I hope DD doesn't mind me ripping off the title of his thread but it seemed appropriate. First off, the Rockets didn't deserve to win last night. They got killed on the boards. They scored a lousy 99 points in OT against a horrible defensive team playing a horribly stagnant offense. I watched the game last night with a friend of mine who usually watches football and he was yawning the whole time. The game last night was boring until the OT rolled around because the offense is as dead as Julius Caesar. Look at the minutes: Yao: 41:24 Artest: 45:29 McGrady: 44:17 The big three had to play big minutes against a team that was 1 and 3, a young team filled with young players who the Rockets should have been able to step all over. Not only did they have to play big minutes just to keep it close in the end they couldn't even pull off a win. The Rockets should have put their foot on Portland's throat early in the first quarter and never taken it off--that's how you beat young and inexperienced teams. Finally, there is a huge problem right now with chemistry and teamwork on this team. Artest and Yao are in the middle of bad slumps (combined 14 of 52 in the last two games) and T-Mac is having to pick up the slack. The problem is that what you'd like to see is two of the big three having monster nights (Dallas and a win) instead of one of the big three having a monster night (Boston and Portland, both losses). And while T-Mac is racking up points the team as a whole is struggling to break 90. The offense is broken. What's the point of even having Adelman in Houston if the Rockets are too stupid or r****ded to understand his offense? It looks like the guys out there zero chemistry compared to last year. Is history going to repeat itself with a mediocre/lousy first half of the season, a comeback in the second half to make the playoffs, and finally an early exit?
There are 2 things we must do to fix this team. 1. Hit the glass, our rebounding has been atrocious 2. Implement the motion offense that Adelman has been trying to instill in this team. The offense has been too stagnant and we have been attempting to many iso and 1 on 1 plays. Truth be told I have no clue how we are going to do these things, but in a nutshell, that is what is wrong with our team.
I have no problem with seeing our offense suk. I think we rockets fan are so used to that anyways that we accept that as a fact and move on with our lives. But I really cannot tolerate our defense and defensive rebounding. We got out muscled badly two nights in a row. We also allowed our opponents to penetrate too easily and getting lots of inside shots as suppose to perimeter jump shots.
You're absolutely right and that last part, I'm starting to wonder myself: what is the point of having Adelman here ? Not that he's a bad coach but almost everybody on this team cannot run the offense or do not want that kind of offense. Artest & T-mac both like to go 1-on-1 and it seems like we're never going to get motion offense like the Kings did. Part of this is personell, part of this is because Yao & T-mac like the JVG offense more, so it seems. I'm starting to doubt bringing Adelman in was a good idea, if we don't get the offense to work I suggest they hire another coach who fits the personell we have or we change the personell, even if that means trading Yao / T-mac or maybe both.
What is wrong with Rockets??!?!?!? I will tell you why 1. No one boxed out whatsoever, other team always , always get the short rebounding! RA sucks, I do not understand him at all. He knew we sucked at rebounding so the way he dealt with was put Hays in. That hurt the offense. Let us pray when Battier comes back, everything will be better. But that is only one guy boxing out. 2. RA made very questionable calls. Louis was on fire and then RA sat him for most of the second half. WTF?!??! In the beginning, Yao missed some shots and RA sat him for most of the first quarter. Later, Yao was too tired to do any good and RA still played him We have enough good players, But RARARARRARARARA WTF are you doing? 3. NO movement at All. When Yao was on the court, no body moved. We do not have any play at all, just post up and one on one. I remembered that RA said in the beginning of season," yeah, we do not run drills, we just let players play." Dude, no screens, no cuts? only post up?? Is that your offense? 4. We should not panic. But we are too good to not be the top 3 seed.
you need a hand injury to prevent you from typing things like this. BUt i expected a slow start...we all should have. It's going to take time for this team for find it's groove, especially with people recovering from injuries.
What really, really bothers me is that I question the commitment some of the players have to following the coach and playing his offense.
One question I understand the thought of coach lastnight with keeping chuck hayes in the game because he stoped aldridge in the 4th. untill he elbowed him in the shoulder. But why not come in sooner with scola or landry for offense late in the 4th. i mean t mac was on fire and he couldnt do anything. but o well portland should of never been that close to begin with.
True, But did you see a offense system from RA? " We will make Yao and Tmac easier on offense ?" By RA for the job interview Did he keep his FKing promise? What did he do to make this team better offensively? Putting Hays in trying to cover the fact that he sucks at coaching defense??
I don't understand why they're not running the offense. They are doing the same thing as last year, one person handles the ball and the others wait around for a pass. Also I thought the team came out with no energy, IDK if they were tired because they need get accustomed to being on the road or what but everybody looked a half a step slow.
I think the biggest problem is we still haven't figure out an offensive style for our big 3. How should our big 3 be playing? Is RA thinking putting Artest as the leader for our second unit, so he doesn't have to worry about our big 3 offense because battier will resolve that issue? We need to figure out to play play the big 3 with each other on the court as the playoffs will exposed our weakness if we keep on using them separately. The problem with our offense is other players don't know what's going on when Tmac trying to beat his guy off the dribble. is he going to shot or pass? if he is going to pass when will it go? therefore other guys are standing there and watch. They want to make sure they are there when tmac pass it out. It shows that we are not keen on our offense. same thing can be said about Yao when he start posting his opponent in a lesser degree. With the injuries and guys are not 100%, they can't run and often time settle to stand in order to save more energy. I think Ra should consider playing them less minutes and playing other guys more. we need to understand that we are not here to win all 82 games. we are here to make it into the playoffs and win the championship. being number 8 seed or number 1 seed would mean the same in the western conference. Home court or no home court, you will need to play big.
offense wasn't the problem last night. once again, yao missed VERY EASY SHOTS. he missed like 3 point blank layups last night. he just needs to get it together. artest is taking some very bad shots. he refuses to get in the post at times, even with roy on him. tracy had to take up the slack b/c nobody else stepped up outside of scola and brooks. the only bright spot in the entire season so far is the play of aaron brooks. dude is a bona fide player who has star potential. but the main reasons we lost the last 2 games are: rebounding and defense. you cannot afford to give a great team (boston) or a home team (portland) multiple shots at the rim. this is the NBA, not high school. these guys are too good and will capitalize. we really need deke back and play him 10 minutes and reduce yao's minutes. our defense is also terrible. the perimeter guys are pathetic. tracy is just beyond god awful. he cannot stay in front of anybody. adelman has to do something to hide tracy on defense until his knee gets better. getting shane helps too. but it's not just tracy. alston, aaron, scola... can't guard anybody either. and i can't say how bad yao is playing in terms of defense too. the chuckwagon is the only one who showed up defensively last night. he basically shut down aldrige with ZERO help. these are things you can correct. will they? we'll see. but offense isn't the problem. even if it is, it's early in the season and we'll get better at it. rebounding and defense remain the same things that haunt us since that game 7 v. the jazz. i still heart JVG screaming right now regarding those 2 things.
Blame the coach, he is doing sh t for this team. That pisses me off a lot. How can we be good if no one runs without a ball nor sets screens for other player besides on the top of the key.
and it's jut not the starters. with aaron in there, aaron seems like the primary ballhandler and he plays like iverson out there. we have to get over the belief that we can be like the kings. we CANNOT. we don't have a peja on this team who can run around screens; who don't have a great shooter at PG like bibby; we don't have guys who can create at EVERY position; more importantly, our big man can't play the high post to open up the paint. obviously we can use more ball movement and we should. but this team is built like the lakers/boston -> use your big 3 and kill them. right now, yao and artest are just plain struggling offensively. they'll get better.
