HP, I know you've done this before, but can you explain the difference between a motion offense, and one which takes advantage of the system through a few fundamental plays, as it seems the rockets do more of the later. They run a number of pick and rolls, a decent amount of post-ups, some iso's, and then 4 or 5 other plays that they've developed, which I can see meaning motion. Which means, 50% of their playbook is essentially what the Jazz have been running for 18+ years (stockton malone pnr, or malone post up) Anyway, like MManal I agree that while defense wins championships, the Rockets are doing a decent job of it alraedy and its their offense that holds them back. For all the hatin I've done on Rudy, I will say that he is a solid coach of defensive rotation.
JayZ, Watch the 3rd Q of the Minn game. Notice the 1-4 high post start to possessions. That is what I am seeing as the new system slowly being put into play in more and more possessions. Surely you are not calling Rice a liar when he said in the paper today that "We are running a motion offense." Look for it. As you said in another thread, you should be able to see a system behind the "interference" or "noise." imso, it is there. That 1-4 high post is the basis of a few motion systems. The Kings definitely use it. The main difference in a 24 second clock is that inexperienced teams in such a system will not trust their system enough to pass up the first open/semi-open shot, simply for fear of the shot clock. Also, they will favor certain anticipated "reads" in a motion system without really being true to what the defense is doing that they should capitalize on. I've also noticed that we will not run this with the 2nd unit, yet, so this is not a 48 min/game thing, right now. If you have the tape, I'd love to share game clock marks of possessions with you via email, or on the board. As for the defense, my only point in this thread was that our defense has the more improvement potential to our offense over time (since it is largely based on a 20yr and 22yr old maturing for great NBA post defense). As disappointed as you are in Francis/Mobley, I see improvement there and don't see the improvement I anticipated in Griffin on defense. The potential is that our defense can improve to title contention level without the offense having to be flawless or even free from widespread complaint. It's not like our Hakeem DIT offense was free from widespread critique, afterall, right?
I've seen these post plays, and, even with their inexperience, good things usually come out of them. The double post up top (which the team has been running since the glory days but wiht mroe twists to it now), posting Yao on the wing to have the guard set a back pick, pop out and across Yao for the ball. I generally like these plays and see good things out of them. It's the fundamental plays they still seem to have a problem with. Aside from Yao - and not even him all the time - none of our bigmen really roll hard to the basket on the pnr. The team is still often confused about what to do when someone has the ball in the low post, especially if said player is doubled (i.e. recognize the open man, cut, and fill open areas on teh court accordingly). Hopefully that will improve with familiarity as, for example, the Steve/Cato relationship has flourished. The lack of defensive improvement from Griffin is troubling to me as well, as this is the one spot I was very confident he wouldn't "hit" the rookie wall. On the other hand, given Griff's personality and recent quotes, he is the one player on our team who's game is highly mentally dependent. His poor shooting and inability to score, imo, has taken him off the rest of his game. Ironically (as I wouldn't recommend this to most of our other players), if he was simply playing more and thinking less on the court, he'd be developing much smoother, imo.
The Rockets ALWAYS play down to their competition.....pure and simple.....Rudy's gotta find a way to get the Rocks to not take any team for granted and come out w/ the fire that they come out w/ when they play the Lakers, Kings, and Spurs every night. The Rockets are young, need, to grow up, and need to realize that every game is important. Just because a team has a bad record doesnt mean they cant beat you. I mean, they are all NBA teams. Theyre all talented.
When did we ever run a double high post in the "glory days?" I don't think I've ever heard anyone call the Hakeem inside|outside game a double high post. Nor do I ever remember Barkley playing in the high post, much less with Hakeem. Maybe Dream with Ralph Sampson, but I recall Ralph and Dream either both low post or staggered with one in the low post and one in the high post (usually Ralph). The only time I've seen the double high post is when Francis came to the Rockets, and then, only in preseason. Dream even complained about our attempt to move him out of the low post. This year is the first year I've seen a double high post with any regular season significance. I'm somewhat frustrated it took this long for us to bring it off the practice courts, but I can see how Cato in the high just doesn't work. For those with tape, notice in the 3rd Quarter against Minn we started possessions with not only a double high post, but with two wing player continung a ling along the free throw line extended. This is a 1-4 High Post set, with a guard way out front, and a line of 4 guys in front of him. It is nearly impossible to zone that, and becomes much easier to get it to big men. There is an enormous amount of growth potential to a 1-4, but it s all dependent on 5 guys picking and moving in time. It can dissolve to a one-sided 2-man or 3-man game when the timing and reads fail, but even then, it generally achieves bringing people out of zones, and creating easier passing to big men or drives for guards. anyhow, overall I agree with anyone who says we are not executing well enough, and "smarter" guards could run it better. But I still believe this is the right path for this group, and enjoy seeing this offense come out of the practice courts onto the game court. It's all good to me whether the execution fails or succeeds, as long as they continuing trying to move as a 5-man unit and learn to use the whole court. imo, the 1-4 is becoming the pattern behind the noise.
That’s really the main thing I’ve been trying to say right there. Perhaps my suggestion of running the offense through Yao Ming might be a little exaggerated but they have plays that they run through Yao Ming anyway. I don’t see how running more plays through Yao Ming in some of the closing minutes of close games takes them out of the offense they are trying to instill in the team. Two of the plays that really excited me last night were: 1. When Yao Ming took a pass from Steve Francis in the low post. Steve then went down the baseline and Yao Ming passed him the ball. The defense got caught trying to adjust way to slow and left Rice wide open at the 3 pt line. Steve made the extra pass to Rice from the base line and Rice nailed the shot. That play was beautiful even if the shot does not drop because it showed that the Rockets were one step ahead of the defense at every move and the pay off from three beautiful passes (two by Steve and one by Yao Ming) was a three point play. On that play Yao Ming option to shoot but instead passed to Steve who also had the option to shoot and try to draw a foul but he also opted to pass for a wide open shot and a bigger pay off. I thought every move of that sequence was perfect. 2. Cuttino Mobley passed to Yao Ming who was once again in the low post. Yao Ming once again had the option to shoot but instead made a beautiful bounce pass to Cat right in front of the basket for the easiest two point of Cats career. Considering how atrocious Cat was during the first 14 or 15 minutes of the game that is just about as complicated a play as Cat could handle. There were fewer passes and it seemed much simpler than the previously described play but it was beautiful and worked to perfection non-the less. I would like to see a lot more of plays like those two. I don’t understand why we cant go to plays like that at times when we are in close games instead of going one on one like Steve did against GS in the final minute of the game or like Cat tried to do the 1st 14 or 15 minutes against Minnesota. Anyway big kudos to Steve for playing what I thought was a terrific game against the T-pups and I hope to see more games like last nights from him in the future.
I also like the motion that produced a drive by Francis down the right side of the lane, and he flipped a blind one over his shoulder high to a slashing Yao down the lane. too bad Yao fumbled the perfect 4 ft pass, or Francis would have had 12 assists. seriously, i've been waiting for Francis and Yao to connect on a Francis drive with high "dish" for awhile. Yao seems to have problems shielding his man to find a lane sometimes. This is what is nice about motion sans set plays. It is all reads and reactions, and Francis can burn to the basket with minor defensive mistakes, while it is hard to have any set defense on Yao when he starts at the free throw line area.
I thought there were a couple of plays where Francis sent a pass to Yao Ming going to the basket. On one occasion Yao Ming did not go up height enough or with enough authority and the ball popped off of the front of the rim but it was a beautiful play by Francis regardless of the pay off. Last nights ball movement really had me excited. Imagine if Yao Ming ever gets strong enough to develop Cato's drive and finish at the basket!
I have no tape to prove my point but I vividly remember seeing the Rox running a double high post with Hakeem and OT back in the day. I remember it being a good play back then as OT always set solid picks (and would be occassionally called for fouls on them because the guard wouldn't run his man into it properly - that always angered me as OT was just doing solid work). On the "high pass" - as good as Yao's hands are, they would be even improved ifpeople dished to him more often higher up, especially given his height. Another thing I'd like to see is more flashes by Yao into the lane on the weak side without interrupting the play. I've seen him do this occasionally, and as it isn't part of any play the team is running, it usually catches the defense of guard and Yao usually gets good to great position into the paint on those plays.
