We have beaten the Suns too, twice last year, on their court, by playing our game, JVG's game. Other than Tmac who is playing with a crispy back, nobody on our team has the athletism to attack the basket (except Swift who cannot catch the ball half of the time and cannot finish the other half of the time unless it is a uncontested dunk). How is it playing to our strength by insisting on attacking the paint then? You keep saying JVG forces our player to play in ways that accentuates their weakness, but the things you suggested are even worse in that sense. The fact is we have two effective offensive weapons, one of which is half crippled and absent minded. The role players we have are subpar passers, not athletic, better at shooting jumpers than attacking the basket. JVG is not that stubborn as many people believe. He let Rafer push the ball, he let them run second half of last season. But you cannot run when the opponents are shooting 60%. One bad game doesn't prove he is stubborn. We can only play with the players we have. IF our 2 superstars don't click, then we are not going to get many easy baskets, period. If you want to rant about JVG's rotation, fine. I want him to play Hayes, and Bogans more. But neither of those two would've made much a difference last night.
Look its plain and simple. So Diaw can get a couple of open 3's, so did we but the difference is that they made em and we did not. Dont blame JVG for the game plan, if anything you can blame him for is the lack of execution the team had. But the game plan was fine. So Diaw is guarding Yao....Yao is twice his size so they give it to Yao, but Yao gets double teamed so you pass to T-mac or open shooters. And this is where it went horribly wrong: 1)They tripled Yao and he passed out to perimeter shooters and they either would not pass to someone who was more open or did not hit any shots. 2)T-mac could care less about the game of basketball right now. That does not help at all. and STOP SAYING THAT JVG DOES NOT ADJUST TO TALENT He is doing every thing he can with two studs, a decent pg, and the rest of the team who is more worthless than a pile of ****. If you guys know so much about the game of basketball and the Rockets strengths then tell me how you would win with our team and not just talk out of your ass and say JVG does not know how to utilize talent. And the next person that says our game plan should be to RUN RUN RUN like the Suns should just get banned. Yao cant run and running teams will never win a championship. Defense does. Look at Dallas, they finally became a damn good team when they realized that Defense is not so overrated.
Look, I'm not trying to say we could have won that game last night. They obviously shot lights out. What I'm trying to say is as the coach, when you see the opponent burning the net off the rim with the outside game, you gotta switch it up and force them to do something else. Do you really believe that shooting is our forte???? It's basic basketball, especially when your shot is not going down. You take it to the rim. Everybody learns that playing JV ball. You don't continue to stand around the perimeter jacking up shots. Attack, attack, attack, TMac attack. Either that, or we can play to our weakness (like we did last night) and keep jacking up 20 footers that clang off. And if Yao doesn't have good hands, then why were we running the pick and roll to death last year????? Saying that we should move Yao out of the low post some is accentuating his weakness??? Yeah, we can only play with the players that we have. So, let's use them to our best advantage. Put in Swift and Chuckie against these run and gun teams and force them to defend and push the ball in the paint. If Swift is going to get better in the block, we've got to throw it to him and let him get his confidence. We've got to endure and fumbling, bumbling, just like we have with Yao for him to get there. Otherwise, move him and get somebody else in here. We ain't gonna do squat with Juwan shuffling around out there with Yao. How can any suggestions made by anyone be any worse than last night's debacle??? Get real friend.
We did beat the Sun's twice last year, but that was last year.They play defense now and you have to give the Sun's credit for that. If the Sun's have a healthy Amare Stoudamire they would have the best record in the league hands down. I think the Suns are going to be the most dangerous threat to the Spurs come playoff time. Kurt Thomas, Raga Bell and Diaw really help them defensively. Im a huge rocket fan, but I was very impressed with the Suns. They are a very well coached team even when Steve Nash is not on the court and they were dominant on both ends of the floor.
Yeah, that Kurt Thomas. Now there's a real run and gunner. Just another example of how to use players effectively. Yao should have been raining jumpers down on him from the high post as well.
The last 6 Champions were the Spurs, Lakers, and Pistons, all had/have dominant big mans and they both don't run all that much (compared to the Suns). The Suns are a very exciting team to watch and the way they play with Nash is very effective. But like last year, we'll see how they plays out in the playoffs.
Oh, I agree with that. Come playoff time, the legs tighten up, the arms tighten up, and those bombs just don't fall like they do when you are running up and down in the regular season with very little to no pressure because your playoff spot is basically secured.
I want to ask some questions, what's the game plan for the Rockets when either the guards are cold from outside, or when the low post game is disjointed due to swarming defense? If it's giving the ball to T-Mac and let him create. What if he's an off night, or when he's concerned about his back and therefore can't create much for others throught dribble penetration? Also, what is the bread and butter play of the Rockets? Picks and rolls? Screens? What happened to the Yao and T-Mac picks and rolls? I've seen recently Yao receiving the ball in the low post, the entry passer cutting to the baseline, getting Yao's pass and score. Why not do the same thing with Yao in the high post? Is JVG so fixated in keeping Yao in the low post as to ignore other options on offense? The lack of backup plans is what makes this team one dimensional, vulnerable, inconsistent and easily disrupted, and is why some fans are saying this team doesn't have an offensive identity. The Rockets' success in a game relies much at the initial conditions of a game. The shooters feeling it, the opposing defense letting Yao have the room and the ball, T-Mac feeling it etc... a missing link in the scenerio cuts into the efficiency level, renders the Rockets somewhat dysfunctional, and have nothing much to fall back on. This is why Doug Collins was saying the game starts pretty much shows how the Rockets would do in a given game. The Rockets were relying on the individual game of Yao and T-Mac, respectively, to get to another level, Yao and T-Mac need to have game plans so they can feed off of each other, Yao and the role players should have other plans other than low post game, T-Mac and the role players should have other plans other than standing still watching T-Mac create open shots, and finally, a plan in which Yao, T-Mac and other teammates seamlessly integrated into one play. The Rockets need more facets to their offense, so that they are not restrained by conditions of a particular game, but to create conditions inducive to exploiting their collective strengths and produce points regardless of situations. Which is the main gripe I have with JVG, aside from his player management, especially HAYES vs. RYBO!
Except YAO is NOT a dominant big man, he was guarded by people a foot shorter. Sure Diaw was giving him problems, and he was double-tripple teams. But he should also be giving Diaw problems. If Yao was pounding the offensive glass and getting put back left and right, then maybe the Suns will stop putting Diaw on him. There is simply no excuse for him to be out-rebounded by people a foot shorter. (ZERO rebounds) How in the world do you get ZERO rebounds when you are 7'6"? He should be holding his head in shame.
Yes we blasted the suns by 20 last season behind yao's 20/20. But do you notice since then suns have adjusted their defensive against Yao? For three straight games(1 last season and 2 this season), suns have completely takin yao out of the game(though the rockets managed to win one of these games) and they done in a very successsful way. With yao completely ineffective plus the fact suns now does have better perimeter defender in Raja Bell and together with Shawn Marion, they have really taking T-mac(yes, he has personal issues but this is not an very good excuses) out of the game too. Do JVG notice this? Yes, definitely he did. But did he make any adjustments? Apparently, no. Yes, it is not the coach's fault when your center couldnt grab a single rebound and your shooter bricked every shots but did the coach has abother sets to overcome this problem? Putting Rybo in so he can make an open jumper? I m not referin to only this game but alot of times JVG's decision always have us scratching the heads! Like puttin Wesley on Kobe, refuse to defend the 3ptrs, unwillingness to activate DA/Barry, Yao to defend the pick and roll, having ewing to pimp other's cheerleaders etc etc. Personally, I like JVG as a person. His help on Padgett to sign with the Nets is simply Classic. But as a coach, i think his stubborness will defenitely cost him the job sooner or later!
Some of you guys think there is always a solution for every problem. Sometimes there is NOT. If Tmac is having an off night, and our role players are not making open shots, then yeah we are doomed. We don't have the guys to attack the basket other than Tmac! Wesley, Head and Rafer will get blocked more often than not. And our lack of speed doesn't help either, especially when playing against freaks like Suns. We need to add athletism, but until then, we have to play with the players on the team. The game was over after one quarter. Suns were shooting the light out and they were way ahead so they kept shooting and making 3's. No amount of effort in attacking the basket could have been enough to catch up with them. Once you fall that far behind against Suns, you have keep booming from long range and hope you get hot. Scroing 2 pts a time was clearly not gonna cut it last night.
You don't know until you try. Do you mean that Wesley, Head and Rafer will be cut on the Kings since they can't cut or slash? Since when did they prove they can't play such a game? Speculation is not fact. With Yao clogging up the low post, T-Mac often dominating the ball, and static off the ball movement, how do they get the chance to showcase their skills? When T-Mac is having an off night, and the role players can't shoot from the outside, we need Yao step out of the low post and take full control. Picks and rolls, picks and pops, high post passing and shooting...whatever ways for Yao to take up the scoring load rather than roll over and die, like we did last game. By more off the ball movement, there's a chance to bring back cold players like T-Mac and others into their rhythm. Keeping them involved in the offense will always help their shooting.
