Good post, Nike I understand you're primarily challenging Crispee with the question about Assists, but I would like to point out that the four teams you mentioned also have point guards in the top 6 in apg. I thought maybe higher team FG% might affect that, but only Minnesota has a high FG% (#1 at 47%); the other teams are closer to the middle in the league, New Jersey the lowest at 43%. So their point guards are very effective. Who between Steve and Mooch is better at ratcheting assists? It's probably not significant, but Mooch has a better assists-per-48 minute rate (8.84) than Steve (8.08). How much of this is a function of the different ways they attack defenses, and how much of this is just better passing skills, or better PG skills, however you define those?
<B>What I think is missing from the argument is much of what you said. We are suffering (no excuses intended) from a lack of practice time, a lack of healthy players, a lack of experience and a lack of patience. I think that the Rockets' biggest mistakes are based on these problems. They are hurt, they haven't practiced, they are young and they are learning to be patient. Those things take time to fix. </B> You can make this argument when referring to players like Griffin and Morris and such. However, some of the biggest mistakes are coming from the most experienced player (in our system): Mobley. I'm not going to go into details about our offense -- I don't know enough about the X's and O's and, to be honest, don't really care. All I know is that, compared to EVERY team we face (young, old, injured, healthy) we end up taking a LOT of crappy shots. We end up dribbling for 20 seconds. We end up watching players stand for a while staring at the basket and then just shoot a whack shot. We prefer to slowly dribble the ball up court instead of passing it. We like to wait until the defense is set before starting our offense. These kinds of things are not things that must be learned specific to the Rockets offense -- these are extremely basic things like "pass to the open man" or "raise the tempo". There's no reason that, nearly 20 games after the Francis injury, we should still be doing these things, practice time or not. Maybe in game 12 or 13 of our losing streak, we'd have decided "hey, this dribbling in circles, slow-tempo stuff isn't working, can't hurt to try something new even if we haven't practiced it too much"? Making adjustments is great, but taking a month to make small changes is a bit silly. I like Rudy and I don't blame him for the losing. However, I do think he shoulders the responsibility for not getting on players for doing some of the stupid crap mentioned above. [NOTE: The last game I got to watch was the last game in the losing streak. Maybe (hopefully) we've made significant improvements since then, but I haven't gotten to see it yet.]
Cato13, I do not envy you taking on Lakers fans. So, do you have tickets this year? Or that is utter lack of respect for the rest of the team that night. lol Why do we always have to come back to comparisons to other teams. "What if" we ran New Jersey's offense. *sigh* Surely we can all see the difference between Cato/Willis and Indiana's scoring frontline, or the difference between what Garnett brings to the high post pivot, or how Kidd/Stockton can run a team without a coach...and please lets not make this another Sloan has a great passing game tangent again. Let me ask you a question NIKE: If there are better looking girls than your girlfriend, do you envy those other guys, or do you only talk about the full glory of what you have. I don't want to talk about other girls, or what we will look like with a complete face lift ... a "future trademark." Sometimes I feel like the bbs envies better looks and seems to want to tell anyone who talks about our glory that we are naive Rudy lovers and point out what's better looking in the world. Uh, we know there are other girls...fancy ones even. We even know what they look like and feel like, and we lust after them just like anyone. But they are not our girl. I like describing our playbook, because it is ours. I don't need anyone describing other playbooks as a critique of ours, as if I don't know how they are better. This thread is a player quote glorification of our playbook, and some want to still show us a picture of Jerry Sloan for the upteenth time. I wish we could talk within the limits of our own playbook sometimes without someone telling me we are anemic looking.
crispee-You're misunderstanding my question. I could care less why their offenses run better than ours, what I wonder is why ours runs so inefficiently? Surely injuries play a part in this, but can't be the sole reason. Will Griffin's development help it run smoother, assuming he becomes what we all hope he becomes? The grand question is: Why isn't our playbook currently effective? A terrible Assist/Turnover Ratio and a a low FG% would indicate that to be the case. Why can't we admire a shirt we see on someone else, that would look good on our girlfriend? Anyhow, Rudy usually previews a play during a game to see how effective it will be. For instance, in the Lakers game, after we were blown out, Rudy ran a play designed to get Oscar the ball on the left elbow, and went to it 3 times in a row. Could that be a play designed to see how effective it could be to get Cuttino the ball in that position? I think so. I'll try to get the convo back on track. Walt mentioned how when Moochie is the PG, the ball gets to the weakside more often. I'm wondering if that will change at all when Francis takes back the helm. Is that even necessarily a good thing? The one main difference with our offense with Steve out was how Cuttino used to stay on the weakside and rain 3s when the weakside started to go to help, but now has gotten a taste of being option #1.
Yeah i guess Kobe's D had nothing to do with his 2-17 shooting? He did not get the same shots as he did against GSW mainly because they don't have a player that can as good defense as Kobe. All that double and triple teaming that people on this board imagined they saw was false. I guess the double and triple teamed him the game before when Kobe shut him down too. Guess what, if you are getting all this attention like people are claiming he got, I look up and Kobe had 11 asst. passing the ball is ok to do if that is happening which clearly wasn't. Kobe basically bodied him up and made him shoot over a longer athletically more gifted defender. All these layups and short shots were highly contested unlike when Cat played against the Micheal Redds and Jason Richardson and Bob Sura's of the game today. Kobe playing D with no Shaq should have been an invite to the basket, instead we didn't defend and shot a lot of jumpers which is normal for this team.
OK, I never saw Horry slide over repeatedly to double team Mobley, and neither did NIKE or Cato13 We are not making excuses for damn Mobley not making any shots. We are however saying that the Lakers played a "red" defense. Do you want to stay on topic, or are you just intent on repeating that Mobley sucked for having a terrible shooting night. The Lakers double team Mobley.
Nike and Major, thats exactly what I'm talking about. Injuries, youth or whatever the problem, this team doesn't do basic basketball stuff. Besides the passing, watch how many times Rudy calls a play. Watch how many times they walk into the offense instaed of running. Watch how many times after a rebound, the guard comes back and basically takes a handoff. Watch how many times that same guard never goes down the middle of the floor. I could go on and on, but this is basic pop warner ,summer league stuff. Notice when other teams really want to cause Rockets problems, they will send their guards full court, then watch how long it takes us to get the ball up the court. I like what Nike said that if you see something nice on another woman, you night envision your woman with the same thing on. It would be nice to run a zone press since it is legal now. The defender can be in the paint until the ball crosses half court. It would be nice to start the offense with a pass to the top of the key, run some baseline action and get something good early. With all the excuses people use on this board about why our offense isn't clicking because we're so young, here's one that kills that argument. THE LA CLIPPERS! Show me a team that's younger. Show me how they can run an effective offense, and fast break offense, lead the league in to's, and still have an effective offense when probably their best player avg 12 pts per game? Youth is not acceptable because this team played with out Odom for about 9 games, they have Miles,Brand, Meggette,Q, Brand and Odom all of whom haven't made their 23rd birthday yet. Yet they get dunks, layups,post up, 3's whatever with their youth. They defend and they run something this team should do. They play with Rudy's most famous words ,"high energy." With the youth of this team, we should always have the same energy that they have, but for some reson we don't.
leebigez, I hear the Clippers a wonderful bandwagon. Do you need directions, or can you find it yourself?
Crispee, I know what you're saying, but the way the Lakers played Cat is the same way teams have been playing the Rockets the whole yr. The new term "red" that people want to use on this board was used in just about every game this year. Not to try to prove my point or anything, but from the jr high level the coach teaches you that if your man leaves you , go to the goal, simple as that. If Horry was leaving Griffin to go nd play the side of the lane, then why didn't he go to the goal and Mobley pass the ball? If it was so easy to give help and maintain the defensive structure, wh didn't we do the same thing and they were missing Shaq? Its b/c they have movement and we don't. Almost everytime Kobe got it in the post and we doubled, they would have a little backside movement and get a uncontested shot. Basic basketball.
Behad, I've watched the Rockets play since about 79. I'm probably one of the most loyal fans, but I'm a student of the game. When I see the Clippers , Mavs, Bucks, and other "young teams" play i just wish our team was filled with those kind of players. Yes they, the Clippers have been sorry for a while, and maybe Sterling will find a way to mess the team up, but its no denying that even healthy, we don't have near the talent they have. Its not just having the lack of talent, its putting the talent you have to use. I'm not on their bandwagon, but I watch more basketball than you could dream of and they are one of the teams I enjoy watching. Its not just the dunking because thats just two points, its the overrall effort in which they play with. I see a guy like Earl boyking come in and constantly pushes the ball up the court. I see the backdoor ally's to Magette, Miles, and Q, then I look up and see Q hitting a 3, to which he is shooting at 46%. I see a team playing man to man d the entire game and limiting opponets to .415 fg%. I plenty of variables with this team that I could see our team doing just by giving the effort. I think envy is more but its so frustrating watching this team billed as young and exciting and they come out on some games,( det,chi,van), and act like they are defending world champions and have nothing to worry about. I know its a long season and the road is never kind, but i haven't really seen the clippers get blown out but maybe a couple of times . Sometimes the Rockets stroll out, walk the ball shoot 3's and act like they don't give a s**t until 5 min left in the 4th qt. Its not a bandwagon, its just trying watch this sport they call entertainment, something the rockets don't do ,plus we lose.
<b>leebigez, I hear the Clippers a wonderful bandwagon. Do you need directions, or can you find it yourself?</B> Why is it that anytime someone actually questions the team, people post dumbass replies like this? Maybe it's a foreign concept to you, but some fans actually like to discuss a team's strengths AND WEAKNESSES.
leebigez, The Rockets haven't even been positioning Mobley on the elbow all year, so I don't see how you can say all teams have been playing him this way. Not by a long shot, certainly not the 4 games before that. I first started seeing this about 2 or 3 games when he came off the injured list for the 3 game spell. There are different types of double teams; we are just using a term used by Boylen in this thread. No one has ever used "red" before now. Oh, also, did your HS coach ever teach you rotation defense? you know, "basic basketball." Horry slides over because he is out front, and then the next guy slides over and so on. Just because Horry leaves his mean doesn't man his man remains uncovered, much less have an open lane to the basket. Actually twice Mobley passed out of the double team and cut to the hole for pass backs (as Horry left to switch back to his man, Mobley w/o the ball was able to shield Kobe out of the lane since Kobe was in a doubling position on the wing side of Cat)...once for a foul and once for an unsuccessful layup. The Rockets were moving off that double, and they were actually bringing some picks for the pnr despite the double, to get Mobley to his left. But Mobley shot like crap. The point is that "red" against Mobley's new positioning at the elbow is relatively new. Not to say it is a new defense, just new against our adjustment. This defense should not be able to sustain itself. We should be able to kill it in the new positioning, better than from the wing like last year. This is my joy of watching basketball. Arguing that Mobley sucked against the Lakers, or Kobe's overrated or whatnot...gets old. What did the defense do (they went "red") and what did we do in response. We can only thank Feigen for asking the questions of Boylen and Walt and Rudy, etc., so that we have confirmation of what to look for. I enjoy basketball more when I have insight to the "playbook," rather than making educated guesses based on viewing tape. Whether you agree with the plan or not, at least we are talking about the same thing.
So I guess coaching 11 teams over the past five years means I don't know anything about basketball? Look, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with what you say, but the way you say it is annoying as hell. But you have to look at it from a coaches perspective. Rudy does the best he can with what he has to work with, which includes his own knowledge of the game. You simply cannot scrap your entire philosophy mid-season. On paper, his plan works. Why it does not on the court is another question. My point is, quit ramming other teams offenses down our throats and watch the games. See what we are doing (or trying to do) not what we are not doing. And if you say "Rice sucks" one more time I'm gonna puke. We know that...move on!
Oh give me a freakin break. The Rockets weaknesses have been discussed ad nauseum on this board, but leebigez takes it to an extreme. I'm just ragging on him, and you feel compelled to jump in the middle. Go back to your Applewhite glorification threads if you don't like it.
Behad, its not ramming other teams offenses down this board or Rudy's throat. Its just the same old Cheney excuses instead of results. i know Rudy is making subtle adjustment, my question is, what took so long. The new rules were passed after the championship and were probably aimed at the Rockets more than any, but here we are 30 games into the season and all of a sudden the light bulb comes on? I agree with you too crispee about Mobley moving closer to receive the ball, but its still the same its just that he's closer which is cool. All I'm saying is if even with Francis back, if all we're going to do is drive into the defense and kick out for long shots, the our ways of succeeding is going to be basde on guys knocking down a 23ft shot which last i checked isn't very high % shot. Francis is a difference maker, make no bones about it, but somehow, someway this staff needs to find a way to get transition baskets, closer range shots and also quicker better looking shots early in the possession. Saying that the coach isn't responsibl is like saying Pat Riley isn't faulty in Miami. Anyway you look at it , being last in many offensive categories can also go back to a lack of communication.
Behad, words really don't fade me. You have your opinion and i have mine. Thats all. say what you want, but until this team can become better offensively and defensively, we'll be on the outside looking in for a long time.
Major, it seems the only strength you know how to mention is Steve Francis, but never his weaknesses. Just because you find it safer to harp on the weaknesses doesn't mean you have to do it in every thread. This thread is as positive as it comes, but you have to set us straight or something, and you don't even like to talk about Xs and Os. Can't you just pass on this constructive Xs and Os thread then with your ad nauseum drivel summing up Feigen's article by saying that we must suck if we are just now making adjustments despite the fact that this is the first article that Feigen has written about it. Ummm....the article says the adjustments were happening earlier. Rudy said that 2 weeks ago in another interview. Why do you have to say that it is "silly it took a month?" Sure mistakes have been happening left and right, and Mobley and Moochie have been acknowledging their mistakes in the paper. But that is not enough, you have to keep repeating it...even though this is about as unique an article Feigen has given us fans of Xs and Os all season. Rockets Suck, no they don't, yes they do...only Rudy does...no Mobley does....Is Francis going to make the All-star team? What about this trade? Some of us aren't trying to discusses strengths or weaknesses like you say...some are just trying to talk about the games! How hard is it to understand this? But everything ... e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. has to be a bbs divisive argument that Player X sucks or not. relativist, this is why I haven't done a flash in a long time. people will just get offended by it and say, "you're just trying to apologize for Rudy and talk only about our strengths."
Duh. Oh hell, I just noticed you're a pipefitter. No wonder we see things so differently. I'm in operations, you're in maintenance. Let's get an engineer in here and get a third opinion. Look, frustrations over losing affect all of us. I'm just asking you to tone it down some. It's hard enough to watch the Rockets lose, I don't need their problems regurtitated repeatedly here. I realize everyone has a right to post, and lately its all negative. Just get some fresh material, that's all.
read the quotes again. The adjustment were in motion way before this article. Why do we assume just because a journalist does a story about this that the adjustment started today or something. Rudy mentioned adjustment for Mobley in an interview over 2 weeks ago. Feigen isn't going to write this until the adjustments start paying off. The adjustments are delayed in their positive effect, because of our league leading amount of injuries, and because we don't have players like Kidd who can teach other players on the court. Our team is slow. Blame it on the coaches if you want. But that argument has be done over and over. OK...if I agree that Rudy is ultimately responsible...will you allow us to talk about these adjustments that Feigen finally spelled out for us? move on.
