I think the three guard offense turned out to be a bad decision tonight. We gave up too many second chance points, which may be directly related to having too small of a team out there. I don't think Boki could have done worse than Mooch if he started, and at least then we would have had more size on the floor.
francis is our only rocket perhaps also mobley who has the ability to score in bunches,who knows the result could have been worst if stevie didn´t do 39 points
I go back to my argument previously that the top 5 assist leaders in the league average 8-10 assists per game. Steve averages 7 per...Stevehaters, do you really think that three more passes to Eddie tonight when he goes 1-11, Moochie goes 2/7, and Collier is just Collier would have made a difference? He had no one to score tonight! Face it...other players have to make shots to gain confidence....how many times did we watch Eddie try and pop 5 foot bankers and miss and 12 foot jumpers and miss...and oh by the way, he was wide wide wide open on almost every shot he took tonight, because Indiana said, " try and beat us with Eddie : )" Alaskan and Crash are dead on in their assessment. Steve will pass the ball this year if you prove you can handle it. Now, I would have liked to see Bostjan a little more, but he is still a rookie. Also, why not give Ming those Collier minutes? He needs minutes. you cannot expect 11 minutes and only touching the ball four times.....all the other top draft picks played 20 minutes+
Actually I like the way cat played. He got his points quietly and within the offense or atleast what we call an offense. In my opinion, he only took a couple of ill advised shots and he made one of them. We really missed KT and Mo last night. We miised a lot of easy shots around the basket that we would have made if KT and Mo were around. KT would have also helped with help defense around the basket.
I like the assesment. I think that Mooch is still Mooch and nothing there has changed. Steve did not want to pass at all last night. Boki and Hawkins, I thought, looked good for the little time out that they had. But how bout big Kelv. The man played hard last night. He did miss some shots, but he rebounded like a mad man and had 3 blocks. Glad to see he is alive. As far as Eddie goes, well, I saw him shoot off balance, falling away, running, etc. He just did not set himself and tried to rush things I thought.
I am not a Steve hater. I agree with the assessment that our passing game sucks big time. Not just Steve, everybody. But if you are a PG, you get the blame because that is your responsibility. Anyone who wants to know what wonderful things a great passer can do should watch Sabonis play last night. Also, Ming should be instructed of where he is supposed to be positioned on offense, and he should try hard to get to that position every time. But let's look at the bright side: The Lakers are worse than us. And the Jazz lost by 25 points last night. Whoohooo!
They are still giving Bradley a mulligan up in Dallas... I think Yao will be OK, he really needs to pick up the speed several notches and just play a lot more aggressively.
How about Rudy T? What was he smoking yesterday? In that game, Steve: wild Cat: fair Cato: good Giffin: bad Mooch: who? Ming: lost Boki: hey Rudy, more minutes please Hawk: hey Rudy, I can take Mooch's minutes Rudy: "what the hell do I know" It's Rudy's team, his system. Seams to me he didn't have ideas to even try something different in a real game. Ok, it's just a game. I give the benefits of doubt to the players. But not Rudy. If we don't see so called new offense in the next two games, Houston, we have a HUGE problem.
Thank You Crash. It's nice to have a truthful thread on here without the rosy we're #1 Go Rockets blindness all over the board. I will add one thing I noticed about Griffin.....I really think that his play last nite was negatively affected by the lack of passing. On several plays Mooch and Steve either waved him out of the lane or simply ignored him after he had gotten position. Of his 10missed shots, most of them seemed to just be out of position or tough misses in traffic. I think if the guards had set him up for an easy score or two he wouldv'e been more active on D and boxed out more for boards.
corollary to the Chuckster's legendary comment concerning the TrailGangstas a few years back: The rocks "run like deer, jump like springboks, and think like possums." I'm in Ft. Worth these days so it's extremely difficult for me to get a complete perspective on the team, but it seems to me that the same stupid pieces are still in place. And that, my friends, is the residue of leadership. To think that Cuttino Mobley is still in a rocks uni without the serious thought of trading him for someone who can shoot, say, a Peja or Hedo, tells me that Rudy T. has his feet in cement. Whether it's being imposed on him by Leslie is not known; but Mobley is starting his 5th season and he's still enrolled in Basketball 101. You can't trade Francis- his talent is too tremendous to get anything of equitable value back; besides, he's still a young player. Mobley is closer to 30 than 20 and still has no hoops smarts. Can't win championships with dummies, either on the floor or on the bench. Can't win without shooters, and not old, decrepit, lumbering ones like Rice, either. Can't win without guys who aren't afraid to accept the consequences of physical, borderline goonish play. Can't win without a coach who knows how to push buttons if he doesn't have one transcendent (larger than 6'6") talent to work with. Forget the big Chinaman- his appeal is marketing for this year. Next year you can expect him to produce. The West is too tough for a team of basketball philosophy remedial recividists like the rocks to make the playoffs.
Clearly at 1 for 11 Eddie lost the Pacers game for us. I'm sure he will get much better as the season wears on. 1-11 showings give you little chance of victory. Cato on the other hand was superb with an amazing 17 boards. Yao I reserve judgement on for now, I think we have no idea how good he will/can be at the moment.
If you want a knee jerk reaction after 1 game (especially since so many shooters were not in the game), here goes: Steve Francis could be our own Answer: a better-shooting version of Iverson.
Im not as concerned about last night's loss as most. I felt that with Rice, Taylor and KT out along with Griffin shooting awfully and Yao still getting adjusted, Francis and Mobley had to do this to keep the Rockets in the game. I have conceded long ago that Francis is not a true PG and never will be. Francis and Mobley are basically two SGs that have developed tremendously on the offensive side of the ball and are showing their ability to make big plays against tough defense. Trading players with this kind of drive and killer instinct is not a good idea. You need to have players in the frontcourt that can take on the playmaking duties and take the ball out the guards hands and handle the distribution tasks. Initially, if some remember, I was not in total 100% support of drafting Ming b/c I felt his adjustment in being able to receive the ball such a high pct of time and making good passes against NBA defense would take a while. However, when I got a chance to see the big man play a few times and saw more reels of highlights of him, it became obvious the wait would be worth it and it would be crazy to pass a talent like this. It was still obvious tho that some amount of time would be needed for Yao to get adjusted. Until Yao is adjusted and the offensive starts running around him, expect some games like this one. Our guards are not the type that are pass first, they havent been trained to be like that. Rudy has given them the green light over the past 2-3 yrs in order to develop their goto abilities. This is the end result.
SF: better shooting version of IVerson - in addition, SF is better rebounder and a much worse assist man - even on 3 on 1 fastbreaks.
By far the biggest dissappointment was Griffin to me. For Ming and Boki, it was their first NBA game ever and Ming has been what 10 days into practice with the team. I expect them to be a little lost and have nerves. But Griffin was our "veteran forward" yesterday and did not play like. I can understand an off shooting night, but then totally bring it defensively and on the boards. It wasn't like the guy killing us playing at his position was some savvy veteran either. Jermaine is only three and half years older with a only 1 more heavy minute season (25+MPG) in the NBA on him, and EG let him dominate us on both ends. Oneal is very good, but we need better efforts than what Eddie gave last night against better players than Jermaine (Duncan, Webber, KG). A little more fire Eddie next time please.
No we aren't. Almost all of us up here in Dallas thinks Bradley sucks. If Yao continues to look bad after 3 teams and the better part of a decade I will say he sucks too. I am certainly not willing to call the number 1 pick in this years draft a bust after 11 minutes into his rookie year.
The thing is that Francis cannot simply quit passing. When he takes that pick and then goes on 1 on 1 every single play, it takes the heart out of our team. Griffin played like crap, but I also think he would have played better if he were given the ball in better positions. I also noticed a few times when he had good position down low and didn't receive the ball. PASSING is infectious - it revitalizes the offense, and breathes energy into our players. I mean do yall have any fun at all when you're in a pickup game and thers one ballhog that never passes, and you end up standing around watchin him shoot. I and anyone else would be much less motivated to run, rebound, defend, if all I was doin was watchin some clown take all the shots. Yes, these are professional players and they should do whatever they are told, but you cannot go against simple human nature. You could tell Glen Rice was displeased with Francis in the postgame interview as well. And another point is this... I would have been OK with the way Francis played IF it was an aberration from the norm. However, this has become the norm with Francis... for the past few years this is how it's been and there's really no reason to think that it will stop when everyone is healthy. As MManal said, Rudy has instilled this into Francis and Mobley by giving them the green light over the past years, and it will be difficult for Francis to change his ways. I'LL GLADLY EAT MY CROW if somehow this "5 man offense" comes around and Francis starts passing the ball more. I don't really thhink Francis is a ballhog; instead he just doesn't know another way to play. Hopefully if there is a SYSTEm in place (and this falls on RUDY to teach them the 5 man offense system), I think Francis would lovingly give the ball up if there was some sort of system to play by. But if we keep this "freestyle" offense of ours, I have serious doubts as to whether anything would change at all from last year.
Dude, 3 and a half years is A lot of time. I think Griff could be at J'neals' level in 3 and a half years (only with a better jumper).
