is something neither team showed dominantly tonight (although Gooden was impressive) and we will continue to see the Stevie and Cuttino show until we can get one. Cato had a solid showing for Cato, and ditto for EG, but neither one tried to dominate down low tonight. that is why Yao ming is going to have such an impact with us because he will be our legitimate low post game when the Rox want to use it in the game. I certainly don't advocate the old Hakeem type offense but we need to establish some presence under the basket to help stimulate the other areas our our game. Ming will work fast under the basket, draw defenses in quicker and in turn open up lanes, open shots, etc. The first half was fun to watch and the second half was missing Yao
Kenny needs to sit down and let Eddie in the post. I'm sorry. I've noticed so many positive changes tonight, and Kenny was not one of them. He continues to hold the ball waaaaay too long when he gets it and then try to do too much. Very rarely passes it. Anyone else notice how he lets out that annoying ass scream 95% of the time he misses?
LOL, Yes I noticed that too. He really works hard but Kenny displays the same spin moves and still misses more layups with that move than he makes. I agree he still holds the ball too long as well. Hopefully he will make quicker decisions with the ball either passing it or shooting it as the season draws closer.
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! OMG!!! I can't beleive someone else noticed this too. You know what KT is don't ya? It's Kenny trying to bait the refs into calling a foul. "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!" Too bad though. All last year I only heard KT yell once or twice. I thought he left that nanny-basketball behind.
he did shoot poorly but he got a double double and thats more than we have had from our frontline in a while.
I think Griffin did a good job on posting up. He miss two shots but I saw him made one shot against Gooden. I think he will be more motivated when Yao teaches him a few moves.
poor Gator. .. don't u know REALITY has nothing to do with the KT Bashers!!! THEY WILL HEAR NONE OF IT!! Rocket River
I'm hoping that the move to 3 will help his percentage on the layups after spin moves. Part of the problem has been that he has to get the ball up high enough to go over the 4s, and that cuts down on his accuracy. Hopefully, EG or Taylor can establish enough of a low post presence to draw the opponent's 4 and put KT against a shorter 3. Regardless, I wouldn't worry too much about one 5-14 preseason game. Let's remember that last season KT shot 48%. I didn't see all the games, but in the ones I saw that spin move was pretty much his bread and butter and actually fell more often than not.
Kenny traveled with the ball a few times and he couldnt get that shot off the glass. but i hope he 'll get the rhytem of the 3 spot.
Considering that KT is a forward, a team player like Shane Battier got zip and no one who wasn't a point guard on Memphis got more than 2... and that "Jesus" Parker only averaged 4.3 a/g and that 3 a/g would just about get KT into the NBA Top 50 in a/g... While it may not be worthy of breaking out the Dom Pergnon, it sure is pretty damn noteworthy.
I love that comment because that is what I was thinking last night. The first half was dominated by guards and perimeter/slashing players getting us a big lead, but it was painfully obvious that this team needed a low post presence to close out the game. The guys were missing shots and wearing down a bit, having a big man to dump the ball to is paramount. A presence in the paint gives you high percentage shots while shutting down other team's runs. And with a guy like Ming it frees up others like Griffin to operate without double teams or pressure. Getting Ming and Mo back and in the post makes this team a balanced and dangerous team and allows the Rocks to finish strong. Adding Rice, a veteran shooter who knows how to get his shots in clutch situations, also balances out the Rockets offense at the end of games. Give us a frontcourt of Ming and a healthy Rice and Mo and this team can finish what the guards and slashers start.
Barkley's career average was about 4 assist per game and he is considered one of the greatest passing big men to ever play the game.
RM, I began to look at the "precautionary" holdout of Mo & Rice differently today. If they were actually doing better then they wouldn't be held out, and i wonder if it is going to take another month or two for them to get back into game shape healthwise. Rice has been out about 3 days of camp. MoT's injury is ankle related but I would say that it is a "compensation" injury due to the Achilles tear and could cause some problems for a while. i hope they hold them out until they are totally 100%. I busted my ankle pretty bad jogging 3 months ago and i started jogging 1 month later and began to have Achilles' problems from compensating the ankle while running. We will have that low post presence soon, but i can wait until it arrives !
Funny that you bring up your ankle causing Achilles problems, I bet that is exactly what happened to Rice last year. He wasn't fully recovered from the foot injury, he overcompensated and then the Achilles problem. And having gone through that they didn't want to risk it with Mo. I have a feeling that if the season started tomorrow those guys would be available, but since they were a bit sore and a meaningless preseason game was on the board they took them out as a precaution. I suspect that was it, and I hope that was it.
I liked the first half, too, but we needed a low post presence in the second half. I thought Eddie would have stepped in, but he mainly hung around at the arc. Although he always got in the paint on defense. He probably didn't feel confident enough in a real game situation with his shot. Rocketkid is right, kenny annoyed the HELL out of me last night with his selfish play and predicable moves. I felt Eddie was shunned out of the paint in the first half and never really got established because of Kenny's tring to do a little too much too soon. I would have liked to have seen Eddie more involved from the start.
in the Chron article that ron posted, it says that Mo has a sore ankle from steppin on a teammate's(KT?) foot and got a minor twist...He wont be back to practice for a few more days..Rice is back at practice now and is expected to play in all practices and games until something acts up just a FYI article is here
