Haven't we been through this before? Not to long ago this board was seperated by YOF and SOF. Now we have the YOF vs tracy only fans. The problem that i have more than anything is that neither side will admit which is at fault, both. I agree this team hasn't played up to par, but i also think this team is still flawed. I think the team is falwed in philosophy and personel. Think about this, how can the rox really run when they're not a great rebounding team nor players capable of rui. Tracy isn't the gazelle he used to be, yao is slow as molasses, hayes is hayes battie and rafer make upthe rest. The team isn't a great halfcourt team either. Why? Hayes is hayes, Yao doesn't dominate,tracy is streaky, Rafer is even more streakier and battier kind of fills in. Whats more alarming though is people on this board think Tracy is the problem for the most part. Why is this? I think he gets nicked up, but how do you explain that the team cant win without him, yet they play well without Yao? I think the fundemental flaw in this team is that they still dont have that 3rd guy. Gater can tell you i wanted SAR a few yrs ago. Why? Because he is a mid range guy that is very consistent in scoring and rebounding. He is a younger improved Howard which is what i think the team needed then and still need. The rox brass need to get a grip and just to know that this is always going to be a half court team. Its nothing wrong with that as long as they get the proper personell. Chuck Hayes is 9th or 10th on a good team. Battier can be found all over the league without giving up draft pick and players for him. Rafer is 7-8 on a good team. Yao is all star quality and T-Mac is a little above that. All in all, this team, with this roster has to overachieve to make it happen in the west similar to lakers. This whole trade mcgrady thing is really crazy especially when the team is 11-42 without him.
Agreed. Apart from Tracy and Yao, we have the worst starters in the league. Two of our starters should be glued to the bench and one should be coming off the bench. But because our team is *that* bad, we're stuck with them. If people haven't noticed, we are now 2.5 games behind the 8th seed and only 0.5 games up on the 11th place in the West. Think about it. 11th place!! And that's okay?? We're still learning Adelman's system?? Our shooting percentage for the last few games is in the 30s. THIRTIES!!! That's pathetic and inexcusable. Now with TMac hurt, I wouldn't be surprised if we lose the next seven games (if you don't believe me, look at the schedule). I know it is unlikely, but given the way we play and our personnel, it is entirely possible. Look at Hollinger's playoff rankings. He projects us to finish 10th in the West with 41 wins. He gives us a 25% chance of making the post season now. That's only one in four ... pretty long odds and getting worse. If you're satisfied with that, fine. If I knew that in advance, I would have not re-subscribed for League Pass and would not have purchased tickets when they came to town. How can a team with Yao and Tracy be 10th in the West with a .500 record. Something is seriously wrong. The thing that bugs me is that management doesn't seem to understand that five lousy players isn't equivalent to one good one. So, we get lots of marginal players as a supporting cast for Yao and Tracy when one or two good players is all we need. I hate to harp on it, but a Rudy Gay calibre player would have exactly fit the bill. Tall, long arms, athletic, can score, reasonable at defense. But no, we keep going for uni-dimensional (almost washed up in the case of Francis, James and maybe even Battier) short non-athletes. What is wrong with management? You can't teach height. You can't teach athleticism. You can't teach youth.
At present we are headed to a season of 38 wins 44 losses We should tweak with Jason Kidd and Ron Artest!!!
T-Mac is drawing so much heat right now because he looks soft. Streaky is okay--gutless definitely is not. Check out the sportswriters who cover the Rockets at the Houston Chronicle. The blogs they write have really allowed them to open it up and they are either discreetly or openly mocking McGrady with regards to his "injuries". If professional sports writers are willing to be that merciless than I would expect the fans to be a hundred times worse, and of course they are.
Removing the first seven games, we're playing .316 ball. Folks, that's Knicks level basketball!! At that rate, we'll win 29.7 games, i.e. lucky to win 30.
My sig was there for a reason. i thought those two guys could give the rox what they need. Darko with size shotblocking and artest with toughness, scoring and defense. I'm not the one to drive a wedge, but when i hear this team played well without tracy against a denver team that is on and off all the time, i have problems. Other than phoenix, when have u watched a game a yao has dominated? I mean he's closing the paint down, he's rebounding in the clutch, he's either making or creating shots? I mean how many rebounds last night in the 4th qt he let camby tap back to denver? what about the passes at the rim that gets fumbled away because they're brought down and guard steal them. What about avg 4to's a game in the playoffs. how can the biggest player in the entire league get shot over and scored on by a guy 6'8? i mean c'mon. If the clippers called you right now and offered kaman and maggette for yao would you take it. What about a healthy brand and Magette for yao. If not, why not?
no,no,no, u think rudy will fit in rox? it would definitely a overlap of tracy, when u have yao & tmac, all u need is a bunch of catch and shoot guys, but rudy is the guy who can make shots while ball's in his hands in offense, think about it, yao wants the ball, tmac wants the ball, there's no so many ball in others' hands. answer is simple, penetration and nail the open wides, if u don't have people who can do this job, then team will lose anyhow. why we won more than 50 wins last season, we have tmac penetrate, and we have three 3 point shooters with more than 35%
Team USA didn't seem to have too many problems with guys who could each drive and finish. You cannot have too much solid talent. However, if you can't get that much talent, then I agree on offense. Load up with shooters and play and inside out game or an drive and kick game. If those shooters can also play defense, that you have a very solid team. However, the Rockets this season now have a very reluctant Battier (okay shooter), a terrible shooter in Alston (okay, he's had a few good games of late but in general we just don't trust him) and a Hayes (no need to ridicule him further).
Thank you ! Thank You ! Thank you ! Finally a rocket fan on this board that really sat back and thought about it instead of jumping on the bandwagon because they have nobody to blame. Yes tracy looks lazy on the court Yes tracy shoots a bad % sometimes Yes it look like he should drive more but We can't Win without him......dose this mean anything to anybody on the board?
Magic said the ball moved a lot better with only one superstar on the court. However I'm guessing that any rebuilding is going to happen next season at the earliest. Given that I'm going to offer up a prediction. If both Yao and T-Mac are on the floor and the ball moves around, it goes inside and out, there are a lot of passes and a lot of the guys touch the ball then my hunch is that the Rockets can pull something together and maybe make the playoffs. If both Yao and T-Mac are on the floor and the team regresses then I'm guessing the Rox are going to crash and burn. The first five to ten games after T-Mac gets back from injury are going to be critical. It doesn't have to look pretty--maybe the Rockets will even lose a bunch of games. But if we see something like commitment to Adelman's system then I'll be quietly optimistic even if there are a bunch of losses. Otherwise my best guess is that the Rox will miss the playoffs and will end the season with a record close to .500.
When Yao doesn't play, T-Mac doesn't take nights off. He plays hard and so does everybody else and he is more of a playmaker - driving and dishing most of the time. When T-Mac doesn't play we have problems getting Yao the ball. Yao is obviously not the ball-handler or playmaker Tracy is so doesn't have the same success playing alone and if the shooters aren't hitting anything then it's over. How do we get him? Trading Shane? He won't net us much. Maybe a total headcase or a guy that can't stay healthy. If we can trade T-Mac for two good players (so we'd have 1 star + 2 complimentary stars) I'm all for it. I think part of the problem is two guys with noticeable flaws shouldering all the load. It'd be good if he actually showed it on the court... After predicting us winning 60+ games and winning the championship about 2 months ago he now says that we're probably not making the play-offs? The saddest part is that you actually use that BS as an argument. And yes, we made a mistake on trading for Battier, get over it. You think Morey doesn't care about talent? According to all rumors we were very close to getting Artest - a top 20 talent, imo. Morey has said that Rasheed would be perfect for us. And those aren't even the young, athletic all around players you want (and so do I) those are good veterans. And we can't even get those. All the qualities you mentioned, we can't get those players who have them. You can blame the management for having ****ty scouts but that is basically it. Tracy for Kidd? The only positive is that Kidd's contract is shorter. He doesn't help us and we would have to wait for his contract to expire. Trading everyone else for Kidd? I hope not. And sadly, we cannot get Artest unless part of the trade is firing Adelman. If I'm not mistaken Melo was the one who tipped the ball back outside time and time again. And I wouldn't blame that on the team, Denver just had a lot of long misses. What do you expect Yao to do, leap a few feet in the air? Kaman + Maggete = no thanks. Brand + Maggete...I would consider it. What's your point? This is funny. So what you want is last years team? I didn't like all the three point shooting last year and it in the play-offs you could see why. Luther was a liability, Shane wasn't that good, Rafer wasn't even mediocre. When the shooters aren't hitting you lose because they cannot do anything else on offense. ------------- The problem is that McGrady is the leader but he doesn't lead neither vocally nor by example. When he decides to 'heat check' with 20 seconds on the shot clock he just shows everyone that he isn't held accountable for what he does. If I played basketball with someone who can do anything he desires and abuses that right, I'd probably lose the will to cut, slash and do all the other stuff too. Someone needs to call him out. They revert to the old offense but it starts with him doing isos and shooting contested jumpshots. He complains that they don't run but he is the last one up and down the floor. He may have earned the right to coast here and there but he sure likes to do it as much as possible.
He said it in the title expecting to be killed. We should and have to keep T-mac, there is no choice. But trading Yao is just brainless. With T-mac, we are at most an old Magic team. With Yao, we are a potential title competing team. Give RA time and make some trades other than involving yao and T-mac. Just be patient and mentally tough.
Our role players suck!!! Anyone can see this! The stats don't lie! We have bit by bit mishandled this franchise! 1997-present, our rockets management has consistantly gave up good players through drafts and trades! We are still being affected by those bad decisions of our past. It's not like. It's not like NFL football where there are 13 rounds. A bad decision won't affect you, because there is always a diamond in the rough. But in the NBA, if you make a bad draft or trade it will have a affect on the team for 5-10 yrs......... That is what's happening to us. Now we are trying to put makeshift pieces together to overcome the hurt from our past. Richard Jefferson, Collins, Najera, Nachbar, Cassell,Horry, Gaye etc...... how many can you add to this list of bad decisions by our rockets management. When will the hurt from our past sins end???????????????????? [/B]
I don't disagree with you about TMac. In fact, I call him TChuck because of all the bad shots he takes. All I am saying is that one valid basketball strategy is what I mentioned. Play inside out with Yao and drive and kick with Tracy. To do that you need shooters. There are other valid offensive strategies and most teams employ a mixture of them. Although it wasn't pretty, we were 5 minutes away from the second round last year.... That doesn't mean we shouldn't change, all I am saying is that what we are doing now clearly isn't working and I don't see it working at all in the near future.
Yup, I agree. We have the worst supporting cast of any NBA team. Just Jefferson and Gay is enough for me.
I'm so sick of the talk about the role players........I've stated this many times before, but most championship teams don't have "perfect" role players (look what D-Wade did a couple of years ago with an aging Shaq and a mediocre supporting cast).....that is why they are "role" players......there comes a point where your "superstars" have to make up for some of your role players inabilities..............that's why they're paid the big bucks..................seriously how many "role" players have been through here now, since Tmac has come....the problem isn't the "role" players, it's She-Mac......She even knew last year that she had enough to get out the 1st round, that is why she stated "it's on me"...she said she felt like for the first time she had the right pieces and the homecourt, so there was no excuse for losing..................if you people really think changing up the roster while keeping she-mac is the answer, then you must not have followed the girls career.....there's a reason she's never been out the 1st round, and isn't because of role players.......................
McGrady scored or assisted on all but 9 baskets in game 7. A total of 4 players .. FOUR! ... scored in game 3. It's not just on one player.
with that being said she still could've done more....like show up the last 5 minutes in game 7......she's the problem.
