What we are seeing is that the Rockets have changed their offensive scheme dramatically this year - the whole offense in fact. Our team is now very much an in and out team ala Hakeem era Rockets. Ball to Yao, excellent passing, and a lot of three point shooting. The improved play of Luther Head and Alston has clearly gotten teams by surprise....as much as T-macs slow start. Throw in Yao's early dominance, Shane Battier, and you have a team other teams are not prepared for. This explains why the Rockets are able to surprise good teams and build early leads....but around the same time every game - opposing coaches start adjusting, and swap their defense. Clearly, the Rockets are having some trouble adjusting to this. This isn't just a coaching problem....it's the players learning. You see, people might say JVG should change things around - but great teams don't do that. Great teams exploit their advantages and not randomly try things away from that. Would Phil ever go away from Jordan? No. You play your best and stick it out - that's what the regular season is about - CONSISTENCY. Changes at this stage shouldn't be made when you are 6-3. Minor adjust may be made. So what's the real focus. Better execution. The Jazz are great because they execute so well. You know what great teams are going to do. You know what SA is going to do. They stick with it even 19 points down - and that's why they can come back. So now....the Rockets have to learn to STILL execute when the defenses change.....right now, I see them compensating. Playing more carefully. The execution is what's lacking. And a lot of that is confidence. It will come. Be patient. This is a team that was in the lottery last year - don't forget that.
BETTER BENCH is needed. Vs. Spurs, the starters played a lot of minutes and tired. Vs. Bulls, the starters got some rest at the end of the 3rd qtr, and the Bulls started their run. You are damned if you keep the starters in, and you are damned if you rest them and play the bench. The bench needs to improve their consistency, period.
I agree, although, I'm hoping that as TMac gets his game back from all the rust, that he takes over games at that point. We also seriously miss Chuck Hayes. I'm amazed at the difference he has made not being there the last 2 games, and the difference he makes when he's on the court, in terms how much better we play as a team. I'm thrilled with Yao's continued improvement, and especially Alston. He's becoming the point we all hoped he'd be when we traded for him. Battier definitely is the glue guy we needed next to Yao/McGrady, and Head's improvement makes me glad we didn't trade him. Snyder adds some athleticism that is nice. It'll be interesting to see how Novak, Wells, VSpan and JL3 add to the team as the year goes on. But, most of what we are facing, IMHO, is just gelling as a team, and that'll take time, and building confidence in each other when the other team makes a run in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, now everyone realizes that we can be beat late in the game, even if up by a bunch of points, so everyone will try to go for it then. We panic, which is the downside of the youthfulness we've gained. It's like everyone looks up and can't believe we're really ahead by this many points, and don't deserve to be, so we give it back. We might need a psychotherapist ... we DESERVE to win by a wide margin!
It has to do a lot with chemistry this team has gone through so many roster changes its not even funny. The spurs have had the same core players and bench players for years now and generally have added only one player every year so its easier for that one person to learn in the system. the rockets have so many new faces and the big two havent played that many games together in their 2 seasons here thanks to last season. How many games did rafer play with both of them in the lineup last year? Hayes and Battier new guys in the starting lineup. Hayes, Head learning their new roles and how to play with both yao and tmac and not just one of them. Snyder learning a whole new system and if he plays bonzi. I expect this team to take off after the all star break like 2 years ago once everyone was starting to learn where they fit in. The fact they are 6-3 right now having a pretty difficult opening schedule speaks volumes. Sure the spurs game hurt and the bulls game was not good to watch, but it will come along fine. If they can beat detriot tonight and end 7-3 it would have been a huge success imo with all the roster changes.
I agree with New Yorker that blown leads are due to bad execution of plays. Execution comes down to everybody doing what they are supposed to do. In the 4th quarter Tracy has the ball, so execution of plays starts with him. If he is less aggressive penetrating, execution of a play turns into inventing a spontaneous play or passing the ball to guys who have to break down their defender i.e. are not in a position to catch and shoot. We have a couple of guys in Head and Snyder that could create their own shot but they are not ready to take the heat at the end of games yet. One of the major reasons for collapses is Tracy's lack of energy at the end of games. He's not in the kind of shape to play all out for 42+ minutes. So he plays great for 3 quarters and then doesn't have any mojo left in the 4th. He picked apart San Antonio and Chicagos's defense in the past 2 games, with the exception of the 4th quarter. When he's tired, he settles a little more for jumpshots, but the problem is they come up short because he doesn't have his legs under him yet. The other factor is Yao having the same problem as Tracy at the end of the games. He is usually spent and can't be as efficient at the end of games. So the temporary solution of blowing leads is play the bench a little more so our stars are fresh at the end. In the long run, they will be in better shape so that won't matter. As the season goes along we will be talking about comebacks and not blown leads. We have 2 good closers in Tracy and Yao. The hallmark of the 04-05 team (great chemistry) was coming back on the road against Phoenix, Seattle, Golden State
JVG not calling a time out during SAS's run, having a short player inbounds the ball against chicago, not allowing novak, vspan, or wells to have any playing time is hurting our team. Players: tmac needs to stay in attack mode and work on his fts. snyder needs to do the same.......his ft shooting leaves much to be desired. Head-he is doing great...needs more floor time as a 2 guard playing off of tmac and Yao....keep feeding him the 3 ball. Yao--hard for me to fault him, but as long as he does not get hurt, he will improve in the areas of stamina, foul trouble, assertiveness, off. rebounding etc Battier--stay healthy, and camp out in the corner for the 3 Mutumbo--bring your energy, little put backs on offense and TDuncan blocks really help out. rafer--would not hurt to see him attack the rim some more with some skip to my lou reverse layups. chuck hayes--get healthy and do what you did b4, work on a 15 footer and fts J.Howard--bring some hustle and feed him the 15 ft j Padgett--you better hit the open 3s and get rebounds....what else can you do?
It will take the offense a while to gel. Simple as that. Too many new pieces. Tracy is still rusty but he's getting there. The defense is fine and will get even better, but the 2nd half lapses in effort are a concern. I think the humble pie will help the Rockets in the long term. When the offense clicks, the Rockets will be very tough to beat. The main problem on defense isn't scheme or personnel so much as concentration and effort. If injuries don't bite, I predict the Rockets will go on a mid to late season tear that will send a message to the rest of the league. On the downside, I don't see the chemistry issues on offense getting worked out any time soon. I'm afraid the 2nd half breakdowns in scoring will happen again. We must be patient while our defense carries us.
But each of those break down situations will help - you'd rather see it in the regular season (early in the regular season) then in the playoffs. We'll be fine.
Bench players have to earn their spot in the rotation...it's not given out. They have to wait for the opportunities and perform. That's the way it is and the right way. That's how you teach these young guys like Novak and VSPAN to work on what's important.
I think the thin bench cause the loss of big lead. From CBS sportsline, 3 Rockets starters are in top 40 "minute played per game" list. Yao is in the first half of 50s. No other teams look like that. So the starters tired after big run. All TMac, Yao, and Alston show the sign of tireness--slower, loss of oncentration and heavy breath. But the bench didn't respond well. In preseason, the team looked very deep. But not now. Snyder is struggle, Hayes went down, bill and Super novak didn't get play time. The bench is thinner than 2004-05 playoff. But Yao improved huge since then and Alston and Battier are updated. That's why Rockets still a 55-win team. If Rocket can find the 3rd scorer (13 points enough) who can create his own shot, rocket is a 60-win team and can win it all. Bonzi is there, wish he can get in shape before all-star. Anyway, I think bill should be given play time. He has offense and mentality like sam and defense and court sight like kid. and he has experiences. Sure he's a TO prone, otherwise he won't be 2nd rounder. It's the risk, maybe it will payoff for the long run. ADD 25-30 min B.wells and 10-15min bill, R win it all for sure. I am a Van Gundy's fan. But I think he should take the risk, play V-span.
We have the bench to beat anybody. JVG doesn't seem like he wants to use it though. Frankly, this really pisses me off. I mean, Luther at the point is the reason teams are coming back. You can tell he gets out of control when he gets pressured hard. Put in Baklava to see what he gots, you never know he could eventually evolve into the starting pg, but with our coach this is not possible. Steve Novak, do I need to say more. C'mon JVG
Simple reason - not playing Novak!! If you're up by 20 and it seems to be "garbage time", you put him in and he will drain 3s and the lead won't collapse like it has! It's not about the rockets not getting stops, it's about them missing everything! If you're up 20 and trade baskets, you win or even if you hit half your shots, you win. However, when you go 2-27 like in the spurs game and almost as bad against the bulls, the game ends up being close.
Well seeing as T-Mac only made 1 FG in the 4th quarter past 2 games, that is basically why we are squandering our lead. T-Mac even last season would drop around 8 pts in the 4th every game. Once he's back to normal, we should be good.
Clutchfans, This is my first post i had a long one typed up but my comp crashed and i lost it anyways I'll sum it up for you.... Go Rockets!!!!! Don't worry guys....We are 9 games into the season and we are a brand new team and STILL blowing out the likes of DALLAS SAN ANTONIO and MIAMI prob the 3 best teams last year......Just think what will happen when we actally start to click.... JVG is not my favorite coach but he will win a championship in Houston. He isnt a bad coach at all... He will play Vspan and bonzi and Novak when they are ready to be played..... he isnt stupid..... and if they dont play half the season that just means theyll be that much more rested for the WCF...Yes the WCF this is our year guys.....oooohhhh soooooo many people are gonna like us...doesnt it feel great?
We have OK bench to say the least. But JVG simply doesn't play them, rather he let starters like Yao/TMAC/Skip play heavy minutes, even if the starters become tired and inefficient on court, and even if we have a 20 points lead.
T-Mac goes to the bench and no one else can get Yao the ball and they turn it over and give the other team momentum. That's what it looks like to me. How can Yao help us win if he can't get the damn ball from Rafer or Luther??? Yeah, a better bench is needed and T-Mac needs to score a little more in the 4th along with getting Yao and the other guys on the team wide open looks. That's 2 times in a row, it should have been corrected against the bulls but it happened again. If it isn't corrected tonight against the Pistons, somethings SERIOUSLY wrong with our coaching staff/bench players. EDIT: Not better bench, more efficient bench. The starters need more rest.
Indeed. We have a bench. Bonzi, Vspan and Novak. JVG won't play them though so our bench is thin right now!!
