...has anyone considered the issues at hand? We have 4 or 5 brand new rotation players. We have a brand new head coach. Our brand new head coach has installed a new system. The new system is nearly the polar opposite of the previous system. We have played the most difficult schedule of any team in the NBA. McGrady has missed a few games already due to injury. Despite all that, we are at .500 and remain one of the few teams in the league likely to be significantly improved by the spring. I'm not sure what everyone expected. We've had some really frustrating losses, but we've also won on the road at Utah and Phoenix. When I first looked at the roster and then looked at the schedule for the first six weeks, I felt like I would be happy if we made it out of that at .500 or slightly above. I expected, and still expect, that it will be February before we see just how good this team is going to be in April. Honestly, it might be NEXT SEASON before we see the full impact of the changes. I know no one wants to think that, but with a system change this radical, it wouldn't shock me. There is certainly president for a system change and roster turnover needing as much as a full season to finally figure out their chemistry. I certainly hope that it will work this season, but I think we do the same thing every year. We get overly excited about how great we'll be then get overly down when things don't work out exactly as we thought and, by the end of the season even if we have 53+ wins and enter the playoffs as the 4 seed, we're still disappointed because we didn't live up to the expectations we set that were unrealistic to begin with.
You're right Jeff. It should be expected. I think what makes it a touch more painful is how they've lost some of these games... giving up 100+, not being able to run with athletic teams. Tough ... expected a harder stretch, but not sure we expected to win in Utah and Phoenix and beat the Spurs at home, then lose to the Grizzlies, Warriors, Kings and nearly Bobcats. Good to see you post. We need voices of sanity in the GARM right about now.
If we want a good result this year, get Kobe. Waiting til next year doesn't make sense with aging-fragile-no-sweat-mr.80% tmac.
some of the players (old/new to rockets)... should not be performing that terrible. they are missing wide open shots at a high percentage. the other reasons are debateable, but shooting this horribly is unaceptable. battier is in a major slump, so is mike james. luther head is doing terrible from the 3 point line and beyond. rafer... is rafer. and we all know francis was never a great shooter, same with bonzi, but bonzi has been missing layups. if you add that with scola taking a lil bit longer to adjust to the nba that we'd want... you get a team that just have 2 superstars. boston minus one star anyone? i dont' care if we have to shoot millions of shots just to get out of this damn shooting slump... just find a way, as fast as you can.
The problems I see are: 1. No improvement in the offense. It looks worse to me than it did a month ago. 2. Inconsistent intensity. This team looks like it has mailed it in now in 4 or 5 games. The defense, in particular, is helter skelter to put it mildly. 3. Our new role players are not showing any sense of urgency. Tmac, Yao and even Rafer have been vocal about how upset they are with the way the team is playing but all I hear from the new guys is how they feel about their individual performance.
Fair points, but you have to admit, we've all set expectations way to high given our 6-1 start... However, now, we're playing like sh*t...
What? some of the old players... are being lazy themself. tracy is not what you call.. hard working. to tell you the truth, he is one of the laziest player. if he thinks he should have gotten a call, he wont' hustle his ass back on the other end. rafer has been sloppy with some passes. and yao is referring to tmac too much. as soon as tmac has the ball in crucial moments, yao usualy just gets ready to get a rebound or set a pick. i want yao to call for the ball no matter who has the ball. imo, francis and mutombo are the only ones showing the desire to win consitantly and be able to lit a fire on team and get them going. which is pathetic that you have to rely on a former-allstar and a 40-year old.
To Jeff, Clutch and the rest: When we went from the Rudy to JVG era, we heard the same thing: new rotation players, new system, give it time. We made the playoffs two years, and had our best run in 2005 (IMHO) eventhough the Rockets performed similarly in last year's playoffs. Well, JVG didn't pan out for us, at least in terms of his refusal to envision a basketball team playing any different than the 1999 New York Knicks. So we fired JVG (whatever you say, he wasn't wanted back by management), and hired Adelman. So we've got Adelman now. We got new rotation players, a new system, and lots of folks on this BBS keep saying to give it time. Again, however, we've heard all of this before. We do have a very deep team, and should be doing better with the pieces we have. In my opinion, the players aren't living up to their expectations, and the coach needs to adapt his philosophy to the collection of players that Morey has assembled to complement Yao and T-Mac. There is no excuse for us sucking so bad just because McGrady went down for a handful of games. Guess what, folks? That's going to happen again this season because McGrady is like Glass Joe from that early 1990s boxing videogame. So Generals Jeff and Clutch Petraus: before you tell us that the surge is working, or that we need to give it time to work, at least take notice of a few endemic problems with our roster and coaching staff in the hope that somebody will pick up on the dialogue on this BBS and do something to help our team. Peace out, P1st, S2nd
pretty much exactly how i defend the rockets with the people i work with. i made a bet today that we win over 50 games and they thought i was crazy. we'll see but i'm far from worried, at this point at least.
I'm not worried, hell in 2004-2005 we didn't hit .500 till the end of December and still won 51 games, pretty much same situation, but added our role players on the fly that season. good points though Jeff, as Clutch stated we needed some sanity on here
Tmac, Yao and yes Rafer all seem to genuinely care about what is going on with this team. I suspect Battier and Hayes do as well but to be honest, Shane just doesn't seem to be himself. I'm not sure if he is injured or just uncomfortable with the offense but that is for another thread. The "new" guys (James, Francis and Bonzi) don't seem that concerned. They are all playing hard and Francis has been great IMO but I get the impression they are still playing to impress the coach more than to win games.
This is probably the only thing that really concerns me. It's one thing to play bad, but it's another to play uninspired, lackadaisical basketball. Sloppy, errant passes and laziness on defense is what's leading to those 100+ games. But EVERYONE on this board pretty much agreed we'd go through growing pains. So why hit the panic button now? I don't think anyone expect us to run out of the gate the way the Celtics are. Add to that the #1 toughest schedule in the NBA, I think we're doing ok (just ok). I still think anything's possible. Meaning this whole 'experiment' this year could collapse. I'm not ruling it out. But it's not fair to write it off as a failure this early with so many new variables.
I've been saying to give Adelman a chance, as well. With all the knee-jerk reactions around here, there is probably an overflow of patients at the Medical Center for knee surgeries. richirich posted in the When will the JVG haters start their "Fire Rick" Chant? thread that Van Gundy's 4 season average after 18 games was 36-36, .500 ball. Now you have all these members crying for JVG to come back, or never to have left, to be more accurate. It's wildly pessimistic. Let the Rocks blow out a couple of teams and the opposite will happen. Rick A will be a god and thank goodness Van Gundy got the boot. Bypolar BBS, ClutchFans style!
Playing .500 ball this early isn't frustrating. I predicted as much. What's frustrating is watching Van Gundy's starting 5 play 90% of the oncourt minutes together. Not only frustrating but damned painful.
I think the preseason hype and the hot start got us all thinking/ hoping we had a team of world beaters -- obviously things are going to take a bit longer to jell.
wow no rookies have replied yet surprising given the number of rookies replying all the time now a days. I think Jeff has pointed out what I have felt since the beginning of this season. We need to give this team a bit of time to get to know each other. You can't expect everyone to come in and gel, unless your the bloody Celtics.
It seems like we always have excuses for losing around here...it's always wait because of this or that. Sorry I'm not falling for it 5 years in a row.
