I've tried to remain relatively on the sidelines during much of the losing streak. I see the problems but I also am not certain of the solutions so I have a hard time declaring one thing or person to be legitimately a problem and that I have the answer. Frankly, I think we have a number of problems, some that cannot be fixed without time and experience. However, a few thoughts about the concept of making trades, acquiring players, firing coaches and the like came to mind. 1. Trading Steve Francis. I just cannot advocate moving the guy if for nothing other than practical reasons. In nearly every deal that has gone down in this league, the team that lands the better player ALWAYS ends up with the better deal with very few exceptions. Generally, you better get another player just as talented as the one you traded or the deal is a bust - assuming the guy you traded doesn't get injured or have a Pippen-like meltdown. As a result, unless we would be able to acquire Baron Davis another absolute superstar, moving Steve is an almost impossibility. Secondly, you NEVER sign a player and give up on him in the same season. You need look no further than Kelvin Cato for proof. Not only does it usually come back to haunt you, but it also makes your organization look bad to players and fans. From a practical standpoint, it would likely be a disaster. 2. Trading Cuttino Mobley. As a player, the guy sometimes makes me want to heave my television out the window or stop on baby seals. Rarely has a player been so frustrating to me. The biggest problem is that his game simply does not compliment Francis or Yao and they are THE focus of the offense as they should be. Personally, I'd be fine seeing Nachbar enter the lineup at 3, Posey take over at 2 and let Mobley come off the bench. And, if that isn't cool with him, make a deal and move on. 3. Who is untouchable? IMO, Yao and Steve and that's about it. Beyond those two, Nachbar, Griffin, Posey and Cato would also be on my list. But, that is definitely it when it comes to trades. 4. Firing Rudy T. I love the guy but, damn, sometimes you wonder if he has figured out that you cannot force players into a system that doesn't work to their strengths. Sometimes, you need to try something different. The stubborn determination to not change despite the struggles is like watching the Texans run the ball on a 3rd and 8 even though they have -13 yards rushing for the day. At least with them, you can say, "Well, they're an expansion team learning to be a team." Firing him now would be a colossal mistake, however. Teams with winning records don't ditch coaches in midstream. That truly would be tanking and that is a mistake considering out lack of a first round pick. But, if we continue to suck, Rudy's long tenure with the team may be over and, as much as I'd hate to see it, deservedly so. 5. Hiring additional assistant coaches. This is something I would actually like to see. Bring in a guy who will play bad cop to Rudy's good cop. Bring in a guy who can help make some changes who can give options to the staff. As Bill Murray said in Groundhog Day, "Anything different is good." 6. Maturing on the floor. We all know Yao needs to mature physically. Griffin needs to do the same and mature in his offensive game. Francis needs to make better decisions. Frankly, none of these is unreasonable to expect over the next 2 to 3 seasons. Francis is the hardest one to be patient with because he has so much talent, but the truth is that he only played one year of high school basketball and one year of Division I college basketball. He never played point guard, arguably the hardest position on the floor to learn, until he came to the NBA. He is smart. He is talented. His biggest problem is not really having the instincts on the floor that makes a great floor general. Personally, he and Yao are the perfect team for learning together. Yao does posses the basketball instincts now that Francis needs. Francis has the physical strength and toughness Yao will need for a long career. They just need time to learn that together.
I really like number 5, and here are the reasons why: 1) We have been in a bad offensive rut, and sometimes change for the sake of change is good. A lateral move in some way could actually turn out to be an improvement 2) Maybe we can get someone in here that can reinforce Rudy's weaknesses that were never exposed when he was coaching our veterans to 2 championships. 3) I would hate to see Rudy go because I like him so much, and he obviously has the abilities to win championships. He does a lot of things that I think are really great, including teaching and encouraging good defense, handling player personalities well, and coaching with great integrity and respect for his players. 4) The same reason Jeff said... someone who will lay down the law in order to stop some of the bad habits that have developed would be great.
You make some decent points except for Nachbar in the starting lineup? Are you serious? This guy is a bum. There's a reason he has more "DNP-CD"s than minutes played. He has absolutely no defense and his offensive game is average at best. Terrance Morris would be a better choice if Nachbar is the other option.
Have we really seen enough of Nachbar to know for sure? Or enough to even have an idea of what he is capable of? Not unless you have watched a lot of European ball. I would like to see a lot more of him, remember how the "experts" said he was the most NBA ready player in the draft?
Steve Francis cannot be traded! I don't see anybody who we could trade him for. The only person I would trade him for would be maybe Jason Kidd. But I am still a loyal fan of Steve Francis. He is our franchise player. No one as good as him will come to Houston. Cuttino Mobley. I agree, but not Nachbar. I think he should be traded or be a great 6th man. Glen Rice can be starting at the 3. Bostjan Nachbar has no experience at all. I can't imagine him playing against Shawn Marion or Michael Finley or Glenn Robinson. I used to always wonder why he didn't play. He has played, and I was satisfied. Glen Rice should still play until he is permanently injured. We really need his shooting, although it has not been too great. Yao and Steve are the only ones who should not be traded. James Posey...why would we trade him in less than a year? Maybe he might ask for too much money...I would give up any of our players besides Yao and Steve if we got good players in return. Rudy T. We're not sucking. But we aren't winning or dominating any games. Look at Minnesota. All of our players are as good or better than their players besides Kevin Garnett. But they are still doing fairly well. They have a great franchise player and fit role players. Maybe it is because their coach is good. I don't know why Rudy is struggling. Minnesota is still a good team. Don Nelson and Phil Jackson are geniuses. I wish we had a coach like them. AT LEAST WE HAVE A WINNING RECORD. Rudy shouldn't be fired until Lenny Wilkins is fired. Maybe we should hire some Assistant Coaches to help Rudy a bit. Maturing...there is not much time left. Hopefully the Rockets can find a solution and get some good wins. Hopefully...Patience. I think the Rockets can succeed as long as they keep Steve Francis and Yao Ming and make some changes...
Jeff, Thank you for your post. You didn't say anything new. But you say it the right way, calm and measured, instead of the knee-jerk screaming so prevalent these days. Maybe this thread should be made sticky so that anyone who wants to make reasonable "remedy" suggestions can come here.
I think we need to shake up the offense dramatically. I say we keep the plan(I assume there is one(that's not meant to be an insult)) but change the roles of players. I think Posey should bring the ball up and start the play, Cat is a great first and last option so we should keep it that way, run offensive sets around Taylor and Yao post ups, let Steve be his athletic self and stop running every Yao play to the low post. This offense lacks spacing, Cuttino is the main culprit I believe, but others are guilty as well. The passes that are made don't result in buckets. This team does pass, it just isn't successful with them. When was the last time that a pass was made to the free throw line after Steve or Cat drives. Players are not filling the space after a drive. We also lack a player that will pick up garbage baskets. Players that do that keep defenses honest and make more space on the offensive end. This offense is just lacking organized creativity. We settle for Francis athleticism without taking advantage of the amazing things he can do. Yao can hit the open guy, the problem is they are only open for a brief second before defenses collapse. We need to think outside the box. Post Yao up in weird places, let Steve clean up on offensive boards, play keep away from Mobley until there are five seconds or less on the shot clock(he'll love the challenge), play Cato at the 4, make Yao a 4, just do something different until things start to click. This team is not experimenting and learning about itself. They are all young, take advantage of it.
We really need to hire a College Coach as an assistant to teach our players fundamentals and basic things. This will help them dramatically. He can teach them spacing and passing...basic and simple things. It will improve each player. Posey is actually pretty good at taking the ball down the court. And he runs fast...maybe faster than Steve Francis. He doesn't walk. He runs all the time. We need more motion offense. About garbage baskets, Cato gets a lot of offensive rebounds, but it would be really nice if he could get the rebounds and score. He could be like Ben Wallace but crazier.
I haven't seen many posts by you as of lately Jeff. Good post, and first good thread i have written in all day. I agree with you, Rudy should not be delt away right now, but i do believe that the rockets do need to hire some assistant coaches or something. Some one to help Rudy with breaking apart opposing teams zone defenses. RT is still living in the no zone era, where u can use your man to beat his man one on one with out having to take on a big guy/ 3 other defenders at the same time. Dallas plays extremely well against the Zone.....Even Walt is launching and hitting 3's, something he did with the rockets....but he looks much better on the mavs. Some thing has to be done right now, but Nothing drastic. No firiing or trades of Franchise or Dynasty. Now mobes, I love his game, he is one of my fav players on the rocks sqaud...But he is a good possibility to trade. He is has game, and he is worth something in a possible trade. I agree on not trading Yao, stevie, or Cato. I also believe that boki should be playing more. the guy has skillz. He can shoot, has a great first step, and his defense is pretty good. That was the one really positive thing to me from the Dallas game last night. Boki got some playing time.
Jeff, As usual, I find myself in solid agreement with your idea. Just some further thoughts of mine... 1. Francis: It's not Francis' play. It's not Mobley's play. It's the combined "lack of intelligence" of our backcourt. Francis is a stud guard, period. Trading him is not the solution. 2. Mobley: he's a good player. The problem is, he has very little saavy on the court. Bottom line is, he's not as talented as Francis, and therefore if it's determined that the mix of that pair doesn't work, he's not the one to keep. As for your idea of starting Nachbar-I have little problem starting Posey in the backcourt; however, Nachbar's inability to get into Rudy's rotation would leave me hesitant to start him out of nowhere, and go through another acclimation period with a rookie. 3. Untouchables: Francis, Yao, and Posey. Francis/Yao are the cornerstones, and Posey is irreplaceable IMO. Mobley is tradeable IMO for a smart backcourt mate. IMO, Griffin is only moveable if a young stud guard or PF comes back in return. Cato is a VERY nice luxury to have, but if moving him helps return that stud smart guard or PF, so be it. 4. Rudy: This team is so close to developing into a juggernaut. I seriously don't think his coaching has been the problem, and the players love him. But, they simply won't execute his plan. I doubt Rudy tells the guard to walk the ball up the court (see Cat's 8 second violation) and wait to get into the offense until late into the shot clock, or to give up on going to Yao. The job he's done with the team defensively has been masterful. He's running out of free passes, though. If we don't make the playoffs this year, he may be canned. If he isn't, and we don't make the leap next year, there's no way he can be kept around.
On Nachbar, I'm not suggesting he start or play immediately or play full time. Rice is coming back as well. I just think it would be nice to see instant offense coming off the bench instead of in at the start. Charlie Palillio said it best today. He said that, whether they are doing it intentionally or subcosciously, there are guys on the team who get to a certain point in the game and decide, "Ok, I've got to get mine on the next few possesions." He said that you can clearly see that on the floor and he's right. He didn't say Mobley's name, but he also said it wasn't necessarily Francis given the fact that he needs to score for the team to be successful so I think it was pretty obvious who he meant. I think that mentality is fine, even healthy, if you are an instant offensive weapon, but that is not what we need from that position, especially because it seems to adversely effect the way Steve plays.
1. You can't trade Francis. Never give up on this type of talent. At Steve's age, Gary Payton couldn't hit a jump shot to save his life. Francis is a dyanamic player that needs some coaching direction. He needs an authority figure to guide him and show him the way. 2. As already stated here, Mobley is a poor man's Francis. We can only take 1 Francis. Mobley is 28. He is in the prime of his career. He will never be quicker, faster, or jump higher. This is it folks. Can you imagine Steve Francis making decisions like this in 3 years? Mobley may mature in 2 or 3 years but by that time he'll be a 31. If he was pure jump shooter, 31 is not old. He's not. He's a gym rat, 1 step and pop type player. To get maximum value, the time is Now. 3. Rudy T. is a pure chemistry type guy. As someone suggested in an article, when he coached the World Championships, he was basically a cheerleader. This is not to understate the importance of blending egos. Look at PJ Carelsimo who is as clueless as Rudy. The difference is his players absolutely hated him and rebelled. This is a necessary skill but not the only skill of a good head coach. What's the solution? Jeff mentioned bringing in an authoritative assistant. This is a great idea as long as he knows how to coach. he needs to have the respect of the players. That automatically eliminates our 2 video editors. Like I said in another thread, we've got Mr. Mean and 2 video editors as assistants. Dallas has Del Harris who has about 20 years of head coaching experience. Who can forget him guiding the undermanned 1981 Rockets to the NBA finals after upsetting the Lakers. Dallas also has Derek Harper and Sidney Moncrief, 2 of the smartest NBA players during their time. Sacramento has Pete Carril. This guy coached at Princeton for 30 some years leading them to 11 NCAA tournaments. Their teams were annoyingly fundamental. They played boring ball. Passing, boxing out, setting picks. Rarely did his teams score over 60 ppg but they won because they played sound basketball and never made stupid mistakes. Also on their team is Terry Porter, another incredibly astute NBA veteran. Rudy T. needs to be fired or someone needs to bring in 2 quality assistants preferablly with some NBA experience whose specialty was designing plays and teaching. Until some of these things happen, we're spinning our wheels to mediocrity.
NIKE: Yeah, I'm with you on everything. The Nachbar idea and the extra assistant coach suggestions were all based on one thing: shaking things up. There is a saying: Crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In some ways, our team is a little crazy. That doesn't mean you necessarily blow it up. You just need to SHAKE it up. Try some new things, new rotations, different plays. Run the zone. Run a trap. Bring in a veteran coach to "consult" with the team. Whatever. Anything different is good.
Jeff, is Rudy considered a control freak? I was just wondering why the assistant coach option hadn't already been seriously considered. If I were Les, I would have been thinking about this for 2-3 years.... not for the last 2 weeks.
I think it may be more about loyalty than control. I remember listening to his show a couple weeks back and a caller asked if he had considered bringing in a veteran head coach (this may have been after the Lucas firing, but I think it was before that) to augment his staff and Rudy's comment was that his staff WAS a veteran staff and that people didn't often realize that. You know, I get this, but that really isn't the point. None of his guys have HEAD coaching experience. None of them even have assistant coaching experience outside of what they have gotten with him. And there is precidence for hiring former Division I college coaches and former NBA head coaches as assistants. RIET mentioned a couple. In looking around NBA.com, I found plenty of assistants who have had big college or NBA head coaching experience. RIET mentioned PJ Carlisemo and he is an assistant in San Antonio. My guess is that something like that might have to be foisted on Rudy before he suggested it himself.
Hiring someone in that kind of situation can be really hard. I work in an office of 6 people. When someone new comes in, the same thing always happens. First, no one knows what the new person's job is. Second, everyone worries that the new person is going to take away a part of your job that you love doing. Third, everyone starts accepting the new person and realizing what they can do for everyone. Last, they work their way into the flow and everyone is happy again. I think that basketball coaching is probably a lot like my job, because despite the heirarchy of the staff, everyone really does the same type stuff. The only difference is that some people are more experienced than others. Maybe the only way for it to even be considered is for it to be forced. Mark Cuban, despite his bad qualities, has done an excellent job at setting Dallas up in this regard. He has a lot of common sense when it comes to managing that team... although they will never win a championship .
That's right. All the good teams have former head coaches or former intelligent players. Sacramento also has former Spur Terry Porter. Dallas has the largest coaching staff and payroll. They probably have a coach for each player. We need an assistant coach that can teach fundamentals who can control the team. Flip Saunders is a great coach! Minnesota is great! Their players seem so calm and mature! Once the Rockets start to lose, they seem to lose hope. Minnesota is looking great... We need a new coach. And we need to get rid of The Cat. I'm allergic to cats.
Payton shot 50.4% from the field in his 4th season. Are you suggesting these were all dunks or layups? GP also only committed a fraction above 2 TO's/g in year 4. Not much to add to what Jeff said other than general agreement with the following emphasis: 1) While I'd prefer to trade Mobley before Francis, I personally question whether SF will ever "get it". But I also think Mobley is a hindrance to that end. It's almost a surety that he won't get it with Cat on the Rockets. 2) Moving Mobley to 6th Man leaves the following depth chart: 5) Yao / Cato 4) EG / MoT / TMo 3) Rice / Nachbar / TMo / Hawk 2) Posey / Mobley / Hawk 1) SF/ Moochie IMHO, a 2nd unit of Moochie, Cat, Cato, MoT, and Rice or Nachbar or TMo is not a bad unit.
It looks fine. But Mobley is currently playing about...42 minutes per game? And now he's going to be off the bench? How many minute would he play? I don't think he would like that...but then we would trade him!
MObes used to be one of the best 6th men in the league. I also agree that he should go to the bench. We should put him in when we are in trouble, and use his skillz to bail us out. The rockets looked really good when Mobes was on the bench and came in later in the game.
