[CHRON] Rockets are going in style

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3385986

Transformation complete to team that moves ball
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle


The Rockets trade for David Wesley and Jon Barry, and talk about how much faster they will be. No one believes them.

They sign Stromile Swift and describe the way they will plug him into their whiplash fast break. No one, peering through rolled eyes, sees them the same way.

They sign Derek Anderson and trade for Rafer Alston and speak of how they too will move the ball like a souped-up pinball.

But the image of Jeff Van Gundy pushing a piano up a hill remains, especially as long as Patrick Ewing and Charlie Ward serve as assistant coaches and reminders of the old New York slow-pitch softball team.

To the Rockets, the transformation that began with the trades for Wesley and Barry and continued with every acquisition since is assumed. This is who they are, a team that rapidly moves the ball and players, and yes, even runs the break.

To others — including, Rockets players said, their peers around the NBA — they are the NBA's answer to continental drift.

"That's always been a misconception about him, that he's a slow-it-down, controlling, call-plays-every-time-down coach," Barry said. "That's never how we were last year since I've been here. We always explored to run. We run for layups, first, then we run for quick post-ups, and we run for quick jump shots third. If we don't have any of those, we get into our half-court offense.

"With the addition of Stromile, anytime he's in the game, he can run, he's such a great athlete. I always push the ball. Now Rafer can push the ball. Derek likes to push the ball and can handle the ball. Tracy (McGrady) can handle the ball and push it. We have five guys that can push it and guys that can run ahead."

Not only fast breaks
Van Gundy, while calling fast breaks "the most enjoyable part of the game," does not reduce such matters to running breaks or calling half-court plays.

Even offseason additions Luther Head, Swift, Anderson and Alston, who could make a strong sprint relay team, might fit more into the Rockets' style for their tendency to pass the ball, rather than run quickly.

If Van Gundy has a demand, it is not that his team move cautiously through its offense, as has been his reputation. It is that the ball move rapidly.

"He talks a lot about willingness to move the ball," Wesley said. "He doesn't want the ball to get to one person and stop. Even with Tracy, when he gets it, he wants him to score immediately or move the ball. I think all the people he got here fit that mold."

Said Barry, " You're first look is shot, your second look is dump it inside, and your third look is swing. And it should go bang, bang, bang. Instead of holding and holding, you move the ball."

Different stars
In Van Gundy's teachings, ball movement is as much a part of winning as playing hard, a point that he has made repeatedly since training camp began. Where Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley were once backing it in, backing it in, backing it in, McGrady and Yao Ming must make an offensive move or the next pass.

"If the ball comes to a standstill, it's going to be in a primary scorer's hand, which is McGrady, and McGrady moves it fairly quickly, too," Van Gundy said. "He's not a guy who holds it. And Yao's not really a guy who holds it.

"You want to have good ball movement, good player movement. Also, you want to throw it to your own team. I think, hopefully, we'll become a better and better ball-handling team so we limit our turnovers more and more."

Advanced passing
That transformation has already begun. But it is not the only change. When the Rockets turned their season around with their midseason trades, they did it largely by injecting life into their offense. Where Van Gundy once had to preach "on time and on target," the Rockets' passing became considerably more advanced than that.

"You can't be a good offensive team if you don't pass well," Van Gundy said. "Last year from the pre-Wesley trade to the post-Wesley trade you can make the case that we were not even as talented or equal talent.

"But in this case, the numbers don't lie. We went from 89.1 to 98.2 points per game. That's a huge jump. Assists went from 19.5 to 22. Turnovers went down from 15.6 to 12.9. And all of our guys' shooting percentages went up. We shot very, very well from two, three and from the free-throw line. And we also became a better rebounding team somehow.

"But I think it all starts from feeling better about yourselves offensively. If you pass the ball well, which we did from that trade forward, you can be a good offensive team."

The Rockets expect to be at least that, which could make things more fun when people talk about their slow-it-down and defense style.

 

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Rockets Summary

Outlook for Sura
Rockets guard Bob Sura said Thursday he has been told that he has a 70 percent chance of returning to the court, but that if he can play again, the surgery and rehabilitation will keep him out "for months."

Rockets doctors have not set a timetable on his return, waiting until after "the post-operative phase" before making an estimate. But Sura, 32, said he knows he will have to learn to be patient.

"It's been difficult," Sura said after watching Thursday's practice. "In the summer, it was easier with nothing going on. Now that the guys are back at it and the sneakers are squeaking and stuff, it's hard.

"The uncertainty is really the hard part. Whether I'm going to be able to play, whether I'm not is really hard. I don't know. I don't know if anybody does. The doctor gave me a 70/30 outlook."

That voice, again
Rockets guard Rafer Alston felt at home quickly. But then, he had spent his share of time in Camp Van Gundy.

"As Jeff is yelling at me, I think of Stan," said Alston, who spent one season with the Miami Heat playing for Stan Van Gundy. "Stan was all over me, and I was able to succeed and excel in that system. I expect to succeed and excel in this situation. I thrive in that disciplined setting.

"Coach ( Jeff Van Gundy) stresses defense just like in Miami. The voices sound the same. They sound like twin voices. I'm pretty much familiar with what's expected and expected of the team. I'm not coming here totally blind. I know both coaches, Stan and Jeff, have been under Pat (Riley). I know what they're trying to accomplish."

Austin DJ
Dennis Johnson, the former Clippers coach and SuperSonics and Celtics great, took in the Rockets' practice on Thursday, though the visit was more social that tied to his new job coaching the NBA Develop-
ment League's Austin Toros.

In the new collective bargaining agreement, the Rockets have the right to send players in their first or second seasons to Austin. But because there is no more structured relationship, the arrangement cannot be considered a true farm system in which the NBA team could control how players are used.

"I just said, 'Hi,' " Van Gundy said. "It's a very loose affiliation. But he hit the mother lode coaching in Austin compared to some of the outposts they have. That's what I told him. C'mon now. I've been to Roanoke. ... I'd rather be in Austin."

First contact made
The Rockets stepped up training camp on Thursday to include contact, with mixed results. Things went well, or not so well, depending on who was describing the practice.

"Today was like the first day of contact," Tracy McGrady said. "I expected us to come out and be throwing the ball all over the place and look real sloppy, and that really wasn't the case.

"We were kind of under control at times. Of course we were getting tired because it was the first day we were banging up against each other."

Coach Jeff Van Gundy on the first contact practice: "It was all right.

"You can get through things quicker because you have less newness. We should have fewer guys making mistakes, although our veterans today made quite a few, so I'm not sure if the new guys were watching the old guys that it would be a good thing."

JONATHAN FEIGEN