Where is this 'motion offense' that RudyT has been mentioning all year? 99% of their halfcourt offense plays are: ISO-pg ISO-sg ISO-C SG or PG pick-and never pass to the player rolling to the basket How bout some multiple players cutting to the basket from the WEAKSIDE. How bout some screens to get Yao, Cat and SF some easy midrange jumpshots. Set some back screens for EG and JPo to some layups and dunks. Watching this last game vs the Kincks was so infuriating because the whole 2nd half there was little to NO movement without the ball. They throw the ball into Yao and everyone else impersonates a statue. Its kinda easy to play D with your man standing in the same spot for the entire possession. With everyone out at the 3 point line, there will be little or no offensive rebounds. Yao is the best passer on the team but that is completely nullified by the lack of cutters. Also, SF and Cat need to stop dominating the ball with excessive dribbling. Even with 15 sec left ,down 6 SF was wasting time trying to break down the defense off the dribble instead of just shooting the quick 3. Rox could easily be a #4 or #5 seed if they play a team game and not rely on individual talent and 1-on-1 plays all the time.
Here's the difference. When Steve or Cat have the ball in a 1 on 1 situation, theyre facing the basket and can either take the shot or drive to the lane. Theyre are super quick. Yao is not very quick. He first thinks pass - 5 seconds wasted. Then once he realizes there's not one to pass to he has to start making his move. This will be either the: 1. forced turnaround jumper that he misses all the time now, 2. the spin move, which is good but he'll get trapped occasionally or 3. The backing it in backing it in which takes forever. And while he's contemplating his choices, there's another player who comes around the corner that takes the ball away. Part of the problem is that if the first cutter is unavailable and no one comes back to the ball, Yao must force up a shot or throw a cross court pass leaving that player 5 seconds to throw up his own prayer. Yao has to be more decisive in his actions. This is part of his learning curve. And yes we should do more motion offense no matter who has the ball.
isn't it weird we iso the center who can pass but no one cut to the basket. We iso the guards on a PnR and the center roll to the basket but the guards can not pass.
YES YES YES !! I can not stand to see everone stand around while Yao or MoT or Cat or Franchise tries to beat his man off the dribble...where the heck are the pick and rolls, where are the give and goes? Oh sure we see a few on the dump in and the passer cuts, but why can't the passer cut and then create a screen on the weakside for another cut? It may be the grim reaper knocking on the door of Rudy's tenure as a Rocks coach. DD
Too bad 1-1 (or ISO, whatever you call it) is the only way Rudy T knows how to play offense. The ISO can be G, F, or C. We need some offensive assistant coaches that knows a thing or two about motion/passing/screening.
I have said this a million times before (probably mostly to my dachshund because everyone else has tuned me out already). We need some assistant coaches that have a grasp of fundamental basketball that have coaching experience. This team needs some guidance from real coaches - not video editors or former scouts or former players that need a nice little paycheck. Watch the Dallas games as Del Harris is diagramming plays on the sidelines during a timeout. Watch Pete Caril transform some very talented players into lethal passing machines. Caril is synonymous with fundamental basketball. Rudy is a good overseer of talent but not a great tactician. On a young team you need some creative, innovative thinking that accentuates your strengths and masks your weaknesses. This team gets bogged down offensively through several stretchs and theyre just lost. Rudy is fine but Please, please hire some good assistant coaches.
That's exactly what Im talking about, DaDakota. Make the defense tire itself running through and around screens and picks all-game. If they decide to switch everything, then pass it to the player who has the match-up advantage. This stuff should not been Rocket Science (pun intended) to figure out. I have no idea what goes through Rudy's head when he sees players standing around on offense possession after possession.
What's that you say? What's going on in Rudy's head? Why, funny you should ask! Straight from Rudy T: "My philosophy on offense is to get the ball to people who make the defense shift, and if they don't shift, you, and they go one-on-one, that you're usually going to make that, uh, uh, win that percentage. That's just, it doesn't matter if it's Charles Barkley, or if it's Steve Francis or wha-whatever and i think most coaches do that, uh, and when they do help, the ball goes to the open man, and that's basically, uh, it took Hakeem Olajuwon many years to perfect that, then the championships came. It's taken our guys time to, uh, get better at their, at times we've done well, at times we haven't done well, but...My philospohy is you call plays for guys that get the defense to do something. Who gets the shot, I have no control over that."
Well that philosophy is pretty obsolete. The 2 main reasons why it worked when Hakeem was playing was: Hakeem was a GREAT 1 on 1 player and they were no zone defenses. I bet Hakeem would have more trouble scoring today if he had 2-3 defenders draped all over him BEFORE he got the ball like Yao. It's been proven time and time again that ISO oriented offenses do not work consistently and motion type offenses do.
Oops, forgot to post the link. There you can download the episode of the Rudy T show where he says this.
I am all for some offensive assistant coaches. Who is the guy who designs the motion offense for Kings? Can we lure him?
Here, here. I cannot comprehend how plays that every freaking division 2 basketball team against a zone or man to man can run can NOT be run by the Rockets.
Safe to say that Rudy has never watched a Bobby Knight offense. I hate Knight with a passion ("Hey Knight!") but the man can coach and he can especially coach a motion offense. Losing both times to the Knicks is pathetic.
Count me in with those that want to see more MOTION in our supposed "motion offense". We need a lot more weakside cutters in the lane when Yao has the ball. Why not pass to a cutter for a high percentage shot versus passing out to Griffin or Posey on the three point line for a low percentage shot? Doesn't make sense. I also believe that it would be wise for the Rockets to hire an assistant coach(s) that is more of a tactician or a student of the passing game versus these video tape editors. As stated above, the Rockets need a tactician on the team in addition to Rudy who is more of a talent manager. This team needs more cutters, more motion with more people involved on every play. The Rockets would get so many more high percentage shots this way. I am tried of hearing the quotes after loses where they say "we had open looks, they just didn't fall down" etc. Sometimes the open looks are not as GOOD a look as one can get. Perhaps if the open looks aren't going down then devise a strategy to get BETTER open looks. The Rockets have some very talented players on this team and I feel with better ballmovement and better offensive flow this team's talent would be maximized, versus underachieving. Chris
The problem I'm beginning to see is that as long as Rudy is the coach, we won't be getting any new assistants. I'm also beginning to wonder if it's a case of he's afraid to hire someone who actually knows what they are doing for fear of taking his job - so he hires video people to shag balls at practice and calls them assistants.
