For a long time the Houston Rockets have had players that played with passion and heart, not always smart but at least with passion. This years team seems to lose it's intensity a lot. They have a lot of talent but seem to play up or down to an opponents level most every game. Did the leadership go out the window when Yao was injured? Where is the energy for this team? Who is going to step up and be a game changer? It just seems that the team is far too passive, and willing to go back and forth with the other team and then turn it on at the end. Granted it has the team on a pace to win 50 games this year, but with the talent this team has, that is underacheiving. Is there a vocal leader on the team? Sura was the leader in '04, a take no prisoners type of player, who is going to emerge as the fiery guy this year? Battier, Bonzi, V-Span? Who? Because this team won't go anywhere if it keeps playing passionless basketball. DD
No offense, because your posts are usually great, but this is complete and utter garbage. If you're going to tell me that players like Battier, Howard, Mutombo, and Alston don't play with heart, you haven't been watching many games. The problem with the Rockets is certainly not heart or ego. They've simply let a bit of complacency, fatigue, and talent get the best of them for the past 3 games. This team has more than enough heart to win it all. Talent? Perhaps.
I just don't see the passion from the players, night in and night out. Mutombo...I will give you that......I guess I am looking for leadership, a fiery never say die type of player like Sura..... Tmac is a great talent but he is too passive to be that guy, I think Yao is developing into that guy, but he is out right now so the energy has to come from somewhere. Too often this team coasts, when it could be stepping on the opponents throat. We need a killer in the lineup.....could it be Bonzi? DD
i think juwan and deke is playin with the most heart. so is battier. i can say that taking a charges especially from corlis williamson requires a lot of heart...he's putting his body on the line... vspan. we havnet seen much of him to show us anything. and bonzi has 0 heart
I dont think we should over-react to much. We saw a lot of HEART over the last few weeks. We even saw it in the Suns/Mavs games when we were over-matched talent wise. What we saw in last night's Denver game was a team in the Rockets that got complacent with their winning ways. There was no sense of urgency with the team. You could see that. They got up but 13pts and figured they could just cruise to the win. Late in the game Denver sensed they could steal this game and did just that. And we just couldn't turn it on.
Agreed but it has been going on a lot this year....do we have a game changing energy player. A David Wood, a Rhodrick Rhodes, a Mario Elie on this team? DD
DD, this is the one thing I find that is NOT missing from this team. These guys are so gutsy and play with max effort. Don't let the 3 game losing streak cloud your judgment. NO heart? These guys almost beat the Suns on the 2nd night of a back to back at dallas, with 2 of their superstars out of the lineup. I love this team's heart. It has mad heart IMO.
I've seen heart this season, I don't know about you. You might be talking about yesterday, but that's just one game, nothing to get so worked up about. If we didn't have heart, how do you explain the Mavs and Suns games?
We lost the Mavs and Suns games. Playing them close is not good enough especially when we have late leads. Maybe heart is not the right term.....maybe I am really looking for leadership. DD
heart hasn't been missing so much as intelligence...and im not talking about battier-level intelligence...im talking about the modicum of intelligence that you assume most people possess in order to function on a daily basis. even that modicum of intelligence is clearly lacking when you see, oh say i dont know, rafer alston, fouling a 3pt jump shooter...and then doing it again...
I kinda see things the opposite way... I think we have a lot of heart, but not too much talent. We've been down and out a lot this season, but win or lose, we keep trying and we usually have a shot at winning. Outside of Yao and T-mac, no one can get their own shot except maybe Bonzi. Yao is injured. T-mac is always a day-to-day mystery. And JVG doesn't trust Bonzi. We don't have a spark-plug off the bench that gives us a lot of energy, but maybe that will improve as we get healthier and IF JVG will use a bigger rotation. You probably found a better term with leadership, since our top 2 superstars are not that vocal.
As I was sitting at the game last night and watching Bonzi both on and off the court I thought just the opposite. Bonzi seemed to carry himself with confidence - obviously playing well last night helped. He and JVG had some pleasant exchange when he came off in the 4th and Bonzi tapped JVG on the shoulder or butt in a pleasant team like way as he passed him. I thought to myself - wow he could become our Mario Elie pretty easily - he has that cockiness, but he does smile easily - probably not quite as edgy. I could see him becoming the guy patting guys on the butt on the court and encouraging them not to get down, to get up and go again. He seems like a talker, an expressive person. Just my impression. Luther Head is the one I worry about - he walks around looking like Mr. droopy hangdog. I worry that he was on an Illinois team where he ran more and now he is on a half court team that does not exploit his strengths. Standing on the perimeter and shooting 3's has to drive someone like that nuts. Remember what it did to Griffin standing out at the 3p line waiting for Stevie to pass him the ball - it's all Stevie's fault (kidding).
Well he actually did make a jab at it in the press conference last night.....and I agree with him about it. DD
i think vassilis would play with alot of fire and heart since hes dying to get his PT back and win some games.
funny how you think that after a loss... where was this thread when they were winning 9 out of 10 WITHOUT yao? or when they took the mavs and suns late in the game, without yao-bonzi and yao-tmac, respectively? you're really on a roll...
I have felt that way all year....when we blew the 19 point lead to the Spurs at home, or when we blew game after game late. I honestly believe that if this team had a leader on the floor, we would have a better record. We have too many passive players on the court, Tmac is not exactly a fiery guy..... I believe your hero JVG has said we need to surround Yao and Tmac with Bulldogs because they are not that way....and he is right. So, do we have one on the team, or not? DD
WHERE IS THIS THREAD WHEN WE WIN? I guess you are saying that the rockets have heart like VSpan has a jumpshot? These guys play their heart out most of the time....just like good teams they have their complacent games. Even the BUlls in their championships as well as the rockets had games where they lacked emotion....so I tend to believe this thread is centered around the same ol' subject......JVG sucks.....and not the players. I don't think its the rockets missing the heart as much as it is the rest of the league....paychecks before results = inconsistency.....
