Shall we prepair for next season or flight hard now?

I say we flight like we have never flighted before!!!!!

 

Run a spell check, mon frere.

 

I dont care how late in the season it is, I think that sort of mentality breeds losers. There is no one special coming up in this draft and we have enough talented players on the roster to put up a good fight, we just need them healthy.

 

Bingo! What exactly are we suppose to do with a young stud? (That is if we are even able to get one)

We are trying to win now. As long as we have Tmac and Yao we should never tank.

 

Yup! Fight till the end. Only losers will give up the season....

 

How about this...Fight hard, but still give the young guys playing time.

So let's be realistic. We're NOT going to make the playoffs when both our stars are out. Now, I don't think we should just give up on this season--that's just setting a really poor tone.

HOWEVER, I do think we want TMac to get WELL and just "able to play" and get him back and potentially get worse later in the season. I'd rather see him rest and take as many precautions now as he needs, since we're so far behind, anyway. Let's face it, even if they get back to full health, I'm not sure this team is yet a Championship contenter. But Yao and TMac will both be young next season, still in their prime. So I'd rather them get fully healed over their injuries than to just get back ASAP to try to "save the season". I'd rather them try to "Save the future!"

With that being said, I think the young guys should be given more time to play, and allow them to gain experience. And this isn't at the expense of the team losing. It's the perfect opportunity to give them some playing time. Move Swift to full-time starter. Let Head get the majority of minutes at G, and maybe get Baxter some time (with Swift at C). Maybe even try to work Lucas in here and there.

That's my opinion. You copy and paste it all into a third option on this poll if you'd like!

 

It is perfect time to develop young players.

Start Head, Swift, Lucas, etc. Give them plenty time to play and allow them to make mistakes on the court. If JVG is not a complete idiot, he should know by now this season is going no where, but there is still plenty of time to develop Rox's future. And if T-Mac and Yao are our centerpieces, a group of young and solid role players are equally important. The future is on the shoulder of Head, Lucas, Swift, upcoming drafts and those so called young blood, not on Howard, Wesley, Moochie, JB, Deke, etc. They should take the role as mentors.

You can prepare for the future by letting young players fighting hard now.

 

I think that this just proves that without Yao, this team cannot win. There are many out there that slam Yao hard, and I dont' think he's perfect or anything either. But, Swift is definitely no Yao, and neither is Dikembe. We need Yao's low post offense badly. I really feel bad for T-Mac. Watching the game against Denver, when he fell on the court at half-time, BRUTAL!

With all that said, I think that our young players should definitely get more playing time now that injuries have started to take over our team. Once Yao and T-Mac get back though, we need to push real hard. Giving up doesn't speak well for any franchise.

 

I don't have that much "quit" in me to throw away a season at this point. I hope the Rockets don't either.

 

look, if we're not even at the half way point of the season and less than 10 games under .500 and/or not more than 6 games out of a playoff seed, you can't talk about preparing for next season, you have to still feel the playoffs or within reach. it's not like our players aren't coming back. if they were done for most of the season, then yeah, realistically it'd be more than a long shot to start talking playoffs and making the season a success but they are coming back and the playoffs are within reach and it's still early, so no, you don't start thinking about next season, you keep fighting.

 

That's kind of going to be the case just because of the circumstances...

I say they keep fighting as hard as possible, sneak into the playoffs and you never know what could happen

 

Why the hell would any team throw in the towel on at this point in the season???

 

I don't know why any fans would either, but there are close to 40 of them on this board, for some reason.

 

the upcoming draft or free agency looks light. there are couple of nice players but they're not worth the full mle which i think they'll get.

no team has made a move because of the pacers/artest.

this could be next season's squad, only way to improve it would be through trades made during this season.

pg:rafer, spanoulis, lucas
sg:sura, head, anderson
sf:tracy, rybo
pf:jho, stro, baxter
c:yao, deke

 

No tanks. We play hard. We play to win.

 

Don't tank, but there's no reason to be in "win at all cost" mode (rushing Yao/Mcgrady back even when they're not ready, playing Yao/Mcgrady +40 mins when they return, replacing the younger players with over-the-hill vets, etc.).

I've felt all season long that this team and coach depend on Yao and Mcgrady far too much and I think that may be why both players are hurting so much this season. They've been overworked. This is not something that's just going to go away. The young players are going to need to progress and the coach needs to make a conscious effort on changing the system so that we rely less on our 2 stars and more on our role players. Even if it means some more losses this season. This is just one of those situations where the only way you can move forward is by taking a couple of steps back.

At some point, every championship team has to devote some time to developing their young players and the Rockets need to take the rest of this season to do just that. My hope is that by the end of the season, Alston, Swift, Baxter and Head will have supplanted Howard, Wesley, Mutombo, and Barry as the core players of this team.

I don't view this as tanking or giving up on the season. It's simply using the rest of the season to accomplish more attainable goals.

 

F*ck a buncha tankin'. I just bought NBA League pass for the first time in years, and I'm getting my money's worth. Make me watch tank jobs and I'll drive a tank into the Toyota Center to get my mothertankin' refund.

 

I don't see that we have a lot of prepping to do, unless it means trading some guys before the deadline. We have Head and Swift that could be pieces in a future team and they need playing time -- and they're getting playing time now. We don't really have any other young guys to invest in (no, Lucas isn't someone to invest a whole lot into). And then there's the draft, which'll sort itself out. The only way we can try to do better there is to out-and-out tank. That's not "preparing for next season," that's losing on purpose.