Houston Rockets and the cost of no identity

I have reached the conclusion, as many of you might have as well, that the Houston Rockets as it is, simply cannot compete. The parts of this organization are completely imcompatible. We have 2 potential "building blocks." One is a "me, myself and Steve" with great athleticism, above average talent, lousy courtvision, pretense point guard. The other is a tall, relatively quick, skilled pillsbury doughboy who would be the only one that make fans complain about the lack of selfishness.

However, most of our problems are not due to their individual flaws. Indeed, on another team Steve's lack of passing ability or Yao's softness could easily be solved (or at least masked). The problem is, one of them has absolutely no self control and is willing to go with his game contrarary to the game plan, while the other is too complementary to let the former do just that. Steve is best suited on a team with no talent where he is THE MAN and can do whatever he wants to. Yao is best suited on a pass first Sac Kings type of team. Yet here we are, forcing them to play together.

I mean, are we playing a center oriented offence or not (as greatly advertised before this season)? If so why is the center NOT getting the ball? I counted 6 straight possessions last night (before giving up) where Yao never touched the ball while everybody else bricks around him. There are many EXCUSES in which we like to make for that phenomenom. I'll address them one by one:

1. Yao turns the ball over too much.
Yes, he is somewhat turnover prone and I wish he's better holding on to the ball, but this is way overblown. Take last night's game as example. He had 4 TO's: 1 was a 3 sec violation, another was a ticky tacky offensive foul. So basically he turned over the ball 2 times, which is thoroughly average. Aside from that, he got the ball knocked out of bounds 2 times, which once again is average (happens to Shaq too). You take away his ticky tacky offensive fouls he averages less than 2 TO per game for the last 10 games. So I just don't buy this TO story.

2. He needs to demand the ball.
He probably should, but think about this: we're running a center oriented offence and we need to tell our guards to pass the CENTER the ball? That is the saddest thing I've ever heard. If that is true then that only proves our guards are ineffective/incompetent. Also think about this: Ben Wallace on Yao, Yao doesn't get the ball, so Yao yells out "GIVE ME THE F*CKIN' BALL." Tashyn Prince hears this thinking, hey my man JJ is not that much of a good shooter (on most nights). I can either play the passing lane and deny Yao the ball or I can double him quickly and strip the ball off him. Congratulations, we just announced the whole game plan.

3. Yao's not creating enough space for us to pass to him
The Pistons certainly didn't have problem getting Mehmet Okur the ball (and open looks). FREAKIN' MEHMET OKUR. And Detroit is FAR from being a good offensive team.

Yao at this point is far from dominant and should be FAR more assertive but that still doesn't change the fact that he should get the ball more. Okay, old habits die hard and our guards probably won't change that fast. But even if you ASSUME that they're outright stupid and DOESN'T know that the Yao shoots a higher percentage, you'd think on a night like last night they'd be thinking, "gee, my shots aren't really falling, maybe I should give big guy a shot."

I'm not like Yetti, who thinks there's a conspiracy to see Yao fail. I just think our guards are too dumb, Yao at this point is too soft and the whole team is not compatible. We need to strip it down and rebuild instead of waiting for our whole team to be 30+ before realizing our whole team is untradable. I'm sorry that the first post I started in an entire year has become a vent post, but IT IS THAT BAD.

 

Here's the kicker: the Rockets MIGHT win IF we play as a team IF we play good D IF we pass big guy the ball IF he doesn't get those ticky tacky fouls when he does get it IF we are hitting our wide open shots IF we don't turn the ball over every 10 seconds IF our role players are doing their part IF we don't collapse in the 3rd quarter IF we don't give up too many offensive boards IF Steve doesn't let the opposing guard under his skin IF we don't take too many bad 3's. One of those IFs fall short and we have a very good chance of losing, unless the other team has a MUCH worse day than us. That by itself suggests problem.

 

Oh I forgot to add, IF we don't play a decent team.