When will Taylor replace Griffin in the starting lineup?

Basically, this was the "Question of the Game" last night that Bill and Calvin discuss at half-time. Calvin explained that Rudy does not want to change the starting line-up now because we are just now beginning to get some real consistency with the line-up. When a set of players play with one another more and more in the same situations, they begin to recognize one another's styles and are therefor better able to judge which option to go to in whatever instance. I think this has actually HELPED Mo in particular... the Rockets are becoming comfortable with giving him the ball when he comes in as that offensive burst in late minutes and letting him do his thing. Same goes for what Rice has been doing. The more the starting five and the normal rotation is worked, the more the routine jams and upswings of games become clockwork for the team. I figure a hall-of-famer knows better than me, so it's tough to argue with that, even though I sometimes forget Posey's in the game (bonehead fouls notwithstanding).

As far as the uptempo game thing, I think that's being put on the backburner right now in order to give the somewhat slower Yao time to get down the court and post up. It seems to me that when Yao isn't the focus of the Rockets' offense, the pace picks up a bit. It's pretty natural for that style of play to look better for the team, since the Rockets were building a fast-paced offense around Steve and Cat before Yao was happily dropped in their laps. The more they play, I figure the more they'll adjust.

 

DD,
I don't think you can hide Eddie in a zone right now. He just does not understand who he is supposed to cover most of the time. We see him standing around on the floor not guarding anyone to many times when we run a zone. At least in man to man defense he knows who he has to guard.

Rice on the other hand is absolutely perfect for the zone. He knows who he is suppose to guard and where he is suppose to be in the zone. Plus the zone covers up some of his diminishing physical abilities since he is guarding an area of the floor.

 

Yao needs a shooter like Rice to play along side of him always, that's why you should give Rice his starting job back, Posey can't shoot worth a lick when they double on Yao. Come on Rudy, START RICE!

As for Taylor, I've said it all year. Griffin doesn't compliment Yao's game very well and you should bench him for MoT. Too bad if he gets his confidence hurt, he's not 15 anymore and Rudy needs to stop babying him. He needs to grow up and be a man.

Enough of this its not who start its who finishes talk. Its about the right combinations that works best for our team. Its so obvious we play so much better with the Yao/MoT/Rice/Cat/Stevie combination. We should start and finish with that combination. That's why we've been having slow starts.

And I DO NOT want to see Moochie in the rotation ever again. EVER.

 

You have Posey, Griffen, Cato all coming off the bench. That's a pretty good defensive club against the second team if you ask me. That defense can spark the offense.

 

We do run a zone. I don't think Eddie plays the zone well, though, and our guards give too much penetration when we play the zone. How many times did you see Andre Miller pull up in the lane for an easy 2 after blowing by the guards? I think our guards believe they can just release the penetrating offensive player because in the zone, someone else will pick that person up. Or they get lazy because they think our big guys can handle it.

We have a zone, but we need to make sure our guards do a better job of denying the penetration, otherwise, we give up an easy 2 in the lane, or that person causes the defense to adjust, and that's causing major problems in our interior defense.

 

The current line-up isn't effective because there isn't enough offense. That sounds peculiar, but it's nevertheless true. With Posey and Griffin, you're essentially playing with only 3 legit scoring threats. Griffin has his moments... as does Posey... but neither exactly lights fear into anybody's hearts. Hell, neither even has a consistent ability to put the ball in the basket.

Yes, I know Francis, Yao, and Cat are all high maintenance and need their shots. We don't need another prima dona out there. But we do need someone who can hit the open jumper to beat the double coverage and benefit from the Francis/Mobley penetrations.

Posey? Ha! Griffin? Ha!

You can live with one of them starting. But both of them starting provides a very poor compliment to the rest of the team.

 

I like taylor coming off the bench. i don't think eddie is able to carry a scoring load, like taylor can. Anyway the best player will end up on the floor, whether it's taylor or griffen, just depends on how they are playing.

 

I find it strange that people say "it doesn't matter who starts, the important thing is who finishes..."

Why is the end of the game more important? I mean, I'd rather have a bette start than a better finish, because with a team like ours, there's always an offensive option to go to.

MoT and Rice's experience is invaluable. They bring intangibles to this team. They bring the type of range that frees up Francis and Ming.

Posey and Griffin are VERY well suited for the bench. Griffin energizes us with his shoutblocking and rebounds, while Posey does the same with his energetic style. They really are great for our bench, and Griffin can take it to 2nd stringers at a much better percentage.

With Rice, MoT, Cat, and Ming on the floor, Steve will be more comfortable passing the ball around freely, and those guys will do the same. Every single one of those guys has been pushing the team concept, and I'm sure they won't bail. Remember early season? We were as good as we were because of our balanced scoring.

 

By the way, MoT had 7 rebounds and 4 assists last night vs. the Clippers. Just in case anyone out there is infatuated with stats

 

I agree, we got really lucky last night by waiting until late in each half to start playing. It is better to start strong and get a lead, then put the defensive team out there, than to always have to fight with your best line-up just to get even again. It sucks to always get in these in doubt games like last night against what should have been a feeble ball-club. Put them away early.

In summary, start Rice and Mo, bench them pretty early in each quarter, and then finish with them at the end of each half unless EG or Posey are doing wonderful. Stopping getting into holes where the Rice-Mo line-up then has to kill themselves to get us back into the game.

 

As far as the Rockets get behind in the 1st half recently, I don't understand why anybody thinks it's better to bring Rice/MoT off the bench.

Look, it's just like any other sport. You suit up your best players. Right now, Posey/Griff are fine. But Posey doesn't give you the floor spread and experience of Rice. And Griff doesn't give you the inside presence or offense of MoT.

I know that lineup has finished out some games recently, but I'd say the Clipper game was the most minutes they've logged as one unit.

 

We need Mo-T to start because the defense has to respect his outside jumper and hookshoot. I still don't expect anyone to stop double teaming Yao but at least it can decrease the pressure on him to do everything on his own.
If Taylor gets in foul trouble or starts off poorly Rudy should put him on the bench quickly and put Griffin in.Mo can then come back in the 4th quarter to finish the game.

 

Go check out the mp3 of the Rudy T show. I doubt that Rudy's going to change the starting line up. Rudy talked about tonight how he really likes having MoT coming off the bench for the offensive spark when Francis and Yao take a break and how MoT isn't utilized effectively when there are 3 scorers out on the court.

 

The thing is, both struggle against top flight 4's from the west. I mean Taylor plays good against the least known forwards, but when he faces the duncans ,brands,wallace,garnett and other to that nature, both struggle.

 

IMHO, at this point of the season, it will be too late to thinker with your rotation especially if you have experienced a little bit of success (3 game streak).

Any change, will force you to redefine roles for each player (including Steve, Yao and Mobely) and the learning curve will be much steeper. Most interviews I have heard about players moving to the starting position and vice versa claims that it is a big adjustment. With less than 20 games left, I don't know if that would be smart.

I am not saying that this is the best rotation we can ever have with the current roster. But for now, I feel that this is our best chance to make a push for a playoff spot.

I say we live and die with this rotation.

 

It really bothers me when people say that we should start Eddie for his defense or that's what he brings. Eddie brings blocks and rebounds, and while people sometimes (wrongly) attribute that to defense, they seem to ignore the fact Eddie gets ABUSED in one on one situations. He is the worst one-on-one defender on this team, outside of Francis!

Mo Taylor is lightyears ahead of Griffin in every aspect of the game outside of blocking and rebounding, and lately he hasn't been doing all that bad in them. Sometimes court presence makes up for any shortcomings in the statistical department, and that's what Mo T brings. I just loved last night when he went up hard and came down and just started staring down whichever Clipper had challenged him like he ran over his momma. Despite what people say, Mo is NOT soft, he gets inside and mixes it up.

What I really don't care for is Eddie's attitude. I really think he has the potential to be a special player, but he acts like it's just going to come to him and that he doesn't need to work all that hard. He's been handed this starting job on a silver platter - and he doesn't deserve it.

As for Rice and Posey, arguments can be made for either side, although I tend to lean towards Rice.

 

Didn't read the whole thread, but Rudy T on his show said he likes Mo to be the focus of the offense on the second unit as offense is what he does best.

 

Come on Rudy! I'm getting flashbacks of the Sammy/Kenny Smith contoversy. He's so damn subborn sometimes....Quit drinking!

 

Oh please. Learning curve will be much steeper if we change the lineups eh? Any kind of learning on our team is steep enough as is! We won 2 of our 3 games because Rudy finally woke up and used the Stevie/Cat/Yao/Mo/Rice combination more towards the end of games. Period. Our starting lineup is really hurting us.

 

Boy I just love when a topic I introduce on the board gets cover, COINCIDENTALLY, in the Chron the next day. Here is my presentation yesterday:

....and second change the defensive strategy. Rudy has a habit, on defense, of taking away something from the offense and leaving them with something, like open outside shots. I can understand that when you are playing teams with dominant inside players but that is not the case with the Clippers. No Candy, no Brand. So why leave so many players with open shots. We almost lost the game due to that nonsense. What it basically does is put us in a dog fight when they hit those shots and we have to then play Mobes and SF more. The Clippers have our number simply because we inappropriately prepare for them all the time.

and here from the Chron:

....The Rockets' emphasis on defense -- and the installation of a clear defensive philosophy -- has turned what was a horrible defensive team last season into one of the league's better defensive teams this season.

The Rockets, who trail Phoenix by a half-game in the race for the Western Conference's eighth playoff spot, enter tonight's home meeting with the Bulls ranked eighth in the league in scoring defense and seventh in field-goal percentage defense. The 92 points per game and 43.1 percent shooting the Rockets have allowed would be franchise records. They have held a franchise-record eight opponents to fewer than 80 points.

But only two of the eight sub-80 games have come since the All-Star break. After allowing only six teams to score 100 points in the season's first 37 games, the Rockets have allowed opponents to top 100 in half of the 26 games since.

Five of the seven times an opponent has shot better than 50 percent have taken place in the last 17 games, including Wednesday's.

"It can be better. It can be a lot better," guard Cuttino Mobley said. "Teams have been shooting 70 percent in the first quarter. We've got to tighten up big-time, especially late in the season. On a really, really, really good team, we can't come back."

The Rockets' past two games -- their shutdown of the Nets on Saturday and their struggle against the Clippers on Wednesday -- might have shown the strength and occasional danger of the Rockets' defensive philosophy.

"Our concepts of our defense were the same," forward Maurice Taylor said. "We did everything we wanted to do, but they (the Clippers) hit some tough shots. You never want to see a team shoot that well. It messes with you psychologically.

"When guys get hands up and guys are pushing, you just have to take your hat off to the other team. It's the open shots and open layups you try to take away. Jump shots -- all you can do is get a hand up."

The Rockets have made themselves a successful defensive team by forcing opponents into doing what they usually don't do well. They place their emphasis on taking away strengths, even if it means allowing "good shots."

Forced away from their strengths, many teams have missed open shots (the Nets shot 36 percent) and left town believing they just had an off shooting night. When Maggette shot with unusual range and Parks and Miller connected with rare regularity, the Clippers took shots the Rockets hoped they would take but made them.

"There is no defense that takes away everything," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "If there was, we'd all be using it. You have to do different things. We put our center on Andre Miller (on pick-and-rolls) in the beginning when he came off (the screens) and then zoned it up. Their big guys starting hitting. We adjusted. That's just basketball. You make your decisions. But they had answers.

"We were changing every two minutes. But you can go out and play good defense, and guys are making shots."

All of that does not mean the Rockets are only as good as their strategy. Effort remains the foremost key to defense. With tonight's rematch against the Bulls as a reminder, effort has been lacking in a few of the Rockets' losses to weak teams.

But because the Rockets have built so much of their strategy around double-teaming or help defenses, how well they work together quickly becomes almost as irreplaceable.

"Our effort has basically been excellent," Tomjanovich said. "It's understanding there is so much teamwork on defense. Everybody thinks teamwork is passing the ball. On defense, there are usually three guys involved in a play, sometimes four, that are all on a string. One guy moves, the next guy takes this guy, and then help the helper.

"What this team has done is really a difficult thing to do, to move into some of those areas. And some of those areas are the tough ones -- defense, rebounding, shot blocking, getting back on defense. That's the thing that people don't see a lot."




I say lengthen the rotation so the effort can be relentless instead of expecting effort from SF and Mobes for 43 minutes; and do not give open outside shots when the team you are playing does not have a dominant inside game. Remember one of our strengths is our low post defense and we do not need, therefore Posey, SF, and Wink leaving their man to help out down low.