Didn't see this yet. Dec. 5, 2003, 1:24AM Rockets looking for offensive fit Team has yet to find its identity By JONATHAN FEIGEN So you think you know your basketball. We'll see. We're not talking trivia, because that's so trivial and when in doubt, you can always say "Wilt Chamberlain" and have a pretty good shot. No, hotshot, we're asking something much tougher. Your assignment is to come up with an offense that really, really works but doesn't require good shooting or good passing. Stumped? Now you know why Jeff Van Gundy looks so tired and why former Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, relieved from this dilemma, looks so happy. "That's a good question," Van Gundy said. "I go to potential. Potential is (having) an identity. If you're going to talk about offensive identity, what are we going to be? Are we going to be a transition team? A really good pick-and-roll team. A post-up team? A catch-and-shoot team. An iso team? You can attack the basket in different ways. "We have to tweak our offense so we can get to the basket more instead of relying on jump-shooting. We're not a knock-down, jump-shooting team. I think we can get to the basket more. "What we are is a pretty good spot-up shooting team. I thought we would be able to attract more double teams either on penetrations, pick-and-rolls (or) post-ups. We haven't been able to do that as much. Hopefully, we can continue to add more and more things to give us some movement that will lead to attacking the basket. (That) gives us a chance for second shots, free throws." That could be an answer -- an attack-the-basket team. But given how many turnovers the Rockets collect on their way to the basket and how many dunks they have missed once they get there, it is not quite a solution. Mostly, Van Gundy offered more questions. In order, are they a transition team? Please. The Rockets scored 10 fast-break points in an overtime game on Wednesday, hardly confusing them for the Showtime Lakers but a marked improvement. In the Rockets' recent five-game trip, they scored 17 fast-break points. "We don't run," Van Gundy said. "We sort of straggle down the court. And then when we do have one, we don't convert. "Your transition offense is based on the effort of your big guys to make it a four-on-three ... and then the decisions by your perimeter players. "The habit of running, like any habit, is hard to get, and if you don't do it, it's hard to break. We can do a better job, when we do have it, of finishing, making layups, and when we do have it, running to score. "Usually when you miss a fast-break opportunity, when you miss a shot, the ball is going the other way with a fast-break opportunity. If you had numbers going down and turn it over or miss, they are usually going to have numbers going back. It's important to convert at a high rate." In addition to their lack of full-court big men and decision-making guards on the fast break, the Rockets also need to use their guards to help on the boards, keeping them from becoming targets for outlet passes. "To have any opportunity of doing that, you have to have a habitual thought of running," Van Gundy said. "It's one reason being small hurts you. You can't leak people out." So much for a fast-breaking team. How about a really good pick-and-roll team? No. To be a good pick-and-roll team requires good, maybe great passing. The Rockets' averages of 17.4 assists (27th in the NBA) and 17.1 turnovers (to rank 25th) would seem to rule that out. The Rockets did well last season by setting high screens and dropping back for jumpers. But Yao Ming does not need to be 20 feet from the basket. How about a post-up team? Now you're on to something. The Rockets' offense does begin inside, usually with Yao, and works its way out. The Rockets have delivered the ball to Yao reliably, and he has been productive. But he has not yet dominated, making 49 percent of his shots and leading the team in scoring just four times with a season-high of 23. He has drawn double teams but has struggled to react quickly enough with the passes that burn defenses for paying him so much attention. Fine. Why not a catch-and-shoot team? That does bring up those passing and shooting issues. And the problem, Van Gundy offered without prompting, is not isolated to Francis and Mobley. "So much about your offense is about your passing," Van Gundy said. "One of the reasons we don't shoot the ball well is not missing people as much as when we pass to each other, it's off-target and a count late. Everybody wants to paint a couple of our guys in particular as villains when it comes to our assist total. But ... it's hard to get an assist when you don't get a basket. And when you don't pass on target, which is a team-wide thing, it's hard to shoot well. We'll start shooting the ball better when we start passing the ball more accurately and at the appropriate time. "Some of it, too, is we have to finish inside. We've really struggled to finish inside." So does that bring the Rockets back to being an iso team? That plays into the strengths of Yao, Francis, Mobley and Maurice Taylor. It removes some passing and can get the ball to the rim. But it has proved to be a nice garnish, rather than suitable for a steady diet. Tomjanovich dropped most of his one-man iso plays (post-ups) last season, and Van Gundy has moved away from them this season. "An iso team is probably the hardest thing to do today because of the rules," Van Gundy said. None of this comes as a surprise to Van Gundy 17 games into the season. He knew this much with his summer study of the Rockets' tapes. "Rudy is and was and always will be an outstanding offensive coach," Van Gundy said. "It's not like whatever issues there are were not addressed. Some things just are how they are, and we've got to work around them. Every team has things they do real well and other things they don't do well. You've got to maximize the things you do well. You got to be a balanced team to be any good. That doesn't mean do everything well offensively. Play to your strengths." Asked what those strengths were, Van Gundy said, "Just leave it at strengths. I don't want to get too specific for other (opponents') consumption. "We have to work to play to our strengths. Regardless of our style of play, our execution of whatever we do, whether it's running or post-up or pick-and-roll or catch-and-shoot plays, whatever it may be, has to be better. We have to create better shots. We do get good shots. Four of nine guys in our rotation, and if you put Boki (Bostjan Nachbar) in there, five of 10, are shooting below 36 percent. We obviously have to shoot the ball better, too." All of which brings us back to the original question. Really, it should not have been so difficult. The answer to the Rockets' offensive questions was obvious: Wilt Chamberlain. Everybody wants to paint a couple of our guys in particular as villains when it comes to our assist total. But ... it's hard to get an assist when you don't get a basket
I think the Rockets have surrounded Steve/Mobley with a variety of players over the years. That's why it seems to be a problem that they have to fix.
The team's assist/turnover ratio is pretty much 1. That plain stinks, and won't win any games. We're lucky to have the ten wins we have.