The can't shoot. Plain and simple. This sounds overly simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that they are getting wide open looks at the basket nearly every time and they just can't hit the shots. Even with the ceaseless pounding of the ball by Moochie and, at times, Mobley (though he gets a HUGE break for being one of the only guys who can score), the Rockets still get open looks and they have to be able to knock it down. What makes it worse is that the Rockets are a poor fast breaking team meaning they get VERY few easy baskets. Add it up and you have one really bad team. I honestly don't know what to do about the shooting. It isn't as if they have bad shooters to begin with and they are getting looks. Ugh!
Just to add to this... The Rockets are: 25th in the league in scoring 23rd in the league in field goal percentage 24th in 3-point percentage but <b>6th</b> in attempts which means they take TOO MANY! 18th in free throw percentage Philly, Miami, Chicago and New York may be the only teams in the league worse offensively than the Rockets and they are all in the East. Even Memphis is a better offensive team than Houston.
And all of it starts on the defensive end. Play some legitimate defense, challenge shots and fast break opportunities will arise. Sitting back waiting for the opposition to miss their shots, only to rebound and dribble the ball for 18-22 seconds is why we score so little. Play some real D and I guarantee we'll start winning games.
I agree with you, Pimp, somewhat. The problem is that missing THAT many shots really adversely effects your defense. When the team has to constantly run back on defense and count on that to win them games, it is tough. Plus, this isn't the 93 Rockets. Their defensive front line isn't exactly Olajuwon, Thorpe and Horry. We're talking Cato, Thomas and Rice. When your protection is pathetic, your backcourt players have to be perfect. You might be able to ask that of Francis or even Mobley, but Norris, Brown and Torres? Probably not.
Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, I've been saying it for weeks, while everyone's been trying to complicate things. Defense is one thing, but unless Satan put a fix on us there is no excuse for missing open shots. If you can't put the damn ball in the damn hole then you're not going to win any damn games.
I've agreed with you all the way. I just have a hard time saying it over and over when people don't like to listen! Imagine, treeman, you and I are agreeing!
The one thing I thought this team would do well before the season is SHOOT! How many posts, articles, interviews talked about the HIGHSCORING GAMES to come; the Rockets might give up some pts, but they would score them in bushels. WHAT A DIFFERENCE A REAL SEASON MAKES! The Rockets can't hit the side of a red barn with a shovel. You can see fewer BRICKS in the great wall of China. Aside from all the complexities of the game, it is still about putting a ball in a basket. There is a reason for this team's ineptitude (even with Francis); I just don't know exactly what it is. I have read hundreds of explanations, but I am not sure I have read or heard the definitive cure.
Jeff and TreeMan, I do agree with you on the Defense being a part of the problem. But it goes deeper than that. The Rockets are dead last in assists. And no one man can beat a team... Not even the Great Michael Jordan. This is a team only in the word, they may be a team off the court but not on the court. Now the question is "Who's to blame?" My answer both the players and the Coach. If the Coach is teaching TEAM Defense and RUNNING TEAM Plays. Then the players need to do what is taught to them. But in the same aspect if the players are not doing what the Coach has told them to do then the Coach is to blame for not Benching them until they do learn. If you look at the standings all the teams who run iso's and not pushing the ball up the court on either Last or almost last in the standings. The new rules have done what they were suppose to do "KILL THE ISOLATION PLAY".... With out the "No-Zone Defense" being called it is too easy for teams to defense against the isolation play. The Rockets right now have to start from the beginning even the Coach. They must learn how to pass the ball around and play as a team or be ready for a long hard season. This also goes for the Coach, he must learn how to be Coach and not a friend to the players.
A classic example is the Nets. If anyone watched the Nets vs. Phoe, they saw a player in kidd who can dominate the ball, but doesn't because the offense doesn't call for it. At times he will handled the ball a lot, but i never see strings of possessions where other guys don't at least touch the ball. I saw their center pass the ball to their 4 man from the high post to the low post a more than a couple of times.
Defense is not the problem (except for that "game" against Chicago). There are so many times that the Rockets could push the ball and don't. They did it early in the game against Washington, and for some reason stopped in the second half. Maybe when the Rockets realize that they're no good in a half-court game they'll decide to actually get as many cheap buckets as they can take. And hey, maybe more crowds would show up for that.
Jeff - The last time I looked the Rockets were also 26th in fastbreak points. It's hard to increase your FG% when you only average 10 PPG in this department! This is a Catch 22 since I recall that you had posted not long ago that in spite of their athleticism the Rockets are not committed to running. That's too bad since a few easy transition baskets would not only help the FG% but also the morale.
We're not running the right system. If you could climb a wall and get into a concert for free, and realized that it's simple, easy and free, you'd continue to do it. But the next year, they install barb-wire. What the Rockets are doing is trying to climb the barbwire. How can we still play isos/halfcourt game when there were specific rules installed to KILL that kind of individual play? I don't see how its logical. Why aren't we a running team? StevE, Cuttino, Keny and Kelvin get up and down the court fairly well. Don't tell me we're running the halfcourt game JUST because of Rice. Our problems are beyond STeve and Cuttino being out. We were shooting poorly even with them in the lineup. Of course we'll win some more games when they're back. But, I'm not so sure we should be playing a halfcourt game AT ALL. Since we're very low on IQ, maybe we can run the triangle? From what I hear, it's a system that has rules or something? If our players were in a controlled environment, then maybe we would'nt see as many wild Cuttino shots, and low percentage Steve shots (although he does make a point about them sometimes). Any of the experts think there's another system better suited to the Rockets?
Because it's the only thing that works. Last night Cat's Iso's got us point more consitently than anything else. As Jeff said we can't shoot. We had open shots. we passed the ball around until the open man got the ball and missed. We can't shoot and we don't have a post up game. Willis isn't a post up threat and cato can't consistently hit anything. Thomas isn't a post up threat and his only consistent shot is when he Iso's his man and takes it to the hoop. And What compounds the problem is the whole league knows we can't shoot so now when Kenny iso's you just have someone leave their man to help out knowing Kenny never passes or even if Kenny passes to an open man he won't hit it. The problem isn't with the iso's so much as it's we can't shoot. If cat drives and sucks the defense on him and then passes out to an open man and he misses the shot we will never score. Anyway you look at it if we can't hit open shots no offensive strategy will work. Don't worry too much. When Frances comes back everything changes. No one in the league can consistently stop him and they will double and triple team and he will still score and the open shots will even become more open and we will start hitting our open shots a little more frequently. Hell Rice is already shooting better than he did before Frances' injury. And the team can't continue to shoot this bad all season. I hope.
What makes the poor shooting issue even worse is the fact that the team is just flat out boring to watch. Cuttino was qouted last night, after the question was posed about why do he thought fans are not coming to the games: "We have a young, exciting team, so I am not sure why." This "young and exciting team" comment is getting old! How can you claim this when you are at the bottom in fast break points and shooting %...They are horrid to watch right now and entertaining it is not. Losing is not fun, but losing is bearable when the product is at least interesting to watch. The product is terrible and it boggles my mind as a season ticket holder forking over $84 bones per game, why we keep doing the same thing night in and night out with no changes. You do not need practice time to push the ball up the floor and beat the defense down court or at least force them to hustle...you do not need practice to tell Griffin to drop down inside the 3pt line. You do not need practice to tell someone to slash to the basket or cut across the lane. You do not need practice time to crash the boards after a jump shot (I do not know how many times I watch Cato and Kenny just stand there during a jump shot). How many more times are we going to watch Eddie Griffin fire up three pointers and go 1/7 before we move him inside. I seem to recall a nice fade away from about 15 ft last night from him! It trued that we are in fact getting wide open shots and we are missing them and a majority of teams are making more wide open shots (see Antonio Daniels and Popeye Jones). This is why we are losing. So, if you suck at the wide open jump shot, feel free to try something new Rudy. Sorry, I went on a rantfest and I am not even sure if this belongs here....I did mention why we are losing though
For all those people b****ing about Griffin's 3 pt shooting. He's actually been shooting better from long range than Steve before the injury and probably better than most of the team including Torres.
