It's called easing him in slowly. I don't really agree with it but that's what Rudy's doing, and I guess it makes sense, but it depends on which philosophy u use.
Try coming up with a new take when verse made yours much better 2 weeks ago. There you go verse...I gave you props for the best take. JR, yours is just a take. It is, at best, a chicken and the egg take. You claim Rudy is proven bad by a great breakout game from Eddie. I claim that Rudy was always looking for the breakout game, but wasn't forcing it. You seem to claim we should have, could have...whatever... I say that coaches do not think that way. Rudy had a plan to ease Griffin and Torres in based on production...Rudy has proven that, imo. You are not undressing him by that opinion. You are only reinforcing my whole belief system of easing Torres/Griffin in on production. I was all over Torres in preseason. I never once cried for him to get more minutes, even though I said he was the best rookie. chicken or the egg. I'm not here claiming Rudy is a genius for easing in his players as I wanted, thus produce a Torres and Griffin breakout with no individually demoralizing games...so why are you here claiming Rudy is an idiot for not doing it your way by suggesting Eddie could have produced this breakout much sooner, despite your predicted demoralizing games....and what difference does a few games make anyhow. Eddie had a breakout, and all you can say is that Rudy sucks for it because it should have happened 5 games earlier while Griffin should learn from being embarrassed....sheesh...classic coach hata mentality....
Crispee, you must be blind, if you think Griffin is soley responsible for his sluggish start. How many PF/C do you know (outside of the Rockets) who are coached to sit on the three point line all night. What do you expect a 19 year old's stats to be? Are you telling us, that you believe that Griffin is calling the shots to take nothing but three's? That Rudy is telling him to run some post plays, but Griffin is refusing, because he idolizes Robert Horry? Maybe the facts of Griffins sluggish stats are: • Griffin only gets to touch the ball, from picks, at the 3 point line. • Moochie is a ball hog and will only pass it to Cuttino or KT. • Cutino will not pass it to anybody. • Walt will not pass it to anybody. • KT will not pass it to anybody. • Griffin usually only sees playing time in the 2nd quarter. PRACTICALLY NOBODY ON THIS ROCKET TEAM PASSES!! unless they drive into 4 defenders and then have to force a pass. BUT TIER WILL PASS THE BALL TO WHOEVER IS THE OPEN MAN , he does not play favorites. Have you noticed, how Bill & Calvin always mention how much smoother the game is when our 2nd unit is in. I am curious how Steve will do when he returns. Thank god he is no where near the ball hog that Moochie and Cuttino are. Steve does a great job of looking for the open man. I think Rudy is trying to make Griffin the next Robert Horry . Pratically no offense, except sitting on that three point line. If you watch the Lakers, you know that Horry still has not shaken off Rudys coaching. It works out when he makes those 3's, but he looks like Barkley when he misses. DOES THAT REMIND YOU OF GRIFFIN. If you look at how well the Rockets play, and pass, with Moochie and Cuttino on the bench, you would see the problem. Not to say to bench Moochie & Cuttino, but when Francis returns Moochie needs to be the backup PG (limited minutes), and Cuttino needs a session with Miss Cleo to understand that no matter how hard he practices, he will never be Kobe Bryant. If RUDY COULD COACH , he would work on Cuttinos strengths: Slashing to the basket, drawing double teams, and spot-up shooting (not off-balance circus shots).
--"If RUDY COULD COACH , he would work on Cuttinos strengths: Slashing to the basket, drawing double teams, and spot-up shooting (not off-balance circus shots)." I would love to see u attempt to slash to the basket on two bad ankles. and in case you havent noticed.. cat w/ out francis is double teamed pretty often. --"KT will not pass it to anybody. " KT has very good passing skills for a big men. why would he pass when most of his shots are inside? yes moochie/cat need to pass more. --"I think Rudy is trying to make Griffin the next Robert Horry . Pratically no offense, except sitting on that three point line. If you watch the Lakers, you know that Horry still has not shaken off Rudys coaching. It works out when he makes those 3's, but he looks like Barkley when he misses. DOES THAT REMIND YOU OF GRIFFIN" uh.. only griffin can determine the player he will become. rudy T isnt the one hoisting up the 3s. griffin is. rudy T cant hold his hands and tell him what shots to take. how many times has griffin gone to the basket on a drive? how many times has he tried a mid ranged jumpshot? havent seen that. and Rudy T cant MAKE any1 into a certain player... kevin garnett im sure had some fine games when he was a 19 year old kid. but he wasnt an automatic superstar his first year as half the board thinks griffin is meant to be. --"Rudy is a fine scout, a good motivator, and he would make a great GM. Unfortunately, he is seriously lacking in X and O coaching abilities. I'm all for "promoting" Rudy to GM, and hiring Calvin Murphy as coach." Calvin Murphy as head coach! hah! that lil man couldn't coach my high school. he'd talk talk talk and thats bout it. he couldnt even get the U of H job even tho he said he was 'throwing his hat into the ring' --"good try crispee. Your logic doesn't come close to absolving Rudy of his sins. Wouldn't a coach trying to develop a young player find opportunities in the 25 games of a 7-18 start to play him 30 minutes in at least a handful of those games if nothing else to get him acclimated to being on an NBA court? " good try JR. see the careers of Al harrington, tyson chandler, eddy curry, jonathen bender, tim thomas, stromile swift, tracy mcgrady, and countless other young players that couldve hypothetically helped their team when they sucked. but they didnt. why? cuz they werent ready to handle all of those minutes. griffin might be ahead of all of them but he isnt ready to handle all of them either until he starts showing consistency. --"He exiles Dream, basically deciding that he did not want him back at any price because this team needed to go in a different direction, conveniently ignoring the fact that the team and his youngsters had played absolutely amazing ball only when Hakeem joined the mix, was allowed off the bench in the fourth quarter and even got to shoot occasionally" Rudy T wanted Hakeem back. if you cant see that then you're blind. that entire paragraph is a load of ****t. hakeem the savior sure hasnt turned around toronto single handedly. why do u think Rudy T was really sad when he made those comments. if he "exiled" him (even tho hes not even the GM cough cough) then he wouldnt have cared. Rudy T isnt a brilliant X's and O's coach. but he maximizes talent and gets effort out of his players. players respect him. the rockets typically until recently have had well behaved players and free agents come here alot for a reason. rudy T is an excellent scout of talent. if you think that just any coach could get 45 wins last year n 37 or whatever the year before then i simply won't believe you. and i wont believe you if you told me that just any coach could take a group of well whoknows what to 3rd place finish in the world championships. Rudy T is the coach of the rockets now and he should be until he retires.
This is your opinion. The team has had a better chance of winning with KT playing his solid ball, rather than giving Eddie his lumps now. As crispee has been trying to tell you, when Eddie plays well, he gets minutes. There are plenty of teams doing this much worse than what Rudy has done. Look at the Bulls- they've had no chance of doing anything, with or without injuries, and Curry is getting DNP-CDs, Chandler is getting less than 15 MPG, and Fizer still hasn't totally taken the starting job, from a disgruntled, near 40 year old Oakley. This team at least will put together a run when Steve gets back. As for the Jermaine O'Neal argument: He got 10.2 MPG his first year, 13.5 MPG his 2nd year, 8.6 MPG his 3rd year, and 12.3 MPG his 4th year. So far, Eddie is getting 16.3 MPG, and climbing. Here's another comparable player, Stromile Swift: He played on a terrible Grizzlies team, and had an extra year in college. Guess how many MPG he played last year? 16.4. Eddie will be averaging more minutes than that after tonight's game. The Wizards' starting PF, Christian Laettner who's not nearly as good as KT, is now down for injury. Kwame Brown was the first pick in the draft, and older than Eddie. Guess how many minutes he's averaging this year? 13.5, less than Eddie. Guess how many minutes he played with Christian Laettner out with an injury? Five. Jamison on a terrible Golden State team? 22.5-augmented by lots of minutes late season. He had 2 more years of college. The #11 pick of 2000, Jerome Moiso, averaged all of 5.6 MPG on a lotto bound Boston team. The #6 pick of 2000, Dermarr Johnson, averaged 16.8 MPG on a lotto bound team. Shawn Kemp averaged 13.8 MPG his rookie season. Point being? Rudy's actions are far from unprecedented. Eddie is averaging more minutes than the similarly aged #1, #2, and #4 picks in the draft. Rudy could probably give him more minutes by playing him at the 3. He doesn't, because Eddie's future is at the 4/5. KT has played very respectably, and the centers have not played themselves out of minutes. Therefore, Eddie can only get minutes by playing himself into them, and outplaying Cato, Willis, and KT. When he does that, he gets minutes. More often than not, he has not separated himself from them in game time situations. He's showing the ability to do that, and as he gets more consistent in doing so, that's when he'll get the minutes.
Rudy's dream team was far from a real Dream team, no Shaq, no Kobe, no Iverson. It was a good team, but not the best. DaDakota
I don't buy the injuries being the sole cause of this losing streak. Look at http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/grizzlies/article/0,1426,MCA_475_917648,00.html Memphis was a bad team to start with and lost three players so far to injuries and managed to beat two teams, NY and LAL, that the Rocks could only scare a bit.
Also look at all the foriegn talent coming into the NBA and being successful. The other teams in the Olympics aren't that bad.
Rudy is to Rockets as Issel is to Nuggets. Not a good thing. Mindful of what is best for the team, perhaps Rudy is just as washed up as Dream is. While it is debatable how good we are, 15-game losing streaks (and counting) are a complete no-no for a traditionally successful franchise like ours. It is here that you'd think the coaches would earn their money. If the problem is depth, then start trading until we have it. Do something!
"I don't buy the injuries being the sole cause of this losing streak. Look at http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/grizzl..._917648,00.html Memphis was a bad team to start with and lost three players so far to injuries and managed to beat two teams, NY and LAL, that the Rocks could only scare a bit." you just defeated your own argument. unlike the rockets the grizz have a relatively healthy roster and have more talent overall. gasol/battier/swift/williams/dickerson/wright r all talented players. they should be at least .500 frankly they are underachieving. they dont have injuries the rockets do. case closed.
Give me a break!!! Rudy is the coach? right? He cannot make his players run low-post plays for Griffin? He cannot make Griffin stop heaving up 3's? He cannot tell his players (other than Tier), to pass the ball inside to Griffin? How many times does Cuttino and Moochie, wave off Griffin (and everybody) for a stupid ISO play? MY MISTAKE, I thought the coach was in charge of running the show!!! KT is not a great passer? He could be if he looked to pass first, but he would rather slash (and spin) to the basket from the 3 point line. He only passes when he gets into trouble.
Look to pass first? He's not a point guard. The play is designed for him to slash to the basket and score. Once he gets double-teamed , then he will pass the ball, creating open looks for his teammates.
"Give me a break!!! Rudy is the coach? right? He cannot make his players run low-post plays for Griffin? He cannot make Griffin stop heaving up 3's? He cannot tell his players (other than Tier), to pass the ball inside to Griffin? How many times does Cuttino and Moochie, wave off Griffin (and everybody) for a stupid ISO play? MY MISTAKE, I thought the coach was in charge of running the show!!! KT is not a great passer? He could be if he looked to pass first, but he would rather slash (and spin) to the basket from the 3 point line. He only passes when he gets into trouble." First off.. Rudy T runs the plays thats a given ok? but i dont think he says "eddie u must shoot 90% of your shots as 3's. in fact i think the reason he doesnt play him much on some nights is because thats ALL HE TAKES sometimes...and he does not hit it with consistency. Cuttino and moochie do wave him off alot n they shouldnt i agree w/ u there. and Rudy could help w/ that... and he has been trying as just the other night he was telling moochie to specifically get him the ball. players make things happen the coach cant hold their hands and do it for them. and KT is a pretty good passer. he outlets the ball much better then any of our posts, and has delivered the backdoor pass fairly well when that play is run.
