obviously not smart enough to realize he should fire himself as the coach of the Rockets. rudy t needs to get out.
Old cynical Man Rock: really, it isn't. i'm trying to find out if he legitimately is the coach to "teach" this team. we get all kinds of crap about him being drunk on the bench, etc., but i have yet to see a thread about whether he is absolutely qualified to teach this group. he can "coach" (aka: coddle) them, but can he "teach" them?
Who can ABSOLUTELY TEACH someone? They're supposed to learn their basics in school. lol...him being drunk on the bench. WHO IS ABSOLUTELY QUALIFIED TO COACH OUR TEAM? They have to be learning. They just can't execute.
that is one of the problems with the nba today - these "kids" are not learning their basics in school. they jump straight to the pros with hellafied athleticism and very little basketball knowledge. so the role of "coaches" has changed to incorporate "teaching" moreso now than ever. it also means having to be "father figure", "counselor", etc. rudy is a great person. of that i have no doubt. but in 30 years, i don't think he's ever had to "teach" someone to run an offense like a point guard or "teach" someone to play like a big man.
Yep. Hakeem was already taught before Rudy came along. And Yep. That's the problemo. So we need to get one of them young coaches that seem to be doing well...who are inspirational and good teachers.
C'mon verse, you're being ridiculous. Cuttino Mobley hasn't improved? He just came right out of the second round and averaged 20 points a game? Kenny Thomas didn't improve? Look at Cato this year. Nobody gives Rudy any credit for his improvement. There are Chronicle quotes specifically addressing it ("we've been working on his approach to the game" -Rudy). Francis has improved. Ming has improved--did you see his first couple of games? These aren't students. They're professionals. They have an incentive to improve--it's called a paycheck. If they don't improve, they don't get one. A coach's job is to coach.
lol...nice one TheFreak. You are so right. Kelvin Cato...NICE ONE. Moochie's improved!!! Eddie has improved... Yao has improved... Cuttino Mobley very improved. Glen Rice has BEEN USELESS though.
Another thing...does this mean that only great all-around players can coach? You have to have been a great rebounder to 'teach' rebounding, a great passer to 'teach' passing, a great scorer to 'teach' scoring? Also does that mean guards like Doc Rivers and Isiah Thomas are unable to coach big men? Since they never had to post up or guard the lane, they're not qualified to 'teach' players to do these things? I'm curious.
Well Doc Rivers. Man, he has Tracy McGrady!!! And his big men can't do anything inside. They just shoot outside. They don't have a big man!!! Isaiah Thomas...he has a great team and is a great and biased coach...but he has developed Jermaine O'Neal nicely. Guards are the best coaches! Point guards especially.
TheFreak: good call on Cato. he has significantly improved. cat mobley, imo, is hard to judge improvement on because his damn role seems to change every year. i won't say he has NOT improved, just that it's hard for me to guage exactly how much without time. ming? no way can i judge his improvement through 1/2 a season. francis? no. he has not. in fact, i think he was actually better in his rookie year... i'm focusing on the players that are/were here for over a year in the same discernable role, that were expected to improve. players like: 1) T-Mo 2) Maurice Taylor 3) Dan Langhi (ughh) 4) Francis 5) Griffin 6) Cato 7) KT 8) Shandn Andersn 9) Moochie Norris of these guys that had room to improve, and were expected to improve, most did not improve one iota, imo. the only exceptions i can come up with are Cato (actually you came up with that good call), KT (i forgot about him), and T-Mo. i suppose that's part of the nba. not all players pan out. but most of these guys were touted as "key" or "core" players in the rockets rotation (of course, Damn Lanky was not a core player, but you get my point). and when i look at the core of our team now: Francis Mobley Yao Ming Eddie Griffin James Posey (maybe) Maurice Taylor Kelvin Cato (maybe) Bostjan Nachbar Moochie Norris Terence Morris i see a lot of players that need a lot of "teaching". i just wonder if rudy "the coach" is up to the "teaching" aspect of the job. need i go down the list of players and point out their obvious deficiencies? *** i've seen you post many times that this team is not as good as many think, and that we are actually as good or better than can be expected. well, i think in a way you're right. given their current habits, we're exactly where we should be. but i'm not sure those habits will be remedied in the near future. i'm not sure rudy has the iron fist to help some of these guys. i hope i'm wrong, and i'll be a rocket fan either way, but i have serious doubts about someone teaching something they have no experience with. imo, that's why you're seeing more and more young coaches come into the nba. the "older" coaches cannot relate to this generation of "kids" in a teaching/coaching way. so when someone asks the obligatory "who ya gonna get to replace him" question, there is hardly ever an answer. but the truth of the matter, imo, is that these "kids" (and that's what we have) need someone that can at once relate to them, and at the same time discipline them. i hope rudy can learn to be that man. because i'm almost sure he's never had to before....
imo, when it comes to ex-players, only former playmakers can be great coaches. not that ALL playmakers will make great coaches, just that you won't see a rick mahorn or dennis rodman or dale ellis or dell curry or any other one dimensional player become a truly great coach. doc rivers was an on the floor coach. same for mo cheeks same for isiah thomas same (will be) for avery johnson one dimensional players don't possess the full grasp of all 5 positions and responsibilities to become great coaches. not unless they understudy for quite some time....
Well Tito Maddox and Bostjan Nachbar will never improve without any playing time! Maybe they are being developed spectacularly during practice. Stevie has not improved? Then why is he having a career year? Yao seems better now than in his first game...SCORELESS. But Yao can GO EVEN FARTHER. Fine. Rudy should be a man...yes. He's only 54 years old. Eric Musselman! Even our assistant coaches are old.
oh, and before someone brings it up, jerry sloan (utah) and nate mcmillan (sonics) were defensive wizards, yes, but also a very, very knowledgable offensive players.... future "playmakers" to watch include a) avery johnson b) mark jackson c) mark price not that they are guaranteed to be great coaches...just that they all had/have a knack of "getting the most out of what they had" and were outstanding playmakers... notice how many great nba coaches were "athletic freaks"..... 0.
LittleY: is steve really having a career year? sure his scoring is up, but so is his shots per game. what about his assist/to ratio? isn't that much more important? what about his committment to defense? what about his tempo dictation? what about his ability to LEAD the break? he is not, imo, having his best year. as for the Rudy comment, i don't know what you're talking about...
verse, I don't seem to remember Mark Price as a "playmaker." His game is more of a shooter than a playmake. Also, Byron Scott is also a former shooter type player who is doing pretty well as a coach. In fact, I think Scott's game was quite similar to Rudy's, with more athleticism.
Well, what if we toss Danny Ainge into the mix. Do Rudy and Behad *still* outsmart the three of those combined?
By all accounts, Rudy is a great guy. However, I have always questioned his coaching skills. The one thing about Rudy that always bothered me was his game plans against the Sonics. George Karl was playing a zone and the Seattle players would get to the left block before Hakeem could even post up and swarm him. Rudy never had Hakeem move to the high post or developed another method of getting him the ball. They continued going to the left block and lost the series. No cross screens, no PnR, just left block ad nausem. His idea of adjusting to the Seattle zone was to acquire Barkley. Having two low post guys, kept the Sonics from just doubling the left block and enable us to beat Seattle. Unfortunately, the Barkley trade gave us one of the shortest front courts and eroded team chemistry and overall team defense. With Barkley, we beat Seattle, however we started having problems with the Jazz and Spurs. Rudy's answer for adjustments has always been to acquire veteran talent(Elie, Drexler, Barkley, Pippen). I believe Rudy is a good scout and talent evaluator. However, I still don't know if he can teach/develop young players or translate whatever he writes on those napkins (game plans) to his players.
Funny thing, verse. I was thinking the exact same thing, today. Rudy's biggest strength is his ability to motivate and get effort. His biggest weakness has always been teaching strategy. Perfect for a veteran team, very poor for a young team. He's not a bad coach, but he's a bad fit in Houston, right now.
