Our team has plenty of physical talent. Unfortunately, the vast majority of our players have no idea how to use it. OUR ENTIRE BACKCOURT HAS PATHETIC BBALL IQ. Low IQ players: Francis can can soar like a plane. Regretabbly, his head is in his @ss from the approach through takeoff. Too frequently, it results in a bad landing. Both he and Cat (and moochie, to a lesser degree) can score. They just can't understand that there's a difference between scoring when you're open and trying to score by dribbling away the clock to get open. OUR FRONTCOURT IS OK ON BBALL IQ Yao has plenty of IQ. He just needs time, experience and more toughness. But he's not a problem. MoTay plays smart most of the time. We can criticize him on other areas, but not hoops IQ. Griffin has low hoops IQ. He doesn't recognize when to shoot the jumper, when to dump it into Yao, and when to swing the ball further. He generally just shoots as a default. Not good. Rice is a decent decision maker, but you'd expect that from a dinosaur. Posey is average or above average. Cato is average. He's smart enough not to shoot much. CONCLUSION 1: The big problem is that, for the vast majority of the time, the ball is in the hands of our guards, who have little idea of what to do with it, and when. It is somewhat amazing that we will finish over .500. That's a testament to our raw ability. There is no doubt that we have to bring in a guard that is lower on physical ability, but higher on mental ability. Sure, we'd like to have both, but those are called true superstars and we're not getting one in a trade. CONCLUSION 2: First learn to play, then learn to win. Since the Rox have low hoops IQ, it's all the more important that they have a teacher as a coach, to send them to basketball school. It's that simple, if you don't know how to do it, you have to be taught. Rudy is not a teacher. Give me a Hubie Brown. Heck, hire John Stockton as a coach. Someone that can teach decision making. Les needs to understand that we are 2 big steps from being a contender. First learn to play, then learn to win. Rudy's strength is teaching how to win, but not how to play. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. Les needs to understand that and the team can't get ahead of itself.
I agree. This team is seriously messed up bad. Im not dissing the players,but facts are facts. There is ZERO chemistry. I think the only guy that comes close to playing with Yao would be Francis.And maybe Taylor and Posey.But Griffin is the problem,moochie,slow rice,and maybe Mobley too.Depends on cats value to other teams,I have no idea what cat could net us in trade. And the game plan is horrific. Its almost comical.If I wasnt a rocket fan,it would be hilarious to watch. From rudys own words... iso your best player,draw double team,pass out to open man. Sorry rudy,that doesnt work anymore with the ZONE defenses. Ever wonder why the rockets had trouble with those sonic teams in the nineties. Thats why. Hakeem looked just like Ming does now,being tripled to death and no one to pass to. There is no ball movement. And the only guys that can shoot (rice,morris) cant penetrate so teams dont worry about them. Our players are ALL 1 diminsional.Either they can penetrate but not shoot well,or shoot well and cant penetrate. thats the real problem.God Brent Barry would do this team wonders!!!
I have my good posts. I have my bad posts. Thanks. And for those that want to hire assistant coaches as teachers . .. Let's see. Pan to Rox practice in 2004 . . . Francis to Mobley: I can't believe this stupid "assistant" coach is trying to tell me when to pass. Rudy says never underestimate the heart of a champion. I have the heart of a champion, so that's good enough.
switching assistant coaches is a waste of time, as far as i'm concerned. if you're gonna make changes, do it with the entire coaching staff. i mean, how is changing assistant coaches going to make us have a coordinated, motion offense? it can't and it won't. i am soooo sick of seing 4 players standing around checking their prostates while one guy plays Dribblemania....
Rileydog :- You have the Picture to a 'T', go to the top of the Class and give the pens out ( an old positive saying)
The Rox current state of affairs is why you need a good GM who knows basketball and, more importantly, who is able to look at the team objectively. It's like bringing in a management consulting firm to examine your business and to determine if there needs to be a shakeup. They have no blind loyalty to the players or coaches. They're just supposed to diagnose the problem and recommend a solution to the Board of Directors, or in this case, Les Alexander. Based on my assessment above, I would do the following: 1. Move Rudy "up" to the front office. Not above the new head coach, but as a "special consultant" to Les. Rudy is qualified to do this because of his long relationship with the organization. 2. Hire Van Gundy if Larry Brown is not available, which he probably won't be. Van Gundy's Knicks always played tough, physical defense and gave effort. They didn't get rings because the overall talent on that team was on the decline, and Ewing just couldn't bring it any more. 3. Shape the roster to let the Rox play tougher and smarter. That means taking out some of the youth. We need a smart guard and a tough PF. The first priority is a smart guard. I don't think it would take much to get Troy Hudson (b/c presumably, T. Brandon is coming back) or Darrell Armstrong. I would also consider signing Mark Jackson to the league minimum. We need to take a long, loving look at Jon Barry and Jimmy Jackson. I'd let either one of them start at the 2 guard. They'd compliment Francis better than Mobley. The best trade bait is Mobley, Griffin and Cato. Mobley and Cato make a good package because that's a good contract paired with a bad one. Cato would be a good center for teams that rely on PF's in the interior, or have no interior at all. Good target teams include the Clips, Spurs, Wolves, Mavericks, Orlando, Milwaukee. I'd offer all three of them for Brand and whoever (preferably Jaric). I'd offer Cato and Mobes for T. Parker. I think the spurs would look pretty tough with Kidd/Mobley/Jackson/Duncan/Cato and Ginobili off the bench. If Cato can dunk alleyoops from Francis, he'll average 10 pts a game with Kidd. Yao's anticipated improvement should lessen the need for Cato. We can just use Griffin or Taylor as a backup and go small sometimes. I'd also take a run at trading Mobley and Griffin or Cato for Odom. It gets rid of the Cato contract and gives us a lot of options on offense. Odom is a pothead, but we need his talent and, more importantly, style of play. Odom would be able to run the offense sometimes, which would diminish the need for Moochie's sorry butt on the floor. If the roster looked anything like one of these combinations below, I'd be happy. francis/J. Jackson or J. Barry /Odom/griffin/Yao Mooch/Rice/Boki/Taylor/Tmo Hawkins/filler Francis/Jackson or J. Barry/Rice/Brand/Yao M. Jackson/Boki/Taylor/Tmo Hawkins/Mooch/filler Anything involving Brand would be incredible.
