Hollinger on the Rockets' prospects for this season

Screw the media. We ALWAYS proves them wrong.

 

Pretty big difference between his best case mid 40 wins and "likely" mid 30 wins! With RA I don't 35 wins as likely, even with no all star talent. I say 40-45 and we are fighting for a playoff spot with what we have now and maybe better if Yao or T-Mac shows up for late season push.

 

Except that Hollinger is usually one of the very few positive voices in the media singing our praises. He's perennially talking about our promise and potential, so it's a little disheartening to read him projecting us in the 30s...

 

we need to go back in time and get divac!

 

Well to be fair Hollinger's probably been burned because every season he predicts us as dark horse contenders and every year we flame out. 30 wins is typical for a team with no stars. I think mid 40's is very realistic though.

My personal hunch, Ariza and Brooks explode this season and we end up overachieving to reach the low 50's. Will that be enough to get us out of the first round? I have no idea, one thing I'm sure though we won't miss the playoffs this year

 

I am tired of hearing about the damn motion offense. Its basketballs version of the Texas Tech spread shotgun. It keeps inferior teams afloat but you can never contend with it.

 

Wasn't the motion offense being used by the Sacramento Kings when they got to the Western Conference Finals...?

 

Not to mention the triangle offense Phil Jackson put in place in Chicago and later LA -- it's a read-and-react motion offense, isn't it?

 

Triangle offense is a type of motion offense.

 

Phil always has the best player in the NBA or the best outside player and inside player. If anything that triangle is the West Coast offense of the NFL, not the spread of CFB. And Ive always felt had he abandoned some of that offense he could have beaten Detroit with Malone/Payton. Oh well.

Sacramento ran a high post "Princeton" motion. Had it won the title I would give it more credit. Donaughy made sure it didn't happen. I win

 

happened one time and never again. not to mention they had 3 all stars at their prime (cwebb,bibby and peja) vs two all stars (shaq and a very immature kobe).

 

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Apparently, the motion offense does work. It worked for them.

 

Really?

 

Hollinger's a complete idiot. He's the same analyst who questioned Aaron Brooks' ability and claimed he had no business playing in the Rookie/Sophomore game during All-Star weekend this past season.

He also picked the Blazers in 6 .

 

Calm down, buddy. With Yao out and T-mac out for half a season, 30s it's enough to make me happy. And probably we could get a lottery pick of 2010.
It's pretty tough to be a contend in such a bad situtaion.

 

He said Jazz would be 1st seed of West Conference last year. But it turned out not. It's hard to avoid mistakes when you speak too much.

 

Hollinger is probably correct with his assessment that the Rockets are probably a 30-win team. We will be without McGrady and Yao and we traded Artest for Ariza, who is only better alphabetically. We let Von Wafer go, and we didn't pick up any of the athletic young centers, opting instead for an older player who can shoot but can't defend. As a result Scolandry will foul out of every game.

Budinger, although he has poor lateral movement, was a good pickup, but Taylor and Llull are wasted money. Llull is the latest Badiane, and teams will soon learn Taylor can't go to his left. Brooks, though quick, is too little, but Lowry has the makings of a solid point guard. We have so many holes, we should rename ourselves the Swiss Cheese.

We are tanking with just enough effort to sell some tickets. Moneyball will earn Les a profit, but the team as a contender will suffer mightily. The downside is that the 2010 draft is even more shallow than this year's; we have little to no talent to trade; and the cap is going down so we will have no advantage to T-Mc's contract. Rockets fans, we are officially screwed, but that's moneyball.

 

Having a team without a true star or go-to scorer is really difficult. I can see Brooks or Scola carrying us in a few games, but every game even against bad teams? And if they do not score at least say 15 pt each, then someone else has to make up that difference.

There are a lot of unknowns about this team, such as what can Anderson, Ariza, Buddinger, JT and Dorsey give us who may surprise us but by how much? Can Landry & Lowry give consistent offensive production? Can Battier change his mindset to score more, as he did in Memphis early in his career?

Even with Adelman as our coach, I'm not sure he can overcome that. Even his "worst teams" had stars, or pseudo-stars on them: Drexler throughout his time at Portland, a Latrell Sprewell & Tim Hardaway at Golden State, Chris Webber & Divac at their primes with a young Peja at Sacramento, and recently fading Bibby & Peja, re-juvenated Artest, & young Kevin Martin.

Given what we currently know about our team. I think that that is a pretty spot on projection. I just don't see 42-47 wins happening right now. (And call me crazy, but I really don't expect much from Tracy. If it happens, it will be great; but don't expect anything.

 

Just wait to see what Charley Rosen has to say about us.

He loves sinking the boots in.

I feel sick thinking about it.