Hopefully, signs of things to come. Rockets brush up on chemistry Players like 17-13 start but seek cohesiveness needed to reach playoffs By MICHAEL MURPHY Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle As the clock wound down on Tuesday night's game against Milwaukee, the final minutes of 2002 were also slipping away, meaning the Rockets would enter the new year as winners. They were winners not only because of their 103-80 victory, but also because they would be entering 2003 with a 17-13 record, the first time the Rockets would begin the year over .500 since 1997-98, when they were 15-11 on New Year's Day. "We have to keep this thing going," said Rockets' coach Rudy Tomjanovich of the team's two-game win streak. "What I talked about (Tuesday) morning was getting to the point where we don't let success hurt us. It's human nature to feel good about doing well, but to be a playoff team and be a championship team you have to overcome human nature. "You have to say, `It (winning one game) isn't enough' and keep that focus. You have to be self-starters. Don't let something in the game alarm us into coming back and playing focused basketball." As Tomjanovich's remarks might indicate, the Rockets have at times been harder to read than the NHL pronunciation guide. For every up there has been a down. They can beat the Lakers, Kings, Sixers, Spurs, Trail Blazers and Pacers but can lose to the Clippers, Knicks, Grizzlies and need a last-second shot to force overtime and beat the Heat. That's the way things have been for the Rockets. For every argument the Rockets have arrived, another can be made that they haven't proven anything: On one hand ... : With Yao Ming and James Posey, the Rockets now have the horses to challenge for a playoff spot. With Yao and Kelvin Cato, the Rockets have one of the best center tandems in the NBA, and Posey, Moochie Norris and Maurice Taylor give them quality depth at every position. On the other: They still tend to lapse into ball-massaging "Me, Myself and I-solation" tendencies. In their 30 games, the Rockets have had only nine games of 20-plus assists compared with 16 such games by opponents, which is why the Rockets are 27th in the league in assists. On one hand ... : The Rockets are above .500 this far into the schedule for the first time since the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, when they were 21-9 after 30 games. Last year they didn't win their 17th game until Feb. 12, an 85-78 victory over Memphis. On the other: Of their 30 games, a cushy 11 (the Bucks, Pacers, Hornets, Jazz, Timberwolves, Clippers, Sixers, Warriors, Trail Blazers, Cavaliers and Raptors) have come against teams that were playing their second game in consecutive nights. On one hand ... : The Rockets have avoided the crippling injuries that ruined the 2001-02 season. Taylor has played 20 games more games than last season, and Glen Rice has already played in six more than he did last year, when knee surgery limited him to 20 games. Steve Francis has bounced back from shoulder surgery and has not been bothered by the pounding headaches that plagued him last year. On the other: They have caught several teams without key players -- the Lakers (Shaquille O'Neal), Toronto (Vince Carter for only six minutes), Minnesota (Wally Szczerbiak), Denver (Juwan Howard), Cleveland (Dajuan Wagner and Chris Mihm), Sacramento (Peja Stojakovic missed one game and Mike Bibby, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard missed both), Indiana (Reggie Miller) and Milwaukee (Toni Kukoc). On one hand ... : The Rockets have mostly taken care of business against those weakened teams, which is why they could be headed for their first playoff berth in four years. On the other: The Western Conference has been ripped wide open by the Lakers' slump and the strong showings by bubble teams like Phoenix (19-12), Utah (17-13) and Seattle (16-15) mean someone's going to be left out of the playoff picture. With Dallas, Sacramento, San Antonio, Portland, Minnesota and the Lakers all expected to make the playoffs, there's going to be a tough fight for those last few berths. If the Rockets hope to survive that fight, they're going to have to develop the chemistry that all successful teams possess. Tomjanovich is still tinkering with rotations and has used 13 different starting lineups. But he seems to have settled on Yao, Eddie Griffin, Rice, Francis and Cuttino Mobley as his starters, and stability like that allows team chemistry to develop. "I think it's coming," Tomjanovich said. "But it's really going to take time. We're starting to see people knowing the plays better and knowing what to look for. Early in the year there were situations we created and we didn't see what was open. We're getting that more and more." Rice agreed. "It's a matter of days or weeks," he said. "Each night we go out there we're really trying to move the ball around like we're supposed to and play the defense like we know we can play. We're real close. Each night we try and improve. And so far it's working." Tomjanovich acknowleges the ups and downs but is encouraged by the fact that the Rockets are so very, very young -- Francis and Posey are 25, Yao is 22 and Griffin is 20. "I knew we were young, but when I heard we were the second-youngest team in the league. ... I didn't realize that," Tomjanovich said. "And we're up in the standings. And it just doesn't happen. That doesn't happen in this league that easy. I think we have some special players and we have to keep working at this thing, staying hungry."
I remember watching games earlier in the year and seeing Yao miss assignments on D and seemingly out of place on O. Rudy gave him limited minutes during this stretch as he learned the plays. He seems to take the approach he brings rookies along slowly, and rarely at the complete expense of the team. Pretty soon we'll see Yao start calling some of the plays and defenses.
Denver would be my guess. The NBA had averages for different categories earlier and Denver was the youngest with Houston the 8th youngest. Here is the listing
This is interesting. Is it a coincidence that the Chronicle has a story on chemistry. I don't think so! Murphy definitely reads what we write on this site.
I believe Chicago is the youngest team. Rudi should be as much as possible resist making statements that come across as excuses. Francis and Mobley are both young but they are NBA vets with at least 3 years of playing together. Cato, Rice, Taylor, Posey and Mooch are also vets. Yao is a number 1 pick. Griffin was once a top rated prospect in the nation (Amare is young as well). Boki is a lottery pick. The Rox have missed the play offs 3 years in a row. Rudi better realize that no amount of excuse will make missing the playoffs this year understable. The team looks good and possibly getting better. But being at the league bottom in assist (or at least in that company) 3 years in a row is not by coincidence. It is even more compounding since we are shooting a lot better this season. Nothing should be taken for granted because at least 10 Western Conference teams are in this season's playoff chase and no one is guarrantteed of a spot save for Sac-Town, Dallas and the Spurs. I must also add that in spite of our win over the buck, I was still a bit dissapointed (and it does not take much to please me) with the attitude our team displayed in the first quarter with Mobley, Griffin, Rice and co jacking up ill adviced shots and making senseless decisions with the ball. Is our coach afraid to point out the obvious to his players or are the players not listening to him? Why is hard to play as a team for 48 minutes win or lose? Why? It is sincerely frustrating because I know that we can certainly do better.So far all I have seen this season is 3 steps forward - 2 steps backwards. I hope it ends soon.
Maybe Memphis Grizzlies are the youngest... It's going to be a tough race to the playoffs. I hope that the Rockets will make it...they have done a great job this year compared to last year. I guess Rudy is staying with this current starting lineup to keep the chemistry going. Good article.
Its no excuse to state the Rockets need time ..to come together as a team. As a long time NBA follower, I can think of NO team as young as the Rockets that has won anything. Because of their experience..Steve and Cat do work well together..but all of the other starters are in their 1st year as Rocket starters.
True they need time, but it is more an attitude problem then a skills problem. They don't play hard all the time, and that is tough to overcome. They are a soft team, they need to toughen up and respect every team they play. Then they will take off and be an upper echelon team. DD
AVERAGE EXPERIENCE BY TEAM NBA YEARS 10+ R Denver 2.40 0 5 Houston 2.80 1 5 Memphis 2.80 1 5 L.A. Clippers 3.20 1 3 Chicago 3.33 0 3 Golden State 3.33 0 2 Cleveland 3.77 2 3 Miami 3.80 2 4 Indiana 4.00 1 1 Seattle 4.00 2 1 Boston 4.42 0 1 Atlanta 4.64 0 1 Milwaukee 4.71 1 4 Phoenix 4.86 3 2 Philadelphia 4.87 2 3 Washington 5.00 3 2 New Jersey 5.07 1 1 Orlando 5.07 2 2 Detroit 5.36 3 2 Toronto 5.53 1 2 Sacramento 5.57 3 0 L.A. Lakers 5.71 5 2 Dallas 5.80 2 1 Portland 5.93 3 1 Utah 5.93 3 2 New York 6.00 2 1 Minnesota 6.20 4 1 New Orleans 6.29 3 0 San Antonio 6.92 5 1 I don't know how to format this any better. Each line shows the team's average experience in years (for the Rox - 2.8), number of 10 year vets (for the Rox - 1), and rookies (for the Rox - 5). Note the very strong correlation between average years experience and NBA success. After the Rox at 2.8 years average experience, you go all the way up to 4 years average experience with Indiana before you get to the next good team. Other than Indiana, all of the title contenders (Sacto, Dallas, LA, and San Antonio from the West and New Jersey and maybe New Orleans from the East) have 5 plus years average experience. IMO, the Rox need two more years to become a title contender. Two years for the team to develop some chemistry, for the young players to gain NBA strength and conditioning, (hopefully) for the backcourt to get their basketball brains, and for the team to gain some valuable playoff experience. Not that anyone asked for it, but my advice is to be patient and try to enjoy the growth process - not let it frustrate you.
It seems like folks around here continue to miss the point. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT CONTENDING FOR THE CHAAMPIONSHIP but simply just playing total team ball night in night out. Selflessness, good decision making, avoiding settling for broken plays when you could have done better. IS IT TOO MUCH to ask for? Once again it is not about WINS and LOSES for me. We have lost games before and still felt good and also have won some games before and still felt bad. I feel it is just naive to say okay we won - Great or dang we lost - X should be traded. There should be no excuse for not playing smart - I am allergic to dumb, it is very frustrating. I still optimistically hold out hope for a better and more consistent tomorrow.
In a word, YES. Young, inexperienced teams, by definition, are selfish, make bad decisions, and settle for broken plays. As DD alluded to, young, inexperienced teams also don't come to play every night and don't respect weaker opponents. It's their nature, until they cease to be young, inexperienced teams. I feel your pain - would it help to remind you that it took Hakeem 10 years to learn to pass out of double and triple teams???? But it turned out OK in the end.
That is true about Hakeem. I will agree with you here because of the Hakeem reference. Even after winning 2 championships our beloved Hakeem was not able to pass out of the stiffling Seattle Supersonics disguished double and tripple team defense on him a few years ago. We where swept by them in one playoff series (so painful) and we lost to them almost 13 times in a span of 2 seasons. Hakeem never really was able to completely solve double and tripple team defense afteral (especially the Sonics'). The fact is that if you love something so much and have been patient for a long time now (3 years and counting) your tolerance level tends to diminish while your frustration level increases. I still believe we can do much more better - if the player can listen to the coach.
