No, I act as if the offense seemed to flow about as well as it did last season. Barry I didn't have a problem with. He seemed to move well, as you pointed out. Landry also moved well without the ball. But it was the starters in particular that I zeroed in on and I didn't think that Alston, Scola, Artest, Yao or Head (although he was better than the others) looked very smooth at all in their movement without the ball. You give one example of a good cut with Luther and Scola. I'll admit there were plenty of good plays like that, but I think there were at least as many plays where Artest took his man off the dribble while everyone else watched. Plays where a simple PnR at the top of the key was run and the offense sprang off that (meaning a player drove and everyone else stood at the 3 point line). Did you see that 24 second shot clock violation where Brooks just held on to the ball? Sure, he wasn't paying enough attention, but no one else was moving either. It was ugly. I'm not saying they can't get better, but from my perspective, they didn't look appreciably improved from last year when Adelman scrapped this offense.
Actually, someone suggests that it's Yao who resisted the offense. Whether it is true or not, I do think that Yao is probably the most crucial key to its success, because it relies heavily on the big man's ability to read. Yao seems to have the natural instinct to make good read when he first came. I don't want to sound like I am blaming his development, which has been fantastic. But I think after several years of establishing his low post game, he has become conditioned in a way that is not conducive to the movement offense. He just needs to relax and not thinking too much.
I completely agree. It looked like these guys had barely played with each other before. We both know it and Adelman admitted as much afterwards. But he also says they've run it much better in training camp, so if he's of the opinion that it can work then I'm inclined to believe him.
Last year, I blamed the old habits of standing around watching Yao do his thing down low, or waiting for TMac to create the offense. They just have to check that mindset at the door if they are to run this offense successfully. We have new rotation guys like Artest and Barry now. And Landry and Scola should be fine with it too. The key questions will be on Yao, McGrady, Battier, and Alston.
it's preseason...stop getting so anxious. if we were spurs fans, i'd swear some of you would be dead from cardiac arrest.
The star players in the team have play styles set. They are not newbies. The Rockets hires them not because they have bright future, but because they have the power to contribute, NOW. Their play styles have been proved to be effective. So we don't need any new offense system which changes the way everybody plays. We have enough power from our veterans. We just want a system that could take full advantage of these existing strength. If RA couldn't do this without his 'real RA offense', just go away. Turning Yao from an already dominant low post center to an average mid range shooter just to fit this 'real RA offense' system is absolutely unacceptable.
I get the image some of you think that Adelman's slick offensive System should should utilised on every play... not the case...and no need to be... Feigen has said this and I agree: You of course run the Adelman's Legendary Offense also run a fair amount of Iso plays for Yao, T-Mac, and Artest... and...a fair amount of Pick-n-Rolls... Explanation: Adelman Offense will undoubtedly be heart of the offense...just don't expect it to gel in one month...it will take time...the Sacramento Kings didn't becoming contenders in just one year. who doubts a 7-6 Center and a 6-8 Guard won't create massive matchup problems with most teams? They can dominate just about every defender they face, save perhaps Kobe-McGrady matchup. Yao dominates every C, including Dwight. Pick-and-Rolls are bread-and-butter for most teams And1: Hmmm....I was thinking maybe next year when Bibby comes off his massive contract he'd be willing to sign a 5.8 million MLE contract with us for just one year...that way he gets to play on a championship team with guaranteed starter status, plays with his most-loved coach and offensive system, and gets his stats/value up like James Posey did--and a RING. Its only one year deal so no big loss for him but brilliant for us. He can blossom on a team of stars..as evidenced by the 02' Kings... Buts thats a looong shot...
What's really disturbing is how crappy the offense looked compared to the glowing reports that were coming out of training camp. Hopefully it's just rust/first game jitters or something.
Considering Yao didn't even look that motivated to play into todays game, and we were minus Tmac and Battier, I don't think you can use yesterdays game as a measure of our offense. If this were a real game, Adelman would've given Artest and Yao more touches. And Tmac would've gotten more as well. The fact that we are scoring 96 points in a game and the leading scorer is Landry should tell you something. If we scored 80 points and Yao had 25 of them, I would be worried about the offense.
What worries me is that nobody's moving without the ball. I don't understand why they would be playing great Adelman ball in camp (according to media reports) and then that just goes out the window when they play. I think Adelman's Kings are probably my second favorite team of all time after the Showtime Lakers. I had high, high hopes for the Rockets when I heard they were bringing Adelman in and now I'm wondering what's going on. Maybe, hopefully, it's just nerves and sloppiness and the Rockets can show something tonight.
the fact of the matter is we will never be the kings or even close. the kings fielded a bunch of guys who can dribble AND create their own shots or others for the most part (bibby, christie, webber, even divac, brad miller, then turkogulu off the bench). outside of artest and tracy right now, NOBODY on this team can create for others in terms of passes. yao def. doesn't seem to fit in this offense. i think we should just put him in the post and play JVG ball when yao is in the game. when he's out, we'll play adelman style. but at the end of the day, we do have more individual great scorers than the kings did. so we should utilize that. however, we can incorporate adelman's movement in terms of putting artest/tracy/scola at the triple threat/high post more often. yao should play in the post exclusively though.
The trick with Yao is that he is just too big to cut hard and lose his defender without the ball. He's awfully agile for his size, but he's 7'6". So how does he fit into the offense? 1) When the defense collapses on him after he gets the ball everybody else has to cut hard. If there's two defenders on him it should be trivial for the other Rockets to get open for easy, uncontested shots right underneath the basket. 2) Re-post. If Yao is too far out from the basket to make his move after he gets the pass he needs to pass back out and re-post, maybe switching from the strong side to the weak side by cutting across the key. He doesn't need to cut hard because he's so damn tall. There was one play from last year I remember where Yao got the ball too far out, passed out to Head, cut across the key, realized his defender was behind him and just stopped right in the middle of the paint, four or so feet out from the basket. Head immediately threw the ball back into Yao and the result was an automatic two points. That's the kind of basketball the Rockets need to play. The Rockets can still play the motion offense with Yao in the game. But everyone needs to move. It doesn't even look like they're trying when they dump the ball in to Yao, watch him get swarmed and stand still. Adelman's offense is like improvisational jazz. To play it you have to get into the mindset and make it up as you go along. It's a beautiful thing when it works (Sac Kings) and watching the Rockets slaughter and trample on it is really starting to piss me off.
http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2008/10/higher_education_rockets_still.html Maybe the Rockets should try running Barry at the point for long stints. Not only is he a veteran player but word is that he's a natural for the system.
