Why do you think we failed to get past the first round?

1. rafer
2. whoever rafer's backup is supposed to be
3. Juwan

Chucky is a good backup and rafer might be one, but having to rely on them just kills us.

 

Its the role players. Van Gundy did alot in recruiting the role players so he has blame as well. But look at the top scorers on this team other than Tmac and Yao in the playoffs.

Alston 10.9 points per game
Battier 10.3 points per game
Howard 5.0 points per game


There is no way a team can win with its 3-5 scorers combine for 26 points.

Van Gundy is so defensive minded that he hasn't sought out to get better offensive players.

Now i fault him a little for not developing V-span more because i felt he could contribute, but Novak? that guy is going to be a long way coming, the same with Lucas, neither is really talented enough to warrant many minutes.

I dont think V-span would have been enough to tip the scales in this playoff series.


This team is decent it needs an adequet 3rd scoring option and another ball handler. If its a guard and it allows tmac to slide to the 3, and pushing Battier to the bench, then that is great beacause it also strengthens the bench, Battier would be a great 6th man.

 

Precisely! I have been saying this ever since their illustrious GM pissed away 3 1st round draft choices for a guy who washed out here and in Minnesota. If memory serves, it was the head coach who paid the price then as well. Since those 2 championship years it's been nothing more than a near endless parade of cheap, free agent bodies passing through wearing a Rockets' uniform (Moochie Norris anyone?). And speaking of the draft, exactly where are the players from all of those drafts? Let's see: Utah managed to draft players. SA managed to find players at the end of the draft. Phoenix managed to draft players. Even hated Dallas manages to draft players in spite of Mark Cuban's largesse at giving out bad contracts to bad players (a fact which I find irritating beyond belief).

The Rockets? Let's see, going back to that epic 2001 draft on the current roster they have 4 draft picks: Head, Novack, Spanoulis and of course Yao. Of the 4, only Yao & Head are what you would consider rotation players with the Spanoulis & Novack only showing up this season. Two contributing players drafted in 6 years, yeah I can see how that's JVG's fault.

The situation looks even worse when you consider that they have been in NBA lotto 5 times since 2000 yet all they have to show for it is Yao Ming. Now the purists out there will be quick to point out that they have traded away good players that were drafted such as Kenny Thomas, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley and they would be right. However, this just further illustrates just how bad a job of talent evaluation and aquisition has occurred under Dawson's tenure as GM but again by all means let's blame the coach for assembling a flawed team.

Of course, the big trade was 3 years ago when Dawson blew up the Stevie Franchise team and went out and got TMac to play with Yao. While getting Tmac was a plus, in the process, they (Rockets) gave up both of their starting guards and their starting power forward creating holes that have yet to be filled to this day. In fact when you read the autopsy of the just passed playoff failure, pay special attention to the weaknesses at PG, SG & PF being mentioned as prominent causes for their exit.

I confess that I'm not as bummed out as many of the folks here because I have come to expect nothing from the Rockets and did not drink the red koolaid when the playoffs started. I did not expect them to get past the 2nd round anyway so this flameout in round one comes as no great shocker to me. As for re-crafting this team next year into a true contender? Good luck with that one - next season they have their midlevel exemption & the 26th pick in the draft. Oh, and they are over the salary cap. Yeah, that's JVG's fault also I suppose because he's in charge of the salary cap as well.

 

How would you know that Novak sucked. Nobody ever saw him play. Lucas and Vspan same thing. you cannot say they sucked when they never got a chance.