Stop Blaming The Team's Deficiencies On Its Strengths

There is a lot to what you say, but I personally am of the opinion that the chain theory of winning, ie only as strong as your weakest link, etc. applies the least to basketball, as it is the most dominated by the abilities of each team's stars. Case in point; while the likes of Jim Paxson, Steve Kerr and Bill Wennington at times contributed to the success of the Chicago Bulls, it was largely incedental, and almost any NBA calibre players would have likely been able to contribute, if not as much, or in the same way, at least enough to fit in around the edges, whereas it was the play/quality of the likes of Jordan, Pippen and Rodman which determined the Bulls success or failure.

In the same vein, while players such as Fisher, Walker, etc. have made their undoubtable contributions to the Lakers recent succes, there would have been plenty of other players easily available who could have made something like the same level of contribution, again filling in the gaps left by Shaq and Kobe.

I believe that building a winning team in the NBA is all about getting the right stars, and then filling in the role players to suit their talents, help compensate for their weaknesses. When you aren't even getting to the playoffs, I don't think the main problem is with your lesser players.

 

Problems start from the TOP DOWN, not from the BOTTOM UP.

 

Are you sure you don't want to revise that list?

 

As far as the other things. All those are important. Sure. All you are doing is saying, "The Rockets problems can be summed up in: passing, teamwork, chemistry, shooters, defense...."

That's not "summed up."

That's a friken laundry list. We know that!

 

LOL. if you're not even going to acknowledge cat and steve as competent basketball players, then you have no business arguing basketball. i don't care if you personally think they are the stupidest players ever, one is a top 10-12 sg and the other a top 4-5 pg. arguing they are not good and competent in their abilities makes you wrong in every sense of the word.




arguing that problems are top down or that it's the stars fault is wrong in most circumstances. yes, other teams stars being better than ours may separate them from us on some level, but unless your just going to tell steve he needs to be kobe and yao he needs to be shaq, your not going to get anywhere. there is no doubting that steve/cat/yao are the good things on this team. mo t can be a good thing. steve/cat/yao are not the reasons we don't make the playoffs. they are the reason we have a shot. having a bottom 5 (maybe the worst) forward rotation and nearly no bench (moochie norris backed up both guards positions!) are the reasons we don't make the playoffs.

if steve/yao/cat were better, could that get us in? yeah, but them fine tuning their games pales in comparison to a complete lack of talent in other areas. if our sf and pf weren't dominated on a nightly basis and our bench didn't get crushed every night (or simply wear our starters out b/c we couldn't afford to put them in) we would've been far better.

at some point we'll have to worry if steve and yao can rise to superstardom, but their role players certainly don't compare to the role players of contending teams and are currently the main reason we can't get to the playoffs (that and the west just being a b****).

 

Dude chillout!

Read the rest of the post...

 

uhhh, that was your whole post.

 

The other(s)...lower...

I already agreed with the importance of the other issues wrong with this team.

All you got of my post was my "shot" on your boy.

Get over it! You act like I'm talking bad about your girlfriend!

It was a "shot" nothing less, nothing more.

 

parlett, you have the best collection of thread gifs ive ever seen.

 

lol. LeGrouper points out the problems with our other players and you say problems start from the TOP DOWN not BOTTOM UP, and then you say steve and cat aren't competent and to address the other problems you say "those other things are important. sure" mostly just passing them off. how am i the one being selective?

i don't the "get over it!" line. everyone comes here to post stuff and have it responded to? you posted something, i responded. or do we just have to agree with what you say?



somewhere out there i suspect there's an alternate universe where everything is the exact same, the sky is blue, grass is green, the yankees buy championsips, except one thing, me and you actually agree on something related to basketball. what a strange place that must be.

 

Ok, here's the deal....

TOP down is the best way. It's a hierarchy (or monarchy). Not a democracy. If you get a bunch of average players, but let them play as a team you might be able to squeak out some success; the sum of the team is greater than the individual parts. But to win a championship and to win consistently. You top talent and stars. Not just one star, and a bunch of scrubs. But rather a hierarchy. Most ball clubs are not the Yankees where they can buy tons of talent. So, you have to deal with what we can afford. Getting the best talent is always the goal, of course. But there can only be one leader. One "main man" in basketball. Else, conflict will result. Top down means: Owner, front office, coach, "star player" and "supporting stars (if you are lucky)", and role players.

So, although role players impact are important. They are not the starting point. You have to lay the ground work down first. And that "foundation" is the leaders of your club. Francis, Yao, Mobley. In that order. Some might say that JJ is before the Cat. That's to be determined. But that's worrying over the fine details too soon. You must first get the main personnel on the same page, then you can worry about the fine points.

I think in your other post you mentioned Francis's relative talent level (compared to other teams) and role on this team...that's an interesting topic...

Francis is not of the same level of some of the other greats that have played in this game. So, his dependence on his supporting cast might be greater than others (Jordan, Oscar, Bird, Kareem, Hakeem). This is ok, since he's already stated that he's willing to sacrifice his game for the team. A very good sign! His role will be less than those other greats. But that does NOT mean that he's any less valuable as the "leader." He will just be used in different ways. So, yes. Team chemistry, passing, defense, role players, etc... are all important. But again, it must start from the TOP DOWN, FIRST!!!!

Get your stars inline, in-sync, and then the rest will fall inline.

The post about Steve being incompetent has yet to be determined (PG wise and leadership). He must prove it. We can wish all we want. But he must prove it!!!

LeGrouper points....well, it just seems like he's trying to deflect most of the problems with the role players. I disagree with that. Now, his point would be much more valid if we were a 55-58 win team, and were actually contenders for the a title. If we make the playoffs this year, the following year will we can talk about "fine tuning" and getting in more supporting talent in key positions. But not yet. Lets JVG work on the core group first.

LeGrouper reply to that might be that in order to get to 55 wins, we must improve the role players performance. But to me that "improvement" of the role players will come directly from that team's, coach, "star player" and "supporting stars." Not the other way around. We now return you to that famous phrase called, "Making your teammates better." And that starts with Francis, Yao, and so on...

P.S. I'm a Rudy basher too don't forget. It wasn't just Francis's game I disliked. It was Rudy coaching OF Francis. JVG is better, at least for Francis. You wait...

 

You're both right.

EG and MoT are incompetent. 1/4 and 1/2 together don't make a whole.

Moochie is the definition of incompetant.

Steve is not a leader. He hasn't made the goofs around him play better. He hasn't made himself play better.

Yao is the leader, without having to say anything. You can't help but look up to Yao. Yao makes everyone better. Yao hits even Moochie with the perfect pass for the highlight layup.

Yao needs to control the ball. Steve needs to receive the ball. Everyone else needs to support them; give them room to operate and bail them out of doubles.

Simple as that.

 

Can we just get rid of all the ROX haters? Yes, I am a homer. I'd rather all of us be homers than having ONE hater.

 

If Eddie Griffin averages 12 and 8 and shoots above 46% last year this team is in the playoffs. Not much to ask from a first round pick.