I'm OK with the record thus far. It's a little dissapointing but, if you take evrything into account with this team (schedule, acclimating, etc), and you can't count that they would lose 6 in a row, it's not all that bad. I don't know how anyonw can under-estimate the adjustment these players are going through. You're talking about a whole different way of thinking about how to play the game. It's easy for these players, mostly put together and coached by JVG for 4 years, to fall back to what they are used to and were successful doing in the past (ie: give to TMac or Yao and wait for an open shot), especially in tight situations. It's a BIG reason they haven't played well in close games in the 4th quarter. Everyone is just plain over thinking and not just playing. RA allows more freedom and preaches much more player reaction/movement than just set plays. And, don't undervalue the fact RA has to in turn get accustomed to the players he has on this team, there individual skills and where/when they are most successful. It's all a big learning process right now. Things will get much better from here on out.
Good stuff. Where we're at now, we're almost 1/4 in to the season, and we've seen the (really) good and the (really) bad of this team in a bunch of areas and from every position. But we still don't know what to expect every night. If this keeps up for 10-15 more games or so, this team could really be at a crossroads. It's almost like there's 1 too many guys for this team's own good right now.
it's very easy to get tmac the ball b/c he's a perimeter player. but i think adelman wanted to see how we can play w/o tmac even with him on the floor (use him as a decoy). we could have ran him off-screens but we didn't. that was a play that could have countered the doubles.
NBA Strength of Schedules for November: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi?season=2008&sortColumn=sos Houston is #1 and add to that the fact we have barely played any Eastern Conference teams. Add to that the fact we have barely integrated any of Adelman's sets into the offense and the coaching staff is still figuring out where our players' strengths lie in this offense. 9-8 is not bad, not bad at all!
considering that they played all playoff teams and came out with a winning record, i'd give them a passing grade. yes, they could've done better. they will with time. look at next months schedule. they can easily go 11-3.
Nine and Eight Not that Bad Not that Great Maybe later We'll Dominate Until then Pile on the Hate Thank you.
i am actually glad that we have a tough schedule at first. The team will test themselves against the toughest and best in the league and learn to beat them. The learning process certainly hasn't been easy. But I 'd rather have the rox lose a couple games now and learn some great lessons, then have them lose in the playoffs. Once our schedule gets lighter in the later part of the season, we will start to have long winning streaks, and gain some great momentum, and carry them into the playoff.
That 6-1 start got everybody unrealistic expectation. Had we started out 4-3 (losing to Utah on the road, and to the Spurs) and looked at the subsequent brutal schedule, we would have been satisfied with the current records. the Memphis loss and the second Dallas loss were bad. But the San Antonio, Phoenix, and Denver wins were beyond expectation. Every team has poor games and great games. Over the course of the season, things will even out. You can't just look at a few bad games and say, "We are bad. I'm worried." We are done with a terrible part of our schedule early and still have a winning record. December's schedule will be much softer. No to mention that we are still adjusting and improving.
well the announcers for the GS team last game said that the Rox had the hardest schedule so far and theirs was 4th. But I agree we beat some good teams and lost to some mediocre teams. we need to start defending the three better so we dont see that usual scrub that looks like craig hodges. Oh, If I see one more tear drop I am gonna kill a kitten. Bonzi also needs to practice layups and quit settling for contested jumpers, he needs to take it to the hole cause he has an explosive first step. plus we were on a back to back after phoenix... then golden state. this has to be the most tiring back to back situation in the nba.
