All this "who gets the ball" talk will be mute once Rudy fully implements his system. I think when these rocks come to full bloom, there will be more non iso plays in crunch time. ------------------ When I die, I want to be reincarnated as that chair in the Britney Spears video.
I really believe that the pick and roll is the right offense for this team. Every one of our starters can drive to the hole well, with the exception of Dream. We should run it more w/ Steve or Cuttino and Mo setting the pick...this will either cause an open shot for for Steve or Cat or it will give Mo Taylor a shot from mid-range or an open lane to drive in. Whatever we run needs to have more motion in it than ISO plays so we can get more open layups. ------------------
Heypartner, I see what you are saying, but I think Phoenix won the game because Kidd penetrated and kicked it out to Marion and Gugliotta as much as Marion's ISO's. My complaint about the ISO is that Rudy goes to it too often for it to be effective against good teams. I like Cat, but sorry, he is simply not nearly as good as Marion and Finley. All of this works against the lesser opponents, but I still maintain that the Rockets lose the close games against the better teams because of their simple lack pof play calling creativity. Good players go cold if they stand around and watch the ISO's. Oh, yeah, the Rockets also tend to lose when Walt "Glue Factory" Williams plays for any substantial minutes. -Elvis! ------------------
Elvis, You did it again. We "lack play calling creativity", yet Phoenix and Dallas had none, either. I think your argument is we lack a goto guy like Finley. Then again, maybe we lack a 3pt shooting, penetrating big man like Nitwitz to take Finley's passes when he can't get it to the hole. I don't buy it. We lacked a center in most all big games we lost this year. Otherwise, we have a much better record. Fancy play calling at crunch time doesn't work for hardly any teams. It is because the timing it takes gets disrupted by defenses more easily than the simple calls like pnr and ISOs. Fancy play calling is for the 1st 3 quarters, imo. You go to your simple bread n butter in the late 4th, and ball movement when the double comes.
Mobley had the mismatch, not Francis. That is why he was so freaking successful. And that is why he got a layup look in the end, and a painful rim out. They only "period" about this is Mobley had the 4th Q mismatch, period.
FANTASTIC POST!! Last night's game was a classic example of "players don't win/lose games...teams do". Everyone is to blame for last night's loss, players and coaches: 1. Mo should've been brought back into the game as soon as the lead was under double digits, and they should have immdiately worked him back into the offense. He was have a great night shooting, and would have put pressure on the suddenly-hot Gugliotta. 2. The guards will be lethal when they begin to realize that their ability to create for others is just as vital as their ability to create for themselves. It was great to see Steve's 3rd Qt. performance and Cat's 4th Qt. performance, but it would have been better to see the team have a big 2nd half performance. I mean, Steve should be embarassed with his assist total, especially when compared to Kidd's. And before anyone comes up with any excuses, let's remember who won and how they won. 3. LEAVE THE OFFICIALS ALONE!! Let Rudy work them!! Contrary to popular belief, the refs really weren't that bad last night. The only call that they absolutely blew was the charge called on Steve. I think Rudy went ballistic on the no-call on Moochie, but that play was similar to the no-call that Kidd got earlier when he went up and tried to draw contact on the break. It wasn't the greatest game in turns of officiating, but they don't have any fouls that take 8 points off the lead in the NBA either. 4. Why is Cato in the NBA again? Oh yeah, somebody has to wear #13 in honor of Wilt, don't they? Too bad he's about a universe away from Wilt in terms of play. Bill & Calvin always say that when Cato decides to mentally leave the hotel and join the rest of the team on the floor, the Rocks are a completely different team...it sure would've been nice to have a stopper/rebounder in the paint last night. OH WELL! 5. Where was Shandon? The team did a horrible job getting him involved, and he did a horrible job in getting himself involved. He could have given the team a lift by putting some defensive pressure on Marion. To his credit, Walt tried to and had a pretty solid game. Once again, the Rocks are a different team when Shandon is involved offensively. My point is that when a team loses a game in which it was up by as much as 18 points, 99.99% of the time the "blame" should be passed team-wide. All of the Rocks are to blame for last night. ------------------
Actually Nomar, "SEVERE computer problems" is more like it. I would hit the "Submit" button, and I got back a "wrong password message", so I re-entered the password and hit submit again. Then the server here at work went down. So when I checked back later, and saw the posts I was like "F*()!!". ------------------
