....people will always complain. For years, a large majority of people here were dogging Rudy and the team for still using the post game. "Give it to the guards!" they would say. Now here we are, barely a year later and there are a large majority of people dogging Rudy and the team for having a guard-oriented offense. I mean, come on people. This team is still young. We have no inside presence. What the hell do you want?! Giving the ball to Steve or Cuttino translates into a 60% chance of scoring. (The last time I checked, at least.) Just like when you all were b****ing about Charles backing it in, backing it in. That too resulted in a better-than-50% chance of scoring. Seems to me that you take your points where you can get them. I understand the need for a complete game but we aren't there yet. We have no healthy big men. When they are healthy, they are nowhere near as successful as our guards when it comes to scoring. Are some of you mad because Rudy proved you wrong by showing that he could change his offesnsive scheme? Was it that he managed to completely change the team in mid-December last year and had mild success with it? Or is it that you just have to b**** about something and this was all you could come up with? Just curious. I'm down with all of the one-on-one play. Not only because it's fun but because it's currently working. Until someone finds a way to stop us from scoring then I say we stick with what works. When Hakeem and Cato prove that they can do something effective then they will start seeing the ball. Then we will have a more-rounded game. Until then, you go with what works. I forgot to ask: What is your solution? If you are sick of seeing the successful one-on-one play, what do you suggest we do, and why? HeyP, Maybe you can back me up with some stats proving the success of our guardplay. ------------------
I couldn't agree more! For YEARS people wanted to the post up game scrapped because it didn't get ESPN highlights! Then Rudy used a run-and-gun offense and people said it was directionless an complained about it. Now Houston runs a ISO and people are complaining about that! In fact, the ironic thing is, people are complaining that the Rockets AREN'T running enough, and are wondering why Cat and Francis aren't dumping it in to Hakeem for a post up play! People are never going to be satisfied no matter what Rudy and Co. do! ------------------ Rocket fans UNITE to bring Pig Miller back home! WE NEED PIG! OINK! OINK! OINK!
SpaceCity, my main gripe is that fans have no patience, and it seems we are quick to pigeon-hole this team to be one thing or another. Rudy has a quote to totally refute that pigeon-holing, saying we are not "a lot of this and none of that." The coach is trying to win games, and he does not believe it wholesale changes with such a young team. He believes in incremental changes. This team is steadily changing. It takes quite awhile to implement a 2-man game that is more successful than our ISOs...we have now. And it takes quite a bit of time to implement player motion more successful than our 2-man game. But, we are showing glimpses in the 1st Q of trying just that. Patience pays...and Rudy is doing an excellent job teaching patience. Too bad Dream has none. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited January 23, 2001).]
Just when I thought we were moving away from the Hakeem discussion and into solid, "Game Action" talk. I'll be looking for the P&R tonight, HeyP. Maybe even players moving without the ball! I can always dream. In the meantime, I'll take anything that translates into a W. ------------------ I am Jack's utter lack of surprise. www.clutchtown.com [This message has been edited by SamCassell (edited January 23, 2001).]
This is Game Action talk. I can show you some of my threads in pre-season stating how I wasn't convinced Hakeem could play in a new system. Unfortunately, that is coming true, and I believe a great deal of that is Hakeem doesn't want to feel lost out there. Complicated offenses do not suit Hakeem. Imagine the practice sessions. If you are a coach and want to teach a new system over time, your practices will be intense with new things to learn every day, incremental learning. Unlike football which is the best example of incremental learning every season, after pre-season NBA teams don't have steady periods of no games to teach new things. Players will not get the practice reps they need for a few months when they have 3 games a week. That is why I believe Rudy stuck with ISO so much in the first 2 months, because the 2-man game wasn't ready, yet. And I'm confident motion offense is much more difficult to succeed with without far more reps. Imagine Bobby Knight, who is the inventor of modern motion offense, clearing out all his upper classmen and starting a season with 12 new faces, an PG who has never played PG before, and only 3 weeks of pre-season. Even Bobby won't get them running Motion for quite awhile. College ball has the luxury of an existing system with 3-5 new recruits each year specifically picked to fit with your system. Those recruits get 2 years of practice and bench time before Knight would make most of them starters. Rudy doesn't have that luxury. bottomline: if Francis can become a great floor general to run motion, it will take him and the team 1-2 yrs to implement it, at earliest, imo. Our PG did not get any college playing time running motion. Mobley didn't get any practice in college, either. Add to that that Rudy prefers incremental changes before unseating the simple offenses like ISO, and it makes perfect sense to me that this system change is moving slowly, but deliberately. I'm happy we did not attempt wholesale changes. I think we are way ahead of schedule, while remaining highly competitive.
In addition to what heypartner said, we are 20-20 without big men in a hard division, in a killer conference with multiple premiere big men, with us sustaining many injuries, 2 long dry spells from Shandon and Walt, Steve at 90% a lot of the season because of the ankle, and at least one minor disruption in chemestry (Dream - but no I am not bashing him). Yeah, I'd say we are doing pretty well. Better than I originally anticipated. Hell, even if we were under .500, it would be understandable. I am grateul to have fellow posters such as SpaceCity and heypartner - who can keep a level head and illustrate to bandwagon hoppers and naysayers how true fans should be. Cheers. ------------------ EZLN
One more thing to add... The biggest negative to this year has been that, because of the improvement, there have been a lot more "nailbiters" this year -- bringing me back to the days of great physical pain while watching a last minute victory or loss. last year was great because they were going to lose most of the time - so I could just sit back and watch them play. Now that the games have meaning...ugh! ------------------ EZLN
Rudy's offense is the same, whether it's the center or the guards that have the ball. the key to the Rudy T offense is one person with the ball and the rest of the team standing around and watching. All those complaints you listed were people not correctly diagnosing the phenomina that bothered them; we do the same freaking thing every freaking time in the fourth and it sucks to watch, even when it works. Charles, Dream, Cuttino, Moochie...all one guy with the rock and everybody else talking with the cheerleaders. ------------------
Heypartner, Would you mind giving me a little lesson on how the motion offense works? I think I know, but I'm not sure. Does it involve everyone moving around at the same time or does it depend on the play as to which player or players are moving? While I enjoyed the dump it into Dream game that we used to use (because we were winning with it), it did get a little boring. That's why I enjoyed Brent Price so much. He was always moving from one side of the floor to the other. I assumed he was looking for an open lane to receive a pass in or he was very confused as to where he was supposed to be. It's a shame he was related to Cato (injury wise). ------------------
