Last year we had a total of 4 players on the team that were legit threats at driving the ball hard to the basket and scoring in the paint or getting to the line. TMac VSpan who could not get on the court Kirk Snyder who also did not have much of a role on the team last season. Bonzi Wells who could not get out of the JVG dog house long enuogh to contribute. All of those except TMac were non factors last season. Almost every other scoring option on the team not named Yao Ming was nothing more than a spot up shooter...at least in the JVG offense. Already it looks like how we will be able to score points has vastly changed. TMac Brooks James Scola Bonzi All look to figure heavily into the JVG offense and all can take the ball to the basket and either score or get to the line. If Francis is added then suddenly that figure turns to 6 players that like to attack the basket. The really great thing about it is that we have upgraded our ability to attack the basket with out sacrificing our shooting. We still have Luther Head and Shane Battier who can shoot lights out from behind the arc...plus Brooks and James both come with a pretty damn good 3 point shot. I thought one of our problems on offense last season was that we did not attack the basket enough with anyone not named Yao Ming. With a line up of James, Bonzi, TMac, Scola and Yao....or....James, TMac, Battier, Sola and Yao, we can really attack the basket with Yao in the high post or shoot from the perimeter with Yao in the low post. With the line up we had last year, Rafer, TMac, Shane, JHo, Yao ...or... Rafer, Head, TMac, Hayes, Yao (or any other mixture) we were basically a jump shooting team or dump it into Yao. If anyone was going to attack the basket from the perimeter everyone knew that it would have to be TMac. I think Morey has done an excellent Job of re-inventing our team this year with out completely blowing it up. If anyone would have said that we would have added Mike James, Louis Scola and possibly Francis for the price of Juwan Howard, VSpan and a 2nd round pick even the most optimistic fan would have laughed that one off. Throw in a possible steal in the draft with Aaron Brooks and Morey suddenly looks like a genious.
Hey everyone I'm Rowdie Brandon...I'm new to the site and I was a red rowdie After attending all the rockets games last year I must say that tmac doesn't attack the basket enough. Tmac just doesn't look to drive anymore so I think Adleman will have to find other ways to get him easy looks at the basket like A. Posthing him up more - I still don't understand why the rockets don't use him in the post more. He's 6'8 (maybe even taller) and he's strong enough to create his own shot on the block B. Running more - hopefully putting tmac on the break will provide easy opportunities and a few highlights.
Remember TMac screaming "Attack!" when the TV guys questioned him about what the Rox needed to do when he was triple teamed????? I don't think he'll have to worry about that this year. Bonzi, James, and Brooks are simply gonna chew up defenders.
hey Brandon...good to see ya. I think we've met a couple of times. I agree with Brandon that the biggest difference will be seen with a running game installed by Adleman and what he does with TMac to get him easier baskets....leaving Yao out of this discussion for now (since the topic is "Take it to the HOOP"). crash5179, I'm not so sure attacking the basket with the ball is anymore a core element of Adleman's offensive schemes than JVGs. Sure, we will see our PGs attack and TMac attack (hopefully more), but in inverted post offenses, the core element is movement without the ball, to get easy buckets from making the defense make a mistake. The set plays will be shooters off of screens, PnRs, backdoors, and low posts to Bonzi, Scola, and maybe TMac (again leaving Yao out of the discussion). maybe it is semantics difference, but i don't see attacking the basket by anyone who can to be a core element of the upcoming offense.
It's hard to attack when you've got 3 guys sitting in your lap. Frankly, I don't want to see him attacking against double and triple teams. It's too risky, low percentage ball, and we risk him getting crunched up at the basket too much. He's gonna get to the rim plenty this coming year though off cuts as Adelman's passing offense breaks down defenses.
I don't know but it sure seemed like the JVG offense was based on the low post scoring of Yao complimented by the three point shooting of the rest of the team. I know JVG made comments through out the year that TMac was at his best when attacking the basket but it did not seem to happen often enough. JVG's fault? TMac's fault? I remember watching the Mavs vs. Kings play off series a few years ago when the core of the Mavs were still Finely, Nash and Nowitzki. During that series it seemed like Bibby attacked the basket during that series relentlessly and scored in the paint almost at will either by recieving a nifty pass from Vlade, Webber or by driving the ball into the paint himself. That is what I envision for our group of guards this year that for what ever reason was not possible in the past. I believe that as you get further and further into the play offs you have to be able to attack the basket. When the Mavs beat the Spurs in last years play-offs it was because they successfullly attacked the basket and made the Spurs pay for not keeping them out of the paint. The Mavs got beat by the Heat in the Finals because they stopped being aggresive taking the ball into the paint and started settling on jump shots. How ever the Rockets get the ball into the paint this year I think they need to have a more balanced attack from their perimeter players this year. The peremeter players need to be a threat in the paint as well as in the perimeter. The guards and forwards on the team need to be both willing and capable from scoring inside as well as outside. What really has me excited about this team is that they appear to have that ballance.
I wouldn't include James as a player who likes to take it to the rim, he's more of a jumpshooting PG. Lets hope he shoots as well as he did with the Toronto Raptors..
Yes some time he's double and triple teamed off the pick and roll and that is partly the coaches fault, but there were far too many times last year (especially in the Utah series against 6'2 Derek Fisher) that tmac would settle for a jump shot in one on one coverage......I think his back problems still effect him mentally.
not sure if i met you during game 2 last year but cool that you have joined here. but I whole heartedly (sp?) agree with tmac letting his back effect him more mentally than physically. fisher cannot guard him and he settled for jumpers i dont know if he was afraid of any impending collision by taking it to the rim since the jazz were going to foul anything and everything going to the hoop and yao and tracy made up for like 85% of the offense. hopefully this year it will be a different tune, new coach, new system new offensive player and a year fully recovered from his back injuries and treatment from dr patterson should hopefully all help. i remember reading that most athletes say that its the 2nd year back from any major injury do they feel 100%.
The forgotten player in all the changes is Synder. He has absolutely mad athleticism. Major hops, can dunk on anybody, aggressive, big, etc. IMO, he was another player that was "iced" by JVG. Synder is young, he needs direction, mentoring, developing. Aldeman may fit the bill. I think he is a sleeper on the team that could surprise, much like Aaron Brooks. I expect Scola to be as advertised, Bonzi to be reborn, and Butler to be better than expected. JLIII is a goner, but I think Luther may stick. Anybody want Alston? Landry is probably going to the minors with Novak unless both impress in training camp. Harris is a questionmark, seems like we have too many small forwards.
I remember one game last year against New Orleans (it was a home game) where tmac took it hard to the basket and he was layed out from a hard foul....this is the game Rafer got ejected from, for the rest of the game you could tell his on court demeanor changed. He didn't want to take it to the basket at all, because he was afraid of someone taking another shot at him.
