, patience, in this team once again.

 

2003-2004 Salaries

Kevin Garnett = $28m

Rockets:
Glen Rice = $9.6m
Maurice Taylor = $7.8m
Kelvin Cato = $7.3m
Cuttino Mobley = $5.4m
Moochie Norris = $3.6
Eddie Griffin = $2.3m
Total of Rockets' salaries = $36m

No offense to anyone, but the KG to Houston Dreamcast remains a personal pet peeve. IMHO, they would have to take two of 3 from Rice, Cato & Taylor...and then they would have duplicity at SG (Cat & Wally Z)...and their current PG's are (arguably) better than Moochie and (unarguably) have shorter & less expensive contracts...and they feel EG has a future...and they don't mind trading Garnett to an interdivisional playoff rival...


Garnett is the Big Ticket, but I don't think the Rockets have the admission price.

 

This team is beyond trades. If you take a look at the roster, all of the main pieces are here except maybe a brute reserve PF. We addressed a major issue in dealing for James Posey. We are two deep at every position. If Steve indeed does not get it, it ultimately is the coach's responsibility to make sure that he does by any means necessary.

Sure Rudy T may have benched him in San Antonio, but the next time out, he acts like a damn fool again. I'm not suggesting a "dump in" offense by any means. But it would be nice to teach these guys how to run some kind of pick and roll. I agree that 28 out of 29 teams can run this play. Hell, even Kempner High School can run it. This team, save for Yao and Posey, has a relatively low basketball IQ. I can only wonder what goes on in practice.

Maybe Rudy has run out of fire. He's been around as head coach since 1992. That's 11 ******* years on the Rockets. Maybe it's time for him to retire, and let Larry Smith take over the team. I'm rambling, but John Lucas would be a nice addition. Could you imagine how good this team could be with Donnie Nelson as head coach? I'm not even going to mention how good we could be if TJ Ford was running the show instead of Steve Francis.

 

oeilpere,


Here's something I'd like to know...From what YOU know, would the Rockets deal Cuttino Mobley assuming the following:

1) They decide that Steve may improve with Mobley

2) Francis would be, not SHATTERED, but just iffed about it. Meaning, he won't like it, but if they convince him that it's a step towards Championship status, then he'll shake it off.

Would they?

One more thing, are the Rockets even thinking about making one more (at least small) trade? Or do they not want to mess with the chemistry that we "have"?

 

To Steve, Mobes, RT, EG, et al - a quote from my father

If one person calls you a jackass, ignore him... if many do, you might want to get fitted for a saddle.


Great thread - thanks

 

<blockquote><hr><b>oeilpere</b>
HP revisited: (IMHO) The team concept is that everyone plays within themselves, yet follows the game plan.

...

In short, Francis high holds, Posey curls, Yao picks and slides then backs mid posting to the foul line, Mobes sets up at the weakside at the arc, 4-5 feet from the baseline. Adjustments are read. Pass goes to most fragile defense. Adjustments are made, pass goes to the most advantageous shot or passed again and then repeats. That is simple.<hr></blockquote>Yeah, you nailed it. But, I think it is ironic (given our talk of Griffin) that you did not mention Griffin in that set. That's my deal. I don't know what to say to Griffin. He doesn't really grasp the double high post set, like Maurice or Kenny. He bumps into people off-ball; you see people push him into position; and he constantly does herky-jerky hesitation moves when he has the ball. I don't think he gets a 5-man game at all, and it can have the cascading effect of busting a play (at worst) or getting Francis to avoid Griffs side of the court (at best).

So, I want Maurice in the game *WITH* Francis to get us out of this offensive funk. I think Rudy wants Maurice in to help run the subs, and that is another unfornately outcome of Rice going down. I'm beginning to think your correct prediction two weeks ago about Cato/Ming playing together is a good sign Rudy might be close to limiting Griff without losing defense....not to mention the fact I am just not impressed in the slightest by Griff's defense.

<b>Mobley makes Francis worse, or Francis amplifies Mobley's limitations</b>

I don't mean to sidetrack that Batman is a problem, and Chim Chim gets too excited at the endgame a lot, but the notion of Chim Chim causing Batman to have bad habits is a weird notion to me. Mobley is a perfectly fine Andrey Toney player, and Maurice Cheeks, Kidd and Payton would reveal that, imo...and quite honestly, I've seen enough willingness of Mobley to be Toney or Vinnie this year that I'm not too worried about him. I think his Toney-ness gets amplified into a problem worse than Vernon-ness or Starks-ness for the very fact that his Batman is no HOF Cheeks and can really suck it up on running anything resembling a defense-reading offense that the coach is asking for.

And that's were I think that trading Chim Chim and moving Batman over to the 2 will set up a situation where Batman could suck more unless you find him a Cheeks, Kidd or Payton that can slap some sense into him from a true superhero standpoint of HOFer respect that Francis will listen to. Andre Miller, Tinsley or Snow will piss off Francis, at worse, and make Francis still feel like a Superman in the end game taking on 6'6-6'8 superstar defenders, at best....

<b>If the PG experiment is a failure...</b>

imo, the chances of younger PGs or role player PGs creating a change in Francis are equavilent to happening as Francis taking a turn for the worse....and you end up wishing you had Chim Chim back, so you can trade Batman for a big man, especially if Griffin never gets it, either.

<b>Moving Francis to the 2 scares me as much as it must have scared some Vancouver fans to draft him as a 2.</b> If the PG experiment is over, you have to trade him, before his value drops, and disgruntleness for playing the 2 has made his stock drop really bad in the past.

<b>Simplicity is a foundation of complexity, but so what?</b>

I agree about the simplicity of Rudy's set. Nelson has simple sets, too. I've been breaking down Dallas tapes lately, and (discounting the marvelous transition game) you can see the halfcourt offense as simple (High PnRs with Nitwitz, Curls, Penetrate and kick, etc). The difference is like you say...we don't or won't add the extensions to each set that are there (at least in practice...we've seen this enough in games this year to convince me)...of course, we haven't seen it much without fielding more vets like Kenny, Rice, and a hopping Maurice

<blockquote><hr>I would love them to think on their feet, as a matter of fact that is what a motion offense is all about ( I know you know that ? I am preaching to the choir here, I know).<hr></blockquote>I know I'm preaching to the choir, too. But that has proven to get you to sing back to us....empty cathedral or not, it's always sweet to hear.

 

With all the b****ing about bad threads lately, I'd like to point out that this is a great one.

 

Indeed. I've enjoyed reading the whole thing.

 

Great thread.

I agree with HP that if Batman and Robin are split it should be Batman. Francis is a great, dynamic, player--the kind of player that can make a bad team respectable and entertaining (thus worth a ton in open market--see below), Mobley is a 28 year only good shooting guard (not top 5, but top 10-12). Also, despite Francis being a great individual player, whether he is a player that can make a very good team great I don't know. I also share concerns that Francis is really much of an upgrade as a 2 guard than Mobley, and we know Mobley can take a co-pilot role in our offense to someone, not so sure of Francis. Trading Mobley for a lower than his value was to us (almost a certainty if you trade him) and then finding out Francis has the same problems being a steady hand at the two guard (diminishing his trade value immensely) would set the franchise back almost as much as lucking into Yao gave us a couple of lengths head start.

Also, if Minn was not interested in Francis last year that may have changed. Honestly I would have had a lot of concerns too, but the headaches are gone, and Francis really is playing like an all-star. Of course KG isn't just an all-star, but all-NBA. I would trade whatever comb of Rockets sans Yao to get KG--if they ask for Yao but we keep our backcourt pair I don't know. The other target on my list would be Brand. Brand/Miller for Francis, Griff, + picks would seem to work for both teams. Miller would have his shooters (though we will have James work extra hard this offseason) and Yao/Brand would be a pair nobody could hope to contend with. Don't underestimate the value of Francis either--he certainly has a higher ceiling than either Brand (too many people on this board mistake Brand's talent for Duncan's) or Miller alone, the Clips might win a few more games and certainly be more exciting (sell out more games) with him.

Of course this is premature. Let's run the season out and hopefully at least 1 round of playoffs before judgement. This year's team is Francis & Rudy's team--if anyone is responsible, bad or good, for how the team finishes it is those two. It will be interesting to see if the Rockets future is better with them in it or not--honestly I can see it either way.