[Blazers Edge] Rockets Preview

Hayesfan · Oct 10, 2008

I know I know, another preview from another blog. But I just love reading the posts at BE so I had to share.

HOUSTON ROCKETS

Record: 55-27, 3rd in Southwest Division, Tie for 4th in Western Conference

Statistical Comparisons

Notable:

4th in opponent scoring (92.0 ppg)
26th in three-point %
2nd in opponent field goal %

Others:

22nd in the league in scoring (96.7 ppg)
9th in ppg differential (+4.7 ppg)
21st in field goal %
25th in free throw attempts per game
25th in free throw percentage
15th in assists
15th in steals
8th in blocks
9th in turnovers
19th in opponent turnovers

Good offensive rebounding team

Good defensive rebounding team

Movement

Significant Additions: Ron Artest, Brent Barry, D.J. Strawberry

Significant Subtractions: Bobby Jackson

Roster

Coach: Rick Adelman

Key Players

PG: Rafer Alston, Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis

SG: Tracy McGrady, Brent Barry, Luther Head

SF: Ron Artest, Shane Battier

PF: Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes

C: Yao Ming

Comments

Covering the Summer League team in Las Vegas for the first time three years ago I got to dabble in a little bit of recreational gambling. I wasn’t getting second mortgages from Louie “The Lip” or nothing, just a couple bucks here and there. As it turns out, no matter what game you play and no matter how good you are at it, there’s a pattern there. You can keep betting incrementally, trying to maximize your play time, staying at the table as long as you can. The result is always the same. You’ll win some, you’ll lose some, but even if you get ahead for a while it’s never enough to make a huge difference. The only thing you’re buying is a little more time to play. Eventually your stack dwindles until you can’t take it anymore (or you go broke) and then you go home. As it turns out, there are only two real choices: bet big and try to get lucky and break the bank or don’t play.

It feels like the Rockets have reached this conclusion as well. For years they’ve been good at their game. They appear to have it all. Their defense is always at the very top of the league. They’re a good rebounding team. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are two of the more unstoppable players at their positions on offense. Every year they build on this base, tinkering with a point guard here, a small forward there. Every year a turn of the cards--an injury here, an unlucky playoff draw there--hamstrings them and sends them home empty handed. After so many backs and feet going south you legitimately start to wonder how long their stars can hold up. Their stack can start dwindling at any time. What are they buying with these incremental changes besides another good year and another disappointment? So it’s time to roll the dice and break the bank.

Enter Ron Artest.

The addition of the poster child for NBA lunacy is definitely going to make the Rockets a scary team. The question is, which definition of “scary”? He’s a huge intimidator, superb defender, and accomplished scorer. In a way it’s almost not fair that the best defensive team in the league outside of Boston right now could pick up Artest. It’s not fair that a team with two unstoppable players gets a third. If the team clicks this could provide one of those “Oh…my…God!” moments to rival what Boston did last year. The clicking you hear, however, could well be the time bomb going off in Artest’s head. What if he takes McGrady with him? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Overall I like this Houston team better than any they’ve had in years. Not only do they have the Big Three, not only did they give up nothing in the way of defense, offense, or rebounding to get there, their bench is stronger than it’s ever been. Shane Battier is great, Chuck Hayes is solid, Aaron Brooks has a chance to step up…as long as the team stays healthy they’re equipped to handle any situation. That’s always the story with the Rockets though. One bad moment with Yao Ming or McGrady and they’re back to incremental gains at best. That’s OK, but now is the time to shoot for more.

One thing’s for sure…if the Rockets do not make it deep into the playoffs this year for whatever reason, including the continuing string of injury troubles, it’s time to look in another direction. This team badly needs to prove itself, moving from paper contenders to the real thing. If it’s going to happen, it should be this year.

Houston needs to do two things in order to make that special year happen. First, they need more easy points. They need to turn that excellent defense and rebounding into transition buckets at every opportunity. Second, they need to manufacture extra points. A team like this needs to draw and hit more free throws. They also need to translate Yao’s interior dominance into open, made three-point shots. It’s hard to grind out every point and still maximize your wins. If the Rockets can add even a little extra offense to that lock-down “D”, watch out.
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It's interesting to me to see how the bloggers from other teams see ours.

He did have Donte Green still on our team and forgot to add Dorsey as an addition and Deke as a loss... but overall I thought it was a well written piece.

DOH! http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/10/9/632182/blazersedge-2008-09-nba-se

Thanks for the reminder Durvasa!

durvasa · Oct 10, 2008

LINK !!!!!!1

Hayesfan · Oct 10, 2008

durvasa said:

LINK !!!!!!1

Click to expand...

Edited! LOL I was so interested in reading the thing I forgot! There's a Spurs preview behind it.

durvasa · Oct 10, 2008

Thanks, good stuff.

Though when he went on about "what's not fair", I wanted to add ...

"It's not fair that the Blazers were able to take Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez ahead of us ... nor is it fair that they won the lottery and got Greg Oden."

Hayesfan · Oct 10, 2008

durvasa said:

Thanks, good stuff.

Though when he went on about "what's not fair", I wanted to add ...

"It's not fair that the Blazers were able to take Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez ahead of us ... nor is it fair that they won the lottery and got Greg Oden."
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LOL you should sign up there and post that. I think that's one of the best fan blogs in the NBA sphere for actual content.

declan32001 · Oct 10, 2008

Fun read, but not mentioning Alston, Scola or Landry in a preview is bizarre.

Hayesfan · Oct 10, 2008

declan32001 said:

Fun read, but not mentioning Alston, Scola or Landry in a preview is bizarre.
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I totally missed the fact that he didn't have Landry on the list or mention him in the article. I guess everyone just takes the kid for granted??

Andy Sheets · Oct 10, 2008

I think a lot of people still aren't aware of Landry. If they did see him play, they most likely saw the hobbled, post-knee injury version from late in the season, not the guy that was wrecking teams with his hustle and finishing ability in mid-season.

QdoubleA · Oct 10, 2008

I like what he said about "not having to grind out every point". I think that second unit is gonna be faster and get a lot more fast breaks than last year.

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