Last year Rudy showed his ability to adapt and change his philosophy to the players available. Now he's showing that he's willing to allow the offense to be diverse and not just depend on one set, i.e. iso or dump it in the post. The Rockets have the ability to keep an opponent off balance in several different ways, iso's, pick and rolls, low post, or fast break. The Pacers game was a great example of that. He's also building one hell of a defensive team. Rudy's experiences of rebuilding the Rockets, coaching the NBA less USA team, and the Dream Team in the Olympics has helped him raise his coaching abilities to another level. It will be fun to watch him continue to grow as the team grows. ------------------ Moses begat Sampson, Sampson begat Hakeem, And Hakeem led us to the promised land
I think what was significant about last night (and the past few games) was his ability to spy another team's weakness and exploit it. Last night, the pick and roll was killing Indiana and Rudy milked it for all it was worth. Additionally, the team is starting to buy into his philosophy though sometimes I wonder a bit about the Cat. They look much more relaxed as a team and that is a direct reflection on repitition in practice which is a direct reflection on the coach. ------------------ Time for a new cause.
When Rudy's offense is working, and the defense can't stop it, we look great. Witness last night: the Pacers coulnd't stop the high pick and roll, so we kept running it. When the offense breaks down, Rudy tries to simplfy things. The simplest way to use a superstar in the low post is the "dump it in". For guards, it is the "iso". When the defense stops the rest of our offense, Rudy has always tried to get the ball to a star and force the defense to doubleteam. That's the similarity between the ISO and dump-in. We get the ball to our best player in a position where the defense has to doubleteam. The way I remember the "dump-in", there was usually only one player on the strong side with Barkley/Dream. The other men were spread out on the weak side for the around-the-horn. We clear out the weak side for a guard ISO similar to the "dump-in": both times we have the floor spread to force the defense to make a clear decision to doubleteam. Forcing the doubleteam seems to be Rudy's biggest tendency when the offense breaks down. jamcracker says "You can't fault Rudy for running ISOs, but maybe he does rely too much on drawing doubleteams." I'm not saying we run the ISO ALL the time, or that we used to run "dump-in" ALL the time. Rudy does have a tendency to revert to those styles, though, when the other options break down.
Moses said: "Now he's showing that he's willing to allow the offense to be diverse and not just depend on one set, i.e. iso or dump it in the post." It not a matter of Rudy being willing or not willing to diversify the offense. Its about taking what the defense gives us. [This message has been edited by jamcracker (edited November 22, 2000).]
