(04/30/09)
Recently, we have not had any updates. Why? Because we are real fans. We hold out hope. Hope that a 56 win team, followed up by a 49 win team can still play like a title contender. Deep down, we knew this team did not have it. There are lots of reasons for this: No bench, injuries, bad luck...sure. But mainly bad coaching.
After the Rockets game in mid-April the Hornets had clearly tanked on the regular season. In Games 1 and 2 against the Nuggets, they tried hard, but could not overcome Byron Scott. In Games 1 and 2 the Hornets were not playing well, but still within a few points at the end of the 1st quarter. Devin Brown, Antonio Daniels, Sean Marks, James Posey were 4 of the starting 5 in the second quarter for both those games. Would anyone care to name an athlete in that bunch? You mean we can't keep up with Birdman and JR Smith? Not like these guys are great players, but they are athletic. Who can guard them? At that point the Hornets let the leads grow to double digits and 8 points at half. A tough margin to come from behind in the playoffs on the road. Not to mention we had Peja (slow, old, hurt) on Melo (big, fast, athletic). Melo did not need to do much in games 1 and 2 but he scored at will and when necessary.
So through Games 1 and 2, we have Melo dominating Peja, K-Mart dominating D-West, Nene and Chandler in a wash (even though Chandler was criticized, he held Nene to well below his season averages), Chauncey and Jones beat up Butler and CP3 (not because they are better but because they were agressive and had a great game plan).
Those are losses that you hope to come home and learn from. You can watch film and adjust offense, and defensive schemes. We come home and continue to lob it into D-West so we can watch K-Mart block his shot or watch the ball get stripped from a help defender. We continued to watch Melo light up Peja....and we continued to watch unathletic people try to guard Birdman and JR. The one change that was made, was that Scott stopped playing Devin Brown (he'll be out of the league maybe next year).
Then Game 4 happened: Amazing. A team quit....Isn't it a coach's job to motivate, control, and run a team? How did things get this bad? This was on the players as well as Scott, but we essentially gave the Nuggets a 10-12 point advantage because of coaching.
Then the season ender in Denver. The Hornets finally played with heart and they played physical. We even put our best athlete on the floor in the first half. Julian Wright. JuJu went in and guarded their best athlete, JR Smith. Sure Smith hit a 3 but he also had a hand is his face every shot. Smith even airballed a 3. ....Good coaching...encouraging. Then the second half comes......they go on a run with their backups in the game. Meanwhile JuJu is nowhere to be found; and we have Marks guarding Nene, Peja on Melo, Butler on Smith...disaster. Oh, I almost forgot. David West was in foul trouble so he was on the bench as the the game went from tied to a 14 point Denver lead. No timeouts were called during this stretch.
Byron Scott blames a lack of depth and injuries. But this is a misconception because of his coaching style. We have 4 guys on the bench who could/should play. JuJu, Posey, Armstrong and Mo Pete.
JuJu was mentioned above.
Armstrong had 6 points and 6 boards in limited first half minutes. If Scott ever played him on a regular basis, he would learn not to foul and he would improve his game.
Posey: Good bench player.
Mo Pete: A prime example of why Scott should be fired. Scott begged for us to sign him two years in a row. Then he's a starter - all of a sudden he doesn't play ever again. Either way it shows what bad judgement he has: Either you are dumb for playing a guy as a starter who shouldn't be getting any minutes, or you are dumb for sitting a guy who has starter potential.
So we have 4 quality bench players, compared to 2 from Denver - Yes, 2. (You can stretch it to 4, like I did with the Hornets bench: JR, Birdman, Kleiza, and Carter. That is NOT a huge advantage.)
The advantage was style of play and athleticism.
More to come later about specifics....offseason moves and the firing of Scott...
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(04/14/09)
The Rockets are in the midst of a 9-0 run because we have (Brown, Daniels, Marks, Posey..I think West). Who are they going to guard? Daniels (can't shoot), Brown (run through the lane and throw it up every time), Marks (can't score unless cp3 hand feeds him), Posey (old and slow, but actually did alright), or Butler? Of course they are going to swarm Butler (or whoever our starter is)....so they go on a 9-0 run.
We call timeout and put the starters back in. We call a play (thank god), the play goes to Melvin Ely (dear god) in the post against Yao Ming. Let's clear this up. We called a play in the middle of a game ending run for a terrible post player in his third start of the season against a 7' 6" super star, who is probably the best big man in the game today.
What's the result? A 22-2 run for the Rockets to end the half.
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