Now that we have Yao on board paired with a phenom Eddie Griffin. These two players, both young with huge upsides, seem to be a formidable frontcourt tandem in the making. My question is, if someday this tandem turns out to be as good as our backcourt, the Rockets might face the problem of over talent. After all, there's only about 70 shots to go around. If that comes true, what orientation in team building should the Rockets choose? If that's the case, the Rockets have many options, some of them are as follows: 1. Concentrate on the backcourt Patent after the Detroit Pistons, solidify our backcourt, make it the best in the L, maybe at the expense of trading frontcourt talent. Get the likes of Kevin Garnett at sf(I view sf as part of backcourt), as long as the frontcourt is able to grab boards, play defense, shoot some open J's and make some layups we are set to go. 2. Concentrate on the frontcourt Copy the San Antonio Spurs, get the players that are taylor made for halfcourt offense, pair our front court with stone cold 3 point shooters and/or defensive specialists, and further solidy our front court into being the strongest in the L, maybe, at the expense of our backcourt talent, such as Mobley and Francis. 3. Concentrate on all aspects Follow the Portland Trailblazers' balanced attack, just keep the team the way it is. Adding talent at every position without making distinction on the style of offense. 4. Concentrate on the best two or three regardless of their positions Try to pull another Magic and Jabbar, keep the best backcourt player out of either Francis or Mobley, keep the best frontcourt player out of either Yao or Griffin, make the two winners as our franchise tandem, players other than these two core players are all expendable to suit this tandem's strength. The other variable is to pursue the Bird/Parish/Mchale approcah, keep the three best players and make all others expendable. History's proved that a team with too many stars or semi stars are not gonna fare well against teams with distinctive leaders and orientations. If we have four 20+ scorers on the team in Francis, Mobley, Yao and Griffin, that's not gonna work. At least one or two of them must go, depending on our approach. With the progress of Yao and Griffin, I think this type of questions are bound to appear sooner or later. The answer will determine which players are untouchable and which ones are not, and is instrumental to winning a ring. So what do you think on the way the Rockets should go, under the given context?
oh. right. Teams with too many stars don't work. That's why the 86 Celtics essentially started an All-Star at every position and won the title... ... the trail blazers are a bad, bad, bad analogy. That's what happens when you put a bunch of dysfunctional psychopaths who just happen to all be talented together. Hell, those great Bulls and Lakers teams had some mighty fine talent at most posititions. People forget how good some of those players were, because they were willing to submerge their games into the rhythm of the team. The Pistons weren't half-bad in the front court, either. Think Lambeer might be an all-star today?
I want to see us win by keeping what we have but in the past, the way it's been done is by your #4, keeping top two and building around them. There really isn't room for more than 2 or at the most 3 players who need many shots to be productive. The Celtics did essentially have all stars at every position but each one of them knew their role and played it perfectly. They each put their pride aside in order for everything to work. I don't see that happening with the kind of athletes we have today.
A team of stars will win, if they have a coach who can get them to check their egos at the door. This is where a coach like Phil Jackson is useful. He is great at getting his players to focus on the task at hand. Anyway, we must solidify the frontcourt first. It's common sense that you win in the NBA with big men, though MJ is the one exception. Especially since we are in the West. We must get our players to buy into the idea that defense wins. Rudy was able to do it with a veteran team in 94 and 95, but he hasn't had one Rocket put 100% effort on the defensive end. This is probably the most important aspect that the Rockets are sorely lacking. We will go nowhere until we bring in some defenders. Our entire team is offense-first players, yet we don't even score that many points. Griffin is really the only player who is equally adept defensively as he is offensively, though he must play better man-to-man defense.
I have to chime in. The first post in this thread is dead on about us needing Odom. Trade Mobes for Odom. Odom is a PERFECT compliment to all players becuase he does everything. He wont take 20 shots like cat.He gets assists and passes to big men and small men.Im afriad of the clipps now not because of Miller(francis can contian miller) but how do we contian Odom? WE cant Also,Im all for trading mobes for lewis. I hate to big a player hater,but mobes is a ball hog trying to make the allstar team at his teams expense. Odoms typical stats: 17/7/6 mobes typical: 21/0/0 see... Mobes is a great three point shooter,but does he do anything else? I think he is overpaid,not underpaid.You cant compare mobes stats and price to allan houston becuz the knicks screwed that up.I hope we dont screw up by giving a one diminisiioonal player a raise. However,my mind can change if Mobley would be content with standing on the three all game and letting Nachbar get his 20pts..Then I would call mobes a team player,right now Im not sure becuz the other players like morris/langi/cato suck
Odom??? Please. The last thing we need is to bring in another ego-driven cancer who plays no defense. Odom does not fit at all in the Rockets system as a SF. The last SF we had who wasn't a good spot-up shooter was Pippen. Look how well that turned out. I'm tired of taking guys with questionable character.
are you done? You must hate Francis and Mobley then. Not becuz of their character,but becuase they get on national tv dissing ming and saying we should trade #1 for Odom. Get in the game.
If one star playe rhad to go it would be cat. He is good, but he still is a bone head. I think Francis would pass before anything. I say what when we get SF locked up we might trade him in a sign and trade for odom next year. But thats only if odom gets his act togher. At the same time we will need an defensive unselfish 2 guard. Should we get maggete??? Will he fit on our team.
"The Celtics did essentially have all stars at every position but each one of them knew their role and played it perfectly. They each put their pride aside in order for everything to work. " With Ming, Griffin, and Francis, that would actually work out. Have you guys realized how many clutch players we have btw? Mooch, Griff, and Mobley. That's pretty damn good.
The Rockets have a salary cap. Let's assume that Ming and EG develope into Max players. That would mean the Rockets would have a total of 3 max players, and they can only probably afford two max contracts before going over the cap. That's why RL will never become a Rocket, because CD knows that in 3 years he's going to want his LB exception. Same thing applies to LO. Teams are starting to figure out that there is a difference between a star player and a franchise player, and star players around the league are going to have to wake up and smell the check book. SF will get max. Hopefully Ming will develope into a Max player. Now assuming that EG becomes the third max player on the team behind SF and Ming, just how do the Rockets afford RL or LO, either of which would want a max contract as well? Oh did I mention Nach? Heh - here is a guy that Rudy might secretly hope becomes good but not great. If Nach becomes great there is a good chance the Rockets won't be able to afford to keep him. The formula around the leage is for a team to have 2 max players, one almost max player, and a bunch of mid levels or minimums. Sound about right? I could be wrong about this, as the NBA salary regulations are like some alien language to me, but I think I'm fairly close to the truth. -shrug- Raven
Markmadsen:- No Odom for Rox, Lewis a slight chance! Remember the Coach and Owner have the last say on who they want. No Odom is the answer, not a Rudy type person. I understand your frustration about Mobley but he is an importent part of the Team and he should be and will be much more under control this season as there are going to be THREE more players demanding consideration, ie:- Yao,Griffin and Nachbar. Its a new era of Rudyball with a new Game Plan, I'm not sure that Francis will like this New Game Plan but if he realy wants to win he will give into the Fanchise Dynasty.....FranYao
Sane:- Its Mobley and Francis that NEED to KNOW and PLAY their ROLES,for the Rox to play Team Basketball and win it all.
i don't think having to many stars on one team will be a problem but stevie and mobley not having a little faith in Yao will probaly be a big problem.
Having too many stars is a huge problem, if Francis and Mobley don't learn how to pass the ball. I can just see Ming being open for a dunk, and Francis kicking it out to Mobley for a 30 ft fadeaway.
I would say concentrate on getting Francis and Griff the bulk of the shots every night. Ming as someone to run the offense through(ala Mason or Vlade) but not necessarily score. Take advantage of mismatches to make the defense honest, rebound and d up. Mobley to be the spark plug. Offense is struggling? Turn to Mobes(ala Drexler and Cassell). the rest as supporting roles. that's my ideal.
hahahahah!!!!! you got a good point. A player with selfish play will not win. Rocket has a good team this coming season. They can have Yao MIng and Griffen for D. Nachbar,stevie and mobley for O. Way to go!!!!!
You can never have to much talent. I never bought into the theory that says that you can't have to many stars. As long as you have a PG that distributes the ball you're fine. The Blazers self-destructed not because of to much talent, but they were loaded with a bunch of headcases with bad attitudes. If Rasheed had Duncan's attitude, and Stoudamire had Stockton's attitude, and Pippen had any kind of brains that team would have won one or two championships.
