Yeah, yeah, I know, I'll get blasted for being delusional/insane/irritating and will be accused of wasting posters' time. HOWEVER, Tmo is 9-17 his last five games. Griffin also has made 9 shots the last five games, but in almost twice as many attempts (31). I know both players need minutes to develop, Griffin more than Tmo probably since he's younger. But Tmo's over his jitters and appears ready to contribute. He's even hitting some threes (3-7 over the last stretch). I'm not saying give Griffin's minutes to Tmo (which happened last night), but put Walt on the end of the bench and keep Rice on the IR. Give Tmo 15 minutes a night. I think his production will prove satisfactory.
I wish Rudy would experiment a little more with lineups and ADAPT to what is going on. I got sick of watching the starting lineup play the whole first quarter, sub in the rooks the second quarter, starting lineup the third quarter, etc. I thought it would be different last night with K9 out, but I think Griff got inserted into K9's spot and the rotation hardly changed. Point is, Rudy needs to stick with the hot hands and sit people when they stink. TMo is playing well, Rudy, REWARD HIM! I'm so friggin' frustrated right now....
Morris definitely deserves to be out there backing up Torres instead of Walt. That doesn't sound delusional to me at all. Williams is finished. And it looks like Rice is too. Morris gives us a better chance then either of the two right now. Good call.
Rudy's pattern: 1) Starters play almost entire 1st quarter. Sub in for last 10 seconds if someone has foul trouble. 2) Bench comes in for second quarter. 3) Starters back for third quarter, bring in bench for a little bit at end of 3rd, start of 4th. 4) Starters play bulk of 4th quarter, except in blowouts (and sometimes even in blowouts) Results in a TYPICAL game (last night was a bit of an aberration): 1) Other team starts out on about a 10-0 streak. Rockets go on a 8-2 run. Trade baskets for a while. 2) Bench makes a good run for a tie or lead. One player has some really nice play. 3) Player who does well in 2nd quarter never sees the court. Rox fall behind by 10-20 points. 4) Rockets make a run to try to win (lately they run out of steam). Someone makes a boneheaded play to annoy BBS and spark "x sux" or "who can we get for x" threads. My position: 1) I like Rudy and think he is a good coach who should not be fired (ditto for CD) 2) However, I think it would help if Rudy didn't make such regular substitutions and played the "hot hand" 3) What I was saying was the rotation didn't really change. Griff became K9 and Morris became Griff last night. Moochie was good but Tierre still started the 2nd. The same would've happened if Moochie had 4 turnovers and 0 assists. 4) Why the hell am I numbering everything?
goophers, cheers. That's a pretty funny post. My memory of Rudy's subsitution patterns over the years involves the 6th man coming in at the 4 minute mark of the 1st and 3rd, plus the hot hands are generally always in the game in the 4th. 1) I think the main difference in Rudy's approach and others is that Rudy likes to get 2 units feeling comfortable with each other. 2) He likely does this in practice. 3) His ideal scenario is about 3 guys that play regularly off the bench with each other. 4) He seems to believe in building bench power by building bench chemistry. 5) I don't think he looks at it as trying to find the player of the game off the bench, but 6) I do strongly believe he looks for the hot hand and milks it as much as any coach. 7) Why am I numbering? lol
Crispee, I think this losing streak is turning me into an bitter, old man. I don't think Rudy (lately) has been milking the hot hands, but otherwise I think Rudy's weathered this storm as well as can be expected. I still believe in Rudy and the Rookies. Maybe the Rox are saving up all their good karma to use on the Lakers. Rockets beat LA on national TV! Griffin and Cato both have 3 blocks on Shaq! I love it!
TMO I agree with you, Morris needs some more playing time. I think he can really help this team. 8 pts, 5 boards, 5 assists and 1 tap out in 18 minutes. Those kind of numbers remind me a little of Mr. Horry. Morris has a very good floor game and does a little bit of everything. I would not mind seeing a frontline every now and then with Cato, Griffin and Morris for a little block party. Maybe that lineup could get our fastbreak ignited.
Believe it or not, many successful teams in the league have similar rotation styles. It's kinda like crispee said, we have 2 teams. The only problem is lately our 1st team has been replaced with our slated 2nd team, and our 2nd team is whoever we had left that wouldn't get any PT if all our starters weren't nursing injuries. Without all the injuries, our 1st team would be relatively set, and our 2nd team wouldn't be too shabby either. Imagine if Mooch, Oscar, KT and Willis were all coming off the bench either when a starter gets in foul trouble (or tired) or to end the 1st/start the 2nd. Man, those guys could really light it up! The injuries have really depleted our depth unfortunately.
You know what I like about TMO. HE IS OUR BEST PASSER... 5 assists on this team...wow That is sad that our best passer is our 3rd string SF.
Tmo is SIXTH among rookies in assists per 48 mins. The five in front of him (including Brown, #2) are all point guards: http://www.nba.com/statistics/default_rookie_48_minutes_leader/RookieLeadersAST8Query.html I know Tmo hasn't played much and that per 48 statistics are misleading. Still, considering the fact that Tmo doesn't even touch the ball very often when he is on the court, the stat is impressive. Per 48, Tmo's also eighth among rookies in rebounds, fourteenth in blocks, and seventeenth in steals.
It would be nice to see Morris play some 3 with Griffin at the 4 and Torres backing up the 2 and 3. Whats going to be sad is when Rice comes back and Francis, the young guys will get no run. I remember how good Harrington played when hakeem and Chuck were nursing injuries. willis took the injured player spot and Harrington took Willis spot. Instead of Rudy using this to rest the frontline more, he buried Harrington on the bench when the others were healthy. I can see the same happening when we get healthy which is bad. Torres should get 12 mins at the 2 and 12 at the 3. Morris should get at least 20 , if not more at the 3 , and Griffin should get some of his time at the 4. Rice and Williams should be relegated to back up time as well as Francis shouldn't play any 2 guard. If it comes to giving Moochies time up, so be it, but with everyone else playing their young guys, we should too.
I'm a big T-Mo fan, but Rudy always plays him at the 4. I'd like to see more of him at the 3, with Griffin at the 4. Also, Rudy often goes TOO MUCH to the hot hand. In the last game, he left Morris in too long because he had hit some shots, when I thought he should've brought Griffin back.
Kind of puzzling, TRock plays his best game of the season, plays "2" minutes the next game?? I guess Rudy T knows best, but sure is a puzzler. I wonder what is going through Terence's mind? FREDTERP
The Reasons I like TMO. 1) Good passer for SF/PF 2) Nice weakside shotblocker who doesn't go for every shot taken. 3) Nice rebounding for a three. 4) makes it dificult for opposing players to get their shot off from outside. 5) Gets shot off fairly easily. 6) wingspan will help if the rockets add a few zone principles for defense. Areas of Work 1) Consistent shot. 2) lateral movement....makes it dificult to shot, but allows penetration sometimes. 3) spark. Needs to get into flow quicker for a bench player.
The fact that Tmo did not play last night may have cost us the game. Walt had two costly turnovers in the 4th Q. purely because he is challenged athletically. I know Rudy was impressed with Tmo but he tried to go for the win and thought Walt could deliver. Based on our record, we should now include the development of our young players as key strategy now. Rudy has no excuse and should try and forget that he is paying certain players big money and keep a long rotation. Here is my recommended rotation for the next ten games. C........Cato 30 Collier 18 PF.......Griffin 28 Willis 20 Sf........Thomas 30 Morris 18 PG.......Francis 33 Moochie 15 OG.......Mobley 30 Oscar 18 Spot duty: Langhi, Walt.
Totally agree with you Fredterp, I was kind of scratching my head on TMO only getting 2 token minutes especially when Deavan George started playing real well for the Lakers. Terrence is the Rockets best overall defender and probably the smartest player on the team. This team could use some brains out on the court.
At this stage, I believe we should give everyone injured all the time they need to heal, especially, Francis, Rice, and Mobely. TAKE Mobely OUT NOW! He needs to heal, so that once Francis is back, he can play too. I'd like to see TMo play also. And Get Moochie out of there ... he's a good backup, but not a starter... Cato/Willis/Collier Griffin/KT TMo/Wizard Torres/Langhi Brown/Norris That will be a blinding fast team. Let them get some experience... Run and gun... If we're going to lose, at least let it be fun and gaining valuable experience...
