It is a guards league, and ours suck !

So your adjustment is let 5 or 6 guards sitting on bench all night long instead of using them? Another big problem is Howard usually disappears after 1st quarter, Swift is even more foul prone than Yao. Baxter is still unproven. We would be too thin at PF position.

 

The Numbers Don't Lie Folks, Anderson and Alston are Sub-40% Shooters

Minutes/FG%/3Pt%/FT%
Derek Anderson 26.8 .348 .333 .810
Rafer Alston 31.3 .323 .280 .727

That's just unacceptable!!!

And from last nite's game - consistently inconsistent

Alston shoots 1 for 8 = 12.5% with 4 assists
Anderson shoots 1 for 4 = 25% with 1 assist

Need anyone look any further?

I'd like to say its shot selection but IMHO it's just plain BAD SHOOTING!!!!! Either DAs and RA's games are suffering in the JVG system or they are just BAD shooters. Independent of all the criticism I myself and others have levelled against Yao, the fact that our starting backcourt DUO is shooting this poorly is reason enough why we're losing. To have at least ONE guard shoot the ball decently will do wonders for Yao and the front line.

Now if you were the opposing coach and saw these stats, wouldn't you be tempted to front Yao and DARE the Rocket guards to beat you????

Not exactly Rocket Science.



theSAGE

 

Our Guards Also Play Lousy Defense

Alston's biggest disappointment to me is his lack of footspeed. And while DA is a little quicker, he doesn't seem a whole lot quicker when matched against fleet footed opposing LEGITIMATE STARTING 2 GUARDS. Given this REALITY, JVG's insistence on playing man D is truly r****ded IMHO. Playing man D puts stresses on Yao and our Forwards on rotations when our guards get beat. And unfortunately, our guards are getting beaten a lot. Time to suck it up and just admit our weaknesses and play ZONE.

There's no shame in it.

(Last post from me today My apologies to the board for my anger. I ate a bad EggMcMuffin earlier today.)



indigestionSAGE

 

Darius Miles? Wow, that would be horrible. Yes he's having a good season but that guy's been a headcase his whole career. He's a me-first player and would ruin what chemistry the Rockets have. The reason he's putting up numbers is because he's on a horrible team where he gets to take a ton of shots. This happens all the time to average players on terrible teams. Darius Miles is a joke, wouldn't want him on the Rockets for anything.
Then Sprewell, again a headcase whose said himself that he's lost a step and can't defend like he used to. So, with Latrell we get a headache who claims he can't feed his family on $7 million a year, doesn't defend well cuz he's lost a step, and who has never been a good outside shooter.
The Rockets need to start Luther Head and Stromile Swift, period! Those guys have looked great we they get to play, JVG needs to get them some more minutes.

 

derek anderson is a huge disappointment! this is my second time watching him play for the rockets and he doesn't seem to have any structure to his game... he does things and you wonder if he can even do it given his speed and shooting capabilities... i'd rather have a guy with more limited but refined skills

alston should get better, but right now both starters are terrible... dickerson and mobley were given the chance to shine and they did...i think luther should get that same chance cuz wesley can't help win ballgames right now

btw swift is what i was afraid he'd be... this guy can't position himself for boards and doesn't have good team defense fundamentals...his athleticism save him often time, but otherwise he looks disjoint from the offensive/defensive sets

 

i also saw a nice pick from yao, then a run to the basket w/ his back to the ball. TMac was trying to make a pass, saw yao wasn't looking and had to go elsewhere. they still don't understand how to run the most basic play in bb.

and yao should not be trapping out on the perimeter- do you ever see shaq doing that? no wonder yao's tired- he has to constantly scamble back into the paint after running at some dude a foot shorter out near the sideline.

i wouldn't have thought it possible, but after watching most of last nights game, we are slower now than we were last year. DA and RF seem befuddled, and J-Ho is a non-entity. with T-Mac hurting, Yao is pretty much our only complete player, and he's constantly doubled.

 

That says to me they're not bad shooters per se but are (i) slow in adjusting to a new system or (ii) in the case of DA, relied too much on athleticism to get open looks in the past and is now experiencing a steep drop-off and hasn't been able to compensate yet in in-game situations.

The sky's not falling...yet.

 

GP MPG PTS FGM-FGA FG% 3PM-3PA 3P% FTM-FTA FT%
Darius Miles 6 38.7 20.3 8.3-17.2 .485 .0 - .2 .000 3.7-7.2 .512


Horrible team? Yes, they will probably wind up in the basement. But right now they are 3-3 with one blowout to Denver, a 4 point loss to Minny, and a 3 point loss to the Pistons. Add in another 6.5 boards and a couple assists and measure those stats against our 3-5 team with any of our shooting guard statistics and then tell me that Miles wouldn't turn this team up a notch. Yeah, his FT shooting sucks. So what. He eats the defenders alive from the elbow down to the baseline, freeing up TMac to run the perimeter and shoot it or run the pick and roll. Your argument about his stats is the same argument we heard about TMac's stats. It doesn't hold water.


Yes, I think I'd like to see Swift start over Howard. Although, that isn't the total answer either. Swift is blowing assignments all over the place and he has very poor one on one defensive skills. He may give us a block or two that Juwon doesn't give us right now but he doesn't turn us into a defensive or offensive juggernaut at this point in the season.

And Head has played tremendously...............for a rookie. But he can't stop the dribble penetration either. He may be better than Anderson defensively because of his youth and energy but that doesn't mean he's the answer to what's ailing us.

The main problem right now is we ain't shooting worth a flip and if TMac and Yao don't shoot 60% then our chances of winning are slim and none because everybody else is going 1 for whatever. Sprewell can't possibly be worse than what we've got and if we could get him for vet minimum, what have we got to lose? Somebody needs to convince TMac of it.

 

Derek Anderson has never really put up good numbers, its not like hes playing bad here in houston, hes playing like he always has from what I can tell.

 

Somehow, I think the 10 to 1 margin "for" of 6 weeks ago is shrinking....

http://www.clutchfans.net/poll_results.cfm?PollIDView=92

 

Imho, our deficiencies are on the offense end. Though I do have to admit that even coaches who are masters at defense use zone to catch opponents' offense off-guard.

 

Good post. I think this is totally accurate. We need to get the other guys involved. They are deferring way too much to Yao and McGrady and can't get going. They seem totally out of sync offensively because of it.

 

I thought this is still November, the first month of the season? Can we wait until January?

 

Will it matter then?

When you see things that are so obviously not working don't you want to fix them before it is to late? Do some of you guys really think that the current starting lineup is at some point in the future going to just click into gear and turn the team into a contender? Half a TMac and Ming against the world won't last for long and then what will become long is a losing streak. Some player adjustments are needed now. Frankly, this is on Dawson and JVG. I just don't believe that they are nearly as optimistic at this point as some of you are.

 

i hope everyone realizes that we cant' wait too long to get our offense going. because face it, last year if we got our sh*t together quicker, we would have had home court in the 1st round. same thing is going on here.

right now our guards have NO confidence shooting the ball. i don't know how many times i saw barry, alston, and others pass up open shots off of good swing passes then give it to tmac or yao with 4 seconds left on the shot clock and have them force up a shot. we need a person like luther head out there more because they are going to put up an open shot, with no hesitation. i think a trade needs to happen. i would like to see alston stay but right now i'd trade anyone except tracy and yao for a guy who is going to shoot an open jumper with confidence.

 

Of course it matters. Who are our primary ball handlers? Alston and Heads, and one of them just joined the team, the other is a rookie. Don't you think they need more than a few weeks to get comfortable with the team and the system?

I see all the problems you guys are talking about, but I'm willing to give them a little more time to prove it, work or not. Right now, we are playing above average D (1st or 2nd for opponent %), but suck on the offense. Alston is very timid out there, no one else can hit the shots, but all of those can change with more playing together. It's is pre-mature to say current roster doesn't work after only a few games.

I totally agree with you that it's entire on Dawson and JVG, who are the ones assembled this roster together, but it's only fair to give them time to prove if those are the right moves or not.

 

Yes, it does if it means we can learn to play together by then. Don't you think it's too early to declare current roster a failure in November? How many games have we played? A grand total of 8? There are still 74 games to play!

 

Man, I hope that Spanoulis dude can play.