Rockets passing in chemistry Ball movement boosts team grades in class on successful season By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle ATLANTA -- Steve Francis took no offense, he insisted again. Actually, he did not really know why anyone would think he could have thought Glen Rice was talking about him. Rice said the Rockets should move the ball better, and a day later, Francis took fewer shots than he has taken in any game in his career and collected more assists than he has had in any game this season. Pure coincidence, Francis said. "I think we've been moving the ball well," he said. "I don't think he was talking about the point guard. I'm hoping he wasn't just talking about the point guard. I think overall he meant we need to move the ball more, and we do. But we are moving the ball around and guys are getting shots. We just haven't been hitting all the time." Francis did not dispute Rice's call for improved passing. No one did. If something is to be done, it is difficult to argue that it should not be done better. They also did not entirely assume that when Rice said the Rockets need to pass the ball more often he meant that the Rockets needed to pass the ball more often to him. But in the two games since, they have seemed more determined to stick with their season-long plan to share the shots than they had been in the inconsistent weeks before. Rice has rushed to praise as much as he had criticized. On Tuesday, four players scored in double figures. On Wednesday, all five starters scored at least 10 points. "You get chemistry as you play," Francis said. "It might be taking us longer than we thought it would, but we're getting it." They also, Maurice Taylor said, will get a clear look at what can happen should they forget their chemistry lessons tonight when they play the Hawks. The Rockets have had their problems establishing a firm hold on their style of play and making it last through tough games and pressure situations. But the Hawks, having changed coaches and point guards (twice) this season, can offer a reminder of how painful the process can be. "Just having confidence in one another, just the chemistry is everything," Taylor said. "You can have some of the best players. But if they don't have chemistry, they're not going to win. Look at Atlanta. You wonder why they're so bad. They have Shareef (Abdur-Rahim). They have Glenn Robinson. They have Jason Terry. You wonder why are they losing. There's no chemistry there. "That's something we definitely have to improve on. If we're going to be a playoff team, we definitely have to improve on that "If you look at the games, when we do that -- I don't want to say we're unbeatable -- but we're a totally different team out there. We look like a team that not too many teams in the league can handle. We just have too many weapons. "Hey, we know that Steve, Cat (Cuttino Mobley) and Yao (Ming) are the guys that we're going to ride. But we know that there are a lot of other guys on this team that definitely have to get it going if we're going to take this team to the next level. "Definitely when we move the ball and get everybody involved we play much better. It's been that way since I've been here. There's some days we move the ball a lot. Some days we don't." The Rockets rank 27th in the NBA in assists per game, behind only the offensive-challenged Heat and Raptors. But assists have never been a reliable indicator of the Rockets' ball movement. While many systems work shooters around the offense to get them in position to simply catch and shoot, the Rockets have long gotten the ball to their best scorers earlier in the shot clock to allow them time to work for their shots or react to the defense. Their two top scorers, Francis and Mobley, shoot off the dribble more than off passes, cutting down on assists chances as has the poor shooting percentages in the frontcourt. Instead of counting assists, Rockets coaches chart decisions with the ball. "Steve is at a great percentage, his best of his career," Rockets assistant coach Jim Boylen said. "He's making very good decisions with the ball and has all year." The Rockets are much more focused on cutting down Francis' unforced turnovers than with his assists totals. But ball movement is not just a matter of the first pass. The Rockets have for years been at their best with the second, third and fourth passes. "We're still trying to get our identity solid," Mobley said. "You got to see the game like you know the guys are rotating, you know where the shooters are, you know where to send the pass. It's a chemistry you have. It's sacrificing. It's knowing we have a bunch of guys who can play. It means sacrificing the extra shot you would have taken last year to move it around this year." Taylor said that goes back to chemistry that must be developed over time. After several offensive and roster overhauls, the Rockets seem to have settled on a system and rotation, and insist they want just what Rice described. "Chemistry is not something that you just have," Taylor said. "It's not like you sit in the locker room and say, `OK, we're just going to pass the ball every time today, we're just going to have chemistry.' Chemistry does not happen like that. You have to be playing together for a while. You have to have guys that have been together and have confidence in each other. It becomes second nature passing the ball, getting it to the open guy, and throwing it where guys like the ball. "For us to say we can just sit up and say, tonight we're going to have chemistry, it doesn't work that way. We have to improve on it and hope it gets better every day." But since Rice said it, they have had it. "This is just what I was talking about," Rice said. "That is the way the Houston Rockets need to play. If we keep this up, man, some good things are going to happen for this team."
I find it funny that the media portrays Rice's comments as an attack on Steve. Isn't it the media that attacked the Rocket's iso-offense prior to Rice's public comments? I never took Rice's comments as an attack on Steve. Rice is the veteran leader on this team and he was speaking up as he should, although I guess it is arguable whether he should have made his comments public. Right when the Rockets are in the midst of a 2 game win streak, the media has to stir up the team chemistry by mixing in questions like this? I guess it's not much different than some of the postings on the BBS lately.
At the expense of Rocket's record? Cmon. It's been proven many times when they have a balance attack, Rockets have a very high chance to win. Look at Timberwolves... Magic. They all have superstars, but they can not make it since opponents can focus the D only on the superstars. Unselfish play is the remedy for Rockets.
maybe just for last 2 games, but steve is still the most reliable scorer on this team, i dont want to c him takin just 4,5shots a game. passin is important, but steve played TOO unselfish and dats not gonna help us in the long run.
If you compare the stats, the Rox actually is better than the Suns: PF PAllowed Houston (19-14) 91.9 88.8 Phoenix (22-14) 91.6 90.2 but the win-loss is not as good. The reason is that our game-end defense was not good before the KT-Posey trade. It costed us the Phoenix game, the Clippers game and the Memphis game. If you add these close games, we should be 22-11. This team is going to be good with Posey as the defensive 2/3 stopper.
Steve taking much lesser shot attempt is another thing which should go into Myth-Facts thread. The only game Steve attempted so little shot attempt was Minnesota. At Orlando games, Steve shot 4/12, a 30% FG.
shot attempts is misleading because it doens't take into account times when he is fouled shooting. I think he went to the stripe 6-7 times during that game which is why he ended up with 14 points on only 4 attempts.
Everyone can be a superstar in a game the most important thing is Win everyone should help the team win, not their stat don't like to know how many shots steve should gets
Looks like we not only have YM-only fans on this site, we have SF-only fans as well. I apologize if you take offense. But please prove me wrong. And yeah you will only be recognized as true superstars when you lead your team to championships. Stats are irrelevant.
I hate the media for that reason. I don't know what I think about the BBS, but I keep coming back for more.
The Rockets keep saying this over and over again, but I suppose cc.net posters simply don't believe them. The way the Rockets' offensive scheme is built, statistical assists will naturally be low, even if it is doing a good job of creating open shots. Obviously, "Decisions with the Ball" is not something we can participate in tracking nor a statistic we can appeal to. But, everyone who says that Francis needs 10 assists per game to be considered a true point guard should consider for a moment what it is the assist measures and what is the phenomenon we really want to measure.
This might be a dumb question but why don't they track assist opportunity? Assist seem to be similar to RBI's in Baseball in which you need a team mate to be successful to get the stat. In Baseball they have the stat for batting with runners on or in scoring position. So why not keep a stat that can reflect a blown assist or what ever? Blatz
I think that would be interesting to see, though still very open to interpretation. Assist Opportunities won't tell you much about the quality of the scoring position the shooter finds himself in. If a PG had a high number of Opportunities to his name, but not many assists, does that mean his teammates are poor shooters or that he's giving them the ball in bad spots? Still it would be interesting to see, at least in characterizing an offense: you can see how many opportunities are created off the pass vs. off the dribble/spacing.
no way!!, Rox cant win if he doesnt avgs above 20ppg. whos gonna make up des other shots??(w/ lower percentage??) alrite, Ming is good, but u cant rely on centers too much in the 4th quarter.(or physical playoff games) steve should avgs: 23ppg, 7.2apg, 6rpg we need a reliable superstar guard to finish the game!
Rice and Mobley were talking about Steve, nobody else. We all know stats can be misleading. Steves assists totals are not the issue. Its the way he controls some possessions. There is still too many possessions when Steve dribbles the ball for 15 seconds or more before he decides to pass to one teamate in a bad position. Its his patented bail-out-assist. That type of play gets his players to where they're just standing flat-footed on the perimeter and their setup in bad positions to score. So what I think were asking of Steve is for him to not over-dribble and wait to set up one teamate for a score but to pass the ball early, allowing your teamates time to pass the ball multiple times if need be. The last few games have been a nice change but there is still too many wasted posessions where he overdribbles, creating a one pass and out possession.
