ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 12/13/2003

I was at the game tonight, and despite the poor performance by the team, I think things will get better. Yao played very aggressive, especially trying to get position. Unfortunately, sometimes all his hard work wasn't rewarded as our players couldn't or wouldn't give him the ball. I think a lot of that has to do with spacing and just pure basic fundamentals in terms of being able to pass each other the ball. The team still hasn't really learned how to play with each other. Sometimes everyone looks lost out there, could be a result of trying to learn a new offensive system. I think if we had a true point guard, it will certainly help. I am now convinced that Steve would be so much better and more comfortable at the 2. Unfortunately,that means Moochie running the point and I'm not too thrilled about that. Our defense is good, but seems to tail off as the game progresses, especially our perimeter defense (or lack thereof). Do any of you guys think that we might pull off a trade to bring in a point guard???? and if so who could it be????

 

Are you talking about Tony Parker slicing through a matador defense to the bucket? Tony Parker's agent loves Steve Francis. Raul Lopez's agent loves Steve Francis. Steve Nash's agent loves Steve Francis. Every point guard agent loves Steve Francis.

 

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2294025

his is the correct lik to the Chron's recap of the game if anyone is interested.

 

"I don't think it's us pressing," said Francis, who led the Rockets with 17 points. "This is one of the games (where) even though we lost and didn't shoot good, I thought we stuck to our offensive game plan. We got the ball inside. We worked the ball around the perimeter and tried to get to the bucket to draw fouls. I don't think we were pressing."

This assclown has got some serious denial issues.

 

And your point is.....

If I am an agent, I would love to represent Francis and his mega-contract too.

 

Absolutely horrid game. This is one of the few games that I'll be able to see all season.. and for the Rox to come up with.... this crap!

How the hell are we supposedly a good defensive team? We can't defend a frickin' pick and roll (namely Francis and Yao) and we can't run a pick and roll (again namely Francis and Yao but basically no one on the rox can). Our offense looks like an absolute disaster. Francis has no clue what he's doing, Yao is being used too one dimensionally, Cat needs to get the ball more and do something with it, Pike is not all that (at least not yet), and poor JJ is the only guy that seems like he can get something going... yet he can't shoot in most games. Usually I don't go out and bash players and the coach but after seeing them play this game.......

Yao has problems guarding centers that can shoot.. SA poses an exceptionally difficult problem because there's Duncan who needs to be double teamed and kept out of the paint (if he gets in, there has to be help defense) and has a pretty good post up game, and Rasho who is a big man who can shoot. Unfortunately Yao is caught too far off his man on the pick and roll or is trying to clog the lane and help out the defense on Duncan, which leaves Rasho wide wide open.. and Yao is not fast enough to get back to his man... thus Nesterovic hurts the Rox bad... very very bad. That coupled with the fact that every other Spur was having a great game offensively except Duncan just makes it worse because the defense is focused on Duncan. I was thinking that Yao and Taylor need to run a similar play, both can hit the 15 ft and be a threat in the post that might warrant double teams, so it doesn't matter who's in the post and who's sitting outside. Now the only thing missing is players who know how to run the pick and roll, which obviously no one (cept maybe Taylor so far) can do. Another thing: Yao needs to step up and be AGGRESSIVE! Or maybe he can't do it in the NBA, maybe he has some sort of mental block or something. He doesn't have that attitude, and he can't jump. Half the time he seems to be a spectator. And Francis needs to find his game pretty soon.. he doesn't fit in the team at all on either side of the floor. Right now, surprisingly, he's a huge liability.

And here's a little something that's bound to get a little controversy... Mobley needs to shoot more. Especially while Francis is completely off, he needs to get the ball more and drive it to the hole. He also needs more plays called for him to spot up and hit the 3. Mobley has really fit in and taken the role player thing to heart, but this was wanted when Francis and Ming were expected to be the two stars... now we have two pseudo-stars and the offense is a thing of ugliness. Until Francis wakes up (he is really frustrated, I know what he's feeling and it's just going to get worse.. he really needs a breakout game soon) Mobley needs to start taking charge, him and maybe JJ need to step up and be the leaders of this team. On that note, Pike should get no more than 12 minutes of play, Mobley can do everything he does and much much more. And I'd rather have JJ at the 3 than Pike, mostly for defensive reasons but also because JJ is sometimes the only one that can create and give Ming an entry pass.

Ming I'm willing to give another season to find his attitude and passion, Francis I'm willing to give another 10-15 games to show us that he can get his offense kicking and fit in with the team and give more or less consistently good games instead of consistently bad games (and learn how to run a pick and roll or some sort of effective offense). After that I just may have to side with those who want to ship his ass outta here. (Note: I DO NOT want him at the 2, that will probably turn out to be a disaster).

On a final note, JVG needs to get his act together. This is, of course, said out of complete ignorance to how practices go and what he actually wants the team to do, but so far from what I've seen he has not been too effective in creating good offensive schemes (big surprise). Perhaps he's trying to get the team to get a couple of certain elementary things down before he goes and teaches how to do some other slightly more complicated plays, but they just can't so they're stuck? I dunno, but I think he really needs to go about coaching this team a different way (oh, and play Boki a little more.. give him some of Pike's minutes or something, see if he's worth keeping around or not, plus he's long and hustles).

Now keep in mind that this is just my reaction to watching ONE GAME (and that being against the champs with probly the best D in the league and arguable one of the best players offensively and defensively in the league), because I haven't been able to watch more than that. But from what I have read and box scores and recaps and from other ppl watching and such... well.. the rox don't play pretty. In fact they're downright unbearable. Go rox, time for another win streak.

 

I see a ture Rox fan's love and anger. Go Rox, don't let us down again.

 

Nova,

I can't believe what you just said. Essentially you said you want more of the offense to go through Mobley and Francis. Why in the world do we want to go back to a guard oriented offense? Don't you know that system doesn't work with the current backcourt that we have? If Mobley and Francis start jacking up more shots that is going to take away from our inside game.

***
What we need is a point guard who has good vision and passing ability to make that 20 ft pass from the perimeter into the paint when Yao has that window of opportunity when he is open and has good position in the paint. This requires quick thinking and good floor vision which I truly believe is out of the question for our current guards.

***
I'm sick and tired of seeing those lame ass dumps into Yao when he is 15-20 ft away from the basket. Could we be any more predictable? What is the point of those passes? They are worthless because Yao is at the edge of the paint area. Even so, when Yao does have the ball in that area no body is cutting to the basket? Why is everyone standing looking like they are clueless to how to play basketball? There should constantly be players such as Mobley, Jackson, or Francis cutting to the basket and our sharp shooters should be moving around the perimeter. By doing this, this would take pressure off of Yao and keep the defense honest.

***
If anything we need to feed Yao the ball more and Yao, as you said, needs to do his part by being aggressive and start taking charge and getting the position. I'm not sure what the problem is but Yao need to start flexing his muscle inside. I still believe Yao should be taking around 15 shots a night on average.

 

trepidation, I didn't mean that the offense should go through the guards more. I'm saying that Francis needs to wake up, and while Francis is still dozing off Mobley needs to shoot more (at least he's shooting at a pretty fair clip), Francis less. I'm not against running the offense through Yao, although ideally it could be run through any of three players on the floor (Yao, JJ, or Francis), but the way JVG has them doing it is ineffective and too predictable. And you're right that there needs to be more MOVEMENT. JVG (I'm assuming this is JVG's offensive plan anyways) has the offense stagnated and perhaps too simple (or maybe the players can't handle anything but simple? ). There's not freedom on the player's part, no creativity at all. It's dump it in, then yao shoots, or throw it back out swing it around and shoot (or prayer shot) or throw it back out to someone who can drive and maybe do something with the rock.. namely Francis. Of course that's not all that's wrong with the offense, but I need to stop typing.

Come on Rockets.. ya'll are better than what was shown.

The more negativity I exude the more likely the Rox will win... I hope. It's my new experiment. So far I'm 4-1.

 

ugh...

 

TD shoots 2-10 and scores 8 we still lose? gg nuff said

 

AGAIN....CUT ALL THE PLAYERS AND FIRE ALL THE COACHES!


I UNDERSTAND WE CANNOT WIN EVERY GAME BUT AT LEAST COMPETE. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

 

I don't know. We lost the game in the first and the third quarters. Obviously, we were not prepared in the first quarter. The first to blame was Yao, who was horrible in both offensive and defensive end. We simply could not defend the pick. When Nest got out to the perimeter, Yao lost him. When Tony Parker and Emanuel did the same thing, Francis lost them, leaving those guys wide open all the time.

Yao played very well in the second quarter and brought us back close to the end of the half. In this quarter, Yao had seven points, two blocks, one assist, and two changed shots.

You know what, Francis took over in the third quarter. He didn't score in the first half. In fact, he failed to attempt much of the half. He decided to do more in the second half. He took most of the shots in the third and missed most of them plus a technical. When the game was out of reach, he made 2 out 14.

We made the game look closer in the later part of the fourth quarter when our starters played against their garbish players during the garbish time. Does it mean our starters were in fact garbish players?

Strangely yet honestly, Cat did not play poorly. He has been our hottest shooter in the last few games. But he was allowed to shoot only seven times. Great way to share the ball, man.

 

Our players lack fundamental skills. Defending the pick and roll is a hard job but defense is still easier to learn than offensive execution. Some sort of a motion offense needs to be implemented quickly utilizing each individual's strengths.
I think JVG is trying to break the bad habits which is fine but hasn't figured out how to get the best out of the players.
Unfortunately things are looking bad right now with no solution in sight.

 

I hate to say it since I think he's a very capable player, but I don't know that Steve Francis is really going to cut it in Houston. Don't get me wrong, he's a big talent and he can help someone, but he may need a change of scenery.

This is Francis' fifth year in the league. Most guys with his ability don't need five years to figure it all out, but Francis seems to think that the team's success is solely tied into his shot attempts.

At this point, maybe the philosophy is to build around Yao, not around Francis and Yao.

For my sake as a Spurs fan, don't change a thing.

 

Thank you Spurs fan. Its nice to know that others outside of Houston see the problem with Steve and don't just worship him because of his 'mad skillz' .

 

Maybe we will...

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. ``We are in a bad way right now. ... We have to rebuild the foundation of our team.''

 

You ain't kidding me. Even Van Gundy is capitulating to the thoughts of rebuilding this roster.

 

I agree with Nova, at least last night, Cat should have gotten way more shots. He was often double teamed though behind the arc so that might have something to do with it.

 

I should have included the link http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2003121324