What Is Rudy's Strategy?

i honestly - HONESTLY - think rudy's strategy is to give the ball to steve francis and let him score. if he can't score, he tries to keep people stationary so that steve knows where he can bail out. and with that strategy - no matter how much talent we acquire - we will never be better than a .500 team.

 

verse - That's the best explanation of "the stratagy" I've heard. And I agree - we'll beat the sub .500 and lose to the good teams with slim hope of the playoffs.

 

Isn't it the same as the offense we ran with Dream during the championship years. Phil Jackson once described Rudy's offense as trying to have one player that demands a double team (ie. dream and hopefully francis), and if he doesn't get double teamed then he will take the shot, and if he does get doubled he is supposed to dish it out to open 3 pt shooters.

This sounds very primitive but it is the same offense the lakers and the spurs used to win championships. The only problem is that their dominant player were post players that take high percentage shots, where our player is a PG who is happening to make a high percentage of his low percentage shots.

Note, this is the same offense Seattle ran against us. Payton would dominate his man until we double teamed him and then he would pass it out to the open shooters who were pretty much stationary. The reason they beat us is that their open shooters were making every thing. We should have done what the Hornets did last night, which was make Payton beat you. There were times, I swore we doubled him for no reason.

 

I think Rudy told Mobley and Francis "Go for it" and lets see what happens! "We will wait till we have the full Team before we put our new plan into action, by the way I lost all the plays I made for Yao Ming, while I was flying to & from China,he's a Rookie so he can wait another year, just like Griffin". "Remind me when we get things organised to put in our motion offence and remind me to call Bill Walton, he's going to coach Yao Ming!" (THIS IS NOT FACT)

 

MacBeth-

The offense was simple during Hakeem's prime-
Dump the ball into Hakeem, get spacing at the three point line, Hakeem either makes his move or passes out of the double team to the open shooter.

Rudy struggled when Steve and Cuttino became the focus, the offense he put in was basically, set up the ISO and have some rotation and spacing for a bail out pass from either guard.

Now Rudy is really trying to transition from the ISO with what appears to be a combination of:

pick and drive (with a slight roll from the pick),
ISO either guard
basic toss into the post (used a little with Griffin and Yao)
some cutters off low screens (these cutters rarely get the ball)

I think the offense was designed to get more movement but is too basic to break down NBA defenses with the scheme: Therefore we are still basically scoring because of individual scoring ability more than any offensive scheme.

There is little or no spacing in this offense and the pick and roll, and picks in general are soft and weakly executed.

We must establish something or we will continue to be inconsistant, great sometimes, average sometimes, and broken down offensively some of the time.

This is my opinion after 4 games.

I still believe Rudy will come up with something more potent by season's end.

 

rockbox:


the spurs do that - you are correct.

the lakers do not do that - at least not every time. the triangle offense is designed to get everyone in the position they are most comfortable. that said, shaq does get his share of double teams, and still we do it every time.



either way, i think you can get away with that if you're using a dominant post player. you cannot do it with a point guard.

 

SHHHHHH. It's a secret strategy. Nobody have figured it out yet. Let's not give it away by posting it here.

 

MacBeth,

You mind describing Dallas's offense to me. That might add light to what Rudy's strategy is. What is their game plan?

as an aside: we've seen some sets (unlike ever before) where Cato sets a back pick for a guard and gets the ball above the freethrow line. There you have a center with the ball with cutter on both sides. There are elements of a lot of potential offenses in that play alone, but using Cato in that spot is useless...so I tend to believe that is for Yao Ming (the backpick becomes a guard down screen or possibly even a zipper pick), because Yao can make that shot, which thus would also open the basket for backdoors.

Also, what is an 80s Flex versus the plethora of Flex's in existence. I can say one thing...this is in no way a Motion Offense or a Passing Game, and Rudy has stated that.

my take is I can't piece the puzzle together, yet, from what we've seen. I could only talk situationally. I will say that the transition game has improved...and what is improving about it is the tempo of getting off a quick play when the initial break was stopped. The initial break is still kinda ugly, but at least they are pushing it.

Remember, you cannot practice all minutes on offense. You have to practice defense where your offense is trying to run things the opps are running. You also have to spend time on transition.

btw: I have seen increasingly more Pick N Roll this year.

 

I can't really comment on the nuts and bolts of the offense. I don't consider myself sufficiently competent on the subject to try. But, I did want to comment on the above. I don't know what you mean about whispers of a motion, triangle, passing, or high post offense. Initially (last season), reporters called the strategy a hexagon, which sounds a bit like a triangle but is not descriptive. Early this season, they called it motion and were corrected by Rudy T himself -- motion suggests an offense predicated on passing, which this is not.

From what I remember of his comments then, Rudy said the offense was predicated on the ball handling of the guards and the other players on the floor moved on the floor to create spacing depending on where the guards went with the ball.

As I understood it, he meant that the pressure on the defense -- what forces them to make decisions -- is not a pass, but having the ballhandler dribble to areas that had shooting and passing potentials. So, even though the pressure is brought with dribbling and not passing, it doesn't mean the passing isn't part of the plan: the guards should pass when the defense surrenders the pass to protect from penetration and/or shooting. Conversely, if the defense surrenders the shot to cut off passes, the guards should shoot.

Have I seen this on the floor? Well, since they are now on 51, I've only watched them with bad reception and I can hardly tell which players are on the floor. So, I haven't had concentration to spare to see if my understanding was borne out in the game. Of course, I don't even know if all my extrapolations from Rudy's description are accurate. But, the offense as I understand it would be defined to a great extent by what Francis and Mobley and Norris understand of what the defense has given them. From what I have seen and from what I've read, I think they see the scoring opportunity more readily than they see the passing opportunity. I think the passing will come with time. (Fortunately, Francis is so good, he can score at a good clip even when his scoring is the thing the defense tries to take away.) I don't agree with the accusations of selfishness on Francis' part. I think it will just take more practice with the new offense to really be able to exploit all the advantages it affords.

 

I agree with Rileydog. It seems that Rudy is using a stealth offense designed to lull the defense into a deep torpor. Unfortunately, 24 seconds is not a long enough period for this to completely work yet on defenses. It's plenty of time to put fans into a coma though.

Sorry Macbeth. You deserve a better answer than a smart-ass one, but I completely agree. If you try to map a reasonable offensive scheme onto what you're seeing, you will go crazy. I'm reminded of those scientists who study gorilla paintings and try to interpret the deep meaning of them. (e.g. "Michael the gorilla titled this 'stink more' because it's actually a paiting of flowers. You can't make out any flowers, actually, but he did use three different colors!" that's more or less a real quote, by the way).

 

I wish...I wish Rudy would add a 'shock troops' group from the bench. Five minutes a half with maybe KT, Collier, Boki just raising havoc with the opponents' tempo, like was needed in the 3rd Q. v Seattle.

The Bench can get their rotation minutes in addition, but a few minutes per half just to add fire.

Rudy plays his guys for stretches that last so long they often coast.

 

McBeth, you could not have said it better; my thoughts exactly. The Rockets, from a basketball purist perspective, can make you seriously crazy. Is there a scheme and they are not running it or is there no scheme, but wait, sometimes there appears to be a plan, but no, surely not. I see remarkable raw talent that appears to be very unfocused and undisciplined.

Frances is an unbeliveable player, so is Mobley, and Griffin. One can only imagine how good they could become as a "well-oiled machine." Right now they remind me of a plastic Lego Rocket with a real Rocket engine, plenty of power but a questionable design. I am very hopeful of significant improvement, but if Streetball.com prevails throughout the season then things will likely begin to unravel before next year.

 

Thats a pretty good assesment...Part of RudyTs offence has always been to maintain spacing... to get an advantage for the most favorable matchups. Right now thats Steve & Cat ..drive, pop or pitch. This will improve when a starting five and some sortof rotation are established.
As to the .500 team......All we have added since last years 28 win team is MoT, Rice and Yao..They havent contributed yet. If they dont....What makes you think this will be a .500 team??????

 

To Win!!!



sorry, had to give the cliched answer.

 

MacB/JAG -

1) Thanks for another good post. You are among the 50 or so posters (of 7k+) that make this place truly unique.

2) I am so glad this thread hasn't degraded into unproductive finger pointing. Hopefully that trend continues.

3) I watch more NBA ball than I care to admit and although I am not a strong X's and O's guy, I too am stumped. This year I bought a bunch of cheap tapes with the idea of learning more. I'm still stumped.

Now some comments that are admittedly "from the gut" without much thought...more intuitive in nature.

The Rockets in general do not make very good decisions. I'm not sure an offensive structure will correct this. Although any structure is surely better than none at all, a structure is only as good as the decisions made within the structure.

For example...during the last NBA season, I heard a qualified commentator (Hubie or Fratello) make the comment that "when your man leaves to double - go to the front of the rim in the paint area and get open". Watch what the Rockets do when a teammate is doubled. They usually stand where they are for fear of getting in the way.

Finally, I know this will be constued as Steve bashing but it's NOT.

If there is an offensive scheme... and that scheme is predicated on decisions...and if Steve starts 90% of the plays (regardless of whether he is a PG or SG or C), the success of the structure depends upon giving up the ball when you are double (and triple) teamed.

Please don't arm wrestle with me over whether or not the Rockets other than Steve or Cat can shoot the ball. If they can't, let's prove it first and then go to the NBDL and Euro Leagues for players that can.

 

i optimistically think that francis and mobley (assuming they stay healthy) have improved enough to win about 40 games. also, griff being on the floor more and adding ming is bound to improve our once porous defense. that should be good enough to get to .500

i realistically think that rudy is in over his head and has no idea how to design an offense that involves more than 2 people at a time, nor does he know how to effectively TEACH players. has anyone ever called rudy a great "teacher of the game"? i also realistically think that .500 is underachieving for this team.

 

do you all remember when rudy said that steve francis had the ability "to redefine his position"?


this - this offense - is what he meant. it is exactly what he had in mind. common belief is that you cannot have a point guard that looks to score first and be a successful team. why? because pg's by definition look to set their teammates up for an easy shot. but rudy believes that steve francis can redefine that position. what we all are seeing is that experiment taking place.

 

Rudy's Strategy:

Put himself in a position to win the lottery and get Lebron James.

 

I reject your analysis on the basis that the Grizzlies have something to say about that pick.