I think Rafer will be a good fit in Orlando, too... but he wasn't a good fit for us, so I won't be kicking myself. ... Other than that, LOL @ this thread. But I commend you for being able to state all this with such unwarranted confidence. This team is going to dominate. Hubie's and JVG's (and my) opinion >>> yours. We have great pieces. Fact.
You know my question to you man is why are you so negative and nit picky about everything? Your love for tracy is crazy. What has he done for us? Tell me one good thing he has done for us? He has not won us a playoff series. He has not gotten us a ring. So, what has he done? he has become an enigma. WE DONT NEED MCGRADY! The McGrady time in this city is over. its done. And with the trade that pretty much seals the deal. McGrady is next to go. Its never worked out. He is never healthy and he never ever will be healthy. We dont even know if he will be healthy after this surgery. He is a lazy player and wont be ready for next season anyway. He is not a superstar. He is not a team player. He is a crappy defender. And, he worries more about himself then everyone else. Yea, we are rebuilding but a long one? You must be stupid and really dont know basketball. Look why dont you go listen to ESPN blow everything out of proportion. Read the fake stats that dont show anything and get your facts straight by actually watching a few games. You apparently are not watching anything because i am not seeing what you are seeing. Stop being so damn negative on this team. Let them play.
Hey man, while I personally may not agree with some or much of what you are saying, I think it's a solid post in the fact that you've stated your points and explained WHY you believe this reasonably well. So I give you true props for expressing your detailed and in depth opinion on here for 2 reasons: 1) for the reason listed above. 2) a large portion of the board take people's opinions personally and turn them into personal insults and attacks back at you. Yet throughout this entire thread of ridiculousness, you overlook those insults and more importantly, you do not retaliate and stoop to that level. So with that said, I give respect to your opinion and know that you're a Rockets fan FIRST and foremost, looking to give your own analysis and thoughts regardless. Aaaaand back into the silence I go, leaving open arms to whatever bashing I inherit with this post lol.
I know I am late to the posting but ncagg you are completely foolish, first of all good riddance to Rafer and I hope he does well in Orlando he would of never put this team over the top, second of all I think you are slightly r****ded and should go back to where ever you came from, so go eat a fat dick and die in fire. I also hope when we when a championship you are not around to enjoy it , no we may not win this year but it will come.
I actually agree with a lot of what you said. I am not sure that Orlando is the number 2 team in the East yet though. I just think LeBron is going to get star treatment come playoff time. As for the Rockets, I am very optimistic about them at least getting out of the first round. It is the only thing as a fan I can say. Yes, they will miss Tracy. I am not sure that once we enter playoff mode, our supporting cast will be able to do what they did the other night. They shoot too many threes and that is what worries me the most. I do like our new addition but I will also admit that I am concerned about how RA is not rotating his bigs enough. As well as his perceived stubbornness when it comes to altering his rotations at times. Also, Yao still doesn't get the respect he deserves on the court. Many of the turnovers the he's saddle with, in my opinion, other "star" players would potentially get awarded defensive fouls. While, it is not politically correct, I think there is some truth to your claim about the value of Yao. I am also not sure that the Rockets would have been as "patient" with his development as they have been if he were an "American." You can look at a lot of players that get dumped or relegated to their benches for some of the things that Yao has fought through. Don't get me wrong, Yao is a lot better than those first few years but I think that the return on investment was so high that they were going to stick with him. And you can't deny his desire to be a great basketball player. So he's special but the business aspect of your argument I find on the money. As far as Yao being a liability, I think it depends on your use of the term. Being a center, you are at the mercy of your teammates' abilities to get you the rock and spacing necessary for you to go to work. I find that to be one of the major problems that he has faced over the years. The only one who consistently was able to feed Yao while driving was Tracy. If I missed someone else please tell me. He could be seen as a liability when he has people on the floor that don't demand respect of the other team offensively, i.e. Hayes. Being paired with him, I expect Yao to face more double teams or when our perimeter guys are not hitting. So, Yao becomes a liability because of the inability of his teammates. As for running the break he shouldn't always have to but the question is do we really have finishers for the breaks that we get? The rebuilding part is more of a result of the Tracy situation to me than anything else (I still want him on the team even though that appears nearly impossible now). We have a lot of players currently that might not be back depending on what direction we go. We need to get away from one dimensional offensive players. We have too many of them. They are also a problem for Yao as well. Scola is a keeper and I'd keep both AB and Lowry because they're cheap and they have been decent so far after that your guess becomes as good as mine. Landry is fairly cheap so if you want to keep him go ahead. I'm not sure Wafer is going to be lighting things up as he has been in a playoff series. Finally, I don't see your post as being negative at all. You made your case to the public, some will agree some won't. It depends on how you read it.
This post exaggerates a lot, and the comment about Yao not being a starting center if he wasn't Chinese is just bizarre. I can't imagine the poster really believes that. If you think he's overrated, that's one thing. But it's pretty clear that almost any team in the league would love to have him as their starting center. As for who will step up and make the clutch shot at the end of the game, we'll have to see. Brooks, maybe? I don't have much confidence in the Rockets going very far in the playoffs, but I wouldn't count them out entirely.
I totally disagree with you, the problem is not YAO, it's Alston and T-mac Shaq has Kobe, Hakeen has Drexler and Sam Cassel. What Yao has? Crying little b**** like T-mac and No Brain PG like Alston, that's why we can't move further......Neither does Orlando, because Dwight has nothing like Yao.
Sorry I forgot, Dwight at least has Nelson, that's why Orlando got this great records this year. Yao has nothing!!!
I don't agree with most of this post but I can understand where you are coming from so I will go over it one at a time. 1. I don't really agree that skip will be all that great for the magic. That team lives off the 3 pointer. Hedo, Rashard and Jameer were all jacking them up this year. Jameer was taking over 4 a game. So pretty much rafer is in the same situation where he will be asked to shoot a ton of 3's which is something that he isn't all that great at. Maybe he will defer and not shoot 5 a game like he was here but only time will tell if that happens. With people like hedo and rashard out there don't be surprised if people rotate off of skip like they did when he was here. I'm not so convinced that he won't end up causing orlando the same problems he caused us. 2. Yea we might not make the playoffs because we have a beast of a schedule coming up but with Amare out for the year since you made this post I'd bet we do. 3. It's hard for me to say Adelman doesn't work here when he hasn't had a steady lineup since hes got here. However, last year when Yao was out he did pretty well for himself. We will just have to wait and see if he can do the same thing now that the Tracey situation is over with. 4. I agree having an unhealthy Tracy isn't doing us any good. 5. I think you aren't giving Ron enough credit. Don't forget he has been playing on a bad ankle for most of the yr. I will agree that he makes some questionable decisions on the offense end of the floor but for the month of Feb. hes shooting over 45 percent and I'd like to think thats a sign of him being healthy. Also I would be shocked if the Rockets don't make a serious push for him in the offseason with Tracy out for a while. I'd say there is better than a 50 percent chance that he will be back because of that. 6. I have to completely disagree with this part. The man is averaging pretty much 20 and 10 this year taking only 13 shots a game. Go look up how many 20 10 guys only get that many shots a game. Now i know you are thinking oh thats because he turns the ball over so much when he gets it but that really isn't the case. Yao avgs 2.7 a game for his career so lets compare that to some of the other big men in the game. Shaq - 2.8 Duncan - 2.8 Howard - 2.9. Hes the best out of all 4 of those guys. And yes this yr its 3.2 but even so thats still not that far from the rest of the pack. People forget that in 2006 this team was beginning to become Yao's and before his injury that year many experts had him as the favorite for MVP. Last year he was coming off injury and got injured again that year. But right now it doesn't appear that he has any injuries and its clear that the team is his. So how about we sit back and see how he does with this brutal schedule coming up. If he doesn't step up I feel like its ok to say he isn't a superstar. However, I feel like its unfair to say that now when he was the MVP favorite the last time he entered a season healthy. 7. Refer to number 6 to see why i don't really agree with this yet.
I agree on a lot of things you said, but I do disagree on a few things. 1. Rafer and Yao should never be on the same team. When you have a dominant big man, you need a penetrator like Aaron Brooks or Kyle Lowry to take it into the lane and create by either making a good set up pass to yao or kicking it out to shooters. Rafer never really had this ability. That is why we got rid of him. He was never a reliable three point shooter when yao kicked out when he got double teamed. With Brooks, the offense will run more smoothly. Be prepared to see a Denver Nuggets type upgrade (when chauncey in). 2. How could you say that we will have a long rebuilding period when Yao and T-mac are going to be free agents in 2010? We will have all the money in the world to sign 2, or maybe 3 solid players. If McGrady does not lead past the first round next year, we will probably end up re signing Yao and signing two solid players such as Joe Jonson and Josh Howard. 3. I'm also a huge McGrady fan, I'm researching this guy every night, I know for a fact that he will be back next year. He should be 85% of the old T-Mac by next January. The reason I say this is that his cartilage loss is occuring on non weight bearing part of his knee. So his prognosis will be much better. He has to make a full and quick recovery because it is his contract year as well. So T-Mac isn't done, He'll be back for one last final chance! Anyway, Go Rockets, when you have guys like Luis, Artest, and Shane...those guys are going to be absolutely amazing for us in Playoffs. We will make second round and can maybe pull off an upset. We have a good team and I really have faith in Brooks! Lets Go Rockets!!!
You wrote this before the Dallas game - brave man. I was sitting in section 115 once again, just to the left and below the Red Rowdies. I have watched rafer teardrop me into utter depression and despair. Boring. Unimaginative. Gone. Hope the Magic love his very limited game skills. Lowery was so fracking exciting - he can elevate, drive the lane. Finally frustrated the Mavs so one of them knocked him totally on his arse. You do that to people when you can't outplay them. The team flowed well pretty much the entire game with no long non-offensive periods. Scola got more minutes, as did the other well deserving players who do more than Tmac and Skip. we came back from a 16 point deficit. The turnovers will go down over then next 30 games as everyone gets to know one another. Addition by subtraction. A team that fits much better together. All of this while enduring another set of refs who called about half of the obvious fouls against the Mavs including a Barrea deliberate retaliation elbow that probably should have been a T, and some really great jersey grabs and pulls, and really bad offensive vs defensive calls at both ends. Come on Les, send the check to the referees pension fund. It takes time to change the personnel to the ones who can play your style. ask JVG. Adelman is getting there and this team is much younger and more athletic than when Morey and Adelman first came here. Yao may not be a top 5 player but he sure outplayed Dampier - the 2nd best center in the league - with a size 14 firmly placed in his (Dampier's) mouth. and Yao is probably about top 12 where the lists have him. Tracy was a black hole - gone for 18 months at least. This team can run Adelman's offense - now. If we can gel like the 22 game streak again by the playoffs then we can go far.
I don't know, however ... I would like to see Yao try to do what Shaq did in the All Star game against Howard, even if he rehearses, I don't think that Yao can pull it off because he doesn't have the athleticism that even Shaq has at his old age.
Play the race card. Real mature. I didn't know that 'American' was a race. His point was the business that China would have drawn to the Rockets organization may have heavily influenced the decision in drafting Yao. It may have been made on the lines of making money, and not necessarily getting championship rings; you know... Leslie was named the NBA owner of the year recently. And if you want to make things political, the same guy who has preached that something big was going to happen in the city of Houston, the same guy who said if you jumped off his wagon you made a big mistake, the same guy who said he's done for the season even though MRI didn't reveal anything, that's the same guy who wore these. Second-guessing your ballot? Leave politics out. For the love of basketball.
