I agree. I think we are way too complacent on defense. It seems like we just stand around and wait for someone else to make a play...... 2 words to describe what is going on: ROCK BOTTOM.
The reason we rank so low in assists is because we can't shoot. Many shots that would end up as assists are missed. I hate math but I can figure that one out. As for the system, ya' know, I would blame the system too if the Rockets weren't getting open shots. They are. They just aren't making them. Any offensive system is designed to get open looks. This system does that consistently. It's not the system's fault the players can't knock them down! If there is anything I blame Rudy for, it is that lack of a fastbreak game, but only partially. Have a good break requires good interior rebounders who will throw the outlet pass OR guards who rebound ABOVE the freethrow line (usually, it requires both). We don't have that. The guards are forced to rebound because our front line is so awful, so we have no guys out and running.
No kidding!! And how much fun is it to watch a "exciting" team that can't even score more than 70 or 80 points a game???
Old Man, the problem was there before Francis got hurt and it will be a big mistake to wait until he comes back before fixing it. As you can see the return of Cat made little difference. Thank god for small mercies. Although we lost last night, I actually saw a concerted effort by the coaches and players to correct some of the problems. The biggest one for me is how early the offense starts and fast breaking. Last night, Brown and Mobley were best at it with Moochie being improved. He also dribbled less. Still needs significant improvement. Brown, who is very quick, repeatedly penetrated and got to the basket. Another improvement is the talent on the court. Thank god Rice is injured. It will help Rudy give the playing time to the youngsters who are not athletically challenged like Rice and Williams. Afterall, our record is at least the same as it would have been had we gone with the rookies, and Langhi in the first place. Hustle, speed, and quickness are what you get with this change; and I am sure in time this will no shoot 28% from the arc. The fast breaks will also come. It was in preseason that I called for a 10-11 man rotation. Why? Because we needed to run, run, run and play tight defense. High energy, not the thing that Rice and Williams can supply. We are not going to beat anyone playing slow basketball. We can run now and we have the point guards to do it. They, including Mobley, should all take a look at Kidd. While Thomas, Langhi, Morris, Oscar and Griffin should take a look at Kenyon Martin, Jefferson et al on the break and in the quick offense. Now that Rice is injured, who should we start? I would move Kenny to SF and give Griffin the exposure now. Bring in Morris for Griffin and Langhi for Thomas or vice versa.
What is the world coming to when the Nets are held up as an example of the way basketball should be played?
I think that the team is more than boring to watch its painfull. The coaches in the NBA are the best in the world and if we think that we can do the same thing over and over (this is the painful part) and the coaches in this league are going to do nothing to stop it we are in for a long season. Make some changes during the game, I don't care if they work or not, at least the oposing team will have to think about defending more than whoever happens to be dribling for the next 22 seconds.
You are right Wakko67, 32% for Griff versus 29% for Francis.....he edges him by 3%. Are we really talking about a significant difference? The question is really who would you rather have shooting the three Stevie or EG and who is more suited to shoot the three, Stevie or EG. Stevie has at least proven himself to be a competent shooter from the 3-point line. I think 32% for a 6'9" forward is not compelling enough to keep shooting it, when over 33% of your shots come from there. No one is saying Eddie donot shoot from there, but feel free to mix in that fall away 15-ft jumper and an occassional move to the basket.....Everyone is b****ing about EG's three shooting because we have no game within 15 feet of the basket, EG is shooting 32% from the arc, he is 6'9" and should be playing closer to the basket anyway--this is why we nabbed him. If his overall shooting % stinks (29%), why keep shooting the three when the percentage increases significantly as you move closer. I think the %'s are in favor of EG moving inside the three point line. That is just me though : )
In the Wizards game, we beat them in every category of the game, except shooting. We took just as many shots (85), many more free throws (28 vs. 11, shooting roughly the same %), offensive rebounds (18 vs 14), total rebounds (49 vs. 46), team rebounds (10 vs 8), assists (18 vs 17), steals (8 vs 2), turnovers (8 vs 10), and fouls (15 vs 22). The only categories in which the Wizards beat us were blocks (8 vs 0) and shooting percentage (45% vs 35%). Now, if they are getting open looks to boot as has been testified, what are you supposed to do? Remember not too long ago, when the Rockets were saying they didn't have to worry about offense, that we had one of the more high-powered offenses in the league, we just needed to soup up the D? What happened there?
You know what I'd like to see? A shot coming off of a pick that's set below the 3pt line!! I've always shot the ball better coming off of some form of movement rather than just sitting still and shooting. Sure just standing wide open and shooting seems like an easy shot but for me personally, I like to shoot coming off of a pick or pulling up off the dribble. The movement helps me shoot in a fluid motion. I can't speak for the pros but I suspect that the same applies. Look, Rudy was known for his shooting back when he was a player. I didn't get to watch him as a player so correct me if I'm wrong but I'd be willing to bet that his shots did not come from standing in one place and waiting to recieve the ball. They didn't even have a three point line back then did they? Why can't Rudy incorporate some basic plays that might involve a few picks off of the ball to free up our shooters? It doesn't have to kill his whole offensive philosophy. Just two or three plays. Mix it up with what we do now. Rice himself was quoted after the Knicks game that he expects to have some plays run for him with him coming off a pick to free him up. So why be married to what is obviously not working well. You can say "we're getting open looks but we're just not making them" all day long. If it's not working you've gotta adapt. This hard head approach is frustrating
Old Man Rock might be one place to start. Search for some of his post....good reads! I can't offer a cure. Right know, the thing I'm focusing on is what opponents defenses are doing to us, and what their offenses look like. When we are so inept, what else can keep your interest...lol. One thing we cannot do though (and OMR alludes to this by mentioning K9 is passing less and less) is lose confidence in the system. For every Sane argument (pun intended) to change the system, should we temper those sentiments with maybe that our team is not that bright? Remember also one absolute truism, we've only had one practice in the last 5 games, and the game before that was pretty well executed (the Kings). As fast as we are on the BBS to suggest changes, in reality, NBA teams cannot change as fast as college teams due to less practice time. So Sane, were we really beating our head against the wall in camp thinking we could shoot? Is introducing low post into a zone world with our pitiful frontline "climbing barb-wire," too? A game plan to flatten zones and stress the strength of your stars is pretty solid, that is meant to say, expecting the shooters to be solid and add more to your offense as the season progresses is not that far-fetched. In hindsight, we haven't had the shooting all year, so we haven't accomplished one damn thing in growth, making your argument that we should have known that last year a hard to dispute claim. You are right, the offense needs more character. Winding up to the present though, the question remains: How fast can an NBA team change with few practices in the middle of a major skid. Blaiming the skid on Rudy's lack of foresight is masochistic in my realm of fandom....it's water under the bridge. Lack of practice time right now (especially without your PG) is why I advocated no change right now when Steve went down, except for your idea to PUSH IT. (Damn, fastbreak please.) Change can just further complicate things and create a spiral when your team is not that bright. What Rudy said in the paper today is that they are going to start looking for new ways to get Cuttino open. I presume this means a lot of weakside picks for him, like we saw for Sprewell and Rip. Fine Rudy. That's cool, but it won't work if the strong side is too dumb to spot an overplay on Mobley to run their counter. Or maybe Mobley is the one who won't see the defensive overplay and then run his counter, or maybe the pickers are supposed to run the counter. <font size="1">break for a definition: a counter occurs when defenses overplay something; you change the other way for instance, or a picker for Reggie Miller might break for the basket. The beauty of counters is when you can see the need for one as you are in motion, in the middle of executing something. This takes team practice. If your teammate can't know when you are going to change direction, he ends up passing it to Calvin Murphy. Excuse me for the definition break, don't mean to sound like a lecture, but some people have asked for them to make sure we are on the same page.</font> It can really be frustrating for a coach to say, here is a new twist we are going to add. It will probably work for one to three sets, but then expect the defense to adjust with "this." You'll spot the adjustment when you are running the play and a man appears "here"...see on this video...when that happens our main option is stopped...but "this" then becomes exposed in the defense. Do you see that? "Uh..coach, could you rewind that again?" The coaching staff can say all that, but then if the players try to artificially anticipate things (eg, "I bet you they will overplay us this time just like Coach says") rather than reacting, it can all be for naught. Sometimes it looks like we are artificially anticipating things...especially Mobley. Mobley is passing more this year, but doesn't it seem like he is predetermining when he is going to pass vs shoot sometimes, or he stubbornly makes a weakside cut for the ball when he is totally denied. It is like he can't handle too many variables of execution in his decision-making at one time. Same with Moochie, same with Francis. That's why sometimes it looks like each of them will just say, I'm taking my man. imo, that's when it looks like Francis is working too hard. I don't expect Rudy to climb barb wire. But boy, I can see his adjustments being excruciatingly slow due to limited practice time vs college and trying not to overwhelm his players. Then again, maybe we can indeed pick up things fast, and Rudy is the slow one. But then, that means the only solution is mutiny without sinking the ship. I choose to believe in a faith that with practice and tweaking, players can start clicking and can expand any offense that properly stresses the stars. Call it blind faith.
I could not believe how many times we tried to run a freakin iso yesterday only to run into a zone. Now I know why Moochie is putting on a dribbling show. Rudy has told him to run an iso and there is no movement. Most of the time Moochie is looking to penetrate, but that damn zone is cutting off all lanes to the basket. I desperately wanted to refrain from any Rudy bashing this year, but the man is a hardhead. I love the guy and I know injuries are mostly to blame. But how hard is it to just get a little motion into the offense?!?!?! Hire a damn college coach to teach some zone defense. I mean Dallas has freakin 11 assistant coaches. I know Les wouldnt mind hiring one more freakin asst. coach. Rudy is not a strategis, he is a motivator (and not a good one this year). How many times have we seen the Rockets call a timeout and then come out with the stupidest play imaginable. We need some coaches who can teach zone defense and some coaches who know how to instill some motion into the offense.
I still think we could be getting better looks. I can't remember the number of times I've seen Willis facing up to the basket 10-12ft out or KT doing the same from 15-18ft. Hell, even EG is doing it! Three things are making the Rockets virtually impossible to watch: 1. Lack of ball/player movement 2. Lack of open weakside mid-range shots 3. Lack of defense to create fast breaks We are playing a very ugly brand of basketball and I don't know how much longer I can subject myself to watching it.
btw R0ckets03, did you notice the 4th coach on the bench last night. For the first time that I've noticed, our PG coach is sitting next to Boylen. It was: Jones, Rudy T, L. Smith, Boylen, and what's his name. Was it always that way? Was he behind the bench, at the end, in the rafters? I do recall Rudy saying something earlier in the season about allowing the video coaches to sit on the bench more this year.
Ive just noticed 4 coaches on the bench all the time (Rudy, Boylen, Larry and ?). There was a fifth yesterday? Also I remember Rudy saying something about video coaches, but dont remember exactly what.
Of course our offense sucks, 3 of our 4 best offensive players are out and the other has been hobbled. I have more of a "problem" with our defense. We are DEAD LAST in causing TO's and bottom 4 in opponents FG. This is less understandable to me because what we lost were more offensively than defensively oriented players. If you can't #1 keep your opponent from taking shots or #2 keep them from making what they take, I don't care how good your offense is you are not going to win. Since 96 the Rockets forgot defense was the crux of their title runs (Note. I don't think this was all Barkley's fault, our defensive fall happen the year before). You can bring good D every night with good defensive players providing consistent effort, even the best offensive teams are off some nights. I don't like the overall direction we have taken for a guard centered team. I can understand us having problems stopping teams once they get the ball where they want it because we are small, but if you are small and quick on the wings you can make it difficult to do that in the first place (more pressing, ball pressure, quick doubles). That was really the recipe for the recent respectable NYN and Phily title runs and one I think we should emulate.
If there are any Wiccans out there right now, I really wish you guys would cast some spell that would help the ball to fall in the damn basket. I'm not kidding, it couldn't hurt... Until these guys start making easy (open) shots, no coaching change, no defensive change, no strategy change period is going to make a difference. Even good ball movement doesn't matter when the open shooter misses. There's just no excuse for shooting 35% from the field every night. Somebody put a hex on these guys or something, and I wish someone could remove it. Because the normal cure - time - doesn't seem to be working to well.
I agree on the "ugly" part. What I'm not sure about is how open 10-12ft jump shots are a bad thing. Willis has hit 10 foot shots his entire career. KT SHOULD be able to knock down a 15ft shot. Moochie should CERTAINLY hit those shots. So should EG. If they can't hit those shots, we either have really bad shooters or shooters in a VERY bad slump. I'm not sure what the answer is to that, but it is obvious that guys have to start hitting shots or we are going to continue to suck.
