We all know the Rocks are shooting a horrible fg %. Why? They are doing a poor job attacking the zone IMO. After the Philly game last week, TNT did a little demo on how the Rockets attack the zone, and how they are trying to run more isos than ever. When the center stands on the outside of the lane (guarding no one), Steve is essentially driving into the teeth of the defense before making the pass or he is taking an off balance shot before the center can enact the double team. That strategy is a stark contrast to the way Philly attacked the Mavericks zone last night and I couldn't help but notice the difference. The Mavs played D on Iverson the same way clubs are trying to contain Francis. The difference was Iverson gave up the ball, his team quickly swung it around, and they always had a wide open baseline jumper on the other side of the court. With the quality shooters we have on this club, why don't we do the same thing? Do our players think they are soooo good they can simply launch a frontal assault on every defense in the league? If so, we will continue to suffer from low FG% and struggle to get our victories.
I agree with some of your points. We need to decide what we are goint to do for each possesions QUICKLY! Seems like we waste about 12 sec just dribbling the ball by halfcourt hoping against hope that the defenders are struck down by God and we just get to throw alley oops. Francis and Mobes need to attack fast or pass it quickly when the doulble team comes. Always seems like they are waiting to long to do either. But I highly doubt Iverson gave up the ball at all yesterday. I know he had 9 assts, but the league MVP was 7-28 from the field! I know its his first game back, but maybe he shouldnt be taking 28 shots in his first game?!?! Oh well they won their game, so it shows what kind of an expert I am.
We have to have movement. Both with the ball, and with players. Too many players sitting on their asses watching our guards dribble until there's a hole in the court. When our guards pass, the guy receiving the ball is in no position to shoot or drive. He just dribbles it around some more. Eventually the shot clock is winding down and we are forced to lay a brick. That is the offense in a nutshell.
You're right in a sense. Iverson shot poorly (he couldn't fully straiten his arm) and had no business taking that many shots. But he did not drive into the teeth of a double team to take them. He gave the ball up in those situations. I am not trying to criticize Francis with this comparison, either. How the Rockets are attacking the zone is coming from Rudy, and I think he needs to consider some alternatives.
One of the fundamentals of basketball is that every time you pass the ball you cause the defense to reset. I literally hate the dribbling shows we have seen so far (especially Norris). There is no interior movement. You are right, every player that does not have the ball should constantly be trying to put themselves in a position to recieve a pass. We are wasting so much clock by dribbling around the perimeter and accomplishing essentially nothing. Why are the Rockets doing this? The other NBA and even college teams I have seen this year are whipping the ball around till they get the open shot. Do you think Rudy is doing this to cut down on turnovers which were so plentiful last season?
To put it in perspective. In college, how many teams run ISOs against a zone? Maybe 1 or 2. Fact is, that college coaches who have experience against the zone KNOW that running ISOs is a lost cause against a zone. You would also think that in college, it'd be more feasible, since there are more 1-man teams in college, and the 3 pt line is much closer for those "kickouts". Rudy is employing the worst imaginable offense against the zones. The fact that we are 5-2 makes me wonder how good we can be if we had a semblance of an offense that can attack a zone. In college you see constant ball movement and players running. This is to find the seams in the zone. By running an ISO, you are running into the heart of the D. Not a good idea when you don't have a guy like Marion who you can dish to, and you know he'll finish.
The thing is, most of the teams aren't running a full zone all the time. What Steve is doing is right but he's doing it at the wrong time. The players aren't used of this and it will take alittle time to read the defense. I am confident that our offense will prevail in the end, Rudy isn't that stupid.
I just don't know why the only offense we can run is an ISO. Teams are foolish if they don't play a full zone against us. They should know 99% of our offense consists of a one man dribbling show.
I agree with Miggidy. We are not seeing as much zone as some think. We are seeing man-on-man doing stuff that would have been illegal defense before. Yeah, sure, the media liked to call that playing "zone" before the rules changes, but it is often really just soft double teams. The real test of zone is seeing defenders not follow a man as offensive players move. The test is not whether someone comes over from the weakside and doubles Cuttino, only to run back over to his man if Cat swings it. Solid, Another fundamental thing about basketball is to move and pass with a purpose. We can also waste a lot of clock by waiting for people to fight for position for a pass. Passing without a purpose can be taken advantage of by defenses by denying everyone but one person (your worst scorer) the ball. And by the rules of the Pasing Game, that guy is supposed to get the ball in your motion. This is why Bobby Knight *always* recruited shooters! If you can't hit the open shot, you can't play for Knight. Passing without a purpose can result in your worst scorer being left open and no one else to get the ball. This is how NBA defenses expose the weakness of Passing Game college-style offenses. Teams with great guards very often set up their entries by dribbling instead of passing. If Steve marches down and passes just to be passing, he can then be denied the pass back. Why do that. Stockton dribbled around waiting for the pnr to set. Kidd dribbles a lot. Magic Johnson did. The ball often does not come out of their until they can get the defense to do something. imo, our offense is pretty close to Utah, in design. We set up the strong side with a pnr, attack the lane, isolate the PF if they trap the dribbler, or pass to the weakside for shots and slashing. It is not that much different. Motion Offenses (as much as I love to play them) are highly overrated in a 24-sec clock. Utah NEVER HAD a passing game, contrary to popular opinion. There are not many NBA teams that run them. Not because they can't, but because they don't work....defenses know how to shut down passing games that don't draw double teams, first.
Crispee, I agree with your point about passing for a purpose, and Miggiddy is right when he says that teams aren't always using a zone against us. But when the zone is used - even a soft zone -- we benefit by swinging the ball. We have too many shooters to ignore the open shots on the weak side. And it definately makes no sense for Francis to attack the hoop or go into an iso when the center is planted outside of the lane guarding no one. That is happening now.
The entire Rockets team needs to take Pick Setting 101 and not be allowed to play until they make a passing grade on the test. The Rockets' forwards set some of the weakest picks in the entire league.
I agree Rocket, We are looking bad when the defenses get aggressive with traps of Francis or when they plant that center on the strongside (although I still disagree that this is not necessarily zone--soft double more so than a "soft zone"). You're right. This is ultimately where our consistency lies: How we beat these two defenses. It isn't like we don't have a plan...just that we need consistency. Sometimes our guards are making mistakes, sometimes the weakside is not helping them in time. And I believe in the end, that consistency is how consistantly the weakside executes when the guards get the game forced out of their hands. Of course, we have to get the weakside involved to allow them to execute, as well. When I watch the Rockets in halfcourt, I am almost always watching for two things, (1) what the weakside is doing and when, and (2) what the defense is doing to force the issue. The timing of weakside movement is the key to our consistency, imo. Do this and you'll see that we are not really just spread around the arc anymore...not nearly as much. Now, we just have to get our weakside timing down to match it to what is Stevie is doing on the strongside. and knock down more shots!
Why not run a double pick on the backside the same time the pick and roll is being run on the other side? There are ways to get good shots that the Rockets aren't doing. They could also push the ball up quicker and start the offense in the middle of the floor for once. I like those cuts off of thomas where we always get a good shot, that can be ran more, but sometimes not running so many plays from the bench would help too.
