There's nothing wrong in looking to the draft and/or perhaps a key trade to strengthen the Rockets, but IMO the real reason for our poor season has been the injury bug, not lack of talent or poor coaching. It may be time for the league to tweak the rules regarding the off season. For example, when his players are working at Westside, Rudy and staff can't be on the court with them. If they were, the Rockets might be able to avert injuries by controlling the training regimen and strictly supervising voluntary play. For example, Mo Taylor got hurt playing an unsupervised pickup game. The league knows these guys love the game, and the successful ones are constantly honing their skills. Perhaps the league should let these players get team assistance on a voluntary but official basis and thereby reduce injuries. Thoughts?
I think the rule keeping team management away from players in the offseason is to keep teams from pressuring players into playing when they don't want to. And, knowing how important winning is to teams, you know they would be pressuring if they could. Increased pressure to practice may get more players practicing and increase offseason injuries. And, more importantly, would limit how long they can stay in Jamaica. Besides that, I don't know if having team personnel will actually do anything to help reduce injuries. Some things just happen. Mo Taylor's injury could not have been averted. He wasn't doing anything particularly dangerous; he just stepped on it wrong. On the other hand, I'm convinced Mobley had his early injury from working too much in the offseason. Maybe that could have been averted.
While i understand the "undue" pressure arguement, i think it's unwise to ban contact between the coaching staff & the players. There MUST be a medical/re-hab exception to this rule, for both the player's & team's long term benefit. I can't see the harm in allow strength & conditioning coaches working with the players either. Drills & scrimage - NO; weights, fitness & rehab - YES!
