There are lots of reasons to be frustrated if you are a Rockets fan. There are lots of legitimate reasons why the team has struggled. But, there is perhaps nothing more significant than their inability to shoot the ball. Nearly everything in basketball is geared towards knocking down open jump shots. Layups and dunks are great, but they only constitute about 30 percent of your total offense - 40 to 50 on a good night. You MUST hit open jump shots or you just cannot win on a consistant basis. I would really love to see a chart of shooting percentages when the Rockets take shots beyond 15 feet. Obviously, we can see that they are one of the worst three point shooting teams in the league and that gives us a clue. Anyway, the lack of decent shooting compounds all the other weaknesses. 1. This is already a poor passing team. Missing shots makes your assist totals even lower. 2. Teams tend to fast break on you when you miss a lot of shots. It gives them a better FG percentage. 3. It hurts your defense when you play hard at one end of the floor only to find yourself down 5, 10, 15 points because you can't make a jumper. It also creates very big turnarounds at crucial times in the game. Maybe worst of all, teams see that you can't shoot and pack it in on you meaning you end up forcing bad shots or forcing passes to get a better look. This is parrticularly damaging when you are in a close game late. The real problem is that the Rockets have no really consistent jump shooters. Mobley is not a consistent outside shooter. Posey and Griffin are terrible outside shooters. Rice is VERY inconsistent. In fact, only Francis is a farily consistent shooter from the outside until his recent slump. Unfortunately, there isn't much to do about it at this point. The only other POTENTIAL shooter we have is Nachbar and he apparently suffers from the rare disease, Glue Butt, since his ass remains stuck to the bench. As a result, as the season goes along, teams will continue to simply back off and force us to beat us from the perimeter. If we cannot do that, we are going to continue to, well, suck.
Good, calm, and well thought out analysis as usual Jeff. By the way, what was the context of your sig?
And suck badly..... I think Arizona could beat us right now...... Fact remains I will still be glued to the TV tomorrow night for another night of punishment, embarassment, and complete and total FRUSTRATION. One word to describe this team: LOST
Jeff, I think the inconsistent shooting can be directly linked to the poor passing. When players don't get open looks, can't get into rhythm and don't know when they are going to get the ball, they are going to be inconsistent. I remember Kenny Smith and Vernon Maxwell often had very bad shooting nights. But if you gave them consistent open looks, they will hit them more often than not. I think it's the same here. Give Rice, Eddie, Posey, etc. consistent good looks and they will start to drain them. As it is now, the only people who have the chance to do well are people who create their own shots (Mobley, Yao, Steve, Mo).
Yao seems to be a decent outside shooter. If we can have MoT or Rice play the low-post and Yao around the 15 foot area, we might be able to have some good productions from these guys.
It seems that our shooters cannot shoot well simulataneously and we badly need every single basket to beat any team. For example, SF plays well in 70% of the games and Cat has similar percentage. Our winning percentage is right where should be: 50%.
Jeff, what is the point of your post/thread? I don't get it? Are you trying to say that that is why we did not win today? I hope not because the Jeff I know is not that naive. The decay is deeper than anyone here can imagine or point out - deeper than jump shots (make or miss). Oh well ........
We are not only losing and regressing, but possibly hindering our development in 2 crucial areas: 1) Every time EG shoots a jumper he is reinforcing his poor form. Until he puts some arc on his shot he will never be a good shooter. He should not be allowed to shoot a flat jumper. 2) Boki, who from reports has an ideal shot, is not allowed to develop and rots on the bench.
I won't be glued to the TV. Since I moved and switched from satellite to cable, I decided rather than waste my time and money(from having to get League Pass again) watching horrible basketball, I'd dull the pain a little and just waste my time b****ing about horrible basketball. My one word would be non-competitive(or is that two words) because for what seems like 2 months, this team has been just that.
That's the problem. Our chance of winning does not depend on how well the whole team plays, but how well the two guards feel.
Jeff, can you elaborate on why all these commentators and NBA so call experts keep criticising Houston as a too selfish team, too much iso, stupid plays, etc. and it seems like we are not getting the message. Is it b/c we don't have the right personnel, coaches fault, need more time and experience or what?
I don't think jump shot is the problem. Actually in Rudy's system, 'get the ball to the open man to take a jump shot' is not the primary goal. Rudy's philosophy is to iso the best/hottest player all the time. That's why Francis and Mobley are so important to him coz they are both able to shoot off the dribble.
There are just no catch and shoot players on the team. Everything is coming off the dribble from one-on-one situations. Nothing is coming easy. The 83 points the team scored tonight were a hard earned 83. Yao is forced to pound into Wallace for position every time and shoot with 3 defenders surrounding him. Steve is forced to attack the basket and make an acrobatic shot, while getting bumped from the defender and hurting his back even more. Cat is forced to make an off balanced fade away shot with a defender in his face. Taylor has to make a nifty crossover and shoot over the outstretched arms of Wallace.
At least you saved some money and your sanity.... I now plan my evenings around Rocket games..... Thats how bad it is for me.... One great perk moving to H-town
Our Rockets are caught in the middle of two forces. Street Ballers who want to be in charge, control the Game and make a name for themselves. On the other side we have a Rookie Center who it touted as being our future. This side is moving the game away from the Streetball, to a Center dominated game. So far, the cool Center and the Head Coach have been reticent, and have not caused any waves, regarding the fact that the Street Ballers have only made a minimal effort to bring about the change over. At some point Les Alexander will get fed up with the lack of progress of his team and his Street Ballers. Heads should roll and a revamped team should take to the court in the new Arena.
Jeff - You and I have disagreed about whether or not the Rockets have any shooters as far back as last season. No disrespect intended but we are still 180 degrees apart. My contention has been and still is twofold. First, Steve Francis does not get shooters the ball in rhythm and early enough in the clock. Second, the Rockets have only 3 plays that most of us here could diagram. I only had time to watch the tape of the first quarter of tonights Pistons game but I can tell you this. There was a grand total of two shot attempts which were uncontested. A Mobley drive at 5:17 where he missed a 15' pullup J and a Griffin rebound fadeaway putback at 3:37. In every other shot attempt, a Piston was within an arms length of a shooting Rocket. IMHO, the Rockets have shooters. Whatever they are using for an offense is not effective. Again, I only had time to re-watch one quarter, but there were no wide open shots. I agree with most of your other points but would like to add that with very little ball and player movement, it is easy for opposing defenses to conserve energy as the Rockets waste theirs within an inefficient offensive set.
This was my favorite part. Moochie and Posey (all the time) and Francis (of late) are the poster childs.
I would not dispute that the Rockets are a poor passing team. I don't think there is any question that is the case. I, personally, do not see it as selfishness. IMO, the game is simply too fast for a player to constantly be selfish. In this game, players react to situations. Being confident that they have the shot doesn't always equate to selfishness. I see it more as not trusting their teammates and fully understanding that they must have other contributions to win consistently. The problem is that, in the games where we looked like world beaters our passes ended up in the hands of players who hit their shots. When we look terrible, it is because we miss shots we should be making. I'm not offering solutions here or just simply stating that shooting is the only problem. It definitely is not. There are other problems as well, but if you can't shoot, it doesn't really matter what the other issues are. It's like having a sore back. If all you really have to do is sit around all day and do nothing, having a sore back really isn't a big deal. However, if you have to do ANYTHING involving your back - lifting, moving around, walking, whatever - those tasks become much more difficult. In the case of shooting, if you are a bad passing team or have a stagnant offense, you can get away with it if you are hitting your shots. If you aren't, those problems suddenly go from minor to major in a hurry. With zone defenses, you absolutely HAVE to make shots. If you don't, it doesn't matter how great you are at all other facets of the game. If you can't put points on the board, you are going to lose more than you win.
