POLL: What is the primary source of Rockets struggles?

Combination of all except the injury. Injury is blessing in disguise.

 

All of them! Last year, it was injuries that was horrible for us. This year, it may have helped us because Posey is playing great while Glen Rice is where he belongs...I still want him back, though.

 

Selfish guards is not an excuse. Rudy is allowing them to be selfish. When all the smoke clears, and you look at the problems, it's the coach that is not making changes. If the players are not doing what you ask, BENCH THEM. It's that simple.

The problem is coaching coaching COACHING!!!! It's Rudy's r****ded @!#! that is running iso after iso, it's Rudy that's allowing Ming to only get 5 touches a game, it's Rudy that allows Moochie to hold onto the ball for 45 sec. before throwing up a prayer. The lack of organized plays are a large reason for all the turnovers. Who draws up the plays...........................you guessed it, Rudy.

That's my 2 cents.......time for my morning prozac.

 

I'm not sure who to specifically attribute this to (oeilpere, heypartner or Doc Rocket) but my understanding from their comments is that the Rockets' offense is about 3 sets and all are based upon "reads" - determining in real time what the defense is giving you and reacting to it.

Most (not all but the vast majority) of the dribble penetration by Francis and Mobley results in them trying to score over 2 or 3 defenders as oppossed to passing the ball.

I am surely NOT a Rudy apologist but IMO it's the guards making the wrong decision which is the problem. If RT's not benching them, it's secondary to the real issue - pass the ball.

 

I cannot agree with you more
You are right on buddy.

Iso Iso and Iso, no offensive flow.

LL

 

both you and cigaretteboy123 need to go over to the Batman thread and learn about read-based motion offenses and the inherent problems in getting our guards to effectively run them, and then come back and tell us what the real problem is..

all you ever do is whine..."Rudy sucks, Rudy is the anti-christ, Rudy dont know anything, Rudy is responsible for world hunger...etc etc.."
But i dont see you having a real understanding of the complexities of playing nba basketball... maybe the *real* basketball discussion in the other thread might help you understand...

 

Sorry to get you upset, RELAX.

It's a discussion forum.

LL

 

Not sure if this fits here, but I really don’t want to start another thread about the offense…

In my opinion the Rockets have NEVER in the last five years gone into a season with the same core line up and offense set they worked on in the preceding off-season. Player injury and retirement have forced the Rockets to constantly change the offense, sometimes drastically. (ie train to run a post up offense and then be forced to run a guard oriented offense during the season.) Think about this, of the present Rockets only Francis, Mobley, Norris, and Cato have had more than one consecutive combination of preseason and season. Within that time the offense was changed twice and Francis missed major parts of one season. That is the group that is most comfortable with each other, and this core group has most of its game and off season experience playing a guard oriented style with some alley oops to Cato thrown in. This group has never really had much time to develop chemistry with a post player. In the heat of the moment habit takes over and the Francis and Mobley do what they are used to doing-go one on one. It will take awhile to break that habit, probably more than one season. To complicate matters our best big player, Yao Ming, came to the Rockets without a preseason and as an unknown quantity. There was no chance to develop the necessary chemistry with the guards prior to the beginning of the season. In addition the plays that are now run for him are plays designed on the fly during the season, or borrowed from plays designed for Hakeem, or Cato.
I really believe next year was meant to be the year Yao was given more of an offensive load. I mean realistically, what coach would design a whole offense around a player that would not be in training camp, who had never played in the NBA, and who had not had a real break from basketball for two years? You expect good rebounding and defense from him for the first year, see what he can do and then the second year give him a big chunk of the offense if he’s shown he can handle it.
Another thing I see going on with is that offense is not the coach’s top priority in rebuilding this team. I think Rudy is trying to make sure that his team is a good defensive team first and I think much of his time is devoted to that. Some teams, Dallas and Sacramento built first around offense then added the defense. Other teams, San Antonio and Detroit, built defense than added offense. There is only so much time to work on one or the other. I see next year as the year that Rudy really focuses on the offense.
Lastly, I think the offense looks bad at times because of the coach. I like Rudy and generally give him the benefit of the doubt. I think firing him this season would be stupid. If he gets 40 wins or more I think firing him at the end of the season would be wrong. But, I really think he needs to pick a couple of games and just force feed Ming and bench players if they don’t. He needs to force things until the chemistry takes over Here’s the rub. If he does that we may lose a few games until it clicks. I would also like to see him set a rotation and stick with it. Decide on the starters let them play through problems as long as they’re running the plays and doing what they’re supposed to. Let the line up jell. As much of a Rudy supporter I am, I really don’t get some of his line ups.

Bottom line this team needs to be allowed to jell for a couple of years before its going to look good, but we should see improvement by the end of this season

 

Chief, I understand NBA basketball just fine. It's no secret that I don't like Rudy, never have, never will. However, I am entitled to write "Rudy sucks, Rudy killed my grandmother" as much and as often as I like. You're a senor member, I'm sure you know about ingore option.

By the way, I couldn't help but notice on your profile that you're from Baytown, I grew up there myself. Lee or Sterling. Perhaps we know some of the same people or (each other for that matter.) Feel free to send me an email.