Chronic: The Rockets and Bobby McGee

http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2007/10/the_rockets_and_bobby_mcgee.html

The buzzword of training camp is freedom.

Not the Fourth of July type. Not the kind we're, ahem, teaching the Iraqis.

It's the freedom to toss away those thick offensive playbooks and do away with the memorization. It's the freedom to pass and cut and move instinctively all over the floor and find a way to get the open player the easiest shot.

It's the freedom to play the game the way every player envisions it on the playground of his mind.

Tracy McGrady has talked about running freely. Steve Francis has sung the praises of an up-tempo offense. Everyone from Rafer Alston to Mike James is itching to get after it this way.

Of course, as Kris Kristofferson wrote, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

With freedom comes responsibility.

"It's not just a situation where you can just wing it and do anything," said Shane Battier. "Coach (Rick) Adelman's offensive philosophies are based on a free-flowing, reading type of offense. But you have to have some basketball IQ out there on the offensive end."

There's that term again -- basketball IQ. Luis Scola also talked about needing intelligence to run the motion offense effectively.

This is not simply desire to let the horses out of the barn, but to get the thoroughbreds to run correctly.

With influx of new faces, there is no doubt that the Rockets have increased their talent level. The unknown is whether that talent always knows what it's doing.

Can James be trusted not to go off looking for his shot? Can the one-time Stevie Franchise be trusted to trust his teammates late in games and not try to make too many plays on his own? Can Bonzi Wells rein himself in from the prime-time, every-night scorer who played under Adelman in Sacramento? Can Luther Head and Alston all the rest show discretion.

"It lends itself to a little more movement than we're used to," Battier said. "It's going to take a little while to learn the reads and the cuts and to learn each other's tendencies."

With the offensive freedom, will the Rockets still have the defensive teeth that were filed to a point by Jeff Van Gundy? Will everybody have the same focus at the defensive end without JVG reminding/browbeating them constantly?

"We haven't figured that out yet," Battier said. "The defense really has not been stellar the first two days."

Open the cell doors. Light up the fireworks.

Celebrate freedom. Just remember, it comes with a price.

* * *

Bonzi Wells is still being watched closely due to his strained groin, but increased his level of participation in Wednesday's training camp practice.

"He actually did a good number of things today, more than I originally expected," said Keith Jones, the Rockets head athletic trainer. "He was able to run up and down the floor and go through the 5-on-none drills. The only thing I definitely wouldn't let him do is anything where he has to react. That means none of the 5-on-5 stuff, the situations where he doesn't know in advance where he's going and has to make a sudden move."

Wells suffered the groin pull three weeks ago when he slipped in his bathroom at home. He wound up on the floor, almost doing a full split.

"This isn't like a couple of years ago when I tore the groin," Wells said. "I'm OK here. It's not like I'm really injured. Everybody's just being extra careful."

Jones said he might permit Wells to run in the 5-on-5 scrimmages in the second of Friday's scheduled two workouts at the Cooley Pavilion.

* * *

Head coach Rick Adelman was asked, based on the first two days of workouts, whether Luis Scola or Chuck Hayes looks like a better fit at power forward alongside Yao Ming.

Adelman grinned. "I don't know," he said. "Yao's not here yet. When I see him out there with them, then I'll let give you an answer to that."

* * *

In case anybody's paying attention, Rafer Alston is making a point of being the first player to finish every one of the running drills in camp.

"That's nothing new," Alston said. "It's always been my thing. It's about conditioning and I'm in great shape."

Even when pushed by the whippet-fast rookie Aaron Brooks, Alston found another gear and beat him to the finish line.

"Oh year, Aaron's fast," Alston said grinning. "But I had to tell him how it was gonna be and then I showed him."