What about the D? We don't have any above average 'man' defenders. I think that Rudy should try to mimic the defense played during the glory years. Funnel everything into Yao. Hopefully he has blocking instints similar to those of Dream. He probably doesn't though. Those only come around every so often.
Rudy won a title with one of the worst starting backcourts to ever make the playoffs, much less a title. Max and Kenny were undersized, incredibly streaky shooters and often didn't even finish games. Give Rudy his due. Only Hakeem and Thorpe put up consistent numbers in 1994. Horry, like now, was often brilliant and often a non-factor. Rudy fashioned an offense and rotation that maximized his team's talent and minimized a lot of the individual weak points, IMHO. I also think that Rudy is largely responsible for a lot of the togetherness and mental toughness that both championship teams exhibited. I think that Rudy fostered an atmosphere that allowed the Rockets to not only come from behind in games and series countless times, but also to stay focused after big trades and turmoil like that caused by Maxwell during the Utah series in '95. I also think that Rudy's coaching job in 2000 is really underrated. He squeezed 45 wins out of a team with a frontline that was about as imposing as a prebuscent girl's bustline. Rudy has adapted to his talent better than he is given credit for. Pete Carrill, Doc Rivers, or Dr. John Wooden wouldn't have won any more games with last years team in the West.
It's really simple guys. Rudy's not a bad coach. But certaincoaches fit certain types of team. For a team like ours, we need a more disciplinary coach. Rudy is not strict enough. That doesn't mean Rudy's a bad coach. You can't have a coach handing out strict orders to Malone and Stockton in their late 30-s. Certain coaches for certain teams, Rudy is better suited to veterans. What we need is Van Gundy or Riley, something like that.
First of all not many records develop as well as Cassell did. I would say Rudy did an excellent job developing Sam. Maxwell did have speed, and on occasion used it. To use it more at the expense of other players who still had a better chance to score would have been counter productive. But Maxwell did do well under Rudy and his system. Better than with the Spurs, or Miami, or anywhere else. Horry played better for the Rockets than for the Lakers, even with Shaq, and Phil Jackson. All of the team benefited from Hakeem's presence. The reason is that is the way Rudy designed the system. Ellie like MAxwell and Horry also played with top notch centers on other teams, and were never as effective over the long run as they were with the Rockets. As for Otis Thorpe, that was part of the beauty. He wasn't there to score and yet he did, and made it to the All Star Game. Rudy did a great job getting the most out of the team and it's players. I think it was a great system. Also looking at the '94 series, Rudy just plain outcoached Pat Riley. At the start of that season we opened with another winning streak. It wasn't the 15 game one like the year before, but it was a very solid start. Yes they brought Drexler in, and Rudy adjusted the system to compliment his players. I see it as another great job by Rudy.
Rudy was blessed by having Hakeem from the beginning of his coaching tenure. It's a simple basketball fact: If one player on your offense is being double-teamed, then another player IS open for a shot. It just doesn't get any easier to understand than that. Hakeem, in his prime, had to either be double-teamed, or he would score. Opposing coaches knew this. Unless you had Mark Eaton on your team, you knew that you had to pick your poison: either let Olajuwon beat you, or double (or triple) him and leave someone else open and hope they don't beat you. During those two magical playoff runs, it didn't matter that both coaches, every player on both teams, the announcers, the people in the stands, the guy selling peanuts, and everyone watching at home KNEW exactly what the Rockets were going to do almost every time down the court. It just flat-out didn't matter. It worked, no matter how you tried to defend it. Whether or not that made Rudy a great coach will always be a matter for debate. But it definitely meant he was smart enough to know he was playing from a winning hand, and smart enough not to try to re-invent the wheel. But now, even with all the 'talent' (probably better to say potential talent) on this team now, I don't know if we yet have a single player who will automatically command a double-team every time he gets the ball. We certainly don't have that in the low post yet. If and when Ming or EG becomes that player, then you will see the same kind of success from this team that we had before. Because it works. But with smaller quality players, and having to play an outside-in game instead of insode-out, that requires an entirely different type of offensive mindset, ie Bulls of the mid 90's. (Incidentally, this is why I will always be completely convinced that the Rockets would have beaten the Bulls in the finals at least one of those two championship years - our offenses were both similar in that they relied on great unstoppable players, but our defense was better in that matchup) And of course we have yet to see that from the Rudy and the Rockets, for many of the reasons already stated in this thread. So is Rudy a great coach? I think he is a great defensive coach (when the players actually do what he tells them to do defensively), who had the luxury of one of the greatest players ever around which to build a clockwork offense that worked well. But offensively? Dunno yet. Maybe this coming year will tell. Hopefully this team will stay relatively healthy for a change, so we can find out. I hope the answer is YES. Ciao
