My wife tends to not watch games with me. Even when she does, she usually is doing something else. But today, she watched an entire game with me. And she thought Jim Jackson was most to blame. When she first said Jim Jackson was dumb, I thought she was nuts. She's not a Rockets fan (Jazz fan : mad and doesn't see much of the team. But the more I think about it, I think she was right today. This is what she observed: Jim Jackson hits his open shots. Great. That means he has the makings of a good role player. But once he gained a bit of confidence off of hitting several open 3's, he decided that he could take 3's with a hand in his face, fadeaway jumpers, and drive the lane and throw up prayers with plenty left on the shotclock. She thought that he didn't "know his place" on the team. She knows the Rockets well enough to know that the team's best options are: 1. Yao, 2. Francis, and 3. Mobley. What she couldn't figure out, is why JJ didn't understand the same thing. He took bad shots when they were open. She said that Jerry Sloan would have benched him midway through the game, no matter how many open 3's he made. I'm not sure she's right in general, but she sure was right in this game. JJ is kind of a sacred cow on this board - he's generally so solid that we give him a pass when he does screw up. But the more I think about it, the more I agree: JJ doesn't know his role.
JJ is not the problem he is WELL behind Francis and Mobley. And he plays good D...does he take an ill advised shot now and again...yes.... But he takes far fewer of those than Fancy and Cutturnover. DD
but JJ has been playing better than mobley on most nites and better than SF on some nites. I think he is more like the 3rd option now rather than mobley.
Hey, I've been working hard to convert her. She'll agree that Texas is a better place than Utah... but I haven't quite brought her over from the dark side quite yet. I did, however, manage to persuade her that we didn't need to hang up her personally autographed John Stockton poster that she owns...
I disagree. I think JJ plays well and within his role. Yes, he does take some bad shots sometimes, and he does try to do a little more sometimes, but he does that, like you say, after he has made a couple of shots and get into a rymthm. That is much better than some of the other people on the team who takes bad shots and try to do too much consistently. In fact, I was thinking if everyone else on the team, except Yao, plays like jim jackson, we'll be ok. The main problem has got to be the rox passing. This group of rox has got to be one of the worst passing playoff teams in the history of the NBA. They are so bad sometimes, it is just unbelievable.
If anything, JJ has been the most consistently player on the team this year. Adding him alone may have given us 3 to 5 more wins.
I disagree sincerely. In fact, I'd argue that JJ is the only player who DOES know his role He picks his spots on the offense and plays within the game. He crosses over and spaces out as needed and if you watch him move w/o the ball, we'd all see that he's very attune to the plays in motion. Where JJ does blank out from time to time is: 1. passing 2. sidelines Sometimes JJ throws some God awful passes. I don't know if he just gets caught up in the moment and throws a bad one or that he just doesn't see the defense. But in traffic, he sometimes gets stuck. This is kind of odd to me too b/c he's generally a great ball-handler. I trust JJ more bringing the ball upcourt that Steve at times. The other thing JJ is guilty of is stepping out of bounds too much. He loves camping out by the wings behind the 3. But when he spots up to shoot or he prepares to cut, he has a tendency to step back first and out of bounds. I've seen JJ get caught doing this on a number of occasions and they're preventable IMO. Other than that, I like JJ's game. He's not stupid by any means. In fact, I think he's been a great find by the Rox. He's not nearly as athletic as he used to be, but he's still very very solid. If JJ ever looks lost out there it's b/c he's just as clueless as all the other Rox w/o the ball when one of our silly guards is doing a dance on offense. Defensively, JJ is terrific and great even with man to man. theSAGE
Every player and coach should be blamed for the loss. But the dumbest thing had to be Cato's technical.
Hmm. The funny thing is, before tonight, I'd have agreed with all you guys disagreeing with me. I honestly thought of JJ as a saavy, smart veteran who's only problem was not knowing where the 3pt line and the sideline was occasionally. Don't get me wrong: he's a good player who's valuble to the team. I am not saying I want him gone. I'm delighted that he's part of the team. But I think my wife was correct tonight. Think back to that hot streak he had, please. Before you say I'm wrong, just remember it. Think about right after he hit a few 3's. He really did take some bad shots with time left on the clock, when we had time to work the ball into Yao and play our offense.
hi Haven, My 22 year old former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, home-cooking, dish-washing, easy to please wife says that JJ's head was in the right place. Late in the game, with the clock winding down and the opposing team in the penalty, you've GOT to attack the basket and perhaps even get to the line. Unforutnately, what backfired was the fact that JJ was matched up with a superior athlete - Marion. Those blocks were NOT easy, esp. after JJ already beat his defender off the first dribble. The thinking was right. The execution was bad. But we shouldn't confuse failed execution with poor thinking. JJ has it right. In fact, that's what we needed to see more of with SF AND Mobley too. Curiously, even though JJ missed those shots, I was remarking to my TV about how great it was to have JJ and his veteran leadership. Those were good shots, IMO. theSAGE
JJ is the best roleplayer the Rockets have. However, he falls prey to wild shot every so often. The guy makes a couple of million. The case for concern is with Steve Francis. The more he plays in the inside-out offense which forces him to take open 3 pointers, the worse he plays. I saw him pass up open shots. He chose to drive into the paint like a dummy. This is why I like Bibby. The takes and makes open shots. Kings would probably be the #4 seed with Francis there instead of Bibby. Rockets would be at least #5 seed now with Bibby instead of Francis. The fact is Francis does not fit in an offense that asks him to shoot jumpers from anywhere beyond a few feet from the basket.
"Cutturnover". That's great. I personally think "Frantic" is equally as appropriate as "Fancy", but "Frantic" just has a little better ring to it.
if i was cato , getting just hammered and laying on my back without a call i would give the refs a piece of my mind. With that said JJ is a pretty solid player, other then his nightly step out of bounds. JJ is more then capable of just taking open jumpshots. Guess nobody remembers JJ the person who was a high power scorer in the early parts of his career. On a night where our back court is shooting 20% and 35% i rather have JJ shooting more shots.
Actually I agree with you. Quite a few times he tried a very difficult jumper against 2-3 defenders while Yao was standing right next to him under the basket all alone. Instead of clanging the ball, his passing the ball would have been an easy dunk by Yao.
Ah well... now that nobody agrees with her and she sees how much you all hate Jazz fans... I'm never going to persuade her to register. Been trying to do that for years now... what's the point in marrying someone who loves basketball if they won't log on to your addictive basketball forum?
