Watched both playoff games today and I kept thinking, what would we look like out there? We're not that far away. Second week of the playoffs and too many people are already saying stuff like we're stuck in mediocrity, we need to totally tear it down and start over, etc. I just don't see it that way. Our squad that we closed the season with could play with any of these teams today save for possibly the Heat. We may not win a 7 game series against any of them but we would probably run them out the whole 7 games. It would be close. As good as Memphis is looking right now, we would be right there in a 7 game series with them. We need to add to what we got. We've got a core. We need to add to it. We need a nice center and a nice small forward, both two-way players that can defend and play offense too. (Interestingly enough, Yao and McGrady were our 5 and 3. There's no doubt that if they were healthy and playing with this current squad that we would be a top seed and headed for a Finals appearance.) This doesn't mean we throw in the towel on our youth and trade them all away for 31 year old players. But throwing away our core for future draft picks and young talent isn't the answer either. When you look at the best teams in the league, the Lakers, Celtics, etc., they've kept it going for decades without doing that. They both have come to forks in the road....and took them. They traded their way back to the top from mediocrity. There is only one team still playing that has used the lottery to get to where they are (OKC), and if it hadn't been for a now fortunate coin flip, they may have indeed screwed up the lottery pick themselves (taken Oden over Durant). They actually got lucky with the "leftover" pick after Portland took Oden. I trust the process. We've had great, very good, and good teams here in Houston for many, many years. Yes, we are stuck in mediocrity right now. The answer isn't to give away our core for crap shoot draft picks. The answer is to trade our way back to the top.
I agree with this sentiment. I don't see any use in tanking or gutting our core to get more youth. All we really need is a presence in the paint and we'd be far more effective than we are. If we could also add a solid 3, we'd be up there with the big boys.
The Celtics were one of the worst teams in the league in the 80's and 90's. The Lakers repeatedly attracted star free agents because they ... already had star players, which we don't. Yeah, and we got them by drafting them first, and, in the case of T-Mac, by them wanting to come here and forcing a trade here because we already drafted a guy (Yao) that they wanted to play with.
Yeah, I've noticed that the same general crowd of people who are always wrong are proposing tanking/starting over.
I guess if you consider Nick Van Exel to be a star that got Shaq signed, then we have 6 stars on this team. We should be a shoe-in for the Dwight Howard sweepstakes.
If any ole player is a yard, then we are a mile away from being title contenders. We need an impact wing and an impact big...while not losing our #2 option (Martin). This is not the passenger side mirror. Objects are not closer than they appear.
If we were that close we would have kept Adelman. You can't pick up a first option without A. Losing games B. Trading promising young "Potential first options" Go young, give young guys a chance, teach, and develop. Meanwhile, we lose and stockpile picks. WE NEED A TOP 10 PLAYER
I have always said this. To give up and trade away our core players now, would be taking a trail of steps backward. We are so much closer than many here think we are. Just having Yao would make us championship contenders. As a matter of fact, we just need someone with Yaos presence and half of his skillset and we will be set. Better yet, if Thabeetrolleyes can avg. 7pts., 7rbs., 2blks. a game and T. Will plays somewhat to his potential, we are set. Really.
Our role players are miles better than Orlando's role players. Turgolu, Arenas, and the rest of em are terrible.
I love this "whistling past the graveyard" line of thought because it gives the red koolaid addict a nice warm yummy feeling. However, I have also been watching the NBA Playoffs and I simply fail to see how the Rockets, as currently constituted, measure up with the likes of Memphis, Dallas, LA, Miami, Boston or Chicago. Those teams possess the size and athleticism the Rockets lack. They play defense in ways the Rockets don't (or can't). They have an established team identity which the Rockets also do not have. Finally, they have head coaches and coaching staffs in place which the Rockets do not have and won't have for quite sometime seeing as how DM plans to interview virtually everyone not named Wooden. All I know is that ever since the two championship years, team after team has managed to find ways to improve enough to surpass the Rockets while they continue to bump along in their little universe of ho-hum, woulda, coulda, shoulda basketball. If that isn't the definition of mediocrity, then we need to come up with a new synonym for mediocre.
Like its been posted before the Lakers, Miami and Boston already had franchise talent or close to it, in place so they were in position to make trades to improve. The Rockets don't have anything remotely close to a franchise player, and please don't say Kevin Martin fits under that category... As far as the core goes, not even Morey believes we have something that you can truly call a core. http://houston.cbslocal.com/?podcas...=true&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.HOUSTON (Its around the 16:18-16:56 mark) jopatmac, Morey will most likely be tearing this current core down, so don't be surprise if Martin or Scola aren't a part of this roster come next season. Its time to move on, you got way to attach to this roster.
Thats true, but to get Superman, we would have to gut our team and have it end up looking like the Planeteers.
They can afford to do that when their core is Kobe and Paul Pierce, instead of Lowry, Martin and Scola. You are right that our best way is to trade, except not for established franchise players, since no one is willing to trade those to us for what we have. I hope you still trust the process if we decide to go the other way. I am starting to doubt more and more that retooling with what we have is the direction the team is headed. You think Adelman would've left if it was? Isn't that the whole reason WHY he left, that we are CHANGING directions?
