There seems to be a faction on this bbs that just refuses to admit it’s time to move on and rebuild. This Tracy/Yao + role players experiment has been a miserable failure. My question is what exactly is keeping us from understanding this? What are we clinging so tightly to? Tracy scoring 13 points in 33 seconds? A YouTube video of Yao saying “you can’t ****ing stop me”? Bobby Sura and Jon Barry holding up 3 fingers after hitting a 3? A 22-game winning streak? (which was rendered utterly meaningless once we lost in the 1st round again…) A couple of fluke playoff wins against the lakers? (admit it….we caught them napping in Games 4 and 6) 7 MORE years of “just wait until we are healthy”? It’s one thing if we are a few years removed from a championship like the spurs or celtics. But this team has won a grand total of ONE playoff series in the last 10 years. I, for one, want a new team identity. It’s time to let go of this “just wait until we are healthy!!” fantasy once and for all. It’s never going to happen by standing down or trying to ‘re-tool’.
What a debbie downer. Are you even a Rockets fan? Nothing is set in stone yet about Yao, it's all speculation. Quit believing everything you read. But yes, the Tracy/Yao era is over. Not because of Yao (at least yet), but because I fully believe we will move Tracy before he ever suits up.
It’s one thing if we are a few years removed from a championship like the spurs or celtics. But this team has won a grand total of ONE playoff series in the last 10 years. I, for one, want a new team identity. It’s time to let go of this “just wait until we are healthy!!” fantasy once and for all. It’s never going to happen by standing down or trying to ‘re-tool’.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't mind rebuilding but either way I want Gortat because we can grow with him in the middle through the tough times till we get good again.
If it is up to me, I'd rebuild this team long time ago ..... TMAC and Yao are not the players that you can build a team even if they are healthy.
What does being 14 yrs removed from a championship have to do with it? I agree that the whole "if only the Rockets were healthy" slogan is getting old, and rebuilding would not be devastating, but the last couple years have shown fans something to be excited about, the Rockets made the playoffs, they won 22 games in a row, and last season, fluke or not they made the second round and took the champions to a 7 game series. For me this is improvement and it is not so easy to just say we had some great things happen only last season but who cares lets just start over.
What are you implying? That people who want to move on for the better aren't fans? Then again there is a fine line between being a realist/statistician and being a fan. I guess Daryl Morey isn't a Rockets fan then.
I don't care what I'm clinging to now. I'm just trying to figure out what's going to happen. The one thing I do know is unless Yao retires he'll be in a Rockets uni at some point, and at least through 2010-2011. So WTH does it matter if "it's time to move on"? Bringing up TMac in the context of Yao's situation is to completely divorce yourself from Les' reality, so good luck with that.
There is nothing wrong in what the OP has said. It's sad to see all this happening,but we have to move on. The sooner the better.
Whatever, man. I've been cheering for this team for 30+ years, what about you? I just long for the days when we as fans could hang our hats on hard fought playoff victories and championships instead of the potential for what might happen if we ever get healthy. Admit it -- that's exactly what we've been doing for the last 6 years. I'm not discounting the team's play this year. Far from it. I had more fun watching them this year than I've had in YEARS. I just think this was THE YEAR. It was the year we were supposed to prove we could stay healthy and overcome the 1st round demons all the way to the Finals. But what happened? Both of our franchise players go down (it's always one of them) and we stay home yet again. This team's nucleus needs to change. Along with it, it's identity.
I would not call it a miserable failure, but you're right - the era did not work out. Yao is a great guy to root for, I will continue to do so. But expecting different results from the same recipe year in and year out is a delusion. I totally agree with you. The question is: how would you rebuild? The Yao situation is complex - he is great, fragile, marketable, international, filled with integrity, neutralized with fronting defense...the fact that he is injured almost makes it simpler. I think there would be a greater chance of rebuilding if any option made better sense than, essentially, prayer. But not much does, at least to me.
What's more fascinating to me at this moment is not how utterly brilliant that opening post was but that there is somehow walking, breathing, functioning human beings questioning its axiomatic premise.
I want to state for the record that I completely disagree with this specific part, but I do agree with the general premise -- it's spot on.
