Jeff, you have it backwards. When the ball moves, the shots go in because they are open, good looks. When the Rockets walk the ball up the court, don't move and don't pass, and then force up a shot, the shots don't go in, because they are bad shots. The problem is the "offense" and the shots it generates, not the shooters.
I agree 100% with Jeff. This is a very good team IMO they have talanted players at every position and then some. This team is still young, and learning to play together Some still developing their own game. So I wish that people would quit expencting this team to run when they are just bearly crawling. You know sometime I feel that it would be better for the team if they didn't make the playoffs that would give Yao more time to get in better shape. Stronger, faster, able to leap "limited skill having center's with a broken toe" in a single bound (i think thats how it goes)
I don't see a lot of open shots. Everyone on the Rockets tends to go one on one, or to try to shoot when they get the ball. No one makes that extra pass to the next guy that usually is very open. I think it is a product of our guards not passing, or trusting their teamates enough. If Steve or Cat passed right away, then the receiver of the pass could also pass, and the defense would be on it's heals and the results would be wide open looks. Steve drives, Cat shoots when guarded, as does EG, and Posey...only Yao shows discipline and passes when doubled. Pretty sad when a rookie center is by far the best passer on the team. DaDakota PS. Mo Taylor should start, he is playing fantastic and team oriented.
The shooters are the problem. teams just lay off Eddie and Posey every time. Posey usually just pumpfakes and tries to drive wildly inside. If we had more shooters, steve and cat would have more confidence in moving the ball around. For those of you who blame the bad shooting on ball movement, how many times have Eddie and Posey airballed a wide open 3? You can move the ball great and get it to these guys every time, but they will still be BAD SHOOTERS. If Posey could hit a wide open 3, our offense would be twice as effective.
I am having the same disease as you. Too depressed watching Rockets lose night in and night out, but still cannot stop watching Rockets/Yao!
protect yourself from possible chemical or biological weapons attacks, but suffocate to death in your own house. idiots!!!
The Rockets problem is not with the players, it is Rudy's system that is the major problem. Rudy ball consist of Francis and Mobley taking their man off the dribble, which is hard to do every time down. Two other plays that Rudy uses is the high pick set by Yao or Taylor to free up Francis, Mobley and Moochie or he may call a play to go to a player in the post if he is hot. Rudy play book will not get it done in the NBA and his old system will not work without a dominating center such as Hakeem. The Rockets are made up of players who are scorers not shooters, therefore, the best system for this team is a run and gun system where the player are involved in a high tempo game that has little regard for field goal percentage. The Rockets must try to outscore their opponent in a scoring contest not out shoot them. The Rockets simple play book is easy for other team to defend. The problem is Rudy not the play and the coach we need to implement this system is Don Nelson's son that is an assistance of his in Dallas
No way. The Rockets get less good looks than any team in the NBA because they are the worst passing team in the league by far. You don't get good, clean looks at the hoop when u run freakin ISO ball with the most selfish backcourt in the league. The poor shooting is the SYMPTOM, not the problem.
MO TAYLOR is playing team oriented? I don't think I've ever seen him pass the ball out of the post... Forget Arizona...U of H could beat us right now...
I respect Jeff's opinions and to a certain degree do agree with his initial post. But I do very much agree with GATER's take. This team does have guys that can put it in the basket to some extent, the problem is type of shots. I am really getting tired of hearing the same old line after losses likes this "We had some open looks, we just couldn't put them in the basket." How about this concept... have an offense that can create BETTER looks, higher percentage looks within the flow of a motion offense. The cutters, the screens, the passing, the backdoor layups. Or how about the DEFENSE playing well, rebounding and running fast breaks for easy layups. THIS is the stuff the Rockets NEED to do on nights when the outside shot is not falling. This is what they are NOT doing however and it is catching up with us. Granted, the teams needs more consistant outside shooting. Between the 1-2-3 positions, one of those people has to be consistant. Boy it would have been nice to have been able to trade for someone like a Ray Allen! This team needs to address the inconsistant outside shot this summer without question. That is a priority! But this team (and the coaches!) also has to work harder this offseason on a better motion offense that gets everyone involved and not so much one on one. Chris
He passes in the post to cutters all the time, just last night Cato fumbled 2 nice passes to him from Mo on cuts. DD
My closing comment...a case in point. One of the leagues interesting success stories for the 2002-2003 season is Golden State. The Warriors shot 42.9% from the field last season (1/10 better than the Rockets) and won a mere 21 games. With the same basic shooters (discounting #3 pick MD Jr @ 41%and Earl Boykins @ 43%), the team has bought into Eric Musselman's offense and trusting each other and is very competitive even though they're only shooting a little better this season. I don't have the inclination to check their stats from January on, but I would expect their shooting % to be around 45%. In the games I've watched all of them get open, unforced looks within their offense. These are basically the same GS shooters as last season but with a different offensive scheme.
The problem is mostly the offense, not the shooters. I'm sorry, but Griffin and Posey parking out at the 3-point line does not qualify as an open shot to me. Griffin and Posey are not getting open shots within their shooting range. The offense should not be working to get them open shots at the 3 point line, they should be working to get them open shots within 15 feet. Having those 2 stand out at the 3 point line is like having Cato stand at the 3 point line. Sure, he would be wide open, but not GOOD wide open. Also, the open shots are not a result of ball movement. They're a result of the defense encouraging them to shoot from farther out than they should. If Eddie and Posey were consistently getting open shots within 15 feet and were still missing then I would agree.
Wow. All these posts and its either one way or another when clearly, the problem with the Rockets is both that they don't have good shooters AND that they don't put themselves in good shooting positions through teammwork and passing. First, there are no good spot up shooters on this team, as nobody chooses to be. Rice isn't a good enough shooter anymore. But Francis and Mobley probably are. I am highly confident if , for example, Mobley's mindset was more of a Reggie Miller style of play, he could be just as good a spot up shooter, talent wise. The same for Francis. If these guys took the smart open shots, instead of the insanely stupid drive against four, don't pass to the open man approach, their shots are good enough for them to be effective. Even when they get the open shot rotated to them, they always wait for there man to guard them, hoping to be able to drive by them. Second, more than the system being a repetitive, unenergetic one, the players are selfish. You can say its not selfishness just that they don't trust their teammates, but in the end its the same, really. There have been more than enough pick and rolls over the last year plus with a wide open bigman rolling to the basket that just didn't get the ball. To make this even worse, it is not only that they don't seem to want to pass it sometimes, I am becoming increasingly convinced that they can't even make this simple, fundamental pick and roll pass. Case in point was the very end of the game last night. Yao sets a solid pick, rolls. Francis sees him open, but doesn't trust him enough to zip the pass over as it should be done. A half second later, though, Francis realizes this is the pass he should have made before and definitely shoudl make now, but he can't even do it, and Yao is still wide open. Instead of making a sound pass, he jumps to pass, as 50% of his driving passes are done, and doesn't get the ball to Yao. As luck would have it, Francis got the ball back after the tip, drove to the basket, jumped once again, passed to Yao who had a tough time handling the pass (wonder why - stop jumping to pass you idiot), got it, made the shot, was fouled, missed the free throw, game ended. This type of poor passing extends to everyone else. The team has become so accustomed to not passing to the open man that half of Yao's perfect passes to wideopen players directly under the basket are fumbled away, which brings me back to the initial point. Even on good passing nights, the flow is interrupted by players who refuse to shoot without beign able to show someone up or failing to make a simple play. In the end, these are problems that are representative of the bigger picture: (1) The Rockets have no leadership - either from the bench (coach) or on the floor (PG) (2) The Rockets lack fundamental skills in every aspect of the game - shooting, passing, close out defense, boxing out, running a fast break, time/clock management, spacing, pick and roll, etc.
I agree with both JayZ and Jeff. It is no secret that the Rockets are a poor passing team. But they do have open shots. The difference is, the other team usually make the open shots and we don't. The problem is that the open shots are taken by the wrong people--the non-shooters such as Griffin and Posey. I think these two guys have totally lost their shooting confidence. The two guards are good shooters. Francis is good. Mobley is somewhat streaky but still quite good. The trouble is, they don't shoot many open shots because (1) when the defense knows that you can't pass, they just play more up close, and (2) they LOVE to drive into a crowd even when they get good look from outside. The other good shooters on the team are Yao, Rice and Taylor. Yao doesn't play outside, so he's relying on teammates to give him the ball, nuff said. Rice can't move, so he rarely can get the ball in a shooting position. Taylor is probably our best bet for the consistent midrange shooter. And I think Yao should be given the green light to shoot from 15 ft and beyond. They should open things up at least a little. To complicate the problem, we don't move off the ball. I don't think (as many people lament here) we are a ISOmania team. If you notice, many other teams are doing ISOs too, maybe more than we do. In fact, if we WERE doing more ISOs, we probably would have been more successful because the two guards are good at it. I'm NOT advocating ISO. I'm just saying that non-ISO plays without off ball movement just won't work. I don't know if it's Rudy's fault or the players are just so poor in fundamentals as to not knowing how to move in reaction to the defense. Just my rant.
