Rudy was able to win 45 games with pretty much Steve and cuttino. That was quite amazing. The west was even better than it is now. Can you imagine a 45 win team not making the playoffs. He also did really start the insane iso kind of play.
In his 5 seasons with the Rockets, Steve Francis was averaging around 6.4-6.5 assists per game, during that period, the league leader in assists was around 9-10. This season, Harden at this point is averaging 11.8 assists per game. In his 5 seasons with the Rockets, Steve Francis was averaging around 3.5 three point FGA per game. James Harden is averaging 8.9 FGA on 3s this season. Francis' 2PT FG% at that time was around 45%, Harden this season on 2PT FG% is sitting at 52%. Not to mention Francis' FTA per game is just about half as Harden having right now. You still want to compare a banana to an apple?
You are comparing apples to oranges, the offense was relatively the same, but Francis was not nearly as good as Harden. Not sure how you broke a discussion about style and sets to one about players.....but whatever. DD
This is pretty dumb honestly, if you're gonna give credit to Rudy T for inventing the 3 and paint just because Hakeem was scoring inside and had 3s then why not credit Bill Russell for inventing how big men play in the first place? Hakeem is a low post scorer, this offense abhors low post scorers since they want the ball to be initiated by PnRs. We also play fast paced, Hakeem centric offense was half court based, even the offense with Francis was half court based as well. The fact that Francis took so many mid range shot shows this system and Rudy T offense are not similar at all. If you want the inspiration for this offense it would probably be Euroball and the Spurs, as Morey didn't really invent anything he just looked at data and determined which were good shots and which were bad shots.
Popovich had been talking about 3s and paint also, just because a coach said it one time doesn't mean he invented it. Rudy T didn't even ban the mid range shot how can he be the inventor? If there is no limitation on taking mid range shots what separates you from other teams with a paint scorer and 3 pt shooters? By your logic any team in the 80s with a paint scorer and 3 pt shooters originated MDA offense. Did Moses Malone have 3 pt shooters already? I guess by this logic Malone was the real inventor of the offense. To say Steve Francis was nearly identical just because he drove and dish is just...wow. Iverson did drives and dish and he played before Francis did. Hell MJ drove and dish and Isaiah Thomas drove and dished too I guess they all deserve credit for inventing rockets offense. Francis has like half the assists Harden has now he spent more time jacking up mid range shots than he does driving and dishing or shooting 3s. Our system has 4 guys who provide spacing by shooting 3s and the guy who you say is the founder can't shoot 3s to save his life and specialized in the shot by the tea, offense.
One important thing that Rudy introduced to the world was the evil force called "Non Believers". We should never have a single Non Believer on Clutchfans.
No one has banned the midrange on this team, though it is severely limited - Harden still takes midrange shots at the FT Line pretty much each game. The limitation or overall emphasis on paint and 3s to me would be the natural evolution. It is pretty obvious to anyone anywhere that layups and 3pt shots are the best shot....that is not exactly Rocket science. DD
Uh...exactly? Everybody knows 3 and layups are the best shot so why was Rudy T the inventor of the Rox offense just because he had Hakeem scoring in the paint and 3 pt shooters? Lots of team had centers with low post skills and I'm pretty sure they also had 3 pt shooters so why is Rudy T the inventor when his offense wasn't really any different from those seen in his time? The fact that mid range shots are limited on this offense while Rudy T never limited mid range shots at all shows he didn't invent this offense at all. Maybe you're thinking of Shaq and Kobe offense.
Long before the existence of Rudy T as the Rockets coach, I was wondering why teams didn't shoot threes way more than they currently did, so I am pretty sure I invented it.
Nah. I thought of THAT before they invented the 3pt shot. You can ask Jimmy Naismith. When he invented basketball, I told him two points per basket would not be enough. He said, "A basket of peaches is sold for 2 cents. Two points is ample enough!" I said, "Jimmy, you're so SHORTSIGHTED. A basket of peaches is going to be sold for 3 cents fifty years from now!" He thought I was talking about his glasses.
Rudy's use of Hakeem's mid-range was genius. I felt like the paint was something Hakeem was to avoid so that cutters could get buckets at the rim. The spacing that Rudy T would use was truly amazing. No one seemed to ever get in anyone's way. If Hakeem went the paint, everyone let him do his thing. If Hakeem was outside the paint, slashers were free to use it, but you wouldn't see two slashers using the paint at the same time. It was a beautiful thing to watch. Rudy orchestrated it. Yao's game was beautiful when Rudy T was in charge, then JVG came in and changed him into a bit of a banger. Both worked but Yao looked to be himself when Rudy was in charge.
