Oct. 24, 2001, 10:20PM Willis an old cog for new Rockets By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich patted Kevin Willis on the back and his hand hurt. Some things never change. But most do. Willis returned to the Rockets' practices on Wednesday to find just how much the Rockets have changed since they traded him after the 1998 season. He already knew that no one from that team remained and that his uniform number of 17 seasons in the NBA, No. 42, had been passed on to veteran Walt Williams. But the Rockets' offensive style and roster mixture have also changed, and Willis will have only a few days to adjust before the season begins Tuesday. "It's like night and day from the last time," Willis said. "Both teams are good. But it was all veterans with just a few young guys then. Now it's all young guys with just a few veterans." More important, the Rockets' offensive style is triggered by penetrating guards, rather than low-post scorers. The Rockets set more screens, set up more mid-range jumpers for their big men. They also use their big men more on cuts to the basket, a Willis strength. In Willis' first term with the Rockets, Tomjanovich said, the Rockets used Willis' talent for timing cuts through the lane and to catch passes with Charles Barkley's skills as a passer. The Rockets use their big men on cuts far more often now, but they use it very differently than from 1996 to 1998. "He looked good, really good, but it's going to take awhile," Tomjanovich said. "We have a bunch of stuff different, terminology, stuff like that. But we're going to try to keep it simple when he's in the game." He will be in the game Friday in San Antonio when the Rockets go against the Spurs. Willis said he does not expect to have everything down by then, or even by the regular-season opener against Atlanta. But it won't take much longer than that. "It'll take several games, that's all to get comfortable playing with the guys, to know what they like to do and to know what needs to be done," Willis said. "After that, it should all be good." As much as things have changed, however, Tomjanovich said Willis' role really has not. "To me, he could be big, really big to us," Tomjanovich said. "He was when he was here before. He was a great Rocket. He performed a very valuable role. He was always in the rotation but the minutes were smaller when Dream and Charles were healthy. When one of them got hurt, he was always ready. And he was a good guy to be around. "What I liked about the guy, he came to play and played hard." That much, Willis said, hasn't changed. Tomjanovich found something else has stayed the same. "The son of a gun is timeless," Tomjanovich said. "He's so strong. I patted him on the shoulder. It's like armor." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes Minute Rice Rockets forward Glen Rice was abruptly pulled from Wednesday's practice. Nothing went wrong. There was no new injury issue to battle. This time Rice was pulled from practice because he was not supposed to practice in the first place. "Keith (Jones, the Rockets' trainer) wasn't looking so I got out there," Rice said. "I made my first shot, and then he pulled me." Jones said he did not want to subject Rice's sore back to a full-contact scrimmage. The good news for Rice was that Jones said he would test Rice's readiness to return to the court in today's practice and was hopeful Rice could play in San Antonio on Friday. Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said he would remain cautious. "We're just going to take that and look at the big picture," Tomjanovich said. "I'd like to get him healthy and not try to rush it so that for the majority of the season, he'll be with us. "In this business, you can't count on everything. There's times different guys are going to be hurt. His happens to be at the beginning of the season. Hopefully that will be it and he'll have a healthy rest of the season."
Thank you sir, although I usually check out the Houston Chronicle website myself. But we northeastern knobgobbers thank you for thinking of us!!!!!
Welcome to all. I posted it because I thought it might be easier to see it at Clutch City instead of fumbling around and also so we could all comment here on it.
