ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 12/6/2006

i'll agree with you on this assesment.... we are a team severely lacking a killer instinct.

if there's one glaring weakness, imo, it's that.

 

YAO is not a concern, he will bounce back, and we all know that. But TMAC is really bad bad. He is the key to promote the team to next level: ROX playing him big money, but crappy jumpers and some passing.

 

Teams are going to start commiting all defense to Yao and TMac and let the role players beat them. Since we don't really have a 3rd. scorer, we are going to struggle with that king of strategy.

 

Trust me, James is not the ideal Rocekts PG. It's been proved already. A guy name Sura did much better despite shooting much worse. I don't think MJ's cross dribble then pull up a shot is good for Rockets in a long run. A hot shooting 1st half doesn't proove your point. James is ideal for Rockets as a 3rd scorer coming off the bench, nothing more.

 

The thing that bothered me the most was that the T-Wolves completely ignored Hayes, they just doubled Yao without bothering to even be in Hayes Zip Code.

This is a weakness on the Rockets team, if they are going to do that, you HAVE to put in a shooter to counter that strategy.

I don't understand why JVG did not put in Padgett or Novak to keep them honest.

It would have opened things up for Yao as well.

The team stunk, but JVG was clearly part of the problem as he failed to adapt YET again.

DD

 

Careful now!

Blind JVG-lovers like Almu might see that reasoning as hate!!

You and I both very well know, JVG just cannot make any mistakes.

 

That was Jon barry, he got the team going. Travis Diener has been described as such... he's also such a low-risk acquisition Rockets would be crazy not try and offer a TE or Lucas if they can.

 

I know, Clutch, I know.

Yes, but it doesn't say much when you beat Minny, a team we're supposed to beat.

It just speaks to how mediocre/bad the T-Wolves are.

Yao gets a pass as far as having a subpar night statistically, but Yao doesn't fare much better in the 'softness' department than McGrady does.

Look, I understand that our two stars are nice kids, genuinely good human beings, but they completely lack that mental 'edge' that a team with championship aspirations must have. They simply lack the mental toughness to go to battle every night.

Of course we will win games, we will have a nice record and make the postseason...then what? In all likelihood, we will play either the Spurs or the Mavs in the second round if we get that far...it won't be pretty.

I just don't think we have the personnel around these two guys to compliment their games, which I thought was the whole idea here.

IMO, we assembled a better cast of players around 111 in 2004-05 season than we do now, and I don't think this is a squad built for the playoffs...

 

Houston Trade Breakdown
Outgoing

Rafer Alston
6-2 PG from Frenso State
12.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 6.8 apg in 38.6 minutes

Bonzi Wells
6-5 SG from Ball State
13.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.8 apg in 32.4 minutes
Incoming

Mike James
6-2 PG from Duquesne
20.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 5.8 apg in 37.0 minutes


Minnesota Trade Breakdown
Outgoing

Mike James
6-2 PG from Duquesne
20.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 5.8 apg in 37.0 minutes
Incoming

Rafer Alston
6-2 PG from Frenso State
12.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 6.8 apg in 38.6 minutes

Bonzi Wells
6-5 SG from Ball State
13.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.8 apg in 32.4 minutes



Successful Scenario
Due to Houston and Minnesota being over the cap, the 25% trade rule is invoked. Houston and Minnesota had to be no more than 125% plus $100,000 of the salary given out for the trade to be accepted, which did happen here. This trade satisfies the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.



It would work, but they'd never go for it.

 

2nd road leg of a back2back...ticked off that they lost...but that was anyones game...Yao missed some easy shots down the stretch...just fatigue...

T-Mac was fatigued as well..blocked shot from jaric and no attacking the rim.

We do need a 3rd scoring threat in the worst way and some continued production from the arc.

 

One thing that is almost non-existent in Yao's game nowadays is his pump fake. He did it quite regularly in his rookie season I believe but since it was often linked to his "softness" he seemed to have abandoned it comletely. If I were his coaching staff, I would bring this up to Van Gundy and encourage Yao to use it from time to time, especially when he shoots contested shots amongst heavy traffic or when his defender is getting too close to him. At the minimum he could draw some fouls if the shots don't go in. But the real advantage is to keep the defenders guessing his moves. Mixing it up is always a good tactic.

 

Uh, it wasn't proved - because the Rox offense was better with James in the game than Sura - this is a documented fact.

However this is not 2005. This is 2007. Sura is in a nursing home. Alston is running point - and taking tons of shots and making a low percentage. THe rockets were cognizant of this....

...That's why they wanted James to replace Alston.

He wasn't coming here to ride the bench. He wasn't coming here to play SG. You do the math, Cheweej.

PS...we don't need a third scorer - we need a second one given that Tracy only shows up once or twice a week.

 

I totally disagree DaDa. Hayes was offensively doing very well tonight, but he wasn't grabbng any rebounds. Combine that with Yao's poor rebounding night, and all JVG could hope for is that one of them turned the corner.

We hit our 3's, a whole bunch of them, at a great rate.

If anything, we needed more penetration. More penetration from the perimeter.

T-Mac is the only person on the team who can penetrate worth a damn, and that would've made a difference. More FT's, let the rest of the team take care of the shooting, they can do it better anyways.

More V-Span, Sura and Wells would help this team tremendously off the bench.

This team either needs to kill on the inside, or if that's taken away, burn from the outside. Tonight, we burned from the outside, but the inside was so horrible that we needed a franchise-record type of shooting night to make up for it.

One thing I'm proud of is the role players. All of them played well today, doing everything they could to feed off the stars.

We'll bounce back, no doubt, but we need to fix a few kinks if we are going to be serious playoff contenders. Minny exposed them better than other teams have been able to, and it's good that it came early in the season, and so blatantly clear. Let's just hope they learn from this.

 

Tiger,

You are smart! Reading your posts brings 2 kind of tears to my eyes.

1) The admiration tear for your posts.

2) Painful tear for Tmac and Yao. They are not going to win because JVG and the management is inept.

Ultimately, all I care for are Championships for Yao and Tracy Mcgrady in Houston Rockets uniform.

But with JVG, Rafer, and Juwan on the ship??...cmon let's be real.

 

Then the Rockets shouldn't have traded him for Alston in the first place.

Nice move by CD & JVG !!

NOT !

DD

 

I agree we needed more penetration, that is why V-span should have gotten some time in the 2nd half, he was going to the hole.....

But my point about Hayes was not that his offense was bad, it was that Minnesota was IGNORING him and giving him the 15 foot elbow jumper...which of course Hayes is smart enough not to take.

This was allowing the Wolves to double Yao with TWO 7 footers...KG and another. Which was causing Yao a LOT of problems.

JVG should have countered by putting in a shooter at the 4 position to FORCE KG to honor his man, thus freeing up some room for Yao on the inside.

Capeche?

DD

 

Where is this documented exactly? I can't see how it can possibly be a documented fact. Unless it took account everything such as quality of opponent backup PG's, other players on the floor, PER, asst/to ratio, scoring efficiency, and performance of opposing PG's, and those all point clearly to Mike James making the offense better, then I guess it could be a documented fact.

I have to be honest, I'd be thoroughly impressed if this fact was so well documented. I've been anti-Mike James since he was traded, but this would definitely change my mind.

You have a link to something that would show this?

 

JVG's has a hard time with making adjustments. His sturborness will not let him see logical alternatives. Tonight you needed shooters on the floor with Yao to have a chance to win. Head did his job, but Novak and Padgett should have gotten some of J-hos and Hayes minutes.

 

Except on the defensive end

 

I agree with everything here, except I'm not sure if hoping for Sura or Wells to become active is realistic...

Just want to add:

1) The Rocket's timing on their passes seem off tonight... some of these TOs look like guys were not on the same page.

2) Give the Wolves credit, they are a good defensive team, and the Rockets looked like they forgot how to play against good defensive teams after beating up on the Warriors last night. They got a ton of easy shots last night, no such shots available tonight. Garnett, Jaric, Hassell and even Blount had very good defensive efforts.

Problem with this team's offense seems to be that when they miss decent shots, they start taking bad ones. TMac is one of the main guilty parties... the Wolves clogged the paint (like the Rockets often do), he got stuffed near the rim by Garnett & Co... his passes led to TOs or missed layups... then he starts taking crackhead shots. He needs to keep attacking... I don't care if Garnett ends up with 10 blocks or TMac ends up with 15 TOs due to miscommunication.. he need to keep attacking because it's a generally a good play.

The unbelievable thing is that the Rockets bad execution almost worked... a couple more shots bouncing in and the Rockets got this game.