Remember when the Rockets had no marketable stars, and all they did was execute their assignments and win games and championships, and we'd sit around here b****ing about how we were never on national TV and how the NBA and the media gave us no credit for our accomplishments? God, I miss those days.
This thread is boring. It has no all-caps nor multiple exclamation points. How do you expect to get anybody to read and respond to your stuff Will, if you don't shout with your keyboard and get all puffy and passionate...like this: GIVE YAO THE DAMN ANONYMITY!!!
I'm going to reply just for the '!!!' at the end of heypartners post! I miss those days too...(though I never I was only a lurker at that time!) ALA
Can we attach any significance to the coaching staff's transition from then to now? What impact did CD (as an asst) and Bill Berry have on the team fundamentals, and how was it that the team could win with several role players with <5 years NBA experience a la Horry, Cassell, and Carl Herrera? How did that team maintain its composure? Who taught them to play, or did they already know the game? I must admit that I'm scratching my head some- maybe that was a special group whose success can never be replicated by a different cast- ask the Pistons and their fans about that. Or perhaps it's just that as a whole, players are both less intelligent and less open to guidance than in the years of rocks greatness. Or maybe... we shouldn't believe that today's cast could even hold the jocks of the 94-95 squads, talent- or team-wise. Looks like it all sort of points back to the group in charge, eh?
Hakeem Olajuwon. You really think CD and Bill Berry make that big of a difference? Bill Berry is still an assistant with the Bulls, last I checked. He was passed over for Cartwright. What makes more sense -- that having one of the top 5 greatest players to ever play the game on the team made lesser players look better than they really were, or that CD and Bill Berry, two career assistants, put that team over the top? I think it's a little of these things, but mainly Hakeem Olajuwon. Horry and Cassell were both extremely smart players, we were definitely lucky to have them. And championships should definitely be cherished. There's a good chance those are the only championships a lot of us will see in Houston in our lifetimes. They could, except for one guy. Not really. That's the last conclusion one could draw, in my opinion. You can't bring Hakeem back...that's what the team needs.
I sometimes wonder whether we could get back some of the Hakeem formula by once again putting our smartest and best player in charge of the team. That would mean making Yao the best (more moves, weight training, etc.) and then making it clear to Francis that he has to follow Yao's lead if he wants to stay. I think we've seen enough of Francis's ability to run the team.
The issue was/is (basketball) smarts, and those teams had it in depth. not just akeem, horry, and cassell, but elie, drexler, kenny smith, and on down the line. the other character trait missing from this team is trust. those rocket's teams trusted in one another implicitly, a trait that allowed them to come from way behind in games and playoff series when their backs were to the wall. remember tho, that trust didn't happen over night,and it was only after Rudy convinced akeem that he could/should/must trust his teammates that things really clicked. deep down, francis only really trusts himself, and i suspect, deep down, yao doesn't yet trust himself enough...
True, but that doesn't mean we can't run the offense through Yao. Maybe not to the extent that we did with Hakeem, but Yao has shown flashes of being able to score one on one, and his ability to find the open man is exceptional. Portland has even gone through stretches of letting Sabonis touch the ball consistently, not because he can score, but because he makes good decisions and opens things up.
I've been reading a lot lately about the Rockets needing more/better assistant coaches. This sort of goes back to my point earlier of Berry and CD being career assistants. The truth is the only reason anyone knows who these two guys are is that they were on the Rockets' staff. Berry was an assistant at Michigan State, just like Boylen. He then coached at San Jose State for like 10 years, with a .500 record over that entire time. This guy wasn't even that great of a college coach. CD coached at Baylor for like 3 years. Berry has been an assistant in the NBA for close to 15 years now, just like CD was. The point is the Rockets' assistants weren't anything special when they were winning championships. If they were so great then why didn't they ever get a head coaching job? Bagging on the assistants now is kind of pointless. Head coaches don't make that much difference in the NBA, let alone assistants. It's the players that win.
Actually Hakeem was an very marketable super star; he just turned down lucrative deal after deal, because he wasn't in it for the glimmer like most players today. For ex. He turned down a multi year contract down with nike because he said he didn't want kids to get shot if someone wanted their shoes. Oh yeah and the reason that team was so good was Hakeem,of course.
Agree. I watched Akeem since the UH days. Yao may never become as good as Hakeem was in his prime with the shooting and rebounding but he is argueably a smarter player and better passer already. In all of Hakeem years, you can count on your fingers the assists he had passing to teammates for lay-ups. You run the offense thru Hakeem and you get wide open outside shots. Running the offense thru Yao, you will get those plus the lay-ups as well. Remember Walton with Portland in their championship year. That offense was a thing of beauty. Speaking of that, Dr. Jack Ramsay is still around. Maybe he'd like to coach the Rockets.
Yao as the leader? It's easier said than done. You have two gigantic obstacles to overcome in order to make him a leader of a team: (1) Language barrier. No way Yao could master a foreign language and be able to communicate with teammates freely in 1-2 years. (2) He's humble in nature. You want your leader to be vocal on the court and in the locker room.
Agreed... I like the national exposure, but damn, all it does is show how bad we suck... It won't be that way next year...gulp...I hope...
If the Francis experiment is a failure, you must trade him now for Jason Kidd. If nothing else, to prevent Duncan and Kidd from forever beating Francis and Yao. firing assistant coaches and trading role players is nothing but a patch if the real problem is the superstar's lack of ability to make the playoffs. imo, people are not facing this that Francis is no better than Marbury...they both have talent around them...one has not really improved after multiple coaching changes and different role players...but we fans want to cling to hope that our Starbury will be different, just because he has learned to say the right thing to the media. If the Rockets do not make the playoffs, it is the star's fault....everyone but Rockets fans know that. Get a new coaching staff all you want, and new role players, I won't argue. But if you don't trade Francis for Kidd, our hopes for titles rest solely on Francis doing a 180, and the Kidd/Duncan tandem is way way ahead of him and Yao. The time is NOW. Kidd will teach Yao to run a team, and they will win a title. I'm getting tired of teaching Francis to read defenses and hiding his weaknesses by playing systems that don't require him to think more than "should I pass or should I shoot." If you don't trade Francis, Yao will have to learn Walton's offense and just flat out demand to run the team ... doesn't seem like his personality. imo, it's so simple...the experiment is over if we miss the playoffs, get Jason Kidd in here to tutor Yao in route to a title...so when Kidd retires, Yao will be able to stand on his own with a smattering of role players who know who is boss.
Coaching never has helped star players, like I don't know, Jordan, Kobe and Shaq, Hakeem. Yeah you are right, its always the players' faults, coaching changes only patch holes. BTW, that's a list of 3 of the last four champions in the last decade, all improved with coaching changes.
Pgabriel, in the case of Jordan and Hakeem, they both became much better players with new coaches. In the case of Kobe, he was still young and the Lakers were already a good team anyways. We can argue all day about how much influence Phil Jackson had on Jordan and Shaq/Kobe, but what do you suggest the new coach does with Steve Francis' inability to lead this team very far? That's the real question.
