Just digged out an old post by somebody, which tells me why we need T-Mac to go to a totally different direction. Let's reflect: ============================================= Playing the wrong way watching the Houston Rockets playing time after time really teaches you how not to play Steve Francis dribbles the ball. At least 8 seconds go by. Yao Ming kind'a walks to the top of the key to kind'a set a pick. 5 more seconds tick away. Francis passes to Cuttino Mobley who either shoots immediatley or thinks about passing inside to Yao who in the meantime is trying to get good position with his back to the basket. 5 more seconds have passed on. Someone has to force the shot. Nothing but rim. They miss again. Coach Jeff Van Gundy said after his Rockets scored 71 points in a loss to the Pacers that they are having problems against good defenses. He's right. Francis is a great player but not always a great point guard. Good teams have figured out the Rockets. Front Yao Ming, be aggressive with him, double team him, and that's it. Yao is a great passer for a big guy, but the players around him are not consistent shooters. For A scorer like Mobley it hardly makes a difference if there's a hand in his face. When he's hot, he can score on everyone. When not, like against Indiana, he'll miss everything and he's not the only Rocket who's like that. They don't move the ball well, but even when they do, they don't have players who will always capitalize. Watching Yao, it's hard not to think that he's frustrated. taking only 4 shots against the Pacers is bad for him and the team. it's not only Francis's fault. Yao sometimes struggles to get position. But even when he does, players are not moving around him. Why don't they watch the Kings a little bit? Van Gundy & Rockets management should really think about this. They don't want an unhappy Yao and that will happen if things don't improve on the offense. This team is supposed to reach the playoffs this season. If not, and the offense still struggles, they should consider major changes. Posted by Yaron Talpaz - Dec 24 2003 6:26PM
well we did make the playoffs, but the offense still struggled. i doubt we will have trouble scoring next year. yao can give us 20, tmac adds (lets say) 23, howard gets 14, jj and PG will combine for at least another 20. thats 77PPG without our bench. our entire team last year couldnt reach that some games.
Yetti told ther BBS posters that all this would happen more than two years ago and it all came to pass.
remains to be seen I will hold my judgement til All Star Weekend Rocket River for the record. . NO PLAYER HAS *EVER* AVERAGED 20 PTS A GAME while JVG was coach . . . how do u expect to have 2 on the same team all of a sudden?
I call it the "JVG Curse." Spree, Houston, Ewing (old), Francis, and Cat, have all felt its wrath. Its not suprising since JVG is all about defense, but we really need JVG to start balancing out the offense/defense. Yes, defense wins the game and we our defense really kept us in games, but our offense put us in a lot of bad positions. If JVG is unable to put a stable offense night in night out this season, something will have to give. A T-Mac/Yao/Barry? team should have no problem scoring (I though the same with Yao/SF/Cat). We didn't bring in T-Mac to score 18ppg and focus heavily on D. Rockets should have no problem getting 24ppg and some decent D from TMac, but we'll see if TMac can survive the JVG curse.
JVG has never had a superstar. Yes, Houston, Sprewell, Ewing and Francis were good but they weren't superstars. McGrady is a top 5 NBA talent, he may not average 28 a game but he will be a force and 21, 22 points a game seems likely.
Tired of the "no player has ever scored 20+ PPG under Van Gundy" nonsense... Ewing averaged 21.6ppg his first two seasons under Van Gundy, at age 35 and 36 no less.
I personally think we'll have 2 players averaging 20ppg next season. Yao Ming is one more basket away from being 20ppg. One more basket per game. He alread yplays 33 minutes. If he plays 35 minutes this upcoming season, it's safe to assume he'll make ONE more basket in those 2 minutes. Also, we'll hopefully be betetr at getting him the ball to, so that should help. T-Mac will most certainly average 20+ppg.
Well maybe he is Yetti, or maybe he's a guy that's copying Yetti's style in order to rile things up. Of course Yetti never needed any help in riling things up so maybe it is Yetti.
Iam just glad the trade went through and hope for the best !! I will miss Francis and Mobley but sometimes things that may not be so popular have to be done in order to get better.
