Do you believe our 2008-2009 team was a contender?

I voted yes, but the truth was it was not a question of if but when yao was going to break his feet.

For all the b****ing about tmac he has a top 10 per in the playoffs for his career.

 

I think the Rockets would've won the championship that year to be honest if Yao had not gone down.
We would've taken the Lakers to game 7, winning, then demolishing Denver and Orlando.

-sigh- What a year...

 

I was all for trading McGrady in the summer of 2008. Just didn't think he had it in him to lead a championship team.

Then Morey kept T-Mac and went out and got Artest instead. And I really thought Artest was the missing piece to the puzzle, the player whose toughness would compensate for McGrady's weaknesses.

Ah, what could have been.

 

This is like saying if the 1986 Rockets could've been a dynasty. If Sampson had remained healthy, Wiggins and Lloyd not done coke I'm sure that we would be talking about the late 80's Rockets as a dynasty. In the same way that 2009 team at the start of the playoffs definitely were a contender.

While they were the 5th seed remember that from 2 to 6 in the West only a few games separated the teams. If I recall if the Rockets won their last game they would've finished in the 3 spot. Even without T-Mac and Deke going down early in the series the Rockets still took a very good Portland team in 6 and took the best team in the league to 7 games with a few blowout victories, including one without Yao. I have no doubt if Yao and Deke had remained healthy that team goes to the Finals and probably wins it all since Yao had the edge on Howard.

 

Hard to say.

It is difficult for me to remember Hayes without his offensive skill set.

 

Not to mention Yao would have played less with Deke getting some of his minutes. Less of a chance he gets hurt.



That would have been a great season...

 

uhhh, absolutely

you could argue they were still the 2nd best team in the west after Yao and tmac went down

 

For what it's worth, we were 1-2 with Yao against the Lakers and 2-2 without him. He was injured in Game 3, but he did play the whole game.

 

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This pic breaks my heart.

 

I voted yes.

Coming into that season I had high expectations, I thought that team could win it all.
Eh, I hate to say it, but Tracy. Oh well...he couldn't help it.
Anyway, even w/o Mac, after Yao and Ron led us in that Portland series I still was a believer.
Then it happened....again....the end.

 

holy ****

what was then...and what is now.


I remember the excitement overwhelming me when I first saw that.

It was off a thread with wallpaper requests or something i think

 

lol silly homers. we were not a contender w/ just yao/deke. we needed a healthy 2005 tmac to be real contenders.

 

If Yao were to stay healthy, who know how far Houston could've gone. They looked extremely good during games 1 and 2 with Yao on the floor

 

If we got past LA we would've won the championship.

 

Well, there was a time we could have traded T-Mac for Billups and Prince ...

 

Yea but we were still fighting for the playoffs. I know we wasnt going to do much without Yao, but you just cant give up and shut Tracy down. If Tracy can play you let him play.

 

I know we are all Rockets fans, but the only reason Rockets took LA to 7 games was because they were ****ing around with us. They were a better team from top to bottom.

 

^

****ing around with us? Yeah right. You're the one ****ing around with us. We would've won the series if Yao and Deke didn't go down with injuries. We nearly won it without them.