The Rockets are having trouble with the simplest nuances of the game... 1) Fouls- Taylor and Ming have a very hard time controlling their body on defense, and commiting stupid fouls. They both need to be ready to play in order for the Rockets to have a shot at winning. The Rockets also waste their team fouls on players who are in the act of shooting!! This is the most frustrating. The players get FTs anyway while also using up a foul towards the bonus. 2) Passes- The post-entry passes to yao are horrific. Jim Jackson is the only one who makes SNAP passes into the post to where the post player has it in a position where he can score. Francis makes terrible passes, often still choosing the flashy pass over the simple one. Mobley is not much better, and EVERYONE has the bad habit of FORCING passes. 3) Spacing- When you have a scoring threat such as Yao, spacing is VITAL to an offense. The smart thing would be to overload the weak side so that the defense is preoccupied away from Yao. However, the Rockets often overload Yao's side, which makes it easy to double quickly while also contesting perimeter shots. 4) Shots- In the Rockets' offense, the shots are either 3s or layups/dunks. There are no in-between shots at all. The Rockets do shoot a lot of 3s and since they are 4th in the league in 3-pt percentage, they hardly drive to the basket. They are becoming heavily dependent on 3s, especially when Yao and Taylor aren't hitting down low. There is little cutting and mid-range jumpers to revive the offense. Just some things I have picked up. It's frustrating since these are all little aspects that professionals should've picked up and mastered a lot sooner.
I hear your pain and I completely agree with you. These people are getting paid millions to have a "fun" job. The least they could do would be to master the little things. I would also like to add turnovers to your list above.The Rockets are committing 3+ turnovers a game then their opponets. Usually when a game is decided by one or two points you can look at a few stats. Offensive rebounds, free throws, and turnovers. The Rockets are making stupid turnovers. They need to utilize the ball fake. It works. Fake the bounce pass, throw it over the top, etc. This would help cure the problems of giving it to Yao in the post. Its always the little things that end up costing you the ball game if the game is close and frankly the Rockets don't do the little things that championship type teams do.
Yes, how could I forget turnovers?? lol, but they are doing a much better job of controlling the ball as they get more comfortable playing with each other, as well as playing within the system...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting HoustonHoopa33:</div><div class="quote_post">Yes, how could I forget turnovers?? lol, but they are doing a much better job of controlling the ball as they get more comfortable playing with each other, as well as playing within the system...</div> Yes, the last few games they have done a good job of controlling the turnovers. Against Detroit we commited 15 and against New York we had 13. Earlier in the year we were having 17-23 turnovers a night which is completely unacceptable. I like you think that the turnovers are going down as they get more familiar with Jeff Van Gundy's system.
The main reason behind the decrease in turnovers is because Francis has learnt to be more calm with the ball. He now knows when to make a simple pass and when to make an alley-oop pass.
True ^^^^...although he hasnt MASTERED the whole passing concept yet, he's shown vast improvement and progress in that area, which are both signs of hope that he's accepting his role in JVG's system...
Francis is 4th in the league in turnovers per game(3.58). I blame part of that on him not being a natural point guard, another on that he isn't use to JVG's system and I actually blame him for not ball faking enough. Ball-faking is such an easy concept yet many pros don't do it. The good PGs are the ones that do.
Even though he is at 3.58 turnovers a game, that's still a 0.6 decrease in that department. The primary reason he commits so many is because he is the player who handles the ball most of the time for the Rockets.
