Why do you think the Rockets struggling to piece together a contender?

Yao is out. Tracy is out. Without them we won't make the playoffs. I love Artest but he showed in the playoffs his toughness doesn't get it done. He sucked on offense against LA and his defense is overrated plus he wanted big money. The type of money that makes it impossible to sign a big name free agent next summer. We lose by signing Artest and getting something back in exchange would certainly be an old or less talented player. Artest has baggage that no one believes is completely gone. He will errupt again.

Now we have a chance to sign a younger better shooter. And we should get a good draft pick along with a good free agent and some experience for our young guys. Brooks is an asset that could shine this season even more. Dorsey has a chance to get a lot of minutes. The Rockets have no reason to put Tmac on the court at all this year. The longer he stays out the more insurance money Les gets. Yao will stay out until they feel his feet our 100%. Which may mean the whole season. And

 

I agree..... but what can you do at this point? Just keep moving fo rward and don't do anything stupid... Don't expect to compete for a championship in 2009-10, but maybe still grab the 7th or 8th seed.

 

Yeah, this all sucks. It really does. Here's where we go:

I can't blame Ron for bolting. His shot selection was a huge question mark for me anyway, as much as I liked the guy. I was afraid we'd over-pay him just to keep him. It's probably better this way.

Give Yao the whole year off, if need be. Lord knows he needs the rest. Then reassess next off-season.

Let Tracy do whatever he wants to do, but don't trade him. Let that contract go next year so we can be ready for the FA frenzy. Trade him for the right deal/scenario, of course, but don't do something just for the sake of doing something.

Showcase our young guys. See what they can do. Keep what we want; trade what we can.

We're not contending for the title this year. Period. Just reality. The worst thing we can do is panic, over-pay someone, take on a bad contract as a band-aid/stop-gap, or rush back injured players.

S**t happens, y'all. Gotta deal with it, stay level-headed, and don't panic.

Edit: Just remember we aren't the Clippers, Warriors, or Grizzlies. We have an excellent owner and an excellent GM. The Rockets will bounce back bigger, better, and meaner than ever before. Count on it.

 

To answer the question in the thread title, it's because 40 million dollars of our cap is tied up in players that can't stay healthy, and the Rockets have been hesitant to move them up to now. People can nitpick about other moves, but that has to be the primary reason. There isn't a team out there, I don't care how savvy the management is, that can be a contender when their top two players that use up half the team's salary get injured so regularly.

 

We will be fine. We already touched the bottom. It cann't get worse.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with all that. But the biggest reason the Rockets made it to the second round this year...wait for it... NO TRACY.

 

The Rockets are still working on things to come. This free agent period for players to sign with teams is still a few days away. There is plenty of time for Morey to figure out the C position. Don't pass any judgement on these moves until the roster is set.

Now, get down off that ledge and go have a beer to celebrate our Independece Day. You could use one.

 

Bulls eye!

 

what chances for a title??

Are you purposefully ignoring what is going on this year?

The Yao MCgrady team is dead...we are rebuilding.

You DONT expect to win jack while rebuilding.

good lord....I cant believe some of you people think we have any chance in hell to compete for anythign other than lottery picks this year.

 

Agreed. At this point, the best thing we can do is trade away guys like Scola and Battier that will be aging by the time we're ready to compete again and hope for a top 5 pick.

 

When u give away a high lotto pick and u bank on 2 brittle beta males, ur not going to win. Its not that hard to figure out.

 

Sometimes a team just has to suck it up and hit the lottery. Come next June when we have a top five pick and enough cap room to sign Bosh, things will look much brighter.

 

you're not. i was ready to pull my hair out and start fasting when i found out.

we have no big anything now

 

Folks it really isn't that bad.... We need to stop worrying so much. We have tradeable assets that could get us other pieces that can take us to the promise land. We need to plunder now though and get real quality pieces. We do not need to wait until 2010. We need to pick them up now and resign them in 2010.

 

Somewhat satisfied with the offseason so far. Maybe a chance taking Ariza, but could end up being a perfect fit and earning the paycheck. I think Morey is just waiting for the right move. Give him time.

One thing that did bother me on draft night was that we did not draft Dejaun Blair from Pittsburgh. As far as we know.. they were not aware that Yao might need surgery and could possibly be gone for the season. I assume that if they did know that they would have..

I do think that he would have been a very good pick at that #.. Many considered him a 1st rder. Undersized, but between Scola, Blair and whatever FA we pick up, not to metion if Dorsey can bring something to the table, we would have had a decent frontline.

Oh well, hindsight is....

 

The rockets need to hire a Chinese "Fang Shui" master
to thoroughly check out that place called "Toyota Center".
I am just guessing the mysteries may lie there.

Multi-billion dollar companies in Hong Kong, China and other place in Asia always hire a Fang Shui master as a consultant when they build office towers and new factories.

Don't hire the ones in the U.S. They are some very good ones in Hong Kong.

 

Exactly! Too many draft, trade and FA mistakes were made in the past by CD & Uncle Les (and I would put Morey's trade for psychoRon in that category). Remember, this team visited the NBA lotto 5 times and all they have to show for it is a brittle Yao Ming. The assertion that Yao+Tracy formed the nucleus of a championship team has been proven to be just that and now they (Rox) find themselves right back at square one. When the folks in charge continue to make bad decisions, it will catch up with you in the end (right Mark Cuban?) because you simply cannot outrun your own stupidity (I'd ask if Mark Cuban was listening but he's too busy attacking 60+ year women instead of taking responsibility for the mess he's made up here).

I have been critical of this franchise for years now because for too long, there has simply been no plan or blueprint for putting together a contending team. Over the past 9 years, they have lurched to and fro going from building around Stevie Franchise to flushing away three no.1 picks on Eddie Griffin to building around Yao+Stevie F to rebuilding around Yao+TMac to building around Yao+TMac+Artest to where they are today. It has been one seemingly endless parade of bad contracts, overpaid free agents and poor to horrible drafts. As lee pointed out: "ur simply not going to win. Its not that hard to figure out."