http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=hornets-080320 pls people...I'm not arguing here. Just passing along a quote from the coach regarding the "hard" doubling of TMac. I agree he looks tired, too. We are going to continue seeing these hard doubles. Expect it. as an aside: We are so small right now until Landry comes back, it looks like Adelman doesn't want to be even smaller by using undersized SGs like Head. Landry's injury seems to be snowballing our woes. sigh <font size=1>ok, go ahead now. Make your individual tired arguments attacking or in defense of TMac. I wish some of you would let the oldtimers have a conversation by ourselves for awhile. You might learn sumpin.</font>
This is exactly what I was afraid of and I'm glad this is happening now instead of in the playoffs. At least the Rockets have some time to figure things out. One thing for sure is Rafer and Scola can't turn into bricklayers once Tracy gives up the ball. If it's happening now the playoffs could be ugly. I'm discouraged by how ill-prepared the Rockets seem to be for such an obvious tactic by the opponent.
When you have Deke, Hayes and Harris on the court it's hard to score points, isn't it. Adelman needs to give Novak and Brooks more playing time.
question for anyone: is the rockets team site no longer providing post-game new conference quotes? Is chron.com?
It's coaching staff's studying our game tapes and finding out how to stop us. They did the same when Yao was dominating. Front him and cheat behind him. Just as RickA said, they need to figure out how to be able to adjust on the fly. To me, it means you need other people to start being agressive and making plays. BobbyJ tried some, and had some success, but also had some TOs. At least he tried. We needed more of that from Rafer, Head, and Brooks. Unfortunately, both Luther and Aaron didn't play meaningful minutes. Who else does that leave us that played and can create? No one that I can think of. Deke, Luis, Hayes, Harris, etc.
cant believe im saying this but last night was the one time i missed steve francis' ability to get to the rim
Right now, the only guy who can score inside is Scola. I actually think we should play Head more when Rafer is not hitting. Since there is no big scorer available, we have no choice but to live with outside shooting. Heck, get Novak in there for a little bit, just to get the load off TMac. The game will be much easier when we start to hit the 3s. There is the defensive problem too. How do you defend big scoring men like Barnett, Boozer, and Duncan? You can't play Hayes with Mutombo in there. Just too many offensive liabilities.
tracy has to raise above the fatigue, so i'm still disappointed in that. but it's horrible how adelman is putting defense over some offense right now b/c the big men just don't finish well enough for the opponents' big men to not go hard at tracy. tracy IS giving it up, but his teammates have not finished well consistently in the last 2 games for the pressure to come off. adelman has to put novak and some shooters on the floor to spread it. that deke, hayes lineup was HORRIBLE. it's fine to have one offensive liability, but TWO
It's ironic that the same thing that was wrong with this team (minus Yao) before the streak...is the same thing that is wrong with this team after the streak. Tmac gets taken out of the game essentially with double-teams and the rest of the team can't get the ball in the basket. We had a period where those role players were hot. That period appears to be over...at least against the better teams. Now, we're back to Tmac is taken out and the Rockets offense is lost without him. I have no doubt we will make the playoffs. It may be as the 8th seed, however. But, it's hard not to look at the 22 game win streak...specifically the games without Yao...and feel that the good times ended when the streak ended. Now, we appear to be digressing back to where we were offensively any time we play without Yao. Or, the teams are now making adjustments and are well aware they need to get the ball out of Tmac's hands and let the other players beat them. Or, all these role players who were so great during the streak are cooling down and we're back to a stagnant offense. Without those other players able to step up, how far do you think we will go in the playoffs? I expect the playoff games to be more like these last two games. I hope the results differ, however.
i'm going to reserve judgement until landry returns. hayes and deke on the court at the same time for long stretches, what do you think?
Leaving Hayes or Deke or both on the court and having them pnr with Tmac is not going to work. If we go small, our opponents pound inside. It's tough.
good point YallMean This also shows how vulnerable we are to Scola's foul-proneness. Deke's adrenalin rush from replacing Yao seems to be wearing out, too. You can see it in how he's not rebounding as well. I'd also like to add that the fact Head doesn't really play PG under Adelman probably means he isn't practice that role at all, either. In this system, you have to be really sharp to learn two roles. Looks like Head is only cleared to play the corner cutter role on this team. If Adelman thinks Head makes us too small against certain teams, we can yell all we want to Adelman to get an extra 3pt shooter in there, but it's not happening. Adelman simply has too many holes to plug, and he only has one monocle to plug them up with. As PigMiller said in the "Latest on Landry" thread: "It seems strange to say that we desperately miss a rookie taken in the 2nd round...but we desperately miss this rookie that was taken in the 2nd round." --PigMiller
These problems right now just make our 22 winning streak even more impressive. We had those same problems after Yao went down and still found ways to milk 10 more wins. Adelman's done one hell of a job.
First off, Hayes and Deke should NEVA, EVA, EVA, EVA, EVA, EVA be on the court at the same time. Second, I thought Harris had some offense to his game (last night not withstanding). Lastly, I'll say it again, T-Mac needs to superstar-up and do what is expected of him. Double teams are no excuse.
Biggest mistake to put Deke Hayes and Harris. Hayes - can't make anything, he can't even finish those layups, no jumpshoot, can't even make free throw. It is said he is our best defender (if it comes to big guys) but his defense is not that good. Deke - well he's 41 so you cannot expect much from him on the offensive end. He is a good rebounder and defender but no offensive thread. Harris - he's pretty agressive, nice guy but he is useless at 3. If you give him that open jumper that's not a big mistake. Maybe he can make them but, he's not a 3. And now if you run pick'n' rolls with those yous it is just careless. Defense has to guard 2 players, not 5.
