I share the pain. And I agree with your observations The Pacers managed to involve Jeff Foster enough to get him 4 shots. Boki played the same minutes and got 2. Oh, yea..Foster was 0 for 4. IMO, Griffin's 1-11 doesn't justify a lack of ball movement or sharing. Great players get their teammates the ball in good position and also make their teammates better. Further, I think it's tough on the average player to keep hustling when all they do is set picks and play D.
rudy should make a rule that at least 3 players touch the ball on the offensive end before a shot is taken. and with at least 10 seconds still left on the shot clock. if your players don't feel like they're part of the game, why would they bother to move?
It doesn't seem tough for Larry Brown and Pat Riley to get players to play like that when their offensive skills are far inferior to their defensive skills. I don't see Mark Madson b****ing that he does get shots off either and don't remember Rodman having a problem with it either. Plenty of guys would be thrilled to rebound, hustle and play defense in the NBA even if they only get the occasional garbage point because their teammates are so far superior at putting a bad shot in the hole than they are putting in a good look.
Did you people not read DoD's post. If you did, how can you continue to blame Francis and Mobley for last nights loss. I'm beginning to believe that some of you are blind, or just have something against Steve and Cat. I also believe that those of you who even suggest that certain Rockets players get demoralized and stop playing defense because they don't touch the ball very often have not played a lick of organized ball in your lives. I say this because any one who has knows that Coaches play to their strengths and\or their best players. The best players on our team are Steve and Cuttino and if any of you think that Rudy was not coaching to his strength last night and calling play after play for those guys then you are in denial. You really think Cato was expecting to touch the ball more, or how about Hawkins, was he complaining about not touching the rock enough. Griff couldn't hit a lay-up last night, so you want him to take a three (wide open or not). If you want to place blame, which is premature after one game, but how about we start with the coach. Where was our 5-Man offense. The plays being called were the same old pick and fades (not pick and roll, because the man picking almost never rolls to the basket). The man picks, fades out to the elbow or three point line, and this leads right into the iso for Steve or Cat. If Steve and Cat are not running that plays that Ruddy is calling (which they are) then why has he not benched them. Either way it's Rudy's responsibility. If you're going to harp on the two best players on your team you can't leave out the coach who puts the ball in their hands. I also question Rudy's substitution patterns. I like Hawkins and his defensive ability, but I sure would have like to have seen Nachbar more. Now there was someone that could have seen the ball more, but he and Yao recieved limited minutes. Yao i can understand, but not Boki. As far as the offense goes I don't buy the excuse that our personel should dictate whether or not we run this new 5-Man Movement offense. It doesn't take an allstar to excute a backdoor cut for a lay-up or set a back pick to free a bigman inside. I am however willing to wait before I declare that Rudy's talk of this new offense was just talk and give more of our key players a chance to get healthly and gel. But until then, get some balls Rudy and run the new offense, your fans (and I ) would like see more than just the straight ISO.
Dawg, If you are a military man, you will understand this. There are two categories of Generals: 1) Top Brass 2) Field Generals #1 Plans overall objectives and strategies. Makes tactical and logistical decisions. (Rudy) #2 Executes plans according to planned objectives and directly responsible for the performance of his men. (Steve?) Rudy worked with what he had and yes, he did not logistically make all the right decisions. Francis had an outstanding personal game along with Cat. But his men were left for dead. Teamwork was horrible and no on-court leadership was present. Everyone has blame to share, so don't cut Steve out so readily. Want examples of on-court / off-court leadership that works?: Phil Jackson / Michael Jordan Phil Jackson / Shaq Popovich / Duncan Larry Brown / Kidd Don Nelson / Nash Adelman / Bibby/Bobby Jackson Sloane / Stockton/Malone etc., etc. Rudy T. / Francis is not quite ready to make that list yet.
griffin had excellent shots he just missed them all. i agree with all the people who say that defense lost this game. offensively, it wasn't pretty but it was the only way to get the points tonight. if you factor in trips to the line steve was about a 70% plus chance of scoring 2 points. not a bad percentage. getting 15 assists and 18 points was in no way gonna get the win. you can call for more assists all you want but it was not working. it was tried. it's just a loss, no excuses, just got out-executed by a currently better team. it's also only ONE game. if steve averages 30 points and we win 15 games of course there's a problem, but i'm guessing with healthy bodies and role players hitting the wide-open shots, steve won't have to carry so much of the scoring.
Dude, you stole my signature!!!!! And you stole Stevie Wonder's vision Seriously, 5-man offense? how do you define offense and man? yeah, there were a total of 5 people on the court with SF and Mobley passing the rock to each other. If only Time of Position was a stat in the NBA, SF and Mobley would be head shoulders above the rest of the NBA. sigh.... BTW, people, I am sick you people bashing the rest of us for making couple suggestions at the team chemistry. Calling us Steve haters or Cuttino bashers? I am pretty sure anyone who spend time writing on this site wish nothing but the best for Steve and Cuttino. However, we would also like to see our beloved Rockets come out on top....and frankly the ball hogging style haven't taken us very far. None of us question the individual talent or the hearts of Steve or Cuttino but we do question their ability to play together and lead a team.
good point. It doesn't help the only guy who can really score (plus cat) on a consistent basis happens to be our pg.
Look guys this is very simple: Moochie was the Point Guard, he should distribute the ball. Steve played the Shooting Guard, he shoots the ball more. Cat played Small Forward, he gets to shoot too. The offense should have been run through Moochie (point guard), so Moochie should be the one with assists. Steve shot 46% from the floor even while being fouled repeatedly. He also managed to shoot 86% from the foul line, not too shabby!! Cat shot 47% from the floor, not too bad either. The fact is that no one else was making any shots. It happens, but its only one game. However, the Rockets as a team need to pass the ball more frequently and accurately. It's not one player's fault, they need to improve as a team.
It's kind of hard to get assists when guys turn it over every time (Yao Ming), EG goes 1-11, and you have this no talent dufus, "Jason", out there as your back up 4...
how can other team members expect to hit shots if they don't anticipate to get the ball. That is the problem with isolations. Practice makes perfect but how can u expect the players to consistently hit their shots if the person distributing the ball doesn't know how to set up an offense and set up his teammates. That is why a Jason Kidd is so valuable.
Further to this does the Point Guard know how to set up the other players and is he a good passer? If the answer to these questions is 'no' you must draw your own conclusion.
it's pretty lame to bring up an old thread over an already stupid/lame scuffle if you already found the thread, can't you private message or somin? yall boys quit acting like lil middle schoolers over peanuts
OMG! could you be any more lame? bringing up an old thread just to make a point about something that happened in the past? The past has no bearing on future achievements or lack thereof when the surrounding situation has changed, ie...new coach, new system. Besides, you are on his ignore list now(didnt you see that in the other thread?) so what exactly was the point to this? To show up a fellow Rocket fan? oh yeah, I forgot, you arent a Rocket fan..you are a lame bandwaggoner. go away son, ya bother me.
