No way Rocks. The Rockets Offense has looked terrible way back to the second championship. It took adding another big time player to balance it out in Glyde. There were long stretches of seasons where injuries were not the issue and the Rox offense looked stupid stagnant. Once teams caught on to the the inside out game, Rudy didnt change his game plan, the Rox had to add Glyde. Once defenses caught on to this, it was add Barkley time. Then Offenses got used to the Barkley back it in and we went iso crazy, which lead to the 45 win season. But teams catch on, or in this case rules change. So you have to adjust to the rules, not hope that the rules adjust the games of your players. I dont see what Mo Taylor would of added to this team that Kenny T didnt. Kenny gave me about the same number of points, and more rebounding and hustle. Rice going down with injury actually improved the team...yes I said it. But in such a terrible season why not take the time to "CHANGE!!!" At least a bit. Experiment damnit. Run like hell up and down the court. Try to implement some motion offense. And why not throw Griffin out there and get some serious P time? What were we afraid of, him getting too much experience or him costing us a few wins? To me this was unforgivable. And whoever said it was a matter of how the Rox play has hit the nail on the head. I dont get to watch an extensive number of games anymore, but I get to see quite a few every year, and almost every game I watch with friends they all scream how terrible the Rox offense and defense looks. Every year. Its just a terrible and sloppy display of Ball. It seriously reminds me of JV ball. The basis is too simplistic to work on the NBA level. Take your best player line him up at the top of the key, wave everyone out and dribble till someone gets a sliver of space to pass to, or put up a last second heave. ACK! The most disappointing part is remembering when Rudy T promised a new style of offense. One that included running, gunning and utilizing the speed and youth of the Rox at the time. It took them all of 1 week to dump the idea and go back to old faithful. BTW: How absolutely refreshing to have a Rudy debate without the usuage of terms like "Non fan" or any bashing going on.
All I know is when I'm watching the playoffs, I feel terribly envious of fans who have teams that arent four guys standing around on offense and one guy playing with himself and the ball for 90% of their plays, and when breakdowns in offense or defense are an anomaly. Which means, nothing like our consistent Rockets. Heck the Lakers mixed it up to go full court press for at least 24 minutes to cut into that big lead last game. We have all this youth and speed but apparently zero basketball smarts.
Unfortunately, it is rather un-refreshing that we are still stuck with the usage of terms like "apologist."
Hakeem, Barley, Drexler, Pippen..........you can not put 3 out of the 4 on the same team......ego clash. I honestly don't know the sole reason, as if there is only one, for the Rockets horrible play this year..........whether it be Rudy or the players. I think we'll get a very good understanding of the entire situation after the end of the next season. How will we incorporate which ever player we draft, how will we handle playing time, development of players, and will we have an offense as well as defense? 'Til then, it's not too fair to evaluate this past season due to all the variables, though, all the injuries and several lineups don't excuse crap basketball. Doesn't mean we should have won 15 more games with all the players we had missing, but ISOs all day and no defense don't get you anywhere.
Not that you care or anything, Dreamshake, considering you never responded back to me, but it was Tyrone Washington. And that is a bit of a stretch to include him with Rodrick Rhodes, Bryce Drew, Langhi, Collier, etc. don't you think?
Those are two players going in the opposite directions. KT is on the rise and Mo T is well... (gaining weight, off court problems, injuries, etc..). Even before all that he was one dimensional 12-15 ft jump shooter first quarter specialist. Plays little defense, does not rebound well, soft etc...). KT plays better D, blocks, rebounds, steals, passes better and just a tougher and more physical player.
Awww come on Jeff. You can do better than that..right. Please reread the post, and realize the sarcasm involved in my exchange with Antisonic. But feel free to call me a basher...Im still a Rox fan all day long.
Awww come on Jeff. You can do better than that..right. Please reread the post, and realize the sarcasm involved in my exchange with Antisonic. But feel free to call me a basher...Im still a Rox fan all day long. And Manny I believe that was his full name, but if we are going to point out the unforseeable great pickup in the 2nd round, I guess its ok to point that absolutely terrible decision in the 2nd round too.
No its not. Washington was par for the course for a second rounder, got a chance, didn't make it. That a second rounder didn't make the team shouldn't be viewed as a negative against Rudy. Thats why the Mobley pick was so good, because they got such a damn good player in a position in which any player who even makes the roster is a bonus.
The worst thing Rudy did was win 45 games two years ago. I knew ever since then, people would expect too much from the team. There was no way, even if healthy, that they could've topped that mark this past year. This is so silly. The reason the Rockets haven't made the playoffs in 3 years is because they haven't been good enough. They haven't had good enough players. Instead of asking why a coach should survive 3 straight lottery campaigns, maybe you should ask why we should be thinking about giving a player the max who has led us to 3 straight lottery campaigns. And who cares about how pretty a play looks? When you have a talent disadvantage, a smart strategy is to slow the game down. Less possessions equals a greater chance of keeping the game close. Of course, then you get ragged on for losing close games, even when the games had no business being close to begin with. Sigh.
Let me chime in here. At some point this season, we were playing the Sonics, they kicked our ass, and there was a quote posted here of Rudy saying something like how the Sonics have overcome injuries and are playing real well . . . blah blah blah. And all I could think to myself was why can the Sonics overcome injuries but not the Rockets? Well the answer is simple, cause Rudy T. is not a good coach. The Rockets don't play defense, they don't rebound well, they don't pass the ball, they dribble too much. They are, in my best estimation, the worst fundamental team in all of basketball. You know why players like playing for Rudy T? Because he doesn't make them do anything. The Rockets need a new coach in the worst way. And even if I believed that Rudy T. was a good coach (which I don't) I would still say that they should find a new coach simply to put a new start to all of the losing seasons (and the non-playoff seasons) that the Rockets have had. Yes, he was the coach when the Rockets won two championships. But Rudy has already gotten several mulligans from the team based on those championship seasons. It is the time for a new start in Houston.
Games missed: Gary Payton -- 0 Brent Barry -- 1 Rashard Lewis -- 11 Steve Francis -- 25 What injuries did Seattle have to overcome? Blah blah blah is right.
Certainly the Rockets offense and defense took a nose-dive this past year. But, there were the few games and various quarters of other games throughout the season where the offense was just amazing (and not just because of unbeleivable shooting), and there was the right balance of Francis/Griffin pnr's, Mobley/Francis drive and creates, solid boardwork and good passing to recognize the open man. There were games and various quarters of other games where the team as whole decided to play defense and shut down the other team. It was rare that the team did it for 4 straight quarters or that they were both great at defense and great at offense at the same time (or even better than average at both). It is why we saw so many 5-10 point losses in the fourth quarter and so many 75-70 losses. The point: I believe there is good coaching going on that was interrupted by injuries and lack of chemistry for the most part, and lack of talent occasionally. In addition, sometimes the players just didn't listen. But I do think, whether he's a good coach or not, if the team continues to play poorly and execute poorly next year, tings have to change, and Rudy and team will have to go.
Rudy is a players coach and players like to play for him. He's a big part of the reason we have attracted some high profile free agents to come to Houston even if they didn't always work out. We all knew the rockets were rebuilding and all hoped they would do better last year, but they didn't. Yes they were boring to watch, yes they played no defense, but last time I checked it was the players on the floor responsible for actually playing, not the coach. The coach always takes the fall for the players, not the other way around. Are the Astros better without Dirker (also a players coach)? Not the last time I checked. Would the Rockets be better without Rudy? I don't think so but some people do. I think it boils down to this. In the process of rebuilding how far along are we? A. Just getting started (Missing 3 key players to make Playoff run) B. Rounding back into shape, talented but young (Missing 2 key players to make playoff run) C. Ready for playoff run (Missing 1 key player for playoff run) D. Ready to Challenge (Talent in place just needs time to jell) I think we are B working toward C and firing Rudy, a Career Rocket, now would be premature and a major setback. Editors Note: I intentionally left contract talk out of this argument because some of the contracts are undefendable and unexplainable.
Simply put, Rudy T is not a good "X's and O's" coach. Look at some of the plays that Byron Scott has drawn up for the Nets in the playoffs: absolutely brilliant. Rudy's plan would've been to just put the ball in Cuttino's hands, and let him launch a 30 foot brick. The new zone defense rule was meant to curb one-one-one isolation basketball, and encourage passing. Instead of adapting to the rule changes, Rudy sat around holding his nuts, instead of running some new plays that involved even the slightest bit of ball movement. I hate watching Moochie dribble for 22 seconds, only to kick it out to Griffin for a wild 3-pt shot. Rudy turned Eddie Griffin into a bad 3-pt shooter, instead of exploiting his other skills. Griffin was not active around the glass, and stood around the 3-pt. line most of the time. If the Rockets want Yao Ming to develop, then they better have someone better than Larry Smith or Jim Boylen to teach him post moves. As for Rudy leaving, don't hold your breath guys. Les is as loyal to Rudy, as we are to this BBS.
I will withold final judgement, but if the defense and ball movement does not improve SIGNIFICANTLY, then Rudy has lost his team and they are not listening to him, and it would be time for him to move on. DaDakota
DaDakota said it in a nut shell basically. Assuming next season is better as far as injuries go for the Rockets there shouldn't really be any excuse for a season failure as last year was. If we have the same talent we did two seasons ago, which we do, then the playoffs is a reasonable objective for this team if healthy. Look the team wasn't that far off from making the playoffs two seasons ago. And our defense then was worse I believe than it is now. We didn't have that allstar to take us to the next level unless you consider Steve an allstar two seasons ago. Well now he is. Now you've got the same team almost with greater potential with the addition of Griffin and with the good possiblity of drafting Ming. (And the 15 in the draft). Thats a playoff team. Thats a team that can deliver at least average defense that will open up a running game which this team would greatly benefit. If they are healthy for the most part during the season and still fall short then from a basketball standpoint something has to change from the coaching perspective. Rudy did well running a post up game which if you have Hakeem isn't that difficult. Now he has to do something we have yet seen. Change the offense dramatically to better take advantage of the zone. I hear about Rudy talking about taking advantage of it I just don't see it. But lets give Rudy one more chance to get Clutch City back on track before heads roll. Rudy's position as the head coach has never been more important to our success than it is now.
Well said DaDaKota. I do believe Rudy is a "good" coach, but he has to have the right players. Doesn't necessarily mean he needs a bunch of superstars......like a few years ago......but players that want to work together and play hard. Players that wanted to get better and didn't want to lose. We had those players for a couple years: -Hakeem -Thorpe -Sam -Max......of course he had issues, but he played hard -Horry.....didn't really seem to care too much on a consistent basis 'til the playoffs rolled around. -Drexler.....During '95 & the '96 season he was hungry to win. -Mario Elie......there isn't enough you could say about how hard he played, as well as the improvement on his offensive game over the years while he was with us. I was a big Rudy basher, but he could be replaced by Phil, Larry Brown, Pat Riley, etc., and you can't tell me they make the western conference playoffs. A coach can only do so much...........a lot of the time, players just have to develop themselves mentally, as well as physically. Now, I'm not saying Rudy is the greatest coach of our generation, but given the current state of the team....there really isn't much he could do. And the Rockets can go ahead and try to search for the immediate "fix", or they can realize that it will be a couple more years 'til they become a team that can contend with the Lakers, Spurs, Kings, and Mavs. Before that.....we need to worry about the teams like the Blazers, Sonics, and Clippers. On a side note...........how did A. Miller lead the League in assists with the Cavs??? I've known of this stat.............but it didn't really hit me 'til the second round of the playoffs. Oh well.
