J-Hawk says "Swing the ball"

Its true you dont need a Rocket scientist to teach basketball, a Rocket coach is probably better.
With so many varied zone defenses this year, every team is working on passing, to get the ball to the weakness of the zone. The Rockets were stymied by the Blazer zone last night and Im sure there was plenty of talk today about beating zones.
RudyT is teaching not listenening, as many NBA coaches are doing today, trying to sharpen passing to beat zone defenses.
Nothing negative about that.

 

I've got something to tell ya, J-Hawk. Do NOT ever again follow another cutter through the lane in a motion set! This is not an inbounds play.

Hawkins is far, FAR from understanding motion. I cannot even begin to remember the last time I've see one player following another cutter inches in front of him. This is not a stacked wide out route in football. You are not going to lose the defense running together.

Kenny stopped after his cut, stared at Hawk in quick disbelief, and the best he could do was go back to his original spot.

well done Hawk

Shut up and sit done. Watch and learn.

 

for those with tape who want to see how lost Griffin and Hawkins can look,

rewind to 4:10 in the 1st Quarter. Watch Griffin push Hawkins into Sabonis to try to get lame low post position in a transition, but he gets bumped slightly and his little waif-ass self gets thrown off balance...still waving for the ball.

Moochie resets, and Kenny has to point and tell Griffin to go out to his picking spot...but then the horrendous .... unbelievable motion buster ... Moochie passes to Griffin, we got the zone moving and Kenny cuts on cue through the soft spot, when Hawk should go to the open spot Kenny left at the elbow...and

wow.

Hawk follows Kenny through the lane, leaving the open spot.

If I were Bobby Knight, I'd throw a chair onto the floor.

I love you Hawk....but don't EVER follow Kenny on a cut AGAIN!!!

damn!!!

 

HP,

Give me a break !!

Hawk has more basketball instinct in his pinky then you do in your bloated egocentric head.

He is dead on !!!

So what if he made a mistake on a cut.

Big DEAL...the message is still relevant.

DD

 

It would help of course, IF HAWKINS COULD HIT THE BROADSIDE OF A BARN ON AN OPEN JUMPSHOT.

 

I bet that is exactly what RudyT had to say, after the game.

Also KT looked like a traffic cop at times during the last few games, telling the young guys where to go

 

StupidMoniker,

Hawkins is arguably the best perimeter defender the Rockets have ever had, making Shandon looks like a really lucky b*stard. He even cuts and dishes better than Shandon. He does everything better than Shandon.

everything

But ... his motion instincts are not there. He has cut and slash instincts when in set play possessions, and a lot of that is about what he is saying regarding swinging the ball to the flex side, but when we are trying to actually do our little motion dance, I've got many more game tape marks to show Griffin and Hawkins wondering where they are supposed to be.

Motion is understanding, anticipation, and recognition. It is not Xs and Os. What Hawk has is what Shandon did; he follows the simplicity of set plays in a weakside role. But him telling us what Motion is when I've got tape proving Kenny is leaps and bounds ahead of him....Hawk can say

"Swing the ball"

but Kenny will say

"Think. Move with purpose. Don't follow me."

 

Dont see how the Rockets will have sharp ball movement, until a starting five and set rotation are established.

As to the message,,I think our thread starter added a little take to Hawks words. Im sure the Rockets prime concern after the Blazer zone stopped them..was to talk about passing the ball.

I cant see Hawk complaning about anything....think hes just happy to be here.

 

Maybe they should take a page out of Coach Dale's book from the movie "Hoosiers": there should be at least five passes before you can shoot out of the half court set.

 

hp,

What does any of that have to do with his horrible shooting? I don't disagree that he has trouble in the motion offense (didn't Rudy say it wasn't motion?), but the purpose of any offense is to get an open look. Against the zone defenses, that look isn't going to come for our best players most of the time, so other guys need to make open jumpshots. While I didn't mention Shandon before, I think that is a valid comparison. Shandon killed our offenses pecause the defense would let him have the open wing jumper and he couldn't hit it. I saw the same from Hawkins in the Clipper game and the Suns game (I think).

We get open looks. As far as that goes, I think the offense is kinda working. We don't get layups, and against the better teams we never will. We need five players on the floor to be able to hit their shots. That is why I like to see Francis, Mobley, Rice, Taylor (or Griffin, if he ever gets out of this slump), and Ming on the floor. We can't have another Shandon offense where the guy with the open look can't hit shots.

 

I do feel what J-Hawk is saying BUT when we do swing the ball around he's been the open man and has been unable to hit the WIDE open shot. YES, we need more ball movement but when you do get the chance for a wide open shot you gotta take it and hit with some consistency

 

the truth hurts

I just don't get why some people are so in love with KT's game...I just don't get it...

 

Stupid Moniker,

I just think his shooting and driving is overall equal or better than Shandon.

About "didn't Rudy say it wasn't Motion." yep...Rudy did say he is sensitive about using the word Motion. I believed in camp that he was saying don't expect any one thing to be done for 48 minutes, and don't expect us to stop isolating (especially SF and the low post players). I also suspected he might mean that Triangle and Utah, etc, are not Motion offenses so he was correcting the interviewer. There were several reasons why he might say that and instead say 5-man game. But Feigen continued to say "motion" rather than the flex that we've been trying to do for years, and Feigen finally confirmed last April (??).

anyhoot...I'm tired of calling it 5-man since no one else does, and as long as no one says the Passing Game (or Princeton), who cares anymore...use the "venacular." Just don't say we do it for 48 minutes.

 

hp, as usual, interesting comments.

count me as a hp suporter.


keep up the interesting work.

 

Well, Shandon is shooting for a higher FG% overall, but worse from three point range and the stripe. I just see a lot of similarity between Hawk and Shandn Andersn (thanks verse). Mostly perimeter defenders, not much in the way of offense, at best inconsistant on the open jumpers.