i started watching the rockets during thier championship runs. yes, i was a front runner back then, but i stuck with them through thick and thin since. they had hakeem, then added clyde. everything was great. then we sell the team for barkley. man i was happy, until i realized that we had no supporting cast. our 3 holl of famers couldn't get it done in the playoffs. barkley's attitude caused clyde to chose an early retirement. things looked bleak. but then came the summer and we took advantage of our cap space and the bulls break-up by snagging scotty pippin!. man was i happy, until our 3 future hall of famers couldn't get it done in the playoffs again. once again barkley's attitude (and pippin's) caused pippin to ask for a trade. we land a few pieces but besides walt williams, only cato really stuck around. remember cato? had a tripple double in a preseason game. everyone was happy to find a replacement center for dream who only had a few years left. gave the guy a huge deal. with all of those front court players we had no real talent in the backcourt. CD checked the market and was able to land stevie franchise. you can thank SIR CHARLES for annoying all of the perimeter talent on our team to leave. those guys were old anyway, we got a young all star now! well chuck retired and dream got traded, then retired. we still had steve, cat, and cato. things were looking up. until that awefull season when steve had migranes and a terrible ankle injury. he missed like 30 games. man was i not happy. that year reminds me a lot of this year. but guess what? we got YAO! yao, cato, steve, and cat. man was i happy. then we miss the playoffs again! why? because ruddy wasn't to healthy. we have to replace him with JVG. JVG doesn't like steve or cat. after one year we look to trade them. thank you JVG for hating steve and cat, thank you chuck for hating pippin (which braught us cato), and thank you weisbrod for being an idiot, because we got tmac!! yao and tmac. man was i happy. after a promissing first year, and a few offseason additions, things were looking up. but then, yao and tmac missed a lot of games. my point, so far everything has turned out for the best, even when we were at our worst.
Nice post Smoothie. Life is far from perfect. Things are bound to happen, good or bad. Something at the present might seemingly looks bad, but it could be a blessing in disguise and vice versa. Now, the fun part is watching how the Rockets management can solve the current roster deficiency. Things happen. This year, too many bad things happen to the Rockets. But don't keep whining, what if and speaking from hindsight. Embrace the challenge, enjoy the ride and feel fortunate that we have Tmac and Yao.
I see your point. Yao goes out with an injury and he comes back and becomes the BEAST of the west. T-Mac goes out and we get the 3rd scoring option we need in the lottery because T-Mac isn't there to get us into the playoffs. CD is so disappointed with the season he retires and we get a GM that has an eye for talent and knows how to build a team. Les has had it with every player not named Yao and T-Mac and decides to bust the cap wide open. Silver linings all over the place.
I hope this year could be like the Spurs' year that was decimated by injuries. Then the Spurs won Tim Duncan in the lottery. The rest, they say, is history.
Like I mentioned in chat the other day ... it may be hard for anyone to see beyond the doom and gloom right now, but as it is we're primed to do some major damage in the league next year. We don't even need to dismantle this roster altogether. Just replace a couple of pieces ... most importantly get that reliable 3rd scoring option, someone who can hit the open jumper. I mean, already the sky is the limit for someone like Luther who has proven to us that he can be a deadly perimeter marksman (and a clutch shooter at that). Good thing the rookie wall only hits you one time. Expect Rafer to get better with his shooting, too. Yao is turning into Hakeem v2.0 before our very eyes. Swift has shown many flashes of brilliance. Even a 65% T-Mac is a deadly weapon. And these guys haven't even had the opportunity to all play together for any significant stretch of time yet. The only times they've actually been together for a couple of weeks, the Rockets were streaking (remember that 5-1 road trip? And that was with Rafer still injured!). It's really not that hard to see the bright side of all this. This season has definitely been painful, but some of us have gotten to a point where we just numb it out and realize that we're not really as bad as we look, as a team. (but of course the frustrated fans here will disagree. "fire gumpy!" is the mantra du jour.)
Was I happy when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but then I realized it's a train approaching me.
Great thread. Keep your hopes up. We had our downs and ups. We just had a down so look for the up. Be positive. Lets work with the draft picks and MLE. Our aim should be to find shooters and a reliable 3rd scorer. In my opinion that 3rd option could be Mike James, or Jalen Rose. T-mac just needs a rest. I hope this season has taught JVG a lesson to take it easy during the offseason and training days. Go Rockets!!!!
i wont be satisfied with this team unless david wesley is gone. thank the lord for his contract being up after this year.
Actually i would rather keep Wesley then these other scrubs in our team. Wesley can be a great player from the bench. He is not a starter anymore. All we need is a starting SG.
Sometimes I wonder whether he is still dragging around bad karma over the Bobby Phills incident. Wesley has been good for the Rockets (remember over the last few games he has been crippled with a groin injury and now the rib injury), but people still turn on him quicker than any non-troublemaker in the league.
