Current angst expressed over the Rox lately(well for a long time) have been: 1) Steve Francis 2) Getting Rid of Rudy 3) Eddie's development 4) Posey's poor play 1) Francis is a great player. No one will disagree. Would it be best for him to play as his position dictates, PG? Yes, and no. He can be a PG when he forces it upon himself, and he will do a average to above average job. However, he is at his best when given the green light to shoot when he wants. Although his decision making/mental area of the game is not up to par, his sheer athleticism makes up for this lack of experience/knowledge of the game when given the green light. The Problem: We have a lot of talent now, and Steve needs the green light, but giving that to him excludes the new talent. Not giving him the go ahead gets others involved, but Steve is usually not as effective. 2) Rudy is vastly underrated. However, I am not blind to his faults either. Who is Rudy? a) He sticks to his system, until it absolutely won't work. b) He makes his system simple These are positive or negative depending on your players. Sticking to his system is good when you have consistent veterans, and they will usually deliver for you. Making his system simple allows for less errors, but redundancy and repetitiveness. This is "bad" to most of us right now because our players are NOT skilled veterans who can deliver in a "cause and effect" manner, ie. Hakeem receives ball on baseline (cause) Hakeem scores (effect), and so will consistently deliver bricks and etc. What does Rudy do well? a) He involves the bench b) He gets the players to never put their heads in the ground c) He gives consistency Involving the bench can be good or bad, but Rudy's benches have almost always overacheived over the course of a season perhaps to the detriment of their starters. His players don't look down, and while veterans can take the optimism, younger players sometimes take the praise and let it get to their heads. His consistency was noted above in "cause and effect". 3) Eddie Griffin can be a stud. I may be alone here, but Eddie Griffin has a whole lot of the capital P, potential. However, this requires the right teachers. I do not believe that the current staff is ready to handle his development, however. Surrounded by the right people, however, I feel that Eddie will become an awesome force. Whether or not this will happen, I do not know. However, to trade him may be a huge mistake given that he could be surrounded by the right people to work on his shot mechanics, footwork, and defense. 4) Posey is still a good player. This is where I go against the majority opinion, but in time I feel that he can become a solid player. The only problem is, Rudy's system has never fit his type of play. Does this mean he is a bad player, by no means! He has athleticism, defense, speed, and passing ability. However, at the 3 in Rudy's system, a sharpshooter is required. Conclusion: Rudy is still a "championship coach." Here is why. His belief seems to be that great players win big. So what does he do? He looks for and then develops his chosen players with the mindset that they will be a star. So they buy into it. They may deliver over time, and they may never deliver. However, he sticks by his players. Is this a good thing? It is debatable. However, he is a championship coach in the fact that almost every team that has won a championship has won it with one or two great players whose individual play was on another level from that of the others. There are few other than Magic's Lakers and Bird's Celtics that were truly pass-oriented teams that won them. Hakeem, Jordan, Duncan, Shaq, and all the past greats such as: Chamberlain, Russel, Kareem, Oscar, Isiah, became insanely good players. Very few teams have the passing talent or ability to pull off championship consistency with highly pass oriented offenses. The reason I feel it is frustrating right now is that teams like Dallas and Sacramento are winning with these types of offenses. So yes, we are playing primarily iso-ball, yes we are playing a simple system, yes we are predictable, but we have two stars who have not yet given up in Yao and Steve, one big P in Eddie Griffin, and a shooter at his prime (Mobley). Rudy may pull through with his system, because his system requires time and patience. He knows what it takes to be a champion, and he is not looking for a good team who goes into the playoffs just to lose (asofar aka. Dallas or Sacramento) but a great team that dominates and wins it all. So what should we do? W S A E I and E T As for me, I still believe.
See, this is kind of constructive criticism that I use to see on the board. Now its bunch of "fire Rudy" and "trade francis" threads that just bash without real analysist and just rehashes what espn says.
I agree with most, but one MAJOR point: Eddie Griffin will be nothing more than an Horry or Buck Johnson unless he buys a new shooting form. His shot knuckles off his palm and tips and it flat as Jose Lima's fastball! Dude needs some serious help and I am shocked that we have not corrected it....He is going to be a perinnial 39%er unless he learns a new shot and gets some touch!!!!
Tyson Chandler was horrible last year. But look at him now. Eddie's game is alot like Tyson's, if not that aggressive. I have my faith on Eddie.
Wow...someone writting positively....i feel the anger leaking out my ears. Time to be joyful. Atleast we have a team. Thanks Fuzzy Bear
Amusing that, since most ESPN pundits think Rudy's a great coach and that Steve is a fantastic PG. There's a lot more negativity here than on ESPN about the Rockets. I think the general mainstream verdict on the Rockets is "they could do a better job of involving Yao, but they're young and need time" I think the mainstream verdict here is "they're young, but have shown almost no progress over the course of the season, and are actually regressing in some areas."
excellent, excellent, excellent freaking contribution to the bbs. thank you for redeeming this often heck-forsaken place.
Nice post and all, but let's be realistic. -Steve is NOT a franchise player. Until we DO get a franchise player, we won't be any better off than the Suns in the West. We will probably make the playoffs, assuming this is Stockton and Malone's last year in Utah.....leaves an opening for us. -Mobley can not be the starting guard on a western conference contender; if he is, the players surrounding him must be very good. He's a back-up '2'. -Posey....same as Mobley. Unless the players around him in the line-up are very good, he shouldn't be the starting SF on a championship contender. He's an average defender that plays well in fastbreak situations, but because of his minimal offensive skills, is terrible in the half-court. Some of that may have to do with our lack of an offensive scheme though. -Other than his body, there has been no improvement with Griffin and his offensive skills. -We don't have a solid offensive scheme, or players that can improvise when the play doesn't go according to plan. I don't care what Rudy, Steve, or any other person says, just watching the game will tell you that. -MoTaylor has plenty of offensive skill, but Rudy needs to tell this guy to stay within 10-feet of the basket where this guy can do a lot of damage. -Yao....same as MoTaylor. -Both Yao and MoTaylor need to learn how to pass out of the post quickly incase they don't have proper positioning. Then immediately attempt to post up again, not necessarily in the same exact position. Mix up our low post offensive scheme...if we actually have one. The Rockets just aren't a good team overall. There isn't anyone in the West we're better than, and we're equally as good/bad as the Suns. We're exactly where we should be. At least with the Mavs and Kings we know the problem. Kings need to get over the "Laker-hump", and Dallas needs to actually find some defense in the off season. With the Rockets, there's a massive load of issues that need to be addressed.
My question to you. Which head coach is best for the Rockets? One that makes excuses or one that has a solution to the problem.
Damn, you weren't kidding when you said long post... Should have said freakin' long post so all you MoFo's that can't read, dont' click... Great post...I agree with you everything excpet EG... He does have a lot of potential, but so did Jay Williams and look at his sorry azz... Without the right coach, teacher, system, EG will go away somewhere else and be a big time star... Unfortunately, I don't think it will be with the Rockets because he's going to want a lot of money eventhough he has only shown flashes of greatness and the Rox won't pay...It'll be tied up with Yao and Franchise, as it s/b...
Agreed, until Francis learns how to have a major impact even when his shot isn't falling (like Kidd and Payton) he won't be there. I don't agree here. The Spurs, Nets and Wolves would kill for a Mobley. Mobley is a good player who would be a super role player around a dominant player, but when asked to be a great player he can't do it and Steve and Yao just are not consistently great players. Posey would also be an important player if not starter for the Spurs (he is better than Jackson just doesn't get Jackson's looks) or Wolves (they would play KG at the 4 & Wally and Posey at the two swing positions). Agreed and this is troubling, not sure if his defense has gotten better either. I think Yao is often more effective with a little space (high post) than the baseline close to the basket (where Yao's positioning against equal or stronger. Mo is also good at the high post. I also think they pass fine, but don't often get good moving targets. IMO we should be better than Utah and the Suns on talent, we have not gotten the leadership from Francis and Rudy.
Actually, I think Griffin played pretty good defense against Duncan the other night. It's his shooting I'm most disappointed with.
No....we SHOULDN'T be better than anyone except the Suns who we are pretty much equal too. Just my perspective, but talent means someone has proven their abilities on a consistent basis for some time now. Potential, and all the other words people like to throw around, just mean they haven't proven **** but will sometimes show flashes of good play. Guess what we have. The Jazz have Malone and Stockton. Yes, they're old, but no one knows how to run an offense better.....EVER. Throw in players like Harpring and Kirilenko, and you've got yourself a TEAM. We just plain suck......with a capital 'S'.
