Adelman has given us clues as to what problems he is facing getting his offense going- last season he said several times that it would take time and the team always wanted to fall back to the old ways. This season he has made several comments that there isn't enough movement and hard cuts in the offense. Actually last season on a whole the offense didn't look that different than the season before and this year the only real difference is Yao coming out high a little more. Now obviously it is too early this season to read it all and there are going to be chemistry issues, but I think there are several key points to realize- 1. The Rockets are pretty weak in one main basic fundemental area- passing the ball. They don't have a PG who can make good passes. A good pass requires good court awareness, timing, and passing skill or accuracy, plus you have to have players that can catch passes. Red Aurbauch used to say it isn't a good pass unless it is caught well. 2. Also, besides the PG there aren't any other really good passers on the team, Yao and Tracy have very good passing instincts but most of the time make poor passes, either too hard, wrong timing or too lazy. 3. The team as a whole is not very good catching passes. Most of the passes that are made are very 'safe' passes, it happens but it is rare that quick ball movement results in fluid shots. This is due to the fact that the Rockets don't have that many players with strong hands and natural ball handling. TMac has the hands but doesn't seem to move enough and cut enough because there aren't any passers who get him the ball in the right place and time. Bibby, Miller, Jackson, Petra, Vladi, and the rest all were good passers and Bibby was exceptional in his prime, alot like the top point guards today. So the team does better in the 1/2 court using the high pick and roll and post up plays because they are very safe in their passing attack. Without upgrading the PG position we are better off sticking with that type offense and the players know it. I think Adelman knows it also but is trying to get them to stretch more and make the cuts and move more for open looks. What is frustrating the scoring ability of the team is the low passing ability. So, I think with this group of players, their age and skillset we have the best chance of winning with a little more ball movement, strong defense and the 1/2 court game. Trying to get the full motion and hard cuts of the Adelman offense will be frustrated by poor passing. Rafer may be good in the 1/2 court game, but he is not an elite PG and this will always limit what Adelman can get from this group. I mean to be honest they struggle making and catching the most basic pass into the low post with Yao.
I don't agree with much of your post to be honest. The problem with running Adelman's ideal offense is that our two cornerstones are statues. Neither of them move well. I read something on the Chronicle that said Adelman is convinced that this team will never be able to run anything like they ran in Sacramento. Two of our three studs are best-suited to play half court basketball and go one-on-one using their height advantage and shooting skills. I do think PG play is also an issue but not because Rafer can't pass. He can't penetrate, or refuses to. I guess it wouldn't be effective even if he could since he can't hit a barn with his brick shots. Most PGs are also scoring threats w/ the exception of Kidd who has out of this world court vision and passing skills to make up for it. Kidd is also strong enough to post up smaller PGs and is a capable finisher on the break. It also doesn't help Rafer that two of his targets are statues.
I'm not too caught up running the "Sacramento" offense. I think people are too caught up with that. This team has superior one on one post up players. I'm sure Adelman knows that. There's also nobody that is good at running around screens and pin ups. The last player that did it on a regular basis was David Wesley.
Brent Barry is supposed to be a good passer, but then again he did throw away two passes last game on PnR.
PG will always be an issue until a miracle recovery from SF3, rafer. Or the magic man pull another magic trick. The offense will be stagnent. Thats the problem when your 3 main guys are post up players, and the rest of the team are happy with their jump shot. Landry is loving his jumper too much, Barry made a couple nice cuts, but his still a primary jumper shooter. AB is too small to penetrate in half court situation. Only players that will cut and try finishing in near the rim, scola, rafer and hayes, and all 3 are not good finishers. Even with battier coming back in this will not improve. If you ask me, thats how the team should play, post up one of the big 3. Let whoever have the hot hand/best advantage to post, no point posting yao all the time when his having an off day, let him step out and do some jump shots, and the others space out. While the post play starts, start screening a shooter to run and be open, then the post player have the option to pass or shoot, hence the defense cant double team. The entire team can shoot the 15ft jumper at a very high percentage. Do that and mix it with post plays. I.e. Blazers. Try replace yao with aldridge, ron/tmac with roy, and you can see how effective this could be. Just a shoutout to Rick, next time when rox plays blazers, post either tmac or ron when they are guarded by roy. Make him tired out by defending. His too small to guard tmac or ron.
The Sac Kings of old didn't have a dominant center in the middle. Nor did they have Superstar wing men. This Rockets team is built around three All-stars and a handful of role players. They'll never be able to run the motion offense that Adelman had back in the day. But that is why this team can achieve far greater than that Kings team ever did.
he hasn't been calling for that play b/c he is not quick enough yet to run through the screens fast enough. that is one of his favorite plays. it'll come soon.
In fact, luther head has a remarkable talent for passing, I just don't know why ric hadn't given him even one minute to play till now. We need a PG who can dunk when he's to finish a fast bread, unlike being blocked intending to lay up. Rafer is good but not able to dunk, I would rather to see Brooks or Luther run the ball on court.(brooks can dunk, he showed that by a ao with barry in a preseason game)
yeah we need an all dunking team because that is the formula for a champion ship team And Head running the point? If you are not a houston fan why are you on this board?
PG problem have many years,and I think our GM will do some trades to improve our PG.while Adelman's problems are he shall let Yao and TM have some rests and let Dorsey play sometime
