First, I want to say first off that I am a passionate Rockets fan for 15 years. The way I see it, here is the problem with the Rockets. 1) YAO MING. EVERY SEASON there is always something wrong with him with microfracture surgery to an ankle injury. Has his car broken down yet somewhere we don't know about. This guy produces huge revenue for Les Alexander by his presence alone and his contract expires at the end of this season, however, I think IMO that it is time to TRADE HIM or LET HIM WALK in FREE AGENCY. The chemistry is ruined with him being out or not being able to play in back to back games and restriction of minutes, hurts the rest of the team. 2) DEFENSE. Every single bit of the Van Gundy era is GONE. Kevin Martin and Aaron Brooks couldn't stop anyone from scoring but they are great scorers. This works in GOLDEN STATE, NEW YORK & PHOENIX, not HOUSTON. You can be a great scoring team but when you give up easy buckets and second and third chance to opponents game in game out they will make you pay. You can have a so called DEEP team and have all the talent a roster can possibly have, but if you don't DEFEND, you won't win. 3) LACK OF A GO TO PRESENCE. Say what you want about McGrady never getting the Rockets out of the first round season after season but in the regular season, he did more than enough damage against opponents to at least give it his all to win games for the Rockets. This year, we don't have the guy that says "heck with this" and demands the ball and shoots it everytime to impose his will on the game and rally the team. 4) LACK OF LEADERSHIP. Who is the so called leader on this team? 3-9 shows that your not very good. True, Brooks and Yao are out of the lineup, but who is the guy that is the leader on this team that you can tell wants to win games game in and game out and demand the best out of everyone every night? I think the Rockets IMO have a bunch of guys that are happy to be NBA players and just go too practice when Adelman announces what time to show up at the arena for it. 5) LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN BIG GAMES. The Rockets most experienced player playoff wise is Courtney Lee, SMH. The guy has been to the finals with the Nets a couple years ago but besides that, the team has NOBODY who has been through the wars of a seven game playoff series and WON, besides the guys that remain from the team that defeated the Blazers a couple years back. 6) COACHING DECISIONS. How do you foul with 32.5 seconds remaining, down three at home against the Bulls with a chance to get the ball back to possibly tie the game? The offense is as Bullard calls it "READ AND REACT" these guys look lost or they don't make the right CUTS to the basket in certain situations, some of which has to do with being TOO SMALL, minus Yao. This team looks lost and confused running what is supposed to be a PLAYERS OFFENSE if your offensively talented. I do understand that this team was built around Yao being healthy and this was suppose to be a team that was going to be a tough out in the NBA PLAYOFFS this season and the way this is looking, it doesn't look like a 30 win team even with Yao. This loss tonight to TORONTO is panic point and at (3-9), if things don't start looking brighter for the Rockets, it maybe time to build for the future. Please feel free to give me yall's feedback as well. Here is hoping our team can turn things around soon. Have a great weekend, Clutchfans.
^^ You'll get a lot of flak for saying things that other posters think could have been said in another thread but I (for one) agree with you on all counts...many others do as well. Many of the the points you make are quite obvious...yet, many here will lambaste you for saying so. Long story short, this team will NOT compete. This team is NOT good. Time to blow it all up and work from the ground up. The sooner we move on, the sooner we'll compete again. added: I just watched the Youtube vid: "Olajuwon dominates Robinson". I feel much better.
THE BIGGEST THING I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS... This is basically the same team that won 42 games last year without Yao for an ENTIRE SEASON and they are 3-9???
Yeah...that's a head scratch. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I saw THIS level of "suckage" coming. I didn't see us as the Laker killers many others saw but I DEFINITELY didn't think we were this bad. The team had that "it" factor last year...we played HARD. We had some SERIOUS f...king heart. Is that lost on this year's players? It doesn't look that way to me (except for this game maybe). I'm as baffled as everyone else (obviously). Maybe it comes down to pansies like Kevin Martin claiming they could represent what this team needed (I'm talking about the skinny little wimp claiming he'd dress up like Melo) when they were just complimentary pieces all along. I think that's obvious actually. NEWS FLASH, MARTIN: You are not WORTHY to even DRESS UP as Melo, you weak 4th quarter Houdini, foul taking biatch.
yeah i think the board has picked up on all of this....it's weird how we supposedly had all the flexibility in the world and now it feels like we're stuck with no options......basically morey did his part, but he couldnt predict the trio in Miami, NO reloading quickly, and LaLa Anthony being so influential. The experience and leadership part is what bugs me...i keep saying they went too far with the youth movement. The Charlie Wards, Weatherspoons, howards, oakleys were old and out, but they always provided toughness, leadership, and a peace of mind. Now its down to battier, hayes and Miller, but they're all better secondary leaders, as they're not likely to step on toes that should be stepped on. Miller could, but he seems to be sticking more to the role of facilitator in the offense.
^^ You're one of few posters, RV6, that I find myself almost always agreeing with. This point, however, I just cannot jump on board with. The Bosh situation is a wash at best at this point...the Ice Cream Man is about as good for this team as Bosh could ever be (albeit in different ways) and Bosh has shown a propensity to not work hard over the years ("giving up" at the end of his tenure in Toronto...complaining about practices....etc). The Melo/"LaLa" thing? If Morey had all (or even most) of his eggs in THAT basket....lol....no bueno. We needed a much better gameplan than hoping for a star to fall in our laps. All of these assets are turning out to be the death of us. A team of assets is not a team at all.
im not convinced Bosh would have made a difference either...but i think that morey did do a good job of setting the team up and there were quite a few opportunities developing to bring in another star/superstar within the last year or so and it seems like every single one went in an unlikely direction. The trend had been for them to force their way out and end up surrounded by semi-stars and role players. Now all of sudden you had superstars joining forces and some actually staying put. You can even throw Roy in that conversation. Where would they be if Camby and Miller hadn't been acquired so quickly? Roy very well could have asked out as too, but things just worked out for them (well not now of course due to his knee) and everyone else. Utah could have been in a similar position with Boozer leaving. Deron was starting to question the team's direction, but here comes Al jefferson to save the day and keep deron content. We really were positioned to acquire Iggy, wade, Melo, Amar'e, Bosh, Roy, Deron, CP3, or Lebron, and in the end, Houston got nothing. Thats the shocking part to me. Sure the acquired player may not have worked out, but to get none of them? Everything had to work out perfectly against Houston. It's like a curse or something. We're the nice guys of the NBA...
im sick and tired of being sick and tired! stuff doesnt make sense for me with the rockets! last year no depth=decent season by rockets standards.... this year depth= 3-9 start!??...wtf?
It's not the same team. Landry and his toughness were swapped for Kevin Martin and his softness and lack of D, Ariza and his defense were moved for Courtney Lee who does pretty much nothing, and hard working Aaron Brooks was swapped with disgruntled injured Aaron Brooks. Plus Battier has continued to get older and it shows, and Budinger so far looks like he has regressed.
At this point, you have to hold Morey accountable on this one. I've said it before and I'll say it again: results are what matter. DM da GM simply has not delivered...at ALL. Call it luck, call it whatever you want...here we are. Sucking. Daryl Morey is the man to blame here. At least ONE of those players SHOULD have decided to take their talents down to H-town...they didn't. I blame the wizard for misreading his cauldron. DM is to blame for all this crap. Period.
well yeah, technically he is, but i just can't agree he misread anything, especially when the latest superstar trends changed. I see it similar to the battier/gay trade and the moves made just prior and right after that time. The ultimate model at the time was basically 2 premiere players + role players. Right around that time the trend shifted from 2 premiere players to 3 or more. Manu/parker became legitimate stars next to Duncan, Dirk/terry/howard, Rip/Billups/prince/sheed...and even then miami proved they could win still using the model of 2 "dominant" players the Lakers had used. The idea Houston had wasnt a bad one...they just didnt predict the trend change and that Yao would fall short of dominating. Sometimes it's just luck mixed with timing that takes you over the top (duncan, gasol). We just havent those two things line up for us.
Many same players but I wouldn't say this is the same team. Last season, a Ariza and Landry gave the team an offensive boost before the trade deadline. Ariza especially went on an offensive tear in the beginning of the season, while Landry's name was thrown around as a possible Sixth Man of the Year. After the deadline, we had a good SG/SF rotation with Martin meshing with Ariza as starters, and Budinger and Battier coming off the bench. It was a good balance of offense and defense. Right now, I'd say one of our biggest weaknesses is the perimeter defense of the second unit. There's a reason why the opposing teams' guards and small forwards have had big games vs. the Rockets. This could be a problem solved by more games and better health, or it may be an inherent flaw in playing Ish, Lee and Budinger together.
Wait, you've been a fan for 15 years? So we were winning before you came along. YOU might be the problem!
I'd argue three things here: 1. We did get one semi-star last year, one whom I would argue isn't any worse than say, Igoudala, whom has always been the one most likely to get, and whom I would argue has been playing very well this year. 2. The other major stars, Amare, Bosh, etc. have been driven basically either by playing with their buddies and creating a new Superfriends or just going to go play somewhere glamorous instead of well, a city that is not. Even if Morey can forsee the trend, what the f can he do? He can't just pick up a superstar, as they're all determined to buddy buddy with each other. And he certainly can't make Houston an exciting city. 3. I said this in the game thread, but even with the season sucking, I would argue things really aren't all as people say they are, because I think people aren't looking at things long-term. This season has always from my point of view based on the idea that the Rockets would roll the dice on the Yao era one last time. Either it would work and we make noise in the playoffs, or we don't. If it works, great. If it doesn't (and it isn't for now), then we're in a decent position to rebuild, with many big contracts ending and a good pick in sight, whether ours or NY's. And that is what it comes down to, as Morey has shown over and over again an ability to not just think from season to season, but as a longer-term approach which is necessary.
This team doesn't have a closer. Even when completely health we don't have a closer. Brook is not a closer. When Yao was healthy we struggled getting him the ball when teams fronted him. This team needs a closer badly. You can't win a championship without having a player or multiple players who can close out a game offensively. The group of guys we have now are not capable of consistently closing a game offensively.
