man.....why oh why did they get rid of Big Mo? this just isnt the same Rockets team without him... I must concur with my drummer friend and say....one star..no soup for you
Let's look at the whole picture folks. The Rockets have three tools to add up to 4 quality players with the MLE(split it in half), TE and the vet minimum. With the addition of T-Mac, Howard, Lue and Gaines the Rockets added 20 points of extra firepower over Francis, Mobley and Cato combined. That's 20 points folks. For Francis and co. to avearge 58 points the new Rockets did last season, Francis and Mobley would have to average 20 each and Cato 18, and the last part is not gonna happen! With our offense being improved, our defense isn't lacking as it stands right now. Cato's defense will be missed, but T-Mac and Lue can play better defense than Mobley and Francis. Now let's take a look at positional breakdown. Cato's defense is good, but his impact is overestimated. Dude just played 25 minutes a game. He is also a huge liability on offense making the Rockets play 4 on 5. Cato is overrated. Juan isn't a defensive player, but he'll be quicker and better at help defense than the fat MoT. Some defensive slid at the 4 but completely compensated by Juan's offense. Wash. Francis is better than Lue no doubt, but Lue fits this team better. Lue, unlike Francis, will be able to guard quicker 1's. Lue once played great defense on Iverson in the playoffs. Lue takes care of the ball and Francis doesn't. Lue shoots well and Francis can't shoot last season. Francis is a better rebounder, leader and one on one player but Lue is more of an all around player and fits this team and system better. If Lue plays 40 minutes his numbers wouldn't be significantly less than Francis did last season. Slight advantage to Francis. Cat's defense is good but T-Mac's defense will be better when he puts his mind to it. T-Mac averaged 1.9 blocks in a season in Toronto! As a guard/sf! That's simply outstanding. With JVG at the rein and T-Mac being relieved from scoring pressure Cat's defense won't be missed. On offense it's a no brainer. Needless to say, T-Mac is a major upgrade over Mobley and the main prize of this offseason! The Rockets as it stands now don't have less depth or talent than last year's Rockets. The Rockets can go to war right now and still clinch a playoff spot without adding players IMO. Barring new signings I don't see this team being worse than last year, and we can still sign up to 4 players. The Rockets are in a great position right now and we fans can simply take a back seat and enjoy the ride.
You didn't know that? Actually the full name is Juanious Howardious, following the IROC IT foreign player naming guide.
who would have thought 4 years ago that the only player we would still have would be Mo? I like this team better so far, and its good that Les is being proactive in doing the best he can to make a winning team, but it reminds me of that scene in Baseketball where the player didnt even know what team he was traded to, "whatever"
Considering the fact, I don't personally know any NBA players, then yeah they are. It's not like Steve Francis was inviting me over to his pad every week for food and drinks. These people are not our friends. At least most of us, anyway.
I think some of you guys are so blinded by getting T-mac that you have tunnel vision regarding the dynamic duo of Yao and Mac. i am very excited about seeing yao and Mac in action in this coming season but we have so many holes to fill, Yes we do,just as we would have if we had stood pat. The difference now is that we aren't locked into players that are redundant. We have the ability to bring in some players to fill those holes. If we use our TE and or MCE wisely, then we have a chance to go into next season as a very good shooting team, a very good passing team and possibly a much bigger team. If we had stood pat, we would have been stuck with a poor shooting. poor passing team with an undersized backcourt. Heck, we might actually have a chance to run a fastbreak this year. the most obvious is a good quality PG to run the offence at peak efficiency and a great passer to feed our major offensive threats. Isn't that the same hole that we've had for the last few years? My guess is that we sign a player to to just that. And what about the back up center that needs to rebound and be a stopper when Yao is out. I'm guessing that they'll sign on of those also. The difference now is that our backup center, who we need to play 13 to 15 minutes a game, won't be masquerading as a starting PF. I'm totally missing your point. Are you trying to say that because the Magic had chemistry issues, then you shouldn't take any player off their team? If so, that' ridiculous. Based on everything that has been reported, Howard and Lue are two solid lockerroom guys and JVG said that one of the reason that he wanted them included in the deal was because they brought a serious workmanlike approach to being a professional. Laker teams that won 3 in a row had the dynamic dual but also had solid role players, Fox, Fisher, Horry Ok, where are you going here? You just talked about how important chemistry was and now you're talking about the Lakers? Has there ever been a team with worse chemistry? You're talking about depth? Who was on the bench for those three Laker teams? You're giving us Fox, Fisher and Horry as examples, but those guys were starters. I'll match up a combination of Howard, Jackson and either Barry/Fisher against those guys anyday. Who was their backup center? Who was the backup PG? Every argument that you tried to make against Jim Jackson was also true of Fox. One of their teams even had that great clubhouse chemistry guy J.R. Rider on it. The Lakers won with two superstars and they won without having good chemistry or depth. Those things are a great, great help, but a lack of them doesn't prohibit you from winning as seen by your own example. and Pistons this year not only had depth but tremendous chemistry. Yes, they showed that you can win with great chemistry and depth even though you don't have a superstar. Of course, just because they won, that doesn't mean that their way is the only way that teams can win. What I am saying is we may have skills in terms of Yao and T-Mac but we don't at all have the depth to win a championship just by brute strength (overpowering skills than opposing team) and one sure thing I know is with these Magic castoffs we sure as heck don't have the chemistry (like a detroit) to win anything in 2 or 3 years with Lue, Howard, Spoon, gravedigger m. jackson, Pike etc. How do you know that we won't have any chemistry? Are you psychic? Teammates have loved Howard everywhere he played. Show me a link where somebody says something bad about Howard or Lue. You're making a ridiculous assumption that has no basis in fact. Just because those guys played on a team with bad chemistry doesn't mean that any team that they play on in the future will have bad chemistry. If that were true, then LA would still have chemistry problems because Kobe will still be on the team, Minnesota would have chemistry problems because they've got Madsen and SA would have problems because they have Horry. So see, no worries, that bad LA chemistry is spreading to most other Western Conference powers, so we're ok. I think some of you guys are so blinded by getting T-mac that you have tunnel vision regarding the dynamic duo of Yao and Mac. i am very excited about seeing yao and Mac in action in this coming season but we have so many holes to fill, Who's getting blinded? Are you expecting us to win the title next year? Hopefully not. Sure we've got some holes, but we've got fewer holes than before and we're not locked into players that will prevent us from solving those problems in the future. Stop thinking about it as filling holes. The bigger issue is that we have much more upside with our current makeup. Our previous roster wasn't going to get much better than we currently were. JVG said the exact thing this week McGrady isn't a guarentee of a title, but he does give us a chance. That's a chance that we didn't realistically have with or prior roster..
Which hole is easier to fill... an MLE point guard or an unstoppable top-five shooting guard? You act like after this offseason the Rockets' roster is set for life! Are you pissed we got Jim Jackson last year, too? I mean, we had to get rid of James Posey... he had been a loyal Rocket for HALF A YEAR! The hard work's over. There are a million role players out there... there's only one Tracy McGrady. That's why we had to give up a lot to get him. Somehow I have this hunch that no one will be missing Francis much after T-Mac's first highlight reel dunk.
I am a rockets fan but I still love my old school rockets remember this bunch? Hakeem Clyde Barkley etc. etc.. it was fun watching this guys play even if Barkley attempted an ugly 3pointer.....
Are these really my Rockets?? Been a diehard Rocket fan since they were the San Diego Rockets. Doesn't matter who the players are, they're ALWAYS my Rockets. And BTW, I love our latest move. The team as previously assembled didn't have what it takes to get to the elite level. Superstars win championships (Detroit this year one of the rare exceptions) and we have one in TMac and one in the making in Yao. D R
So... CD could assemble this lineup: Kidd T-Mac Garnett Duncan Yao ... and you'd still complain because Zan Tabak isn't here anymore? Please. One star for you.
Latitude is certainly given, but if Mr. Buss went to the new head coach and asked that that Kareem be included as an assistant, or Kurt Rambis be retained, I would expect that request to be honored. The New York Yankees are an organization that treats its veterans properly. The Rockets should aspire to that level of continuity. Otherwise you are just looking at a "yankee" owner, a "yankee" head coach, and a bunch of mercenaries.
LOL. That IS the New York Yankees! Yankees organization treats veterans with respect? LOL. That's a good one. I'd bet Andy Pettitte would gladly debate with you on that issue.
You forgot to list yourself as having NO EXPERIENCE! BYE STEVIE LOVER. DON"T YOU HAVE A POLL TO FIND SOMEWHERE. I think Sports southwest is having a HOW many people will follow Steves jock to orlando poll at 10pm tonight. Feel free to vote as many times as you like.
Wow, a POLL voted us the worst team in Texas. They MUST be right! And, for the record, a real fan is the fan of the organization and not just the players. If you were a Rockets fan you wouldn't have to ask this question, and then bash the Rockets because of some stupid poll you saw somewhere.
The average year of the Timberwolves playing together last year was one and they went to the WCFs, so what's your point? Other then to whine about the Rockets because you're still crying about Steve Francis being traded?
Latitude is certainly given, but if Mr. Buss went to the new head coach and asked that that Kareem be included as an assistant, or Kurt Rambis be retained, I would expect that request to be honored. Ok...and likewise if Les Alexander had went to JVG and told him to hire a particulare coach, it would be done. What does that prove? In reality, neither Buss, Alexander or most any other good owner will tell his coach how to fill out his staff.
