And you're right. What's wrong with our personnel? Most of them can't hit a 15-17 footer to save their life. Outside of Yao, none of them are capable of just hitting that short range shot that is theoretically easier to hit than a 23 ft three pointer. Webber was capable, Divac was capable, Bibby was capable. The problem with running a motion offense with this group is that all we got are 3 point chuckers. You need to have an inside game (Yao) or players that can hit that midrange jumpshot. 3s will spread the defense but those 17 footers shall set you free.
Even BJax has turned into a dribble chucker. Nobody is moving WITHOUT the basketball. One guy (McGrady) takes the ball, dribbles and makes a move WITH the ball. The rest of the guys stand around and wait to 'receive' the ball. They they either chuck it up or they start to dribble around and create their own shot. Nobody is spacing the floor and cutting to the basket to receive the pass. It's as if everybody knows it's a waste of energy because all they are gonna do is fake the pass and then circle back around to their original spot while McGrady makes his move after they've cut through the lane. Everybody needs to be moving WITHOUT the basketball, INCLUDING AND MOST IMPORTANTLY MCGRADY, and everybody needs to be looking to make the next pass, not some dribble move to get their own shot off.
Yes, there's the mid-range jumper. But a big part of the motion offense is also uncontested layups. And even the mid-range jumpers should ideally be open and uncontested. I just don't buy it. The problem is that anybody's who's been watching the Rockets play this season knows they looked pretty good when they actually ran the offense. Does anyone disagree with the assertion that the Rockets played their best when they actually ran the offense? The problem is that for whatever reason they've regressed. They're back to one guy dribbling while the shot clock winds down and then heaving up a shot with two seconds left. Pretty much everyone agrees that the Rockets + Yao would have beaten the Jazz. Would the Rockets + the motion offense have been able to? The defense has been tough--with just a few more points the Rockets might have been able to pull something off. Too bad it's pretty much too late to find out now.
You've got to give a little credit to the Jazz defense as well. They've used their size and length to hassle the Rocket player with the ball, making it tough to make those crisp passes to initiate the offense. They've also done a good job clogging up the lanes and playing physical against the Rocket players without the ball.
Come on, it is so obvious. Tmac has basically chucked the offense for what he feels comfortable doing, and it is not working. Anyone can see what is going on, it is not Rockets science, and the team has the personel to run the offense, just not the committment from the best player on the floor. DD
When the supposed leader of your team blatantly looks to wander over to the weak side of the ball, stand up straight, and watch the action instead of cut, and does so on a full half of the offensive possessions, it slowly breaks down across the roster. The system works with Yao, Scola, or Hayes distributing from the high post. Right now, Jackson, Head, and Rafer are the only teammates adept at cutting off ball. McGrady won't do so full speed, Battier just isn't the best at it, and you can't use Mutombo in any role. McGrady is consistently being unaggressive setting screens as well as using picks. Scola is not good at passing off the ball once he's initiated a scoring move. Landry is not a passer. Rick understands that it just isn't going to happen with these guys. When your #1 option doesn't buy in, it won't work. Evan
If T-Mac is intentionally sabotaging the system he should be shipped out. That's a big if though. If he's just falling back into old, bad habits then the ball needs to come out of his hands. Let whoever's at the point set the offense.
the reason for that was because alston was out for game 1 and 2. tmac was running the offense. The problem with tmac sometimes is that he kind of relunate to run, maybe he was saving energy or something.
First of all Tracy likes to handle the ball but damn without Rafer he was forced to do that. I mean now with Rafer you see he tries to give the ball to Rafer and he is actually playing off the ball a lot. I still think we need TRUE playmaker who can creat for McGrady and for other teammate.
From my basketball watching experience, the best way to stop a motion offense is through physical defense. You grab or bump a cutter to get him off his rhythm, preferably in a crowd. You body up on players in the high post so that they can't make easy passes. When a team plays that kind of dirty, physical defense, the rhythm and timing that you need to run a motion offense become exceptionally difficult. Against that kind of defense, many teams go to isolation and pick-and-roll out of necessity.
Exactly. These guys were just beginning to really learn the offense when Tmac came back from injury. After standing and watching him again for 40 games are they supposed to just snap back into it when McGrady sits?
i just don't get how its all his fault the whole offense went to crap. If he wasn't running it couldn't everyone else around him move make screens and cut. I think one started before the other. When I was watching the games i saw the team running the Adleman offense until it stopped working. For the offense to work, all players have to be respected. The defenses stopped respecting the rockets because they stopped making shots AND layups. All season they would go to Yao and Tmac in that situation and that would open the offense back up. When Yao went down they were still running the offense until the end of the streak when the team started to shoot poorly again. Then they started standing and watching.
I forgot to add... How the heck could anyone think we have the team to run this offense? Everyone on the team except for Hayes, Landry and Bobby completely sucks at it. Yao is terrible at making decisions in the high post, Tmac is too slow when he cuts, most everyone else is terrible at shooting, most are terrible at finishing around the rim, most are not even decent driving with the ball. True, Adleman's offense requires the most basic offensive skills but these guys don't even have that. This team was not (as admitted by Adleman) running his offense efficiently when tmac was out. They were getting the ball to Yao more efficiently and that was a big difference. I wouldn't say they were playing great though.
It doesn't matter if they looked like the Kings out there. The point is that they were playing THEIR best basketball when they ran the system. Since they've moved away from it they look like crap. Everyone seems to agree that this team + Yao would have beaten the Jazz. The question for me is could this team + the motion offense have beaten the Jazz?
I'll see your Tmac and raise you... Tmac x 100 Tmac Tmac Tmac Tmac Tmac Tmac Tmac Tmac If Tmac can just do a little more Tmac then Tmac could get to the Tmac second round and possibly win a Tmac title.
