In the interest of not being long-winded, what the hell is going on here. I haven't watched as much League Pass this year as last, but I don't remember any team ever getting pressured as much as the Rockets, and don't remember any team every failing so consistently to get the ball in bounds. I think teams foudn out that the Rockets got off rythm when they were pressured so started doing it more and more and than happily found out that not only does it screw their rythm, the Rockets can't even get it inbounds consistently. They shouldn't have to run an entire freaking play to inbound the ball. You need two players, one to set a pick, the other to break to the ball. If that player can't get it, the pick-setter should have someone on their backside. What is the problem?
This is a big big problem for us. If we get to the playoffs this year, Lakers/Kings/Spurs will pressure our guards on every single inbound passes... it's ugly even just thinking about it.
I'll agree that a big part of the problem was the Rockets exicution of the in bounds pass but also the Refs were letting the Pistons run thru the man recieving the pass. That is clearly a foul and the lack of calls almost caused some major on the court fights last night. There was one play that Cat was recieving the in bounds pass and one of the pistons cut his legs out from under him to intercept the pass and still no foul was called as cat laid on the floor. The officiating last night was not steller.
The Rockets have 63 games to work out all the kinks and mishaps in their offense. While two games doesn't make a whole season I like the fact that we're now left complaining about smaller things that can be fixed more easily than worrying about how everyone is going to get their touches and how everyone is going to play teamball. I think by the team the season's over our turnovers will be cut down. I mean lets face it. We have a bunch of new faces, and a couple of old ones playing new roles. Sometimes we'll have errors where one guy will make a pass that would lead to a player going baseline when he was cutting into the center of the paint. Those are errors that are more about not everyone knowing what their teammates tendencies are. If I had to say the best way to eliminate the press. Just have Yao step out to half court or closer and be ready to accept an inbound pass. It really is a luxury to have a 7'6 player to lob to before the 5 second violation takes place.
Rockets turned over four inboudns passes against the Pistons. Two of them consecutively. That is really unacceptable. I remember when Bill Fitch came on as coach. He made a big deal about putting in a play to get the ball inbounds. Said something pompus like "now we can start" or something. I thought he was just being an (butthead) at the time. Maybe there is more to it than I understand.
Ditto London. This isn't so frickin' hard. Geez. Toss it to the tall guy. Tall guy passes it upcourt, and how. Break. Tall guy runs the floor, can be a trailer. Hit him running at the hole, easy 2.
they actually did that once when pressured coming up the court...Yao stood just inside the halfcourt line...and recieved the pass and held it until one of the guards got to midcourt. I think this is something they will be working on...just like they have been working on every other weakness they have. I think we can expect to see much less of the little mistakes by the AS break.
Six of the eight players who are entrenched in the rotation have been with the Rockets. And only Cato has taken on a greater responsibility than in the past. Only Piatkowski and Jackson are really new to the rotation.... and they aren't doing much ball handling. Almost none of the turnovers we see are due to this reason, and certainly not turnovers on inbound plays. Besides, Jackson is only responsible for 1.8 turnovers a game. After watching him from the beginning of the season, I consider him to be the best transition passer on the Rockets. Yao - not new Cato - not new Taylor - not new Mobley - not new Francis - not new Norris - not new
London's Burning is right that the Rockets just need to work on this a little. You are right that 6 players have played together for at least a year and still can't inbound the ball properly... It just go to show how weak the Rockets are at fundamentals! Jeff has a lot teaching to do. Just like last week when Jeff had the players learn BB 101!
Let Jackson help bring it up instead of CAT. That pits a taller SF on a good ball handler (JJ). On the inbounds I think they need to work on a pick inbound with Yao / Steve with JJ throwing it in. The only problem with Yao is not catching as much as holding onto the pill. He needs to get stronger in this regard and not get the ball knocked away so much.
I watched that Pistons game. The 2 concecutive inbound turnovers at the start of the 2nd half were unacceptable. Just lazy no good play to start the half. Later in the half, though, I was concerned that we were starting to look like "choke city" again. Our guys get into a bit of nervous/panic mode towards the end of games, making them either closer than they should be or worse, causing us to lose a game we should win. We gotta get mentally tough at the end of games.
