INDEED. I noticed that. It's horrible to watch the Rockets when they can't score. And it's pretty easy to stop the Rockets. It's sad. If you watch other games...both teams have beautiful offense with a lot of ball movement and shooting and penetration. SIMPLE STUFF. VERY SIMPLE STUFF. Easy fundamental stuff. Nothing tough. But what we do...God. We run around and around and just try to force stuff. Some days...it works and people make shots. But man...it's pretty sad. We don't get many things easy. We have barely any movement. Rockets just stand and watch someone ISO... Well chico...no se!
Don Nelson an "A"!?!?!? How are the Mavs any better than from the last couple years? They have the same weaknesses.
Rudy Tomjanovich, Houston -- Grade: D+ Rudy T's current bout with cancer is an unfortunate reminder that bad things happen to good people. Everybody's prayers and good wishes are with him. However, when judged strictly by the Rockets' record as measured against the quality of their roster, Tomjanovic barely earns a passing grade. Never known for his mastery of the coaches' meager alphabet of Xs and Os, Tomjanovich has always been more of an inspirational leader. Trouble is that too many of his players (most notably Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Glen Rice and Moochie Norris) refuse to be inspired by any belief system that requires them to pass instead of shoot. Nor have Houston's offensive schemes been designed to fully utilize the unique talents of Yao Ming. every commentator and writer knows that rockers have not fully utilized yao ming
Right where they should be...that's your position, right? 5) Name the WC playoff Centers other than Shaq and Vlade who have more talent than Yao Ming. Nesterovic? Ostertag? Tsakalidis? Bradley/LaFrentz? Davis/Sabonis? Robinson/Willis? I'll give you Robinson and LaFrentz but I'll take Yao/Cato over Davis/Sabonis on talent. That means that the Rox rookie center is no worse than the 5th or 6th best WC Center. And Yao's numbers are supported by Cato who is leading the league in rebs/48 min. 4) Name the WC PF comination which has more talent than the Griffin/Taylor combination. Webber, Duncan, Malone & Rasheed/Randolph...no argument..clearly better. The rest: Joe Smith/KG @ 50%? A.Stoudamire/Gugliotta? Najera 6.9 ppg / LaFrentz @ 50% (9 ppg)? S.Walker/Madsen? Please bear in mind that Garnett and LaFrentz only play PF less than half the time they are on the court. And Robert Horry who never shows up until the playoffs is having his worst season ever. Here's the combined line for Griffin/Taylor: 17.1 ppg / 3.2 ORebs / 6.4 DRebs / 9.6 TRebs / 2.1 apg / 3.4 blocks Talent wise, where do you put Griffin and Taylor? From a sheer stats standpoint, they are equal to any of the second tier group. IMO, they are better talent wise than at least half of that group. IOW, the combined talents of the Rox PF's is no less the 6th in the WC. 3) Let's compare James Posey to the WC playoff SF's. Bowen = JP Nowitski > JP Stojakovic > JP KG > JP Fox < JP Harpring = JP Marion > JP Pippen = JP IMO, Posey has more talent than Fox, has as much as Pippen at this stage in his career, and is at least as good as one of either Bowen or Harpring...both of whom are products of their systems. So on a worst case scenario, the Rockets have at least the 6th or 7th most talented WC SF. 2) Cuttino Mobley compared to WC playoff SG's. Finley/NVE > Cat Christie/Jackson > Cat Manu/Smith = Cat Wally Z = Cat Kobe > Cat Wells/Patterson = Cat Cheaney/Kirilenko > Cat Penny = Cat Clearly Cuttino lags behind Kobe, Finley, and Christie. IMO, Cuttino is no worse than equal to Penny talent wise and conceivably more talented than Wally Z, Manu & S.Smith, & Bonzi/Patterson. I'll use the worst case. Cat is as good as the SG for the 8th seed in the WC. 1) Steve Francis compared to WC playoff PG's. Nash/NVE > SF Bibby/Jackson > SF Parker = SF Peeler/Hudson = SF Fisher < SF D.Stoudamire = SF Stockton/Jackson > SF Marbury = SF Clearly, Francis is not in the category of 3 sets of this group. So on a best case scenario, Francis is as talented as at least 5 WC PG's. On a worst case scenario, Steve is no less talented than Peeler/Hudson, Fisher, and Stoudamire making him at least the 6th best PG in the WC. Recap: * The 6th most talented Center * The 6th most talented PF combination * The 7th most talented SF * The 8th most talented SG * The 6th most talented PG This "team" finished in 9th place. IOW, the sum of the whole is less than the sum of the parts...anti-synergy. If that's not a coaching issue, I don't know what is.
The problem is EXACTLY the makeup of the team. As the above poster (Gater) pointed out, our INDIVDUAL talent is probably greater than those other playoffs team but as a TEAM, we failed. We have too many players in our team who think they are the stars and want to shoot the ball instead of playing D and doing the dirty work. Our supposed playmaker is someone who likes to shoot more than making his teammates better. The MAKEUP of this team is totally wrong. And the SYSTEM (or lack of it) which didn't blend those talent together didn't help much either.
My sentiments exactly. It's ironic how sometimes a team can be overstocked with talent and yet underachieve as a team. We've seen it before folks. Portland. Washington. Milwaukee. The list goes on and on. So what's the key ingredient??? TEAM CHEMISTRY Some organizations have a great eye for team chemistry. The folks in LA (though I hate to admit it) had great vision in grabbing Shaq and assembling the Kobe and Shaq combo. Moreover, they got Horry, Fisher, Fox, and all these other very good "pieces of the puzzle" to cover shooting, passing, defense, rebounding, etc. The only piece they had a bit of trouble filling was the 4 spot in rebounding. They juggled Grant for a while and even today, they're a little soft there, but you get the picture. I'd personally like to see the Rox evolve more into some Lakeresque. Though I'm not claiming Francis is a Kobe and Yao is a Shaq, for anyone who's seen Francis and Yao play off each other, there is definitely tandem synergy here. What can we say about the other pairings? Let's see, shall we? 1. Yao and EG - absolutely no synergy whatsover. Sure sometimes we get the "joint" block but other than that, we have no enforcer synergy with EG 2. Cat and Francis? Well I'll let all of you be the judge of that 3. Posey and anybody? I think this guy is gone after this season I share Newgirl's sentiments that the Rox need to grow more disciplined and become a more SYSTEM oriented team. Look at all the elite teams in the league vs. the marginal teams. Quite frankly, our rag tag group of talents are more akin to the Warriors than anyone, IMO. The Warriors play with little to no system. Look at the top echelon and you'll see VERY DISCIPLINED play. The Rox need to find that for themselves. theSAGE
Sorry Sage, but the Rockets players will never be able to "find that for themselves". It's been 4 years already. Still...yeah...patience. They need a coach to help them and guide them.
You are right that every elite team has a system. Kings- Motion offense which emphasis on passing Lakers- Triangle (inside-outside with Shaq and shooters) Spurs- High-low with Duncan and Robinson + Parker pushing the ball Mavs- Fast paced jumping shooting Rockets- Isolation? But I doubt that they will be able to find that for themselves as they were not able to do that for 4 straight years. Mind you Lakers didn't have a system either before Phil Jackson joined them.
Back in pre-season, I remember RudyT talking about "motion offense." Was the Sac offense what we were aspiring for??? b/c if that's true, then we're a bit off the mark. Also, does any other coach know how to implement the triangle other than Phil? Perhaps that's what we need if we orient our offense to Yao next year. Jeff Van Gundy would know what to do. He's a real basketball sage if I ever did know one! theSAGE
Rudy has never adjusted his game to make the team more effecient. When Rudy has a problem, he doesn't blame his system, he just trades them.. In the early 90's when after the first ring, the offense got really,really stagnant because Hakeem was going off, but the role players were sucking. Instead of moving players around and adding a little motion or backside action, he traded and got a hungry Clyde Drexler. The story goes like a storybook and we know what happened. Although that team won, we still had a problem with Seattle because of their atheletes and trapping defense. From the game 6 win in Houston, the rockets lost game 7 of that series,4 straight losses in 94,95,96 regular season and was swept in 96 in the playoffs. Basically the lost 17 straight games because of Rudy's stubborness to move players and take hakeem off the same left blks. Instead of adjusting, what did he do, he traded for a hungry Charles Barkley. Of course we beat Seattle in 97, but then we started to lose to Utah and the run was over after the 98 season loss to La. Now we start over with Francis in 99 and eventhough he played hard, he played out of control a little, but he had no choice. 99 led us back to the lotto, but even more significant was that at running the pg, francis really didn't show improvement in decision making. 2000, the team won 45 games using iso even though his to's started to get worse instead of better. After that season, the rules committee came up with the new rules and indirectly were aimed at the 1 on 1 ball of the rockets and many players. The staff had an entire summer to either install a new system or get players that would play well in a new moving type system. What Rudy did was blame injuries and youth on not being able to install this system. Once again, Francis poor pg leadership gets worse, but is ignored. Once again , the Rockets are headed to the lotto. Fast forward to this yr after the rockets are gift wrapped the most talented big man to come along since Duncan in 97. A combonation of size and skill to go along with a good passing and shooting touch. Not only that, they get a player in Nachbar who is suppose to be one of the most nba ready players from europe. A player good enough to keep another high draft pick (nickloz) on the bench in europe. Even though he Ming didn't come to the team until right before the season, what better time to install a new offense. This new 5 man offense was suppose to be better and give players chances at mis range shots and everything. That 5 man offense looked good early on, but i haven't seen it since December. To make a long story short, Rudy has did well in his time in houston with the rockets, but this isn't a supreme court judgeship. Pat Riley left LA after 8yrs and 4 rings. Jackson left the bulls after 9 yrs and 6 rings. It may be time for Rudy to go and some of the players. After tonights Suns win against warriors, the Rockets are 1 loss away from lotto land without a lotto pick. This team is moving into a new venue next season and not only that, the playoffs will be even harder o make with the Hornets moving into the midwest division. His run was good, but now it may be time to move on. His coaching has been below avg, and his replacement, Larry Smith has been just as bad. This team will continue to make mistakes and lose with Rudy at the helm. Its just time to move.
Jimmmy Cleamons, Phils right hand man. He coached for 1/2 a season in dallas because he didn't take no stuff from Jackson,Kidd,and Mashburn. Once the new ownership came in and brought Nelson, he was shown the door. I would like to see him given a new chance with the rockets.
Your analysis is damn correct. Rudy's inability to counter the zone especially pisses me off no end. You would hear that he said that we had difficulty in entry passes to Hakeem or Yao because of the zone. While you saw a coach like Saunders would just adjust by giving KG the ball in other areas on the floor. Every PG overachieved for Saunders as well. It said a lot about a good coach's X's and O's ability and his great offensive system. It's really sad to see someone like Hudson run an offense better than Francis.
Newgirl, you missed my point. I am asking whether our dysfunctional offense is a result of Rudy's terrible system, or if it is a result of dumb players who can't even execute a pick and roll or a 3 on 1 fast break. In my opinion, it's the latter. Rudy is not great at X's and O's, but he's not that bad. Steve Francis really is that bad of a point guard though. Truly clueless. And so is Mobley. I can see it on the court every day. And I have seen Rudy's offense work in the past. When the ball moves around it works pretty well. And my point about other offenses is that they aren't very complicated either, but they have players who execute. Have you watched Dallas and Detroit often? They run several isos.
Unfortunately, Rudy T is not a good teacher of the game. He had tremendous amount of success early in his career because his "hands off" approach worked perfectly with vets like Dream, Kenny, Maxwell, OT, Drexler, Barkley, Elie, etc. We had two rookies, Horry and Cassell both of whom were hard nosed players who later struggled on other teams without seasoned vets. They knew their roles and knew to defer to the big dogs. The "hands off" approach is the absolute WORST way to coach the current Rockets team. Here we have a team full of talented but young players, who are DYING for some coaching. Rather, 1. Eddie Griffin has shown little or no progress, and has proven almost an offensive liability. He plays like a total p***y at times. 2. Maurice Taylor has been given every chance to succeed, but instead has too many 5 pt, 2 rebound nights. Gets lost in the shuffle way too often. 3. James Posey has turned into another Scottie Pippen experiment. turning a slasher in as a 3pt specialist. The guy has balls, but he's being asked to do things that are not his strengths. 4. I'm not even going to start on our backcourt or Yao.... You look up and down our roster, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be leading the league in points per game. Then you watch this freak show they put on the floor every night. The ugliest, most pitiful attempt at teamwork ever displayed. Teammates total distrust in one another, resulting in individual basketball, the likes of which we've seen for the last 4 years. Instead of running a fast paced run and gun offense, we run the lamest half-court set in the NBA, and for some reason we seem to be the only team incapable of executing a simple pick-and-roll play. This ship is sinking fast, and Rudy Tomjanovich is the captain. He is responsible hiring idiots like Jim Boylen and Mike Wells as assistants, guys I wouldn't even trust coaching the Boys 7th grade "B" team at Sugar Land Middle School. Until Rudy is replaced, it doesn't get any better. This team is light years behind the likes of the Kings, Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, and Wolves.
Steve did look good in the all star game. I really do believe the coaches are the blame for the rockets failures. The talent is here, its just not being utilize correctly. I guarantee if you trade away griffin, francis, or mobley, they are going to excel somewhere else.
Just on that earlier post.. thats one game i've seen a few times.. and i believe steve thinks that he had loads of talent in the west side to finish off the plays but when it comes to houston he doesn't feel the same way
The guy who started the Petition to Let Rudy Go was hammered pretty hard by some people at that time. Sorry I am not able to search previous posts and forget his name. Just want to say you indeed have some foresight.
