This offense is to predictable. Furthermore, this team made a LIVING at punishing slow teams down the court LAST SEASON. I see no aggresiveness, no fire, no energy, NOTHING but piss poor basketball! Blame the players all you want, I blame the coaching. You dont take players with limited range, and line them up at the three point line. Its not even as effective as a four corners offense, becuase NOONE CUTS. This scheme of rudy is sh*t.
Man, have you been actually watching the offense. Predictable or not, the Rockets are getting WIDE OPEN shots. They just cannot put them in. The offensive scheme has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with how the Rocks are shooting. The coach can't make the team shoot the ball better. Obviously, it would be better if they got fast break points, but they are not a good breaking team. That is as much on Rudy as it is on the players, however, the shooting is all on the players. As for fire, they are working their asses off. Everyone who watches the game closely (analysts, scouts, journalists, you name it) say that no team works harder with less talent.
Paul Westhead or whatever his name had zero success shooting threes all game long. Lets not even look at the skill of shooting the three, but merily stats and probability. The closer you are to the basket, the higher the probability you will hit the shot. Unless your team is filled with pure shooters, this offense will never ever, EVER work. Rudy should be designing plays getting the player closer shots, not setting up a player 25 feet away. They are not a good fast breaking team THIS YEAR, only becuase the Rockets rarely push the ball up court. Last year these guys were freaks at pushing the ball up court-with or without Franchise on the court. Less talent? Thats subjective simply becuase I feel Rudys system makes everyone look like BUMS.
On a positive note, I noticed that Griff took seven shots and only of them one was from beyond the three-point line. Of course, he only made one basket all game. But at least he's learning how to break the force field, right? I didn't get to watch the game though. If Rice is out for awhile, EG's minutes will increase.
The Rockets take 18 three pointers but attempt 88 total shots per game along with 23 freethrows. Assuming 30 percent of their free throws are on shot attempts (a VERY conservative estimate), that means they are attempting around 92 shots per game and only 18 of those are three's. That isn't a terribly high percentage considering the fact that they have absolutley no inside game and that Thomas is their best post up option.
It would be great to see a stat detailing shots taken with 1-3 seconds on the clock, and shots taken 19-23 feet from the basket. I emphasive again, the hardest way to win a game is to rely on long range shooting, ESPECIALLY, when your players last name do not end with IZKI, or OVICH.
You guys aren't paying very close attention. Tierre Brown is pushing the ball up court whenever it's possible. Brown hit a hustling Kevin Willis for a slam against the Wizards. But I do agree (and have all season) that the FB points are too far and few between so I understand why many fans may have missed the Brown/Willis play.
Attention to YALL!! Watch the Nets, damn this team can fast break, run the floor, score in transition and hit the offensive boards on these early shots. Please Rudy watch a game, in fact get Steve a monthly season ticket for continental arena while he's out.
The last time the Rocks consistently tried to run is when it had 2 solid rebounding big men in their primes (Otis and Dream). Face it, the weak frontcourt, and the guards lack of trust in them, is the reason why this team doesn't run. The rebounding is just not consistent enough with the frontcourt that the guards can leak out and get some opportunity baskets. Yeah, Brown pushed the ball a bit, but also remember that Griffin and Willis, probably the 2 best pure rebounders on the team, were on the floor at the same time. All comes down to the big men.
Everyone just needs to chill. The Rockets are not going to be a good team this year. Francis is out. Mo Taylor isn't even going to play at all. Mobley is hurting. It's as if we expect the Rockets to play better than what they are right now -- a bunch of scrubs (except for Eddie Griffin and KT). This team is worse than the Grizzlies were last year. Once Francis is back, they will improve a lot (add 20 + points onto the score of each game), but I still don't think they'll make the playoffs until next year at the earliest. By then, if Mo T is back and Francis stays healthy and Eddie Griffin is playing consistent minutes, I think the Rockets definitely have a chance to make the playoffs again. Just don't count on it this year. Besides, if they already know that this year is a lost cause, they can just wait it out and hopefully get ONE more lottery pick (maybe even a top 3) before next year. I think that is the best strategy for them right now, considering they have limited cap space to sign a significant free agent (thanks to Mr. Rice for that one).
This team was slow with Taylor and will be slow when he gets back. Taylor isn't the answer because that injury he had takes at least 2 yrs to get back to strength. When Francis comes back it would help a lot, but this team is hurting offensively with him on the floor and thats apparent. How come other teams win without their other players but we are suppose to have so much talent? I wouldn't mind seeing us go after a player like Ray Mercer and relegate Rice to backup status. I don't really think Mercer is the answer, but he can get up the floor, get his own shot and is a pretty ggod defender. Maybe Chicago will take him for Williams and his 1 yr contract. Something has to be done to upgrade our 3 spot if we're evere going to be a running team.
Oh and by the way crackhead, Ray Mercer is a fat over the hill boxer. Well maybe we should trade for him cause he couldn't be any worse than what we already have. Mercer for Cato!!!!
I'd disagree with you about not having speed at the 3 spot. The rockets have two players in Morris and Torres with great speed, that can do what Rice and Williams can't. Frankly I think Morris would acclimate to the NBA style of play faster if he was able to play some run and gun style of basketball, if only to get him some easier baskets in transition and get him settled. He can run, rebound, play D, and is an above average shooter, although he's only now starting to lose some of the deer in the headlights aspect. Heck, with the guys we have now, that aren't currently injured, the lineups like: Moochie, Torres, Morris, KT, Griffin Moochie, Torres, KT, Griffin, Willis Moochie, Torres, Morris, Griffin, Willis Moochie, Torres, Griffin, KT, Willis They could out run teams on the break and start getting buckets in transition. In addition, as the backups learn the system it can easily be adapted as the starters make their way back of the IR. The only place that would be problematic is the 3, but Torres, Griffin, Morris and KT could all possibly play that position in place of Walt or Glen.
Morris can run like the wind!! Seriously, part of the reason he played so well his sophomore year is because sf kept him involved in the offense, via alley-oops, kickouts and passes on the break. Tmo's not the kind of player who can go without a shot for a half and then turn it on out of nowhere.
um, ray mercer, fat/over the hill or not, has been activating boxers' sh*t buttons for the past year or so now. in fact, should "iron" mike tyson decide to be stupid enough to fight ray, look for mike to get his sh*t button activated too. the past 2 fighters (peguese and steele) ray mercer fought were *literally* knocked out of the ring. in fact, i'd be willing to bet that ray mercer could knock lummox lewis the ***** out, too. dude has a *jackhammer* for a jab, a chin of steel, and is a young 34. keep in mind he took a few years off from boxing. on top of that, he has *tremendous* power... given the state of heavyweight boxing right now, ray mercer could easily end up being the undisputed heavyweight champion. especially with "glass joe" lewis holding the belts...
What kind of crack are some of us around here smoking? What would we have to give up to get Ron Mercer? It's not worth it. And while Terence Morris would probably play better if given more minutes, he is still a rookie and it's one thing to catch alley oops and shoot lights out in the college game, entirely different matter to get to that level in the NBA. The Rockets don't have a whole lot of talent at the present. Torres is a free-agent walk-on (or maybe he was a late second rounder), Morris is a second round pick, Moochie is overpaid and completely overrated (as we are finding out), KT is talented but too small to match up well against other PFs in the league. Cato, well, useless 7 foot lazy ass. And, that leaves us with, well, Cuttino Mobley, Kevin Willis, and Glen Rice for the most part. Two of those guys are hurt (Mobley - ankles, and Rice - knee). So, the only bonafide NBA player on this team that is healthy right now is Kevin Willis. We all need to stop dreaming and realize that no lineup the Rockets can put out there at the present time is going to be competitive on an NBA level. Until Francis returns, Mobley is healthy, and Mo Taylor can play again, this is a sub-NBA caliber team. period. End of story.
Taylor is ahead of schedule the last I heard and it no longer takes 2 years to recover from a torn achilles. Surgeries have vastly improved recovery time and training is very different. He won't be ready this season, but he will be back at full strength by the beginning of next season.
