The season in review and how to fix the Rockets

Smegg,
Thanks for chiming in. I really love the way Cat has worked on his defense to where he really tends to make the other player work for his shots.

Steve just does not seem to do the same things although we see flashes when gets back to stop a break with a spectacular block or some other similar play. With all of Steve’s athleticism and quickness I can not think of a single reason why he is not as good of a defender as Gary Payton or Alan Iverson other than it is just not as important to him as it should be. Maybe he will have a change of heart and dedicate himself to being a better defender this year after missing the play-offs by a single game.

Panda,
Actually there were some major differences when Steve and Cat were throwing the ball to Dream and Chuck. The first being that Dream and Chucks roles on the team were set, they were veterans and both Steve and Cat new that those two were options 1 and 2 and you damn well better throw them the ball or you will here about it. Dream and Chuck were the leaders on the team period not Steve (regardless of his nickname). Both Dream and Chuck had been to championship games and Dream had won two with both players as former NBA MVPs.

In contrast Yao Ming was a rookie and had proven nothing so is Steve just suppose to turn the team over to him? I think this is what Steve struggled with all year. When Yao Ming did not hit his first few shots in a game I think it was Steve or Cat that felt it was their responsibility to pick up the pace and put the scoring on their shoulders.

Another point is that teams were not allowed to play as physical against Dream or Chuck because they were established NBA veterans. If you put two arms in the back of Chuck you were either going get a foul call or find your self with one of Chucks elbows buried in your mouth.

And of course the last point is that the rules are different. The zone allows you to double a man in the post before he gets the ball, which happened to Yao Ming all year. Dream and Chuck always had an extra defender ready to switch over to them but by the rules they had to wait until the ball had been delivered. Of course that makes the entry pass a lot easier than with Yao Ming.

Having said that, Steve absolutely needs to spend a lot of time on not only his entry pass but his timing of it to make sure that Yao Ming or who ever is in the post receives it at the optimum time.

lost_elephant & StupidMoniker,
Of course TMo can play the 3, that is his natural position and he has plenty of athleticism and quickness to do it. TMo simply got caught in a numbers game this year playing behind Rice and Posey. TMo is not a high-energy guy but he does play solid defense and he rebounds the ball well plus he blocks shots. TMo is never going to be the focal point of the offense but his outside shot has improved dramatically since last year, which also showed up on the stats with his .466 f/g% for the year. And TMo was not a first round pick he was the 5th pick in the second round that we acquired from Atl for a 1st round pick that was owed to us by Detroit between 2002 and 2004 at Detroit’s choice. The pick will probably end up as a late first round pick.

GATER,
I felt that the Rockets were starting to come around. The Phoenix win was huge and it was a high-pressure game. The LAC game came against a team that clearly had our number and was hitting every outside shot they threw up that night. Most importantly though is that it appeared Rudy T had finally established a tight rotation and somewhat defined roles. Remember he had been closing games with Steve, Cat, Rice, MoT, Yao Ming and that group looked like they had some chemistry. Cato had been subbing for Yao Ming at the beginning of the 2nd and the beginning of the 4th quarters and usually played about 6-7 minutes each. When Larry Smith took over he completely changed all of that. I think he immediately scrapped the Steve, Cat, Rice, MoT, Yao Ming group that had been playing well together. He changed the substitution patterns and in my opinion the team lost a lot of the continuity that they had gained during the couple of weeks prior to Rudy T going out. I don’t think we would have finished the season on a 15 game win streak but I do think Rudy T would have been good for another win or two.

 

For the first mont of the season the guards were not doing what they wanted to...only Steve Francis started out like an MVP. Cuttino Mobley started out the season rather slow and a little dissapointing shooting only about 40% from the floor.

Steve Francis was awesome, decisive, confident and he was an offensive juggernaut. TMo, Rice, Thomas and MoT were all either hurt or suspended to start the season and Posey was not yet on the team. Cat supposedly started the season with a bad ankle so our next two offensive options were Eddie Griffin and Moochie Norris. Juaquin Hawkins was getting about 25 minutes a game and he had several starts so it was no wonder our offense was less then perfect and certainly not a thing of beauty.

Lay blame where you want but the was certain undeniable circumstances that also contributed to the bad offensive start that had nothing to do with our guards.