If someone can please explain to me why you would play a 7'6 center who supposedly doesn't know any of the plays at the 3 point line and set picks instead of putting him down low where all he'll have to do is turn and shoot. Fundamental 5 year old basketball. He doesn't need to know the playbook to know that. Or maybe there isn't a playbook. Reminds me of the joke.... Who's the only guy who can hold Jordan under 20 points.....Answer.. Dean Smith Who's the only guy who would play a 7'6 shooter at the 3 point line to set picks ........ NOBODY OTHER THAN RUDY
Whether Rudy is right or wrong (I tend towards the latter), it was interesting to hear the tone and questions of the callers on the radio show Jared Novak mentions above. More than a few people were asking pretty pointed questions and expressing their displeasure with the offense. I think Rudy's time is running short if he doesn't make some noticable changes. It doesn't take long for this kind of sentiment to snowball.
I understand why people are saying Rudy should be fired and Ming is "a bust". We're 2 games out of first place and we've only got 81 games left to make it up. Time to press the panic button! Ming has had well over 2 weeks to learn the NBA game, what's taking him so long?!?!? We should just release him. All the sports talk callers are right, Ming is a bust!* Of course, the first time Ming scores 25 and grabs 10, the same people will call the same shows and nominate him for the Hall of Fame. *this is sarcasm. -Why don't you just make ten louder?....Ours go to eleven!
I've always been a big Rudy T fan, but I'm beginning to side with the naysayers.... Perhaps we will see improvement tonight. I certainly hope so, but if not, we need to think about some coaching changes. I don't think anyone would confuse Rudy as an x's and o's guy, and that's ok, but THERE IS NO ONE on the bench who we fits in that mold either. Take a quick glimpse at the bios of Rocket assistant coaches: Larry Smith College - Alcorn State '80 Following a career as one of the best rebounders in NBA history, Larry Smith begins his eighth season as assistant coach and his 11th overall season with the Rockets. In his first two seasons as an assistant coach, Smith helped the Rockets win NBA World Championships. Known as "Mr. Mean" for his tenacious rebounding style during his 13-year NBA career, Smith played nine seasons for Golden State (1980-89), three for Houston (1989-92) and finished his career at San Antonio (1992-93). Jim Boylen College - Maine '87 Jim Boylen begins his ninth season with the Rockets and his fifth as an assistant coach. His duties include working with the guards on shooting and positioning. In his first four seasons with the Rockets, Boylen served as the club's video coordinator. An assistant coach at Michigan State under Jud Heathcote from 1987-92, Boylen handled scouting, on-campus recruiting and game preparation, as well as serving as the computer video coordinator. Mike Wells College - Mt. Vernon Nazarene '93 Mike Wells enters his seventh season with the Houston Rockets and his second as a bench assistant on Rudy Tomjanovich's coaching staff. Wells joined the basketball staff in October 1995 as the assistant video coordinator after serving an internship in the Rockets corporate services department during the 1994-95 season. He was appointed the video coordinator during the 1996 offseason, and prior to the 1998-99 season, Wells was promoted to video coordinator/assistant coach. Compare that to the Mavs trio of Don Nelson, Donnie Nelson, and Dell Harris... GET RUDY SOME HELP and let him do what he does best...manage players.
I'd have to have these guys make a serious, thorough case as to how they would do things differently than Rudy and how they'd inject some ball movement.
That's a big problem with our team IMHO. All of our coaches have their only NBA coaching experience under RudyT. There's nobody here bringing much of a different viewpoint to the table because they're all RudyT disciples.
Jsb, Great point! Players have to be put in a position to succeed. That is a coaching issue. Ming has great skills. Rudy is not a teacher. Matter of fact, his basketball knowledge is really low. He doesn't make the adjusments during the game. He seems to think about the excuses that he will use after the game. The idiot does the same things over and over, with the same results. That is not bashing, it's what we have seen the last 3 years. No playoffs with Rudy!
My bad guys I started a new thread and shouldn't have. Anyway here was my 2cents, Yes I am a lurker.................But before you say anything about me being new to this board, I have watched the Rockets since 1989. Did anyone see the Sac. game last night? Well they were short how many key players? Did they play selfish? One thing to understand is that Griffin was not 1-11 shooting in the first, second or third quater. He was not 1-11 until the end of the game. So Steve and Cat didn't pass to him because they knew he would not be able to knock down the shot. I taped the game and after looking at it once again. ERRRR. It shows that 8 of Eddies shots were not from passes from Steve or Cat. Yes Steve could have had 9 total assist had the guys knocked down there long range shots. Meaning that Steve was not passing the ball in assist type situations. You know that if everytime players hit the shot from a pass from Kidd, he would avg. around 18-20 assist a game. What I am trying to say is that a moving passing offence will bring higher shooting %'s even with low level talent. It is proven that ISO's will not when a game. Now I am in favor of Rudy calling ISO's , Pick&Rolls, etc at various times in a game but not 90% of the time. Eddie was shooting from rebounds and outside standing still passes to him which makes it hard to shoot high % shots. The offence should never call upon one player to win a game, NO MATTER how many shots have been missed. Don't get me wrong I am no hater of any Rocket including Cato. I just know that there can't be three or four guys standing still around the three point line for Steve or Cat to dribble,fake,dribble and then shot a shot. Yes he made close to 50% but at that rate Steve would have to have taken 45 shots and hit all of them to win the game. This is not the days of Wilt and his 100pt games. I love Rudy and all of his good ideas plus his heart. What I am most wondering, is Rudy telling the guys to pass and move without the ball, and the guys are just not listening to him? Or is it Rudy is calling the ISO's? Does anyone have an answer to this? JLB
Rocket, Great point! You didn't add the bio about the GM. He was the asst. coach under Rudy. Never in NBA history has a guy made that jump. What you fail to realize is that Rudy is doing the selecting. Yes-men are a popular choice for Rudy. The one guy who challenged the play calling, Bill Berry, is with the Bulls. The ship is already down and the captain believes that he can save it. I'm surprised that Les has gone along with this charade for so long. He loves to win. He's just scared of the media and fans. Well, fans aren't coming to the games anymore. Even the free ones. People are just tired of the Rudy PR Machine. You can only fool all the people NEVER!
Who knows, maybe he can't? Or maybe they just can't learn? It doesn't really matter at this point. If they continue with this sort of play for the rest of the season, then something major must happen during the next off-season.
AT, A serious case should not have to be made. We can look at the results. We can study the winners and try to immulate what they do to win. We can bring in a guy who stresses fundamentals. We can bring in a guy who is a teacher. We can bring in a guy with an actual playbook. Rudy, a playbook is not on your palm. We can bring in a guy who will get in SF and CM face. These guys are on a tangent that is not conducive to winning basketball. We all know what winning basketball looks like. Les needs to clean house and find that guy. I don't understand why all of the coaches don't use the triangle. It involves spacing and ball movement. Phil is not smarter than every coach in the league, he has the triangle!
Rocket Addict, The video coordinators are scouts....just not advance scouts. And as nineteen says, Carroll Dawson has quite an extensive coaching resume. nineteen, Carroll Dawson turned down the head coaching position, and he had to talk Rudy into taking it. It was supposed to be Dawson, but I recall he had a family situation that year (or something), so he declined. JLB, Welcome to the BBS. good takes, and it's always great to have more people reporting what they saw after reviewing the game on tape. You asked about why is Yao picking at the 3point line. Mainly that is because its Francis preferred spot for his picks. Bullard, Collier Kenny, Griffin and Mo have all picked for him there. It gives Francis momentum to drive. But also it is just a disruptive location for the picks because it works equally well against zones. By comparison, it seems to me that Utah's PnR has been largely negated and been forced to change. Lastly, there is a reason Cato never sets that high pick. The picker must be a threat for the play to be successful. Yao can knock down the 20 footer that he'll get by popping to the wing or key. It's a pretty good bet that Yao is equal to Maurice in shooting range. Now, should it be the only play to involve Yao. Of course not, but it is a good play for Steve, imo, and Yao is one of the players who i'd use to set that pick, especially against the Lakers to force Shaq out.
Steve - 46.4% Cat - 47.6% How was Cat less effective and shooting worse shots than Steve? If he can hit 47.6% with horrible shot selection, then our offense shoul just be immediately get the ball to Cat for a shot. Just let him put up 100 shots for the game, since he scores more points than he takes shots, and we should win every time.
Heypartner, Did you check out DukeofHouston's Motion Offense URL!? It's great... Especially the dribbling section. Someone should email it to Mooch, Steve and Cat...
I'm with you HP, but that still doesn't make them x and o guys. I'm not discounting the assistant coaches we have as much as I'm questioning the lack of anyone who could bring a different offensive perspective to this team. I can't believe I'm about to do this...but what they hey...Take Phil Jackson as an example. Phil is a good coach, but it's not like he invented the triangle offense. And he had Tex Winters on his staff to teach it. He simply acknowledged his own strengths and used his assistant coaches to complement his abilities, which in my opinion are similar to those of Rudy T's. (I'm not advocating the triange here.) My concern is there doesn't appear to be anyone who can complement Rudy's strengths on the bench. Carroll Dawson is not on the bench during games and I'm not familiar enough with his coaching background to stipulate whether he was an x & o guy. All I know is that he has a reputation of working well with big men. Nineteen makes a good point when he says Rudy does the selecting. The responsibility ultimately rests with him, but I've always liked Rudy and I'd rather see him recognize that he needs some help than to simply look for a new head coach. I also don't want to wait another whole year until we start seeing some ball movement. It's just painful to watch.
I like the part - "In short, the cutting and screening action of a well-run motion offense puts the defense under constant pressure. Standing still does not." And here may be the problem - "Rule #6: Never pass the ball to a player standing still. Receivers not in motion account for a substantial percentage of turnovers."
The whole motion animation thing is like a satire on the Rockets offense. It's like a sick skit on Mad TV. I was laughing my a$$ off...
This is what the Rockets are not doing. You have to move when you don't have the ball, even if you do not get the pass you have to run and set back picks, screens to free up shooters while in rythem. Yes Boki is a rookie, but he should have shoot more than 2 shots. Griffin IMO was trying to force himself into the scoring part of the game becasue the PG was not getting him the ball. I really think the Rockets can and will improve their "MOTION" offence, but they could have used the game to gain comfort for the next and so on.
I was FUMING after the what I saw on Wednesday. Just like last year.........ONLY MORESO. But I'll give RT a mulligan until he gets a few forwards back. That being said, I'm tired of excuses. Everyone has injuries - Pacers missing their starting PG and their go to guy and they played great team ball. They were the better coached team. NO ONE RUNS THE ISO/SELFISH OFFENSE THAT WE DO!! If he can't or won't mold this pretty damn talented group into a team, vs. a bunch of players, then he deserves to go. They're really no fun to watch and have no future playing this way. And please, get the little dribbler out of the lineup. He can't finish, turns it over, and his defense is poor. Boki at SF would have been better even in his first game. Hope to see something better tonite. Dallas Rocket
