Rocket are sick. Houston has a sort of "I need a star to play basketball" style of play (blame the coach). However, most forget that even average players can put up decent basketball, remember the pre-Mc Grady Magics. Houston situation is very similar to Jerseys situation with MArbury. I'm not saying that we should trade Francis for Kidd. I'm just saying we need to change our system when it is obvious we do not have the material it needs to win game out of "starplay". Furthermore, it would ease Francis and Taylor when they come back: better, if they have to do less, they'll probably get injured less often! Here is an article out of CNNSI, that explains it in a different light. And don't tell me Francis could not play as well as Kidd does, it 's just not true, if he sets his mind on it together with his coach! CNNSI: "So maybe it's only fitting that the team would run an offense borrowed from Princeton, the Ivy League power located some 40 miles down the turnpike. "We thought it would be a good fit," says New Jersey coach Byron Scott, who changed from a more traditional isolation NBA offense to the share-the-wealth Princeton approach this season. "We react to what the defense does. It's old-style basketball. Dribble, pass and shoot. I always thought it's the way the game was supposed to be played." So far it's earned more than passing grades. The Nets were averaging 95.5 points per game, through Thursday, some three points better than a year ago"
Thank you for making this post. This is right on target. Jason Kidd is one of my favorite non - Rocket Players. I always admired the way he could make other players around him better. I really like Steve Francis game- he actually has fewer physical limitations than Kidd. I think Steve can do anything he wants. Please note how effective Keith Van Horn is since Kidd is the Point guard. Kidd is feeding him and making Horn a better player. If we did share the ball distribute and spread the floor, we would become a much harder to contain offensive force. Everybody on Clutch BBS knows this-but the execution I'm not sure about. Rick Adelman has the former Princeton coach Pete Carrill as an assistant, helping develop the offense. If Rudy needed some more help I think he could find it and Les would pay for it. I've only seen the Nets play one game - 1/2 game really, so I don't know if they compare in any way to Sacramento -I only brought up Sacro because of the Princeton connection.
I am even more bitter at the current situation for the following reasons. The rockets have what it needs to have an nba team: they have size, shooters and points, it's not huge, this is true, but it is more than enough to execute a decent system. Shoot don't drop, okay, who will blame someone that takes a shot wide open? Nobody, except if it is Cato, but he should never have the ball in such a situation if a real system is executed. ( Much the same can be said for Griffin, although he could put them in). So, someone has to to put a team concept in this team, friendly atmosphere is good enough, but it must show on the court, and not only through huggin' and smiles, but on how the plays are run! And please, don't forget, that Mobley, Cato, Griffin and co are all relatively young, somebody has to teach them all this! Rudy, you have work to do!
