Is Collier on the IR because he is still recuperating from an injury or is he there because there isn't a roster spot for him? Put Cato on the IR and bring Collier in! I don't care how bad Collier may be, he can't be any worse than Cato.
I'm sure Collier can play. He's proven that in the limited action he's seen. The Rockets just need him healthy and he'll start contributing. He may never be a dominant center in the NBA, but he can fit nicely with what the Rockets' personally dictates. Collier will be a solid player for the Rockets once he gets fully recuperated.
GRIFFIN: Actually putting Griffin in for any length of time does not make sense to me. One of the problems we had last night and will continue to have is that we have no openings (or it is rare when we do) in the middle. They were collapsing on us at will, and clogging everything to the low wings. Griffin's only move was out high which they gave him, or sometimes swinging to the baseline in an "end-around" move coming from the weak side. Sending a young pup inside to bust 'em in there is suicide. That is an option you use when you have established some control (even mediocre control) to your inside offensive presence. WILLIS: My biggest worry is that T-Rex is playing all out and getting plus-plus minutes and is heading for a serious injury or physical burn out. UNPOPULAR BELIEFS: Now I know this will not be popular but ... 1. I thought Cato should have been brought back in early in the third and definitely in the fourth. His fouls were cheesy and borderline to say the least. And, let's face facts he's a player that needs time in the game to get going. Call it whatever you want but he always looks out of place in the first quarter. Okay bring in Kev because they were dominating. But then bring back Cato again as soon as things settled down. 2. I thought Rice played a better game than I expected, but he has got to get his passes where he wants them and not as a last ditch effort (third option pass off) and when someone was all over him. Shooters need the ball in their sweet spot in the first couple of opportunities to get off early. He never got going. Period. 3. Cry as we will ... this is the core of the team we will be going with the rest of the year. Okay, there is increased talk of this or that ... bringing in another position, making an early trade, but the reality is, we could have won three of our losses with even-par shooting from the roster as assembled right now. An individual shooting lapse is usually associated with mental breakdown. A team shooting lapse is associated with the team NOT being on the same page "positioning-wise" and "familiarity-wise". These are talented guys ... some can score and some can shoot ...... but, learning where they want the ball and when they want the ball is the biggest and most glaring deficit I have seen since the season started. That dear fiends ... is a distribution problem. Not a shooting problem. 4. We were beat last night by attempting to pass through passing lanes and if defensive effort didn't cause a turnover, and somehow the Rocket ball got through, the Rocket getting the ball had it leaning(off position), not ready set, and a passing lane defender in his face within a split second. Again .... that's a distribution problem.
oeilpere, Your thought that so much of this is a distribution problem, does this lead you to come to the conclusion that it will get better and is caused in fact by the lack of working together in training camp, exacerbated by a team having 1 opening day starter from a year ago in the starting lineup to start this year? What I get from oeilpere (and agree with wholeheartedly) is be patient. This team will be very dangerous in about 20 or so games.
Agreed! I think the 5-1 start fooled everyone into thinking we were a 2-4 seed in the West. It's not out of the realm of possibility to be a high seed, but we are more likely a 7 or 8 seed. And right now we are playing a few notches below that level. It will be interesting tonight to see how the team will play on the second half of a back-to-back with the first game being a huge blowout.
not trying to be a hata or anything...but... "distribution" begins with exactly what position again? much work to be done, steve. much work. imo, steve francis has the capability to drive this team to great heights or sh*tty lows. make no mistake, it is an extremely difficult job he has. but it is one which - from draft night - he has openly stated to desire. steve ABSOLUTELY MUST learn the balance between scoring and passing. to this point in the season, i'd give him a "D+" in this area. he ABSOLUTELY MUST ATTACK the defense at all times...all the while realized when are where his teammates (outside of the baseline cutting cuttino) and be able to deliver that pass. that's a hell of a feat to accomplish. still he must do it. nights when he doesn't take 20 shots and the rockets get blown out piss me off the most. that's steve not doing his job. what he must do - IMO - is the opposite of MJ. MJ used to get everyone else involved at the beginning of the games, then saved the end of the 2nd quarter and entire 3rd quarters to get himself going. 4th quarter was a matter of MJ balancing the passing and shooting. steve must assert himself FIRST AND FOREMOST in the offense - especially since we are missing motay. motay was good for a quick 12 in the first quarter. no rocket has successfully filled those shoes. steve is my choice to do so, in that first quarter. he could spend the 2nd and 3rd quarter feeding off the fear he instilled with his scoring ability by distributing the ball. he'd still get 3-4 shots off per quarter off of his sheer ability! his fourth quarter M.O. would be identical to MJ's. at this point, he (steve), IMO, is still struggling with the balancing act. nights like dallas, he has it down. even if his shot wasn't falling, he still would have been effective. other nights...well...other nights lead me to start threads like i did on saturday!!!
It does not all have to be Steve distributing the ball, look at Sacremento as a prime example...all of them were setting up their teamates and cutting backdoor to the hole. The Rockets need to do 2 things. 1. Push the ball up the court and get some early offense. 2. Pass the ball more often, the ball moves faster then the dribble. DaDakota
OP, did you really mean to put your post in this thread? You didn't even mention Collier. I have a hunch that because you put a lot of thought, composition and keying into your posts ( unlike mine) you may do your posts in another program then copy it to a reply. Anyhoo, I thought Cato would be brought back in also, and I also thought his fouls were questionable, considering other non-called fouls at the Rockets end. I'm not really a big Cato fan, but agree he needs minutes to contribute. Did he maybe say something Rudy didn't like when he took him out? Also, I agree about Rice getting the ball where and when he wants it. Steve should really be focusing on that. He doesn't need to worry about Cat, since Cat creates his own shot. Now for Collier. I haven't heard anything official, but it takes longer to recover from stomach surgery than you would think. I read where Rudy had good things to say about him before he had the surgery in pre-season. Collier does have a good mid-range jumper for a 5 and passes well and sets solid picks. If he is healthy again, I would like to see him get some minutes. Like many have said, I don't think he would do any worse than Cato, and he has more versatility offensively.
The point about Francis is a great point. In fact in the Dallas game, he started out aggressive and that set the tone. I think I would want Mobley to do the same. Willis should start. The points about Rice not being ready are valid and we can in my opinion reduce his role so that he can solidify his comeback. In the meantime, let us at least get Torres and Griffin going. Someone talked about Griffin shooting. It must be poor if he keeps on taking the kind of shots that he is taking. Low post play is what we want. We are in trouble if we seek to increase our reliance on Williams. Get our youngsters involved. Some are wide active bodies, not like Cato, and some are quick and athletic, not like Rice and Williams. I would say that our record would have been the same or no worse if our rotation was Willis,Thomas,Morris, Francis, Mobley, Collier, Griffin, Langhi, Moochie and Torres.
OP, I agree with Moe. Nice post, but feel free to start a new thread. You're simplifying what distribution is too much for my tastes, verse. I buy oeilpere's more in-depth definition that includes team positioning and "familiarity" with what the coaches are trying to achieve. Sacramento does a lot of zipper action to take advantage of high post passers and wing shooters, drivers. The basics of zipper offenses is high post positions getting down screens to slide straight down the lane. If you squint your eyes, you can see the generalized movement of up and down sliding along both sides of the lanes. This alternates sides, and ballhandlers/shooters will take up high wing positions. It gets more complicated than this, but the general idea is both the strongside and weakside is doing the same thing and using the high pivot and low post areas as main entries. This all has to be well coordinated, and Bibby does not run the show. The pivot man does, hence why Divac is the leader in assists--not Bibby. Sac seemed to always be cutting on cue. Constrast that to how we would pass to spots after a cut (oops, he's not there anymore), or we would not cut when the dribbler needs to pass. We also are not showing a consistent strategy for cutting and not getting the pass, then knowing what to do without getting in the way...that is, find someone to pick for, or find an open spot. In our offense (in general), we time weakside movement and slashing with the ballhandler. We have picks to get the ballhandler in the middle, but if the defense stalls him, we are supposed to move based on that stall, since that means they are overplaying Francis. Our timing with helping the ballhandler (mostly Francis) when the defense stalls his progress is largely what I think oeilpere is talking about. Francis is not off scott free, in my mind either by any stretch. We are not doing that great against teams that are cutting off penetration. Francis often passively "finds" a spot up shooter, who will take the "open shot," or looks for a late coming second pick to get him moving again. He could use his picks better; he could be a floor general and direct traffic better; he could run transition better; and sometimes he is the reason that he got cornered by the d, in the first place. But I just think you exaggerate Francis's ability to fix things by himself. The team is trying to make reads of the defense, and our timing is off sometimes. I do not buy that Rudy can wave a magic wand and give us a new system, either. Guard penetraion systems are pretty common, and they are more than just penetrate and pass out. If he is teaching that way only, then I have to believe the team is having trouble learning picking and cutting on cue. It is not that hard, but some players just don't get it. For instance, I think Mobley gets lost sometimes knowing when to cut and how to spot when someone could use a pick. And I think Francis sometimes just doesn't want to use his picks (sometimes he could have went by the picker a lot tighter) and that tells me he doesn't really trust the coaches with what can happen after he uses the pick....almost like he's wary of a trap that didn't even show itself. <b>Moving with a coordinated purpose</b> You don't want to pick just to be picking; you don't want to cut just to be cutting; and you don't want to pass just to be passing...the coordination can be taught and explained, but at some point it is up to the players to execute.
Crispee, we should call you coach. Thanks for helping me grasp the finer details. I agree with you on the Francis deficiencies.
Collier can't play dead! He sux, was and is a wasted pick and thats that. Cato sux too, so basically e just dont have anything down low but willis.
On the original topic.... I think that Collier should be #9 on the depth chart. #1-8 - Francis, Mobley, Rice, Thomas, Cato, Moochie, Williams, Willis #9 - Collier #10-12 Griffin, Torres, Morris IR - Langhi, Brown There are several reasons why Collier should be on the active roster. 1) I don't trust Cato. If Cato is playing decent ball, we can give him more minutes. If he is falling asleep on the court, put in Collier. 2) Oeilpere: We don't want Willis logging too many minutes. 3) Against teams like the Timberwolves, Lakers, and Portland (not tonight) we could reach the 4th quarter without a center because of fouls. Back off the topic.... Steve definetly needs a little discipline. He is going to look like AI before the season is over if he keeps breaking plays and running into the heart of the defense only to triple clutch and go plummeting to the floor. TWO NAGGING INJURIES already this year for Francis, and many more to come if the offense continues it's undisciplined play. I hope that Rudy can convince him of this before he learns the hard way with a serious injury.
I think that the Collier's added bulk, which seemed to be such a good idea in the offseason, has turned out to be a bad thing. In the preseason it seamed that the added bulk further limited his already anemic vertical jump, and makes him a complete non-factor on defense. I really think he needs to spend an offseason with KT's personal trainer before he'll be able to log consistant minutes.
Collier is a backup center. In my mind, he doesn't need to be perfect. I don't mind that white boy can't jump as long as he can bang, and the muscle and weight does help with that. It would be nice if he could keep up with the horses, but I can deal with that as long as he can hit the mid-range, long-range shots he's supposed to and set good picks, etc. I just want him to space out the floor on offense, knock down those jumpers a la Mo T, throw the weight around on defense, grab some boards, and block out his man. If he can do those things, I'd be happy giving him 20 minutes a game every game behind a good starting center. I think with time we could compete for the championship with Griffin and Collier platooning at center. But those are two very big 'if's.
Collier was drafted for his outside shooting..... In my opinion, we don't need anybody else shooting from the outside and missing. Our shooting percentage sucks because of the number of 3's and near 3's that we shoot without success. We need someone to think rebound when we shoot those unsuccessful outside jumpers. I also would like to know where Ike Nwanko is, he played hard when given the chance and would continue to play hard because his main goal is to play. Besides, he doesn't think he is a 3-point threat and he will not force the shot. Collier might force it trying to prove something. Does anyone know where the fast break points have gone? Steve and Cat are probably leading the team in rebounds IF YOU DON'T COUNT WILLIS.
