Fact: The lack of opportunity, fastbreak buckets cost the Rockets last year. We aren't a good enough half court team to compete consistently with the upper echelon teams, whose execution is flawless ie: Utah, San Atonio, LA, Sacramento. Why did the fastbreak suffer? Because Francis is rather clueless in running the fastbreak at this point which will hopefully change this season, and we had all of two bigmen who actually knew how to throw a proper outlet pass, Dream and Kenny Thomas, a combination I wish would have seen more time together last season. Mo Taylor moves like molasses to loose balls and has no idea how to throw an outlet pass. Francis doesn't drift to the ball to recieve outlet passes, and unlike the Jason Kidd's of the world, is not a one man fastbreak, meaning if he sees nothing he won't push the ball. He's not a player who's instinctively going to push the ball. Rudy has to tell him he wants him to haul ass everytime he gets the ball for the fastbreak to be effective. It's not about players running their lanes either, it's about Francis being the first one down the court, trying to break down the defense and looking for our guns trailing the break for spot up 3's and easy buckets. If we want to go to a full out run and gun, screw the half court, game, then we'll run Thomas and Griffin as our bigmen, since they are the 2 best outletting bigmen on the team, and you'll run Mooch at the point, ASSUMING he's still here. If not, then the success of the fastbreak is even more dependent on Francis. How Mo Taylor and Cato fit into this, I really don't know. Taylor would likely drift to the baseline for his forte midrange jumper, and Cato would probably display his whole offensive repetoire, the trail dunk.
Our guards are notorious for not getting open for outlets. There should be little difficulty in throwing outlets. Saying Mo' doesn't throw a good outlet is a foreign concept to me; it really is. Defenders are trained to deny the outlet. To me it is like comparing Kenny Smith's lob pass to Hakeem versus Sam Cassell's. The pass is not about the passer as much as it is about Hakeem leveraging himself and becoming a safe target. These are not designed as difficult passes, nor are outlets. Guards are trained to make cuts to get open. They usually must get open without the aid of a pick. It is easy to deny passes in such situations, so most cuts are lateral or back towards the passer. Our guards must learn to get open for the outlet. Instead, we had a tendency to all release....Stevie, Cuttino and Shandon would all start running, and no one would come back for the pass. Sitting Mo' down because of some presumed deficiency in throwing a 10' pass is silly. The guards must not ALL release. Someone must get open for an safe/easy outlet. Dangerous over-the-top outlets are not the measure of good fastbreaking teams. I really do not understand this notion of good or bad outlet passers. Those statements measure a forward's ability to pass over the top. Those opportunities are no more common than are fastbreaks due to steals. They are based on defender mistakes. You don't build a fastbreak around over-the-top Joe Namath passes. It is supposed to be safer than that. Get the ball to a dribbler quickly and frequently, and he pushes the ball. Then you run quick plays before the defense sets. That is a fastbreaking team concept. It can be done by running after a basket as well.
I'm not even talking about over the top passes when talking about Taylor. He is so slow reacting to defensive rebounds that it's laughable. I wish we could run an out of bounds fastbreak(Jason Williams does this better than any player in the league), but who do you suggest the inbounder be?
Everything stated is true about basketball today. The fast break is only ran properly by a few teams. What makes a fast break effective is people running all the time. I watch NBA.com all the time and I notice those old teams would run evry opportunity the got. After a free throw made/missed, turnover, made basket, everything. The 80's and early 90's break was more consistent by way of running. Even as old as the Jazz are, they are still one of the best fast breaking teams in the league because even if they don't have a break, they run into their offense. High scoring teams don't have to be fast breaking teams. The lakers score points because of Shaq, Kobe and the motion they get. The Rockets would be a very good team if they ran a version of the triangle. Picture a player chasing Mobley and Francis through a couple of picks. Picture the bad balnce a player would have before they dribble. Just think how many scoring chances they would have if they didn't have to break a player down from 28ft. The problem is Rudy needs more motion.
leebigez, the Triangle is not a motion offense, in the common sense of the term--"player motion." That is another media misnomer. The Triangle is a ball movement/flex system. Motion is overrated in an environment of a 24 second clock. It is too easy for great defenses to deny (paint) motion into a corner (ie. deny the ball into the hand of the weakest player). The Triangle and Rudy's Flex offense is designed to keep the ball in the star player's hands and make them choose how to stop it and allow a kick-out flex option. They both score faster than motion, which is necessary in 24-seconds. The Triangle is far from being flawless. It is commonly stopped by clogging the middle, because it loads too many people on the strong side. That is why no other teams really play it. Because it is not that great of an offense for most teams. Now when you have Shaq or Jordan, you can win with many systems. Just pick one.
That's true. That's because Francis and Mobley do not have the true PG mentality. Francis drives the lane...looking to pass. Thomas, Dumars, and V. Johnson drove the lane to score. With his cross-over, Francis shouldn't be having so many problems getting into the lane, but he moves laterally with his cross-over. Thomas, Dumars, and V. Johnson used the dribble to move closer to the basket. Mobley advances the ball like Drexler -- with his head down. The difference is that Drexler saw the court before he put his head down. Mobley does not realize that throwing the ball forward is much faster than him struggling to dribble pass the defender. Anderson's ball-handling deficiency was not as evident in Utah because Stockton ALWAYS handled the ball. University (Memphis) Blue
