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Friday November 2, 2007 8:00 AM


Rockets seek more balance heading into home opener


Portland at Houston, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer

SALT LAKE CITY -- During the past four seasons, the Rockets developed a reputation as one of the toughest defensive teams in the NBA.

They're hoping to be known for more this season.

Nearly a month after an offseason makeover and shift in coaching philosophy, the Rockets head into Saturday night's home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers seeking a more-balanced identity. Rather than only being recognized as a strong defensive team, they'd like to be known for what they're getting done on the offensive end too.

Despite winning 52 games last season with a grind-it-out approach, the Rockets opted for a coaching change in hopes of making a deeper playoff run. Houston turned to Rick Adelman in hopes that his high-motion, high-tempo offense will create a more balanced and potent team in the postseason.

The question now is how quickly the Rockets can develop that ideal approach.

"I think Jeff (Van Gundy) did a great job," Adelman said. "How do you argue with 52 wins? He developed Yao into a great low-post player. He limited turnovers and he put the ball in the hands of his playmakers.

"Now, maybe it's my job to expand that," the coach added. "I believe in pushing the ball and giving guys the freedom to make decisions. Jeff wanted a little more control over that. I don't know what's right and what's wrong. But if we're struggling at all, I may take a few pages from his book. It's not going to happen all at once, but this team has the ability to push the ball, move the ball and still be effective."

The Rockets are well aware that they'll have to exercise some patience before becoming well-rounded on both ends of the floor.

Still, they're already seeing some positive results.

During Thursday's win over the Jazz, the Rockets looked like a different team than the one that was eliminated by Utah in the first round of the playoffs. Instead of settling for jumpers or waiting for McGrady to create for everyone else, Houston found openings down the middle of the lane. They ended up netting 48.8 percent of their shots in a 106-95 victory.

That doesn't mean everything has been smooth. The Rockets are, after all, averaging 16.5 turnovers in their first two outings. But if they can fix that and develop chemistry within a new offense, the Rockets could become a much tougher team to defend than past seasons.

"If we can keep the turnovers down, we can get even more shots and opportunities at the basket," Rockets point guard Rafer Alston said. "We can be a really tough team to defend if we get those turnovers down."

Besides adapting to a new offense, the Rockets are still getting familiar with each other. Houston essentially has three key reserve players -- Bonzi Wells, Mike James and Luis Scola -- who weren't in the rotation last season.

The Rockets hope the adjustment period with those new additions will be expediated since the team isn't trying to mesh a bunch of young talent into the system.

"Besides Scola, our new guys are a bunch of veterans," Alston said. "They'll be smart enough to understand where they fit into things. They can still be aggressive, but they also have to understand that we have two superstars that are going to carry the team. Right now, we just got to get our chemistry down. That's something that you work on as the season goes along."

McGrady and Yao are expected to benefit the most from the new offense.

Over the past three seasons, the Rockets have generated nearly all of their offense through the two stars. Yao handled things in the post, while McGrady was asked to take his man -- or two -- off the dribble. But in Adelman's system, the duo will be able to get more looks through the offense itself. McGrady is catching more passes off screens and Yao is becoming more of a playmaker from the high post.

McGrady, at least, seems to be already benefitting from it. By finding a variety of shots in the new offense, McGrady opened the season with two consecutive 30-point games for the first time in his career. The seven-time All-Star said he sees endless possibilities for how he can score in Adelman's offense.

"There are a lot of opportunites for me on the offensive end," McGrady said. "I can play off the ball and I can come off screens. I can hide behind Yao sometimes. There are so many ways I can score in this offense. It's great."

The Rockets would still like to resemble the team that was one of the best defensive units in the league last season.

Since Houston's own pace should increase the number of possesions in a game, the numbers might not show it. But with solid defenders like Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes, they don't expect much of a drop off and will still make plenty of stops. The Rockets are so far allowing 94.5 points per game.

Adelman has told his players to apply the same defensive principles that the team had under Van Gundy. By taking that approach, the Rockets are hoping to become a team that is sharp on both ends of the court.

"We are going to be more of an offensive team than we've been in the past," Rockets guard Luther Head said. "But we're still going to be a pretty good defensive team. We aren't forgetting about that end."

The Rockets just don't expect their defense to necessarily be their lone calling card like it was over the past four seasons.

They're hoping to be more well-rounded.

"I want them to keep the same identity that they had last year as a defensive team," Adelman said. "But I want to push it more and have more possessions and that sometimes causes some defensive breakdowns. But we want to be difficult to guard. We want to give the ball to Tracy and Yao in situations where you just can't lock in on them. That's going to take some time."