You're right, he's not a star, but he was easily the biggest name on the Free Agent market last off-season.
And he is certainly the hardest person to move. Got a free $500 million? Good luck on that one. Might as well be pi**ing into the wind.
The Rockets were 22nd in attendance this year. That's not because of the lockout, it's not because some "star" teams didn't come. It's because we, as fans, are not on board with the direction this organization is taking. It's because we are NOT happy barely missing or barely making the playoffs. It's because we know, unlike this organization does, that the young players you are counting on to become a championship team need to play and not ride the pine so this team can hope to eek out a win vs Sacramento. Who the **** cares about bull**** wins in a season like this? Not me, not most of the fans who understand how the NBA works. I'll tell you who. Shortsighted owners and first year coaches scared for their jobs. This season was a once in a lifetime opportunity to play youth, grab a great pick in the draft and rest vets. Short season, no one expecting much out of you anyway...wasted!!
Well the choice of coach should have tipped you off. McHale is old school and will win whatever the cost. And how far down do you think you think the Rockets could have gotten? Could they have cracked the first 3 given the depth and strength of the roster? And does it even really matter in a draft as flat after the first pick as any in memory? Does Beal really have a much better chance of success in the NBA than Ross or Lamb?
I don't care how far down in the draft the rockets could have gotten. I don't care if we ended up with the exact same record. I don't care if we ended up with the exact same pick. What I care about is Martin and Scola getting 30 plus minutes a night. What I care about is your first round pick getting into 17 games total. What I care about is trying to win meaningless games in a meaningless season at the expense of developing your young talent. That's what pisses me off!
With 6 games to go we were seeded sixth. Unfortunately we played a large part of the season without our 2 starting guards. Exhaustion caught up to us. Just look at what losing Rose and Noah did to the Bulls. They lost to perhaps the worst team in the playoffs.
If only it were so easy to simply 'cash in chips'. That's where the analogy breaks down. The NBA is more of a barter system than a monetary system.
First of all, I'm not a naive fan that has the idea that all is well in Rockets' land. I've been watching these guys since the championship days and Steve Francis days, and in my opinion, we are far better now than we were in the early 00s. I understand that unless you take big risk that there is no chance of a big reward, but if at the same time, its not like there is a guarantee that being a horribe bottom-feeding team will get us a sure shot star either. When you're a bottom feeder,your only shot at success is crossing your fingers and hoping a somewhat rigged lottery will net you a franchise changer. Call me crazy but I will not go all in on that scenario. I would rather have a middle of the road team with blossoming talent that is one year of development away from being great. Why cant we hope that the guys we have now wont explode this upcoming season. Are we that pessimistic that we cant believe that Parsons, Dragic, D-Mo wont become really good? I just see so many negative, critical people on here and I cant help but think we are band wagoners and/or lack faith in our hometown team. It doesnt mean I wont criticize what the organization does, but it does mean I wont completely bash and give up on our people.
You would take Mobley, Francis, Cato, Mo Taylor and Shannon Anderson over Dragic, Lee, Parsons, Scola and D-Mo?
I dont agree with this at all. The "fans" you are speaking of not being on board are such a small amount of the big picture when it comes to attendance and drawing the interest of the community. If the Rockets played in a small market do you really think attendance would be that bad? Look there are no excuses for it. They do have to take accountability for their product at some point. Tad can make them because he was leaded into making them from Feigan with the question he asked. Tad gave a reason that makes sense, but another thing to consider is the nature of the city of Houston. I love that city. Its my home, and always will be, but we all know its a football city, with baseball usually is in 2nd place. This is the type of town that will not pay to watch basketball if the team isn't winning or there isnt a big name on the team. There are just too many other things in the Houston world of sports to keep up with. The Rockets fell victim to the city's biggest win of the last 10 years... the Houston Texans. Now, if the Rockets picked up a big name that the fairweather fans knew of then maybe that would draw a little bit more interest. Thats really what the pursuit of a big name is all about. Drawing in the fairweather casual fans. Catering to the hardcore basketball fans is something thats not really considered because at the end of the day, the more pissed they are at the Rockets, the more they blog about it on Clutchfans. The more they blog, the more they watch anyways even if its in agony. Plus, if the Rockets front office catered to the hardcore fans we the fans probably would have done things like draft Jay Williams instead of Yao Ming, Whiteside instead of Patterson, and tanked this season/lost all value in the players on the roster, and still ended up with only the 8th pick in the draft that turned into the same calliber of player. Maybe the hardcore "fans" are right and the Rockets truely missed out on the chance at getting Anthony Davis, but at the end of the day we all should know that getting lucky enough to draft someone like Anthony Davis is actually more of a pipedream that we think, and the Rockets front office made a wise decision to not listen to the disgrunted armchair GM's like the Bill Ingrams/DD's of the world. History shows that they dont know what the hell they are talking about half of the time anyways.
The core is much better now, but the one difference the Rockets had was Steve Francis. He wasn't really that great of a player, but he got alot of national attention and was a bonified all-star player they thought they could build their team on. He wasn't quite Derrick Rose, but a lesser version in a league without that many super athletic PG's. Nowadays Francis probably would be about as good as a OJ Mayo type of guard maybe. The talent and athelticism was taken to a whole other level a few years after that. So yes, I would rather have the roster the Rockets have now at the end of the day.
While I do agree with the Francis thing, at the end of the day, that team did not have go to people. I just cant see myself getting excited about a team with only one star and a bunch of plateauing players. At least with todays team, there is some excitement about where Parsons' and D-Mo's roof may be. Plus Dragic is going to get better. But I guess its all moot because today this is our team.
At the end of my statement I said the overall team is much better. Its just Francis had more endorsements. Thats about it.
Yea. As if Morris deserved more than 17 games total. How can you b**** about McHale and the Rockets organization? Parsons as a rookie was promoted to a starting position. You don't think that if Morris deserved more time that he would have gotten it? He was drafted as a prospect. We will see if he ever gets more than an unrealized prospects minutes. Martin was injured mid-season. His minutes played declined quickly. Scola was the best PF on the roster. Throwing games is not in the Rockets future. Get used to it.
