I'm not talking full season. I'm talking Playoffs. I'm talking that teams are designed for playoffs, more than full season. I don't look at us with 10 players in mind. I look at 8 or 9, max. Look it up. Look at *only* playoff games. Look at *any* year. There are hardly any teams playing 10. It is 8 or 9. The NBA is Two Seasons. Playoff time, many players never see action.
Is there any way Theo Ratliff can be obtained? I remember him being the enforcer for Philly before he got injured and was traded to the Hawks. But what I really want is CATO with a heart like KMART.
I love KT. He's the perennial underdog... Then again, I love all the players on this team! Er, but in the basketball way.
the most important factor for the Rockets is. . . . .INJURY . . . Walton, not Rudy T or any of us can appraise this Rocket team until they are healthy enough as a team. . . I'm a Kenny Thomas rooter. . . . and I'm convinced he's still improving. . .this year we are adding to our team. . .Rice, Taylor, Ming, Nachbar and it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume the Griffin and Morris will improve. . . I am a Cato believer and look for the presence of Ming to serve as a special challenge to Cato. . . Big Bangers are important. . .However, what seemed to me to be a very important weapon for Rudy was when he went small. . .playing moochie at the point and using Mobley and Francis. . . .this lineup wil require teams to match up. . .something that is not easy to do against those three. . . . . what the Rockets do this year will depend on how Injury free they remain. . . . .
I couldn't agree more my friend and I also believe that if we don't have injuries we can be much better that that teamof 2 years ago. I hope that injuries will not be a concern. I also like the idea of only playing Franchise and Mobes 30 minutes a piece or they will get injured, 40+ minutes is way too much.
...and Riley uses 7. If Cuttino is the man who has shown the greatest ability to improve parts of his game every year (can't wait to see what's next), then Kenny is the one who has shown the greatest ability to morph his playing style. With the offense we are adding this offseason I hope Rudy is morphing Kenny once again. This time into..... Mario Elie or Rick Fox!
and i will say this...you suck k.t. was mvp of the team last year i take him over mo "pass the bong" taylor any day
Apollo Creed - - "Not that there's anything wrong with that... " RocketFan85 - Gentleman's bet that barring a trade, K.T. has higher average in rebounding, assists, and steals than Mo-T in the coming season... I would even throw in PPG, but I don't know how Rudy is going to distribute the minutes... Rockets-R-Us
I'll just add some less interesting posts here, then retreat: Cleveland's trying to dump salary. Tyrone Hill, Nick the Brick Anderson....these players are meant to help them cut payroll in 2003. They could take an offer of MoT and etc etc for Tyrone Hill; however, they don't want to be good this year, they want to suck abominably so that they can position themselves to get homegrown phenom Lebron James (trading Miller for Miles and whomever will help that cause, not because they'll win less [?], but because they could maybe trade Miles to get Lebron. Rudy will bring in cokeheads and gangbangers but not if they're locker room cancers; so Oakley is out (he's old enough to know he can sign for little money with a contender) and Derrick Coleman.... Well, Derrick's in the last year of his contract, and that'd be nice for us, but DC's got a gigantic chip on his shoulder. I mentioned that Brian Grant would be great for us, and I think Rice + KT would get it done; but Grant's contract is gi-normous.
Noone really answered my question about Bo Outlaw, isnt he a good rebounder, and he wouldnt ask for many shots at all, I would like some feedback on this.
HP, I went to look at some teams in this year's playoffs. First I wanted to see if any team played ten players, at least, who averaged 8 minutes per game. Also I wanted to see whether the pattern for that team would be different from that team's regular season. Of course I do not expect a team to have a long rotation if they do not have the talent. One of my points was that our team in very deep. So as I look at the teams I also review the kind of talent that was left off the rotation, come playoff time and compare that talent to what could potentially be our non-rotation players if the rotation was limited to eight. The rockets likely roster of lets say 15 players are as follows and I list them 1 to 15 with those after 8 to be considered non-rotation players: Rotation 1. Cato 2. Taylor 3. Rice 4. Francis 5. Mobley 6. Ming 7. EG 8. Moochie Non-Rotation - HP 9. Thomas 10. Nachbar Non-Rotation - DearRock 11. Tmo 12. Torres IR 13. Collier 14. Brown 15. Maddox In the east: New Jersey.....in the season played at least 10 players 8 mins and in the playoff they also had 10. Celtics... dropped from 10 to 9 in the playoff which could have been due to Vitaly's injury. Detroit went from 10 to 9 with the difference being Dana Barros. In the west: Dallas had more than 10 and reduced it to 8 in the playoffs. The players available were Zhi Zhi, Newman and Bradley Sac went from 10 to 8 leaving of Funderburke and Wallace. Lakers had 12 for players playing in at least 58 games. That was reduced to 8 leaving off Richmond, Hunter, Shaw and Madsen. While there is some contraction from regular season to playoffs, the contractions were of players not ready for prime time. If Nachbar, Thomas and Tmo are on any of these teams at the end of the season this year they will be part of the rotation. I include Tmo just because of his ability to play two spots and the things he contribute other than scoring. Based on our talent I can see us having a 12 man rotation like the Lakers did but I do not see how we would reduce that to 8 in the playoffs. I can see 10 but not eight. Some may say that the Lakers were in many blowout so some players got more time. Well I fully expect us to be in some blowouts too. While we do not have the big two like LA we have some very dangerous players; more dangerous than what NJ had going from lottery to finals, last year.
Good call. I forgot about Bo.. He would be a good fit.. Who do you suggest that we trade for him? Mr. B
I havent checked it and right off the top of my head, but he shouldnt cost more than Kt or Collier and Walt huh? Like I said I didnt put much thought into a trade, I was thinking that he fit
Sofine, it seems easier for us to get Cato and MoT to rebound better for the collective 40 minutes that I am projecting them to play than to go out and get Bo Outlaw. The fact that people can double off him is also a turnoff. HP is better at that than me but I would have thought that if we introduce some zone defense we would also have a chance to rebound better. I mean letting the guard rebound less and get out on the break more. Rudy T has alot more leverage now as he has 15 players that he Rudy would have no problem playing when you consider he played Maloney, Drew, Jensen and some other lesser players and got them to contribute. Given that leverage I would offer playing time for defense and rebounding. For instance if MoT cannot improve his rebounding then more time should go to KT, EG and Cato. If we may not play Cato more than 18 minutes I do not see the need for Outlaw or Hill or Massengberg. I am at the point where I do want other teams rejected players. Need I remind you that we let Walt and Willis go and Dan Langhi, who is pound for pound, better that Bo Outlaw with or without his goggles. I really do think this power thing for us is overrated. We had one of the better power guys in Willis and did not keep him. Yes I would have liked to get Amare. Heck MoT broke a guy's wrist, how much more power we want than that to flank Ming. Have we forgotten MoT's fairly frequent straight down the lane dunks?
I agree with you Dearrock, but if KT has to be traded, why not get a guy like that with lots of POWER? or do you think we should use KT as bait for a SG? if so than who? I think we are talent wise, going to so awesome this year, We have something special going
Based on the comparisons below from NBA.com Outlaw's numbers resemble Tmo's the most; and I would not trade TMo for him, unless of course it was a glorious opportunity for TMo. Please pay particular attention to Outlaw FT% which, careerwise, is 32% in the playoffs. We do not need power that much. Bo Outlaw Phoenix Suns Position: F Height: 6-8 Weight: 210 College: Houston '93 Player file | Team stats 2001-02 Statistics PPG 3.4 RPG 2.9 APG .5 SPG .90 BPG .90 FG% .619 FT% .444 3P% .000 MPG 16.0 Terence Morris Houston Rockets Position: F Height: 6-9 Weight: 221 College: Maryland '01 Player file | Team stats 2001-02 Statistics PPG 3.8 RPG 3.1 APG .9 SPG .31 BPG .40 FG% .384 FT% .643 3P% .192 MPG 16.3
