The Rockets just don't have a good sense of the game of basketball. When a 20 year old PG is more savvy then our 2 guards combined you know we have trouble. The Rocks smartest player is a 22 year old from China, he understands the game of basketball. I think it may be time for the Rocks to trade some talented, but ignorant, players and bring in some brains. Before anyone blames our youth, look at Tony Parker, look at Ginobli, these are major contributors, and they are very young. Duncan won a championship in his 3rd year......I just don't see this team getting better. I see them making the same dumb mistakes game after game. We are 2-8 in games decided by 3 points or less. Pathetic. I have been down on Rudy, but I really don't think it is him any longer, I think it is the players. They just don't have a clue how to play a team game. Time to make some changes before Yao decides to leave after his rookie contract. Yao will lead this team......no one else....Yao. When that happens, then the Rocks will be good...until then....struggle city. DD
Had Francis started his career with a player like Duncan, he'd be light years ahead of Parker. His career started as a rookie who was the team's only go to player. How many times as that happened and it was successful, especially as a guard? How good do you think Parker would be right now if you took Duncan and Robinson off that team? Same with Ginobli. He's used to shouldering the load for the team and his just starting to get used to playing with Yao. It will happen, and we'll all laugh at this suggestion that Parker is a better player than Francis. At this point, it's really not the offense that's bothering me. We've made a concerted effort to run the offense through Yao the last few games, but when you can't play defense to save your life, then you're not going to be that good. And collectively, this team is playing possibly the most horrendous defense I've ever seen.
It would be helpful if the "less than educated" Rockets had a coach that could teach an effective offensive system.
dadakota, your unobjectiveness when it comes to our guards is sickening. you'll do anything to call our guards out and make another teams guards/players look good. hell, you don't even have a point wrt parker today. what did parker do so amazingly smart today?? he had stupid plays just like steve, but you would never see those b/c you have to bash our guards low iq incessantly. it's ridiculous. parker kicks the ball off his foot, leads to a fast break. gets stripped on a fast break, ball goes out off of him. forces another layup on a fast break, we bet the rebound. forces a shot in the paint in the 4th, airball. he's just so damn savvy. yeah, that young tony parker really carried them today. 7/18, 15 pts, 4 ast, 1 reb. and how did he only have 1 turnover, i remember him getting stripped and kicking the ball to us, that's two right there, some scorekeeper must love him. steve has 21/8/8 and 4 to's while actually having to carry a team unlike parker yet parker is the genius. please.
Well................yeah. We do need a teaching coach. Rudy should get a good mentor assistant. I mean. It can't be Rudy's fault. It's the players who make the mistakes. They have to call out when a player sneaks up and knocks the ball out. TEAMWORK. God.... Our team is stupid. Of course.....foreigners are smarter. Tony Parker...ONLY 20 or 21. Is AWESOME. I would love him. He can't really shoot.......but he is very intelligent and quick. I love him. NOW WHY DID WE NOT DRAFT GINOBOLI? He is sweet. He can drive. He can shoot. he's young........DANG IT. What's the use of Bostjan Nachbar?!?!?!?!?!?! Yeah...mayb MANU was injured......but now he is lookin good. Steve Francis is trying.......BUT GOD. He is hurting like hell. Mobley's role is to make his shots. He better start making them..... AND EDDIE GRIFFIN. Looking at him shooting free throws.....if he elevates and rises...his shot is not too bad. It looks like he is improving. ONE DAY.......hopefully we can be like the Spurs and Lakers. But first thing we should do is get rid of James Posey and Eddie Griffin. Replace them with shooters. SHOOTERS. PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY SHOOT. We already have Glen Rice, Terence Morris, and Bostjan Nachbar. They can all shoot. PLAY THEM. We just need more experience.......and a good assistant coah.
Yeah...but the thing is Tony Parker is just 21. But yeah.....he does have Tim Duncan and A LOT OF GOOD OLD VETS WHO CAN TEACH THEM. That's what we need. Some experienced teachers who are calm and can handle tough situations......only guy we got is Glen Rice....who should play more.
Francis, You can apologize for our guards all you want, but the fact is that they simply play stupid basketball. Everyone makes mistakes....everyone, but most players learn from them. You want to know what Parker does better, ok, you asked for it. 1. He hustles on defense 2. He runs the ball up the court and starts the offense with 19 seconds left on the shot clock. 3. He knows how to use a pick and roll, and he knows how to pass the ball to the guy who is rolling. 4. He rarely leaves his feet without an idea of where he is going with the ball. Right now, Tony is a better PG then Francis, and the gap will only widen as the grow. Francis has amazing athletic talent, but he has ZERO clue in how to set his teamates up, or on how to play even marginal defense. Right now, Francis is the guard version of Glen Robinson...... DD
"2. He runs the ball up the court and starts the offense with 19 seconds left on the shot clock." lol.....8 second violation!!!!!!!!! That's horrible ridiculous crap. Anyways......I agree with "DD" even though he hates me. We should get Tony Parker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or at least even Avery Johnson or something. OR JASON KIDD! It doesn't matter. Cuz everyone knows our future is Steve Francis and Yao Ming. We aren't going to get rid of them. What we are in desperate need of is a shooter. We have Mobley...who isn't consistent. Everyone knows about Posey and Griffin. Yao can't shoot 3'.... WE NEED A SHOOTER. Glen Rice can shoot...but is not too great on defense. Neither is Posey anymore. We need a shooter badly. Like some Rashard Lewis or young Glen Rice. And we need a mean coach.
A) I still put a lot of the blame on Rudy. There have been players in the past who didn't know how to play, yet had all the necessary skills, and learned. With proper coaching, Steve/Mobley/Griffin, etc. should have learned something by now. B) Everybody makes mistakes francis4prez, just not at the alarmingly high rate and not of the alarmingly stupid variety that our players do it. Parker still had twice the assist-turnover ratio than Steve had today and even with some anxious airball shots on his part, hit close to 50%. C) To all those who say "Well, Parker has Duncan to make him look good...", of course that's true. Yet, even in his diminished state, Francis had Olajuwon. What came of that relationship, though, was our real franchise player forever (Olajuwon) recognizing what it has taken us 4 years as fans to fully understand...the young kids jsut don't understand how to play the game. We don't see that problem in S.A. though.
I don't know what's worse : Our backcourt's basketball IQ and never learning from their mistakes at age 25+ or Dadakota still not knowing the difference between "than" and "then" at 30+. Both are tragic. We should trade all 3.
Jason Kidd tells NJ he doesn't want to resign there as he knows he won;t win it all, recognizes that he has to return to the West ot compete, and needs a real big man to win it all, straight up Francis for Kidd. Who wouldn't do that. Kidd would make Mobley look like one of the best SG's in the league, not to mention what he'd do for the rest of the team.
Cuz San Antonio has many good coaches. Poppovich....a protege of Nelson...who of course is a good coach. They are on top of the league!!! Just like Byron Scott and Isaiah Thomas. God.....all the coaches have some relation. And the Spurs have a lot of oldies who are intelligent and probably good mentors. We don't have anything. We don't have any good coaches or veterans. They better start learning cuz they are getting old. OH AND...y'all knew that San Antonio is better than us.
I don't hate anyone, even Francis and Mobley. However, if they are the supposed leaders, and they keep refusing to LEAD, then I will continue to be upset with their lack of leadership or savvy. The fact is that most players you can see growth, I know both Mobley and Steve WANT to win, and have massive desire, but they continue to make the same dumb mistakes. If you hit your head on the wall and it hurts, you don't continue to hit your head on the wall, well at least most people don't. I agree we need shooters, EG is not the answer at PF, he simply sucks on defense and offense....the KT trade did not help us as Posey is not that good, and EG is not even close to ready. DD
This is the most PO'd Ive been after a game this year. I hope the Rockets don't have something called the "Kevin Johnson" disease. KJ was a dominant scoring-shoot-first point guard, but these types of Point Guards typically do not lead their teams to NBA titles. Isiah was the exception, but becuase he he an insane desire to win, something I don't expect Francis to ever get. Since 1980, here are the starting PGs on championship teams. Magic (A pass-first star PG, 80,82,85,87,88) Tiny Archibald (I think he started in 1981) Moe Cheeks (83 Sixers) Danny Ainge or Dennis Johnson (I don't think the mid 80s Celtics had a true PG) Isiah Thomas (the exception) John Paxson (91, and 92 Bulls) BJ. Armstrong (93 Bulls) Kenny Smith (94 and 95 Rockets) Ron Harper (Bulls, the 00 Lakers) Avery Johnson (99 Spurs) Derek Fisher (01 and 02 Lakers) All but one of these PGs will not dominant scorers when their teams won. Francis is a dominant scoring poing guard, and not good enough to be the man on a championship caliber team. The Rockets only hope is that Yao Ming will end up being a great player who averages at least over 23 a game.
dada, i concur somewhat. This team is actually quite disgusting to watch due to poor floor leadership. And if i remember from my playing days, the point guard is supposed to be the leader on the floor. the general. the coaches extension. etc. etc. etc... this team is starting to rival the cloppers for amount of talent and lack of cohesion. rudy needs to start drinking again so he can get his focus back into coaching. Running a double low post with yao and taylor seems to be a solution for some of our offensive woes, but he rarely seems to call these plays. He would rather have Mo coming off the bench as a sparkplug rather them having him play alongside yao thus releaving yao from alot of pressure. When Eddie no game is on the floor, the other teams Power forward can feel free to double with no consequences. It is time to use mobley as the sparkplug off the bench, start joaquin and posey strictly for defense and let the game go through the post. This way when the shock troops come in, they throw a completely different look than the starting five and throw a cog into the defensive scheme of the opponent. oh hell i hate/love being a rox fan
Nooooo studogg. That can't work. But you're right. Mo Taylor and Yao are great together. If you have watched Kevin Garnett and his Slovenian buddy Nesterovic....they play extremely well together. And of course.....Tim Duncan and David Robinson just have fun inside together. Malik Rose is a perfect replacement. Their system works so well. I wish we could be like that. BUT...if Mo Taylor started...I still think we need Glen Rice with Yao and Mo Taylor. Glen Rice should start. We need a shooter to compliment our inside guys. But then that would make our bench really crappy. It's only stupid because we don't keep one of our franchise guys on the court at all times.....which doesn't make sense. Our team is screwed.
How many times has Yao Ming been open rolling to the hoop and Francis, our PG, didnt make the pass. It's like he is not confident in his passing abilities sometimes. In order for a team to win, a team needs a PG that is a playmaker, not a scorer. All these are signs that the Francis-Mobley tandem will never get the Rockets to the top, and perhaps that Francis should either be traded or move to the 2. It's not all the guards fault though. Eddie Griffin continues to let the team down with his terrible one on one defense against other starting 4s, and his insanely flat jumpshot. He has not improved at all. Truly unfortunate.
