In the Lakers telecast (I think it was the Lakers game), Matt Bullard mentioned a conversation he had with Brent Barry about how the Rockets are having a hard time playing 5-man basketball on offense. Brent said that back in the 80s, the IQ of players was much higher than it is these days. The way Bullard recounted this conversation, it sounded like he was making a dig at our team's collective basketball intelligence. What do you think? Is it just going to take time for this group to "get" the offense? Is it a matter of Tracy getting healthy, and everything else falls into place? Are we just too unathletic to properly run a free-flowing offense? Or, gulp, is this team, for whatever, just too mentally challenged? It would be strange, because we have a team chalk full of veterans and this group understands how to play solid, fundamental defense. Usually that suggests a team of above average basketball intelligence. But too often, I see players hesitant on the offense end; there's a lot of pointing around late in the shot clock. My feeling is that this team will never be able to compete with the Lakers unless they finally figure out how to play on the offensive end as a coordinated team. One on one, we just don't have their talent level. And I'm not even sure we'll be a much better defensive team at this point (the Lakers are defending like crazy this year). If we want to succeed against them, and make no mistake they are the favorites to get out of the West, our offense needs to be better than the sum of the parts. That's currently not even close to happening. What's your assessment of the basketball IQ of each player on this team? Is it more a problem with the role players or "Big Three"? I want to read your take on this.
Lakers offense looks smooth cause they have shooters, spot up shooters at that, and it doesnt take a high IQ for them to know their roles. Rockets have people who need the rock in their hand to be successful, especially TMAC and Artest. Barry is suffering cause those guys havent figured out the spacing etc. The only way our offense will look smooth will be when Battier comes back, Alston starts nailing some 3s, and Barry gets involed more. Basically what I mean to say is its not that we're a low IQ team, we just dont have the shooters to compete with LA's offense. Of course, if we'd gotten a player like Mike Miller, i guarantee we'd have looked great right now. But honestly, when they learn to play together, I think Artest will prove his worth, and we'll be better in the long run. Its about getting shooters back, and consistancy in lineup thats our problem, not low IQ.
My first thought is that we have a relatively bright bunch: Yao, check; TMac, check; Artest, check; Scola, check; (even) Rafer, check. I don't think the problem is intelligence, I think they know what to do, but the "how" seems to be a problem. They don't seem to be on the same page as to execution. Who really knows. It doesn't help when Yao and TMac look like they are pushing fifty.
If you need a short answer, yes, our team has a low bball IQ. The bad part: Yao and Tracy as good as they are are no longer worth their salaries EVEN IF they do get healthy and return to previous years' forms. The good part: Morey is our GM, and the second he gets any amount of payroll flexibility he will make sure that our team never ties itself down to awful contracts again. Just imagine what he could do by building a team with 8 Landrys or Brookses surrounding two younger stars. We will get there eventually. We have Morey.
Excellent post,that's why they can't graspe rick's offense and it's why rick is so frustrated and can't understand what's taking them so long to get it.
When your two of your big three didn't even go to college, yeah, I'd say we have a overall low bball iq. jk.
After the Lakers 3 peat, NBA GMs started molding their teams into that one-two star punch. That is not how you win games, unless you have a Shaq and some bad calls. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but I believe you can.
I think it's just too hard to break old habits. Under JVG Tracy could pretty much do whatever he wanted and Yao was parked in the low post exclusively which may have killed any chance he could to develop the mid range. Now Adelman is here and Tracy doesn't move without the ball and Yao can't play in the high post. Plus it doesn't help that offense looks the exact same nearly every play.
Excellent, excellent post Lakers first quarter and Mavs game showed that good shooting is our main problem, and when we have it the Adelman offense takes off and we are pretty much unstoppable. I just hope that Tmac, Alston and Artest are working their butts off in shooting drills
i don't think basketball iq is a problem. luis scola is one of the smartest front court players currently playing in the nba. he has a great feel for the game. yao ming is also considered one of the smartest big men in the league. we don't have to argue about shane battier's basketball iq. tracy mcgrady might have his faults but basketball iq is not one of them. just ask jvg or rick about him and they'll tell you how much they like him with the ball in his hands because usually good things happen when he's playing a playmaker role. brent barry is one of the smartest basketball players ever. chuck hayes, at least on the defensive side, plays with a lot of smarts. rafer alston might get too emotional from time to time and then he looses the control a little bit but overall i think he's pretty solid in terms of basketball iq. there's a reason jvg, adelman and morey trust him much more than most people here do. ron artest seems like a pretty smart player. all i've been hearing since he became a rocket was like "i can't believe how unselfish he is." or "ron won't have a problem learning the offense because he's already taken advantage of it while playing for the kings.". so i really don't think basketball iq is the problem. imho, the problem is that rick's offense really doesn't fit the habits and strengths of our main players. tracy mcgrady is at his best when he has the ball in his hands so he can take over a game with his scoring and/or his unique passing abilities. he's one of the best faciliators in the game. he doesn't like to run around screens and also, imho at least, he shouldn't do that. yao ming is at his best when he's down low and has his man pinned. he's totally useless in the high post because there is just no triple threat situation for him. he's an overrated mid-range shooter because he only can shoot from there with his feet set. also, with his size and lack of athleticism he can't take his man to the basket. so when he's in the high post he's very easy to defend. imho, jvg's offense is best suited for him. just look at the numbers and how dominant he looked when he was at his best. i don't expect him to be anywhere near that in rick's offense. ron artest might have the least problems with rick's offense but i still think post-ups and isolations is the way to go with a player like ron who is physically intimidating but who also lacks much offensive talent (compared to other star caliber swingmen). still, we should run rick's offense much better than we've done this season. but with t-mac and shane being injured, yao in a serious slump while trying to fit in and ron currently having to do too much on defense our big three are just not clicking. that's the reason the offense looks so bad with the main guys and totally different with the 2nd unit.
rick's offense this that and another...its all hogwash. its up to him to get our main guys their best shots in their best spots regardless of what offense we run. if yao is better in the low post, put him there etc. this is just not that hard...if you are open-shoot, if you are guarded-pass or drive.
I think there are a lot of factors why basketball isn't like it used to. Two things that has crippled basketball is the zone and the 3pt shot. Great atheletes and a 24 sec shot and a zone is detrimental. The 3pt shot ruins shot recognition and guys who have no business shot it does. The basketball iq of this team is cool, but there are a couple of things that hold them back offensively. Yao can't translate his bbiq into basketball plays, and rafer has no business running a passing offense that requires shooting. Adelman for his offensive prowess hasn't won a ring and it wasn't from a lack of talent. You have to adjust and make it happen with what you have. This team will never be a great,fluid offense unless you get rid of yao and get a more mobile pivot and more atheletic,slashing,shooting players. People want to look at Lakers and the way they run the triangle, but they have 2 guys in kobe and fisher who have been in that offense their entire careers. Not to mention, how many chuck hayes or rafer alstons do they have. This team just needs to rebound and defend and the offense will be good enough.
We'll see Adelman's offense clicking when Tracy is making cuts even though he's not getting the ball. So, maybe never?
I think we have a lot of guys who try as hard as they can most of the time, but they aren't "basketball players". I'm speaking specifically about guys like Yao, Luis, Chuck, Luther, and Shane. I don't feel like they are good at reacting properly to situations (offensively) and don't really "get it" a lot of the time. On the other hand, guys like Rafer, Tracy, Carl, Brent and Ron...I think they're a bit more in tune with the game. They can feel a play developing and put themselves in the right place, or make the right pass. If you play basketball, you know what I'm saying. Some people can be successful if they're put in the right positions, but don't ask them to read and react and then expect great results.
The Rockets have more depth and talent on this team than any Rockets team in the last decade. Despite that, we are still relatively... 1. slow 2. short 3. unathletic 4. poor offensively (have been for the entire T-Mac and Yao era, lower half of the league in most offensive stats) I think those are bigger issues than our collective basketball IQ. The poor offensive execution has more to do with Alston being a waste of a jersey as well as McGrady's stagnancy and ball stopping than anything else. On top of all these issues, our typical stengths - team defense and rebounding - aren't where they should be. If we don't get those areas straightened out, we will be an average team at best.
Either TMac or Ron has to come off the bench. I'm tired of watching Ron jack threes because everyone is standing around watching TMac do his thing. It's the same thing as we went through last year with Steve in the games he did play in. He caught hell because he couldn't fit in as a true point, but TMac dominated the ball. The only people that thrive on the court with TMac are the ones that stand back and wait to have the ball kicked to them. When our second unit is in the ball moves much better. Ron plays well inside, but you'd never know it cause he's STANDING on the outside all the time.
I would like to reject this comment but "the actions speak a lot louder than words". The rockets really have a low bball IQ. We are always liable to compare our "big" three with the Boston big three, and we concluded that our "big" three are not a bit less better than their big three. But the Green big three are instinctly different from ours. they are much more intellegent than yao and tmac and ron. KGnAllen's brain is as large as our big three's in size, say KGnAllen=Houston big three.
A few things stop our offense in having that fluid ball movement that we all are hoping: 1. Tracy holds the ball too damn long. For a guy a who is a superb passer, he bogs down the offense alot by holding the ball and waiting for a pick, then his teammates kinda expect him to generate the offense himself and stand around watching him, which is the other problem. 2. Ron is a ballstopper. I hate that word cause the 2 TNT genuises came up with it (Chuck and Kenny), but it holds true for certain players. Ron is also a great passer when he wants to but thinks he has to generate offense himself if we haven't scored in awhile. 3. Yao is robotic in his actions on offense. I guess he's been so programmed to catch it in the low post and hold the ball dribble then look for the doubleteam then make his move (or set picks) that there's no room for improvising. Any other actions he does on offense looks like he has to think about it or doesn't look natural to him. Taking an outside jumper, doesn't look natural. Interior passing from the high post, doesn't look natural. Don't expect Vlade Divac-like passing from the high post anytime soon. 4. Too many specialists players or limited skills in our rotation. Hayes and Rafer specifically. I consider Shane a specialist on offense. You can only do so much with them on offense, quite frankly they handicap what Adelman wants to do on offense. Someone mentioned Luis as not a "basketball player". I disagree. He's a great passer on offense and always looks to cut for an easy layup. I think his bball IQ is excellent. I just think he's stuck in the starter lineup that has reduced him to a specialist PF cause he's sharing the floor with TMac and Yao (and Ron right now), the ballstopping 3 amigos. All he he's asked to do now on offense is hit the open J set picks and rebound.
