Sorry if this becomes a long rant, I am just so tired of the good guys ruining my nights and I can't get them out of my head. On the Court: Like the other 1000 threads dedicated to this, MAKE A CHANGE! Obviously we are not going to trade Skip, hes the only point guard on our crowded roster that has gotten consistent PT. Mike James can't get on the court unless Tracy is hurt, and the fact that BOTH him and Steve are rotting away on the bench is a waste of assets. So if youre not going to play them, trade them. Get a marginal player that will HELP, its better than talented players that sit on the bench. Why didn't we make a run at Chris Webber? Im sure we had a chance especially with the Adelman connection. Yao is a fantastic passer (see rookie season), but hes never in position to make those passes. Webber is a clown admittedly, but hes worth at least that vets minimum. So Chris Webber is gone, what are we going to do about our 4 spot? Or for that matter our 3 spot? Shane and Chuck are great when the other three on the court can score. Their defense and hustle alone make up for their ineptitude on the offensive end- IF Tracy and Yao are dominating. Obviously thats not happening, so why arent we playing Scola more? He has a mid range jumper, why don't we feature him as a third option? If hes not that guy, trade for one, and quit wasting this damn season. Shane and Rafer- Have you guys seen Rafers mid range jumper? Its not as gut wrenching as his three or his freaking tear drop- why do we keep setting him up to fail? Shane- When we need a three at the end of the game, quit following the freaking ball and get to the damn wing where the defense will break down so your in position for the three. If you cant do that, you are absolutely useless being on the floor in that situation. (End of the Magic game) Off the Court Take a tip from the Warriors- pass out free shirts. You guys REALLY fouled up by just giving out towels in the playoffs and our crappy fans were there in all different colors in a not so intimidating atmosphere. We need a better home court edge and our fans are not going to do it on their own so give them a nudge. In the second quarter, move the regular folks in the 400's- a winning section or something, to the empty corporate seats. It is really embarassing to see the Toyota Center on a national stage because there are ALWAYS empty seats. The University of Houston has one of the more lukewarm set of fans out there, but attending the Kentucky game this week was so refreshing after so many horrible TC crowds. Crazy fans in red and close to the floor makes a difference. Its not that hard to make this happen. Honestly Im sorry. I know this is just adding to the clutter of the board and for that I apologize. Im just so sad.
Kirk Snyder- Adelmans not going to use him, and when the guy does get a chance, he tries too hard and shoots 3's. Im sure we could trade him for a second rounder. Deke- if not for the fact that he doesnt play, or for the fact that he absolutely butchers beautiful passes- because he just wont sit down and shut up- We should put him in the stands, he'd do a better job than the lower levels anyday.
Some very good points. Feel free to rant them more often. Unfortunately, seems like the Rockets won't trade Wafer, so i have to accept and agree with your assessment to trade Mike or Steve to get a usable player, although RA problem wouldn't use that player either....so forget that on second thought. I agree that we should be trying to get Webber, but to me, as a backup center for 15 minutes a game for Yao. I agree that they need to give out more t-shirts and also move fans down during the second half of games. They could send out notices to ticket buyers that if they don't show up by halftime, they forfeit their seat. The fights will be better than the games! Also, they need to play some up tempo music during the time outs. Some pump it up music, not jingle bells. Get the crowd excited and fired up so that they can respond. Crowds also like to be lead. So they need to use the boards more to get the crowds to act in unison. They could post stuff like: "THAT CALL SUCKS REF!" "OUR BALL, OUR BALL, OUR BALL" "LOOK AT THE REPLAY REF" "3 SECOND D VIOLATION" and many others. They could start them with "1, 2, 3..." so that everyone could be in unison! Give them the voice of the crowd!
Yeah, seconded absolutely. I was thinking this exact same thing during the Denver game. To heck with setting him to shoot the 3. The shooting is so atrocious right now that emergency adjustments need to be made, and frankly I'd rather have Battier or Head take the long shots.
jerirulz, I highly recommend emailing sending your off the court ideas to the Rockets. You should do it. Those are ideas that we would love to see happen, especially the lower corporate seats in the arena.
Webber was a good player. I don't think he'll be of much help to the Rox at this pt in his career. I actually watched the Pistons a lot last year--t's no fluke that they let him go.
Been thinking of Webber more and more. Long answer to that: Even though he's declined to where's he's only a decent player, he definitetly CAN offer THIS team something. Need somebody or something to make the offense operate and (pun intended) get it in motion. Even if its just a Vinny Testaverde type move where it values experience over talent and stats. Its more a matter if Webber would WANT to play that kind of role for lesser pay on a team thats looking far from championship potential. Which I get a feeling he wouldn't. Would I open up a roster spot for Webber? No, cuz he's not an impact player nor long term solution, more a "help the system" along transition pickup. I haven't seen many instances where an unemployed vet gets picked up during the season and turns the team's fortunes around. And I see enough long term development possibilities in Brooks and Landry where I don't want them cut or traded. If a roster spot opens up through a 2 for 1 trade or cut would I take Webber ? Sure
you know i would love to, but i already know the answer- if i were to ever get one of course: "Although your idea is interesting, it is against our policy to give away seats that have already been purchased. As for the shirts, we'll look into it."
And another thing, corporate seats are SO easy to give away because they are purchased in an organized manner. A rockets employee could call at halftime or whatever and make sure that the seats won't be filled, and if there is an issue- give the initial buyer a seat in the club section which is NEVER filled. I totally agree that we need more chants at games...the rockets could even pan the crowd for funny posters or signs and put them up on the jumbotron. A good laugh and a shared dislike for the opponent will get the place going for sure. And Webber would come here because we have unrealized potential. He knows the offense. Hes made over a 100 million in his career, AND the pistons have said theyre not dying to have him back. Ego alone is a reason. For 10 minutes a game, I think his passing abilities alone could infuse some life into this offense that we were expecting to be jumpstarted by the assumed sixth man Mike James. Just a thought, but we are missing the fire. Missing shots is one thing, but we need to care out there. We're missing our Sam Cassel off the bench, our Mario Elie to hit clutch shots, our Vernon to enforce. Say what you will about Juwon Howard, but its clear he was a leader on this team and we are missing that now. Is Webber that guy? Probably not, but hes an upgrade to a lackluster offense.
I'm fairly sure that Webber's coming back with the Pistons. Let me see if I can dig up a source on that... edit: Apparently they are denying any rumors of Webber coming back. The rumors stemmed from the Nazr trade which emptied some room under the LT line. See Detroit News
Chris Webber? We bashed JVG hard for bringing all the ex-Knicks players to this team and now we are actually advocating that Adelman recruit all the ex-Kings players.
im ok with somebody not agreeing w/ me- thats the entire point of a discussion board, but just posting something for the sake of posting is silly. its fine though, i already know your gonna come back with another brilliantly uninformative response, carry on.
Ok, you challenged me... Here are the reasons why your 5 points are not worthy of the effort you put in to write them and even less worthy of a thread topic: Point #1. You can't possibly think that management isn't aware that there is a need for change. I guarantee you Morey is already testing the waters. There was no insight in this point. You just stated the obvious. We all know there is a need for change and it will come when the right opportunity is out there. They were aggressive in the offseason and took advantage of affordable opportunities. It was a good effort but didn't bring the expected results. They will try again and are already well-aware of the need to make changes. Point #2. First of all, just because the media didn't report it doesn't mean management did not already consider Webber and possibly even contact his agent. Plus, Webber is in limbo right now about whether or not he will even return. He is not under contract and probably doesn't want to play for Houston even if we did, or do, make him an offer. Obviously, he wants to play for his hometown team as he has repeatedly stated over the last two years. He is only considering a few teams if he returns and Houston is not one of them. So, this was another useless point of discussion because you are ASSUMING management did consider it and whether they did or not, Webber doesn't want to play here, especially now that we are struggling. He wants to be on a championship contender if he plays at this point in his career. 3. This point was just full of errors. You had all your points backwards. First, Rafer's mid-range game is terrible. His best threat scoring-wise was/is/and will be 3pt shooting. His career % is actually very, very good for a PG. You must have decided he needs to shoot more mid-range shots based on the fact that he hit a few in recent games. In the big picture, unfortunately 3s are Rafer's only decent strength when it comes to shooting and scoring. Regarding Battier, his liability is his inability to do anything else consistently on the offensive end other than stand on the perimeter and shoot 3s. That wild mini-hook he uses occasionally in the post is pathetic and when he tries to drive once every 10-12 games, he just looks out of control and out of his element and usually turns over the ball or takes a bad shot. Again, you must be basing this comment on Battier on one or two plays from recent games. Battier, almost invariably, camps out on the perimeter, especially in the corners, wating for kick out 3s. He can't do anything else offensively and that is his problem ,and the team's problem when you factor in the two other offensive liabilities in our current starting lineup. 4. It is a waste of time to even explain how ridiculous this point is. Are you trying to say that handouts determine how fans support the team and, ultimately, team success? Absurd, pointless, a waste of blog space... The reason fans are not as loud and raucous as Warriors fans and others has nothing to do with the handouts. Houston/Texas is a football and baseball city/state above all other sports. Houston is also a very conservative state and that is reflected in the types of fans at Toyota Center so I doubt you will ever see fans here that rival New York, Golden State, Sacramento, LA, Philly, etc... I was at the Dallas vs GS game in Oakland earlier this year and saw Oracle Arena and its fans, first hand. Toyota Center is much bigger and nicer than Oracle and the ammenities are much nicer, too. The Rockets already do a lot more shirt-tossing and other activities to engage the fan than do the Warriors. The Warriors fans are just more enthusiastic because of the culture in Oakland and the fact that over the last year, or so, the team has become one of the most exciting to watch in the league. If we give out t-shirts instead of towels next time around, that will not make any difference in the outcome. Fans in Houston are just not the same as fans in other cities and that won't change anytime soon, even if we give out authentic, signed Yao jerseys to every fan. They will still be Houstonians and Texans at the end of the day and not New Yorkers or Los Angeleans. 5. This ties in to the last point I made. This is not only hard to make happen, it will not happen. This is a business behind the scenes despite what your optimistic little heart wants to believe. There is no way that ownership will start giving expensive seats to customers that pay $15 per ticket. They do it for a few fans on occasion for marketing/publicity purposes but it will never be a regular occurrence, not in Houston or any other professional stadium, arena, etc... I would love to say that even one of your points were insightful or worthy of discussion, but they simply were not. They were almost as useless as the guy in another thread who pointed at the loss of Bob Sura as one of our biggest problems (LMAO... gotta love Bob Sura but he was more of a fan-favorite than a great player, he rarely started at any point during his entire NBA career, even on bad teams). The best thing to come out of your post is the opportunity to point out the reasons why your points were lacking quality. This, in turn, may lead toward discussions about the real problems. I am not saying you don't deserve to post your thoughts but I am saying that you did not make any useful points in this case.
