Anyway, I saw Yao miss boards that he should have gotten. I mean, what else can I say? And basketball doesn't work out where if you grab a rebound in one minute it means you will have 48 rebounds for the game, so stop using this kind of assinine logic. Believe it or not, there have been players to grab 3 rebound on on trip down the court! That's like 3 rebounds in a minute, I guess that is impossible since it would mean they would grab 126 rebounds in 42 minutes. Unless you have something new to say, let's stop this debate. Yao can't rebound, you say the opposite. You say I am a Yao hate, I say you are a Yao-maniac. What else is there to say? Is that better Macbeth?
Again you ignore my points. I m talking about the average number so far in the season. Not just 1 minute in 1 game. Nuff said. No more response from me in this thread.
Unfortunately only Rudy can answer this question. If you live here in Houston I suggest putting a call into Rudy on his one hour show on 610sports radio. I got in last week but once I started to as my question my stupid cell phone lost signal.
I think this is one of the best forums in a good while. A lot of good points have been made. The facts are simple. In the last 5 years, our team has made a lot of really good changes with personnel. Granted, we’ve made some mistakes with players, i.e.…..Scotty, Randy Livingston, “Pig Miller” starting Jason Collier in any game. But these things are going to happen. On thing that everyone seems to be scared to say is that perhaps the problem is not with the players, but with the coaching (or lack thereof) The mistakes that Rudy and his staff have made are inexcusable over the course of hundreds of games, not just the last one. People, Rudy is not God!!! In fact, he one of the weakest coaches in the NBA in a game situations. I speak for a lot of people when I say that our coaching issue has been going on for years!! I’m admittedly not a basketball tactician expert by any means, but I feel a group of 2 or 3 r****ds could make better coaching decisions. When we get lucky and win, everyone says that we’re gelling, and that we are payoff bound. The fact is that when we win, it is due entirely to the fact that our players, not coaching, are doing well. One could almost look at only a stat sheet to see how many points in the paint, how many assist / rebounds, and our shooting percentage to see if we won a game, and never once look at the score. I for one love the Rockets almost more than life itself, and I’ll continue to support our boys in any fashion. But we need to get rid of Rudy as our coach. We need to bring in some fresh new ideas, to match our fresh, extremely talented players. Our guys are lost out there. We basically have a 25-year-old phoneme running out team, trying to incorporate the rest of the guys by making up plays on the fly. Sometimes is works, sometimes it doesn’t. Guys, we will continue to be a .500 ball club until everyone sees that this “street ball” style of basketball is not only unprofessional, but also sad to watch. I feel that this season will be bringing a lot of the same heartaches as the last 3 years, and a lot of us will be disappointed in the outcome. Rudy should step down tonight, and Carol should fly in a group of chimpanzees from the Houston zoo to finish out the season. I wonder what Charles Jones is doing? He appeared to have an IQ of over 50. That’s my 5 cents……………. The official self-appointed President of the Rudy bashing fan club.
Rudy did make alot of mistakes, but thats what assistant coaches are for. They should of told him what every body else already seen.
nineteen, to quote you... "Rudy has never outcoached anyone for a win. Rudy is making $4M/yr! He can't fool all the people, all the time. Les is just scared of the backlash! Tolbert said Rudy had destroyed the NBA! All the 3ptrs and lack of ball movement. Rudy is the only reason for this shift. Rudy goes home and laughs at all of us!" You respect anything Tolbert has to say? Did we watch the same game?? Les is afraid of Rudy? Don't make me laugh. Oh, and there's... "Rudy's rum and coke has killed some talented Rocket teams. He has no playbook. Unorganized is an understatement! Watch the Rox after a timeout. The same play. No adjustments. The Assistant Coaches are scared to suggest something that makes sense. Watching a Rox game is like watching paint dry. Rudy has tricked folks long enough." I guess we see a different coach. If your nineteen or older, I apologize. Dreamshake, I feel your pain. Clutch summed it up pretty well in his recap... Frustration. I don't understand the way the game ended either. Time to see what happens with the Lakers. It's early in the season and Rudy has a lot of talent on the team this year, thank god. I've suggested before that the Rox add an assistant coach with some fire in his belly and some new ideas, without getting rid of the assistants we have. Like Dallas. (Man, I hate admitting I like anything Dallas is doing. Their record speaks for itself. But they didn't get there overnight. And I think we're better than they are. Potentially.)
I was as upset about Friday's game as anybody. I deleted several of my responses, because I was just too ready to rip into everything and Rudy was at the top of my list. But I am Rudy supporter. I thought Tolbert's statements were funny. Remember when the subject was brought up, the Pistons were the first team brought up before Tolbert's tirade. I bring this up because if anyone remembers the nucleus of those championship teams led the league in points scored for a couple of years (during the Showtime era) and decided that wasn't getting them anywhere. Their makeover got them 2 (should have been 3) rings. They hurt the league? Jeez... Now to Tolbert's crap. Rudy comes in as a rookie head coach after seing the regining coach of the year get fired in part because more than a few people in Houston and in the NBA thought Olajuwon was simply being wasted with the Rockets. So Rudy institutes a simple, boring offense that demands that Hakeem gets the ball, draws double and triple teams and kicks out to wide-open players and they must hit wide-open shots. The only other thing the offense did was run about 4 or 5 plays a game for OT, a former all-star. If watching Dream during those years was boring and the the 2 championships were illogical and flawed, well screw the NBA and the punk ESPN blabbermouths that are blaming everything in sight about the level of play in the NBA. By the way, Jordan won 3 championships in the famed triangle offense that allowed Jordan (and Kobe now) to go iso, iso, iso at will. So I guess what people are complaining about is 42% shooting from the 3 pt. line and winning is just indefensible. Well if it make anybody feel better I don't think we win either ring without Casell and then he and Drexler stop-and-pops from 12'. Tolbert's premise that Rudy did this does contradict what a lot of Rudy-bashers are saying - Rudy doesn't do anything, or not quickly enough. But I will say this, Rudy and apparently CD too have a definite idea of what will be successful in this relaitively new era of zone defenses. And unfortanately thus far, it does look a lot like the disgusting stuff we saw last year, but I think even the most ardent Rudy-basher has seen some flashes of what this "new offense" is supposed to be. I know a lot of theses posts are born out of justifiable frustration, and I am not saying they are uninformed or thoughtless. The Rockets are still suffering the "Crimes of Paris" (last year's bad play, stupid quotes and out-of-control play) here and also among Rocket's fans in general. I'm guilty of that too. I am still looking at this team with a jaundiced eye when things go wrong. I am still seeing some different things every game and small glimpses of what this team will be at midseason. I forgot who and in what thread commented that breaking down the tape on Friday's night game was painful, and I can only imagine - UGLEE. But I wish I'd taped now just to see past the turnovers and poor decision to see what else was happenning. I was myopic with frustration from the 3rd quarter on. Whatever else Rudy did or did not do, that final play with 6 seconds left ending up with an open E.G. 3 isn't acceptable to me at all, but Steve didn't do much with those 4.5 seconds before he kicked to Griff. either. And I think 90% of the time Steve's not going to get completely stymied in that situation. There's just a lot of blame to be distributed on that play. Well bad game, few bright spots and I know that the guys who think Rudy should go aren't going to come off it because they still aren't going to like where Rudy wants this offense to go. But honestly, I think he's determined to go with Steve and Cat's strengths with some adjustments and improved play from everyone. I do think if Les decides Rudy should go I think it will be decided that Steve and Cat can't be reached. Most likely Cat would be traded and Steve moved to the 2. I think this season will point to where Steve, Cat and Rudy are going. But I do say they all deserve this year to see where we're heading. Seven games into the season, we don't know anything yet. So God bless us everyone. Until tip-off tonight when I'm glued to my seat I find myself just wishing 10 games would pass, so I could get a feel for this team this year. But who am I kidding, I'm not going to miss any of this, but a lot of "this" is just going to be painful. I am just not down on anybody yet, but I know that will change.
Actually I have to strongly disagree with this. Rudy not only outcoached someone for a win, he's outcoached one of the 'great' coaches when it counted most. '94 Finals games 6&7 Rudy completely outcoached Pat Riley. Bryce Drew's rookie year against the Lakers Rudy also outcoached Mr. star team Zen coach, himself. I have the tape of the game, and even the NBC commentators are talking about it.
Dreamshake, You bring the truth......good job buddy.....was kinda curious if anyone had the guts to say it. Much props for ya.
The only thing I agree with from the original post is that Taylor should have been in instead of KT (NOT instead of Griff), the rest is crap, but I'm confident Rudy had something in mind, and it didn't work. I'm pretty sure he knows the game better than any of us...
I agree with you to a point. However, this was only Mo's second game and he had played a long stretch of mins in the 2nd half. When they took him out, I had no problem because I assume Mo was just out of gas.
Um, that's great, but how does that make him a good coach. I mean, if every time I screwed up at work I told the boss I had something in mind but it just didn't work (even if it was because other people I was counting ont o put my plan into action didn;t come through), I wouldn't have a job for very long.
You can disagree all you want rocketguy. But ponder this: At what point should of Ming stayed in the game the other night? Lets ponder.......What if Ming would of had ummmmmm 15 mins in those 14 minutes? Still shouldnt play the last 35 percent of the game? How about if he would of had 25 points at that point. Should he still of sat for the last half of the third and all of the 4th? You tell me at what point Ming deserved to of played in this game? Ming had been struggling with confindence, and getting in the flow offensively and defensively. So in the game he starts to build a bit of confindence, you sit him to make him wonder.....why? Ming had what 3 times the dunks of all the Rox players combined? Who else was being a presence in the POST? My feeling was that Rudy had pre planned Mings minutes and didn't sway from it even when Ming was playing well, which is rediculously stupid. And if you disagree with "Small Ball Sux" Id wonder if your even watching the games at all. Instead of throwing the ol' security blanket on of "Rudy knows whats going on", try actually watching the small ball lineup and how pathetically worthless it is. Sometimes it works for certain teams, because they use small ball to out run, out hustle larger and slower opponents. Are the Rox a Fastbreaking team at all? How's their transition D? SMALL BALL is worthless for the Rox. Wow...you agree that Colliers 6 minutes at the beginning of the game are warranted. Nuff said.
Jlb, Do you see what I mean? Rudy is very lucky! You had your pointed questions ready and 2 seconds before you are on the air, Zap!? Better luck next time and don't spare the rod with Rudy!
Deck, It's not my aim to argue points with anyone. Thank you for your graciousness. We can agree to disagree. I try to include some facts with logical reasoning. Posters love CC because we love the Rockets to death. I didn't list the things that I have done or the people that I know. I have a unique perspective and have seen some of these things up close and personal. I know Rudy's public image, but I hear what is said by players and other coaches in the L. We all want the Rox to win another ring. Some of us on this thread just don't think that Rudy is the man to lead "his deepest team ever". There was a good article in the Chron about Les not being in the 'Good Ol Boys Club' in Houston. The fear with Les lies with the media and power brokers in our city. If Rudy and CD are let go, Les will be raked over the coals. I've stated before, Asst. Bill Berry is in Chicago. Rudy only hires guys with less experience. He couldn't handle an asst. that actually has former NBA experience. He would receive the same knife that Chaney got in his back.
JayZ, Great analogy! Common sense is not common. Declan, very insightful post. I think we would all love for the Rox to go 82-0! Every year! Fixing what is broke is mandatory.
The difference is that Rudy is not screwing up at his job. His boss is intelligent enough to know that rebuilding efforts take time. Throw a bunch of very young players together, and there will be a growth process that includes trial and error. Now, I imagine that Les has seriously considered hiring some omniscient experts from a BBS .... .... but I expect him to stick with one of the 3 coaches to have won a championship in the last 12 years.
That remains to be seen. Professional athletics is a unique industry where, for coaches especially, it is often hard to tell whether or not one is doing a good job. Sometimes coaches get the benefit of the doubt for a number of years whereas in another industry that person would have been let go a long time ago. On the other hand, there are numerous coaches who are put in bad situations and become scapegoats, and even though tehy may be doing a good job, they get canned anyway (although this, too, happens in real life). I don't consider myself an expert, but I don't think its a stretch to argue that if I, or any other intelligent poster on this BBS, was the coach of the Grizzlies for the last 3 years, we could have done as good a job as Sidney Lowe - at least in terms of the Grizzlies record.
I admit I barely read any of this thread, but I'm responding anyway. Apologies. There is always room for improvement. And I have been a critic of Rudy's before, especially with regard to substitutions (my pet peeve is when the starting lineup sucks it up, the bench rallies to get us back in the 2nd and then they don't make it back til halfway through the 4th when the game's out of reach). But it's really weird how such a young team improves so much, has only three losses (two of them by one point), ranks in the top five or six West teams in most power rankings and continues to get bashed on its own fan site. I'm not opposed to criticism when it's warranted. I'll be the first to chime in. But is this really the time for it? The Rockets look better with each game. In most games they've had inspired third quarters (used to be a big problem) and their defense is markedly improved. Of course it's going to take a while for them to get used to the new offensive sets. They're working in three rookies, getting three potential starters back from serious injuries and they've players playing positions they're not practiced in. And they're still 5-3 with two losses that would have changed with made free throws. If there was ever a time to give Rudy the benefit of the doubt, it's now. I feel better about him than I have since 95-96. There's no one available I'd rather have as coach and I'm pretty sure the players feel the same. How bout saving some of the criticism for when things are actually going wrong?
