I don't want to play the role of the pessimist, but Rudy's coaching of late has left me baffled. He's good at putting talented players in positions where they can maximize their talent; He's horrible at maximizing the talents of lesser, role players. The Rockets aren't an ISO team anymore; they're a pick and roll team, which means at any given time, 3 offensive players on this team are basically going to be frozen out of the offense. Don't be fooled by Moochie's passes to Walt, Rice, etc. at the top of the key on these sets, because the result of the aforementioned situation isn't by design. This all leads to my problem with the 3 guard sets..... The 3 guard sets have been a failure thus far in my eyes, in large part because of Moochie, and to a lesser, though still significant extent because of Rudy. The whole logic behind running the set is to gain a quickness advantage for Mobley against the opposing team's small forward and to free up Francis at the 2 so he can focus more on scoring; this hypothetical situation HARDLY occurs. Not only do teams almost always go small to counteract this, but the offensive sets that are used relegate Francis to being a super 'hustle' player and Mobley to being a spot up shooter, much in the same he was last year in the 1st quarter with Mo getting the majority of the touches. The reasoning behind this set is sound, but the results leave much to be desired. Next comes the odd substitution patterns of Rudy. I've heard many people downplay our wins against lesser teams such as the Hawks and Clippers, but if it wasn't for Rudy sitting Francis and Mobley for a large chunk of the fourth in those games, we likely could have blown those games open. Furthermore, he has a peculiar tendency to sit players who are hot, and proceed to forget about them on the bench. Lastly, his obstinate attitude of double teaming opposing players. He simply refuses to throw a true double team at offensive forces until it gets to embarassing proportions. McDyess, Garnett, Bryant are all players that come to mind that have torched the Rockets without having to go up against consistent double teams throughout the night. In fact, if I recall correctly, McDyess STILL wasn't really getting doubles thrown at him when he abused the Rockets for 40 and 20. Work with this team on their defensive rotations, they have the speed to be effective, and neutralize the big men that are offensive forces in the west. We can't expect Kenny/Willis/etc. to come up big defensively every game. Just my constructive criticism..... PS- watching the last shot as I speak, I see where DaDakota is coming from calling this team simply unintelligent.
tpl, What a strange time for this post, right after our team, which hasn't really been together beyond the beginning of this season, loses by 1 in overtime to the very well established world champions (who only seem to add talented, seasoned veterans searching for rings during the offseason). I have always felt that Rudy makes stars of role players. Kicking the ball back out allows for shooters to get good looks and gain noteriety...whether the shots fall or not. As for doubles, I don't care what Kobe scores if we win. We could have easily won last night if only one of the good looks at the end had fallen, or if we hadn't lost composure at the end. We were in the game last night and even recovered from a 15 point deficit. How can you do that against a team with the Laker's talent w/o some pretty damn good defense?
1. We lost. Moral victories are for losers. 2. Sounds like you're from the Greg Davis School of Sports Management. Nothing wrong with critiquing a team after a good performance. Hell, if the Rockets stil aren't doing certain things right when they bring their A game, then it's defintely worthy of note. Sounds like he's using them within the context of their abilities. I would agree with you that Rudy is good at harnessing particular talents, but he seems poor in other ways. I never thought Rudy really utilized Pippen well in '99, for instance. I think TPL speaks of the situation in general more than last night. Rudy doesn't like to double team. He likes to play people straight-up. That sort of machismo isn't always a good idea, especially when you're particularly suspectible to the player of one guy. Sometimes it's best to make the role players beat you, and I don't think Rudy understands that. 1. The Grizzlies are going to beat playoff teams a few times this year. It's the NBA, not NCAA football... being better doesn't mean you win. 2. Willis did a good job of keeping Shaq out of the paint, for the most part, last night. We also got excellent penetration and hit our foul shots. But look at it this way: can you reall count on the Rockets hitting 90%+ of our free throws every game for the rest of the year? If we hadn't done that, it wouldn't have gone to OT.
TPL- All I have to say is that Rudy T has 2 NBA World Championships. He also took a team to 45 wins last year going undefeated against the Central division (something that was never acomplished before). Last night we lost by 1 point to the defending back-to-back World Champions. I have no problem with the way Rudy T coaches, and will only start to doubt his philosophies when we have more losses than wins (which has only happened once since taking over the helm for the Rockets). DD
Jeez! Cut TPL some slack! I didn't see him say "Rudy's an idiot, let's fire him now." This wasn't a caveman post. TPL has some real concerns. The team ISN'T playing in some respects as it should. Just because Rudy's a good coach doesn't mean he can't make mistakes. And those two championships don't immunize him from criticism. Especially well-reasoned, articulate, non-insulting criticism. If you disagree, why don't you point out the problems with tpl's arguments, rather than simply backing Rudy on the basis of past accomplishments?
tpl, nice post. Rudy T needs to read this post. My take: Rudy T gets pressured to go to the 3 guard set by the players. I think Moochie, Steve and Mobley play so much street ball together with so much success they want to repeat in an NBA game. Sometimes they playwell but it all depends on Moochie playing to his potential. In either case it makes no sense.... ...watching the last shot as I speak, I see where DaDakota is coming from calling this team simply unintelligent. What pisses me off is that the Lakers made absolutely 0 mental mistakes last night. They may have not shot well or missed FT but they made no stupid mistakes to cost the game. I think Phil Jackson has alot to do with that. IMO he is the best coach in the league....
I just think that it may be a little to early in the season to question Rudy T and his coaching. Give him some time......
