We need time to build our chemistry. We must focus on our defence especialyy in crunch time. our shooters should hit their open shot. Yao should shoot as he did last year, not like some his hasty shot this year.
Great post Jeff. I think that everything that you pointed out can be fixed and i think will be fixed as the season goes along. The only thing that does bother me is Wesley's shooting. Since the dallas series last season all the way to now his shooting has been bad. I keep on thinking that eventually it will come around but it remains to be seen. Obviously when T-mac and Sura return we dont need to rely on Wesley nearly as much but until then he will continue to get atleast 20 mins a game so we need to see some production from him.
Regardless of gelling and chemistry, JVG should consider to upgrade the offense by putting more variety into it. With T-Mac out, the Rockets are left with post ups or simple screens. The Rockets offense now is stagnant and I blame it partly on JVG. Due to the lack of variety in offense, one on one play is magnified. They were trying to post up every pf and centers we have on the team. Mutombo, Howard and Swift aren't what I call post up specialists. Especially Mutombo, I love the guy but he's no better than Cato when posting up. Looks like JVG has become a desciple of Rudy T. Even when Mutombo hits a shot or two posting up it's not a good situation. It's one on one play that doesn't free up our perimeter shooting, it's also one on one play without continuity due to his lack of dominance. There's a little too much of one on one basketball regardless of its effectiveness and strategic importance, forcing square pegs into round holes. A little high post offense won't hurt. Luckily, it's not a problem the Rockets can't fix.
You made some great points, Jeff... Adding to your point on how we don't have any players currently making shots... I thought the players should make more cuts to the basket after they pass the ball inside to Yao. It almost seems like they're just standing around everytime Yao has the ball. And wtih the number of new players we have on the teams, they're still trying to get use to each other and the system. The Rockets made the changes that most of us wanted this off-season, so let's not panic just b/c we lost some games this early b/c T-Mac's out. Good point on adding variety into our style of offense.... Panda.
Great post..... Watching people b**** and moan (from the wesley sucks, to trade yao???) after 2 losses gets tired real quick. This is the most rational thing I've read on here in a week. Let these dudes get their chemistry together before saying anything rash. In the words of Long Duck Dong, "SHEESH".
What I have seen over the first few games is that The Rox are getting way out-quicked. All three teams have looked they they are running around the Rocket players at will, allowing double team pressure on defense and penetrating on offense . I guess I ought to be used to it by now because we haven't out-quicked anybody since Hakeem/Cassels. But to counter that we need team defense, rebounding, shooting and size. And Yao hasn't dominated yet, Swift isn't hip to team play yet and no one is shooting well yet. But I'm not too worried , I'm just lowering my expectations from around 55 wins to around 50. It's showing that we are pretty 'Tmac' dependent though.
True stuff has been said but Yao is the most important player for the Rockets after T-Mac and he (Yao) has played poorly. I feel pretty justified in being disappointed with Yao and lowering my expectations of what kind of player he might become. At this point I'm like, "what you see is what you get".
I have to disagree with you, Jeff. I think the ONLY reason we are losing these games is due to McGrady's absence. Sure, we have other problems like you pointed out, but those are very minor and all are caused by the loss of McGrady. I personally was amused in an earlier thread when so many were predicting multiple wins in McGrady's absence. I didn't think we would even win one game with him out and thus far that has held true. The reason being is that other teams have individual parts. Other players can step up their games when someone goes down. This team is predicated upon a system. All of these players, except for Howard who was a necessary evil in the trade, were brought in specifically for this system. Every player on this team, Yao included, plays off of Tracy McGrady. This isn't Yao and T-Mac, this is T-Mac and great role players, Yao being the best of them. On the bright side, I think Yao has looked phenomenal so far. His shooting has been atrocious, but he's getting his shots and he's looked much more agressive. T-Mac will come back, we'll run off 8 wins in a row, and all will be well again.
I was torn whether to post this in the asinine anti-Wes thread or here, but I feel many issues should be discussed under the Jeff's rubric 'keep perspective/no simple solutions'. The response on the board by many about Wes ... was pretty d*mn sad. And not just the fact that some here cannot see how important Wes' role is to our winning, but this guy works hard for this team to win. Like any older player, he will be slowed by injury and needs a little extra time to get his legs back, so his shot will suffer in the interim. Some folks here started implying that he always sucked, never could shoot, never helped us...yeah right. I feel compelled to support the guys who play on my team once I feel that they belong. That doesn't mean that I won't admit when someone's career is over or they no longer work well in our system, but when there's a reason why they're struggling I am going to support them and JVG's decision to let them get their game back. I understand how this can be frustrating at times...just like if you were playing ball with a buddy and his shot was off...you laugh and tell him he sucks...you know he'll get better...but you don't let the frustration get to you so that you want him to lose his job, all his friends, all his money, and then go after his family...and his dog. I think those here who are so quick to make ridiculous attacks on our players should think about what they're doing...this is our team and these are our guys.
Good post Cohen, Wes was clearly out-sized by VC last night. But in the absence of Bowen, he made VC work for his shots and used all 6 of his fouls doing so, as not to let VC take control of the game, like T-Mac did. 2nd to T-Mac last night, Wesley was the player of the game IMO (apologies to Yao).
Nice point codell. Looking solely at minutes played, JVG might agree w/ you also. Did you also notice that when DA went out w/ another foul, Wes went back in after barely having time to catch a breath on the bench? JVG was leaning heavy on him last night.
Dude! Clearly you havn't watched Yao much the previous years. His play is DRAMATICALLY improved over last year. He is playing much more aggressively and thusly is much more effective. Ironically, his efficiencly level has down but I attribute that to him adjusting to his new style of play. Once he feels more comforable playing more aggressively...watch out. His points average is up. His shot blocking is up. His rebounding is up. Besides last night, his minutes are up. Here is my prediction. Yao will get player of the week multiple times this season. He is playing THAT good right now. He's just missing a few shots that will start falling soon.
It's the fairweather fans that complain. True fans stick with their team. People who don't recognize Wesley are either impatient (Wesley has made a career out of playing good defense and knocking shots) , have short term memory (ignoring Wesley's contribution to this team last year), are insensitive (give the man a break, he's coming off knee surgery)
What the heck? You can't see that 21/10.5/2.3 is better then last year's 18/8/1? Please tell me what part did Yao played poorly besides that bad shooting at the end of the Hornets game?
