The rockets have a great offense and are in a decent rhythem right now. I have gone ahead and summed up some of the positives and negatives that i have seen so far. I will also deal with the problem of hakeem coming back. A lot of people(including me) are worried about what will happen when Dream comes back. Well, the answer is... If we use hakeem right, our offense will get much better. POSITIVES 1.)I always knew Shandon could score, and he finally had a great breakout game against the Clips. 2.)Cuttino mobley scoring well; this guy is great and can hit free throws very well. 3.)Kelvin Cato is playing terrific in hakeem's absence. Don't forget that his ankles are still bothering him. 4.)We are playing well without tony massenburg, whom I consider to be a good role player. He averaged, I BELIEVE, 12 points and like 10 rebounds with vancouver last year. When he comes back, we will surely be rolling. 5.)We have too many talented big men! Check it out. Kenny Thomas is playing pretty well. He can shoot the ball, he's young so he gives you plenty of hustle and he can run the floor. Thomas Hamilton is really big and is playing well too. he is trying to hustle, getting rebounds, and also scoring a bit also. Carlos Rogers, even though I haven't heard much from him lately, is a good player and does have his nights. Cato is just playing terrific. That's 4 big men already that I don't want to take minutes away from. Now we are still missing TMass and Hakeem. Imagine how many different rotations we could have. 6.)Bryce Drew is playing pretty well and is getting better every game. so is Steve Francis, of course. 7.)offense has more motion in it. NOW THE NEGATIVES 1.)yes, Shandon had a good game, but can he keep it up? Bill Worrell was commenting on how with Steve and Barkley in the lineup, Shandon is only the 3rd or 4th or maybe even lower option. Of course, Calvin Murphy chimed in and stated that Shandon should be one of the main options while Francis and Barkley are in the game. This would take some of the pressure of charles, and especially Stevie. I don't know about you all, but I completely agree with Shandon. If he can score 15 points a game(along with his usual hustle/great defense), we will win a lot more. 2.)still too many turnovers. 3.)free throws our bad. If we could have shot our free throws well against the suns, we would have easily won the game. As long as our free throws are bad, we will continue to struggle and let the other team get back into the game. CALVIN MURPHY needs to teach these guys how to shoot free throws(especially the big men). 4.)Walt is still in his slump. This isn't totally negative though. you all know walt is a great shooter. i remember when eddie johnson had a big slump a few years back. All it takes is a few easy baskets like layups and then the shooter gets his confidence back. Then, when the shooter's confidence is high, he will start schwacking shots. then, before you know it, the slump is over! I'm sure that walt will regain his touch in no time. Once he does, we won't need Sam Mack, and our offense should get much better. NOW FOR HAKEEM... 1.)hakeem needs to swallow his pride and let the young guns take this team over. 2.)no doubt hakeem is still a good player, but not a great player. we should still use him in the post, but not nearly as often. <strong>we should concentrate more on hakeem playing the high post, setting screens, and mainly shooting the 15-18 foot jumper which he can make very well.</strong> 3.)hakeem needs to come off the bench! there are two reasons for this. Hakeem and Charles CANNOT be on the floor at the same time. Each commands the ball too much, so therefore we will ALWAYS be posting up. After you use barkley, you use hakeem. after hakeem, just go back to barkley. Too much posting up. Well, why not have charles come off the bench instead of hakeem? Simple, we must always have a shot blocker on the floor. As i have stated before, you cannot have hakeem and charles on the floor at the same time. So then, If hakeem and cato(you know it's gotta be cato) start, then when they both get tired, we won't really have a decent shot blocker in there. Thats why you have charles and cato, then hakeem and whoever. <h4>Well, that's what our offense should be like. I really am looking forward to the Rockets becoming a good team, offensively and defensively. I just hope we can handle hakeem coming back in a positive way so that he will benefit our offense, not slow it down</h4>
