I don't know how believable that is. If he did have any kind of offer from the Kings it was conditional at the best, ie depended on Hayes. It was reported the Kings made the effort to publicly rescind their offer, even though the Kings didn't offer one, after Dalembert annouced he was close to signing with them. ........ Fox Sports’ Chris Tomasson reported last night Dalembert was anticipating a return to Sacramento for a second season. But Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick says the Kings were caught off guard by Tomasson’s story. http://www.cowbellkingdom.com/2011/12/21/kings-lose-samuel-dalembert-bidding-war-to-houston/
I agree. I have watched both Knicks games so far and I am really pulling for them to fail. It's almost like having a second team, except you root against them. However, as much as I may despise the Knicks this year, I would never wish a torn ACL on anyone ever.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/05/morey-rockets-interior-defense-needs-to-improve/ http://houston.cbslocal.com/?podcas...=true&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.HOUSTON Daryl, good morning. I know there have been better mornings but back to back losses in LA. What do you make of last night's game? Well I think it was a rough one obviously. We came into the year with a lot of question marks, and a lot of things we needed to resolve in a positive way, and players we need to have step up and yesterday was obviously one that reminded us that we haven't gotten as far as we need to. Yeah. Loss to the Lakers the night before. Loss to the Clippers last night. First of all, lets go over some defensive things. At home, its been a completely different story. Whats the difference? I mean, I know the level of competition is very strong that you have been facing in the early part of this road swing here with the Lakers and the Clippers. Well I think a lot of our issues can be traced to our bigs right now. Dalembert trying to work his way in. Once he does that, that's going to help a lot. Patterson obviously didn't have a training camp. He's been really down relative to his play last year and is still bothered. Jordan Hill getting his first taste of significant time as one of our primary bigs and struggling at times. Obviously at home, he's had some very good moments, especially on the boards which we need but somebody who is continuing to learn and isn't quite there yet. And then Scola is sorta Mr. Steady obviously. On the offensive end he has been strong. In general, our team has struggled with back to backs as well. We did have the one where we played at a high level at home on the 3rd night but otherwise, we've struggled like the rest of the league. On the defensive end, we're bringing a lot more help in terms of loading to the ball but that help hasn't been as effective as we'd like it to be and the result is a lot of help, maybe too much fouling and too many open looks when teams swing the ball. You mentioned a couple of things there that I know have something to do with overall effort, especially on the block, when guys are still just learning and coming back, guys playing back to back this early in the season with no lockout, not being in shape but you had to be disappointed with the effort down low as I was because, it was pretty obvious guys weren't getting to the spots. Yeah, it seemed like yesterday was the first time where things were a struggle and maybe we gave in a bit, unfortunately. That's something we haven't seen too often and we're gonna...the players and everyone has to fight through that. What do you think of Kyle Lowry so far this season Daryl? Kyle's been excellent. We win or lose as a team. ... He's been one of the bright spots. I think, in general, our offense on the offensive end is struggling also with the bigs, our bigs as well as we dont have as many facilitators at the big spot. Patterson was someone we were hoping would step forward, and I think will going forward, but at this point, has really struggled coming back from that injury. A lot of our bigs are struggling to know where to be on offense so they're not in the way of our drivers. Our attack game has really been hurt by the spacing and our bigs not always making it easy for our driving angles to be there. What are teams doing now early in the season to defend you guys on penetration? Seems like a real big emphasis now. Yeah I think...there's been more help brought to the ball. Last year, we were able to lift our bigs and have facilitators or we had guys in the dive spot. This year, our bigs have gotten in the way more. It's Jordan, it's Dalembert, it's Patrick, all sorta struggling here in the early going for various reasons. Yeah, I was watching that last night, trying to play amateur, very amateur coach. You're gonna have to at some point just feed the ball to the bigs no matter what, aren't you? Yeah. I think some of those things are easier said than done. We do need to get more paint play in general either through attacking or getting the ball into the bigs. In general, our paint play, which has been an emphasis...our number one emphasis was on defense, and I think yesterday showed our help defense not as strong as we'd like it to be and the second biggest emphasis was paint play on the offensive end. Right now, we've had some bright spots on those two things with all the emphasis but yesterday was our worst in terms of both of those things. You said it. To try and educate some of the guys extremely difficult this season with the lack of practice time. You're playing almost every night. How many hotel walk throughs are you doing in ballrooms and things like that because its too tough to get practice time in and really get the instruction you need for a young group. Yeah every team is facing that, so we can't really use that as an excuse. We intentionally wanted to win in a certain way this year, which is with guys who are improving. Generally, we wanted to win with players who are getting better, younger players. Obviously we're seeing some of the growing pains of that in a game like yesterday. Good news is you're going to OKC now. Yeah, it gets easier from here obviously. No but the schedule is the schedule. I think our guys will respond. It was two disappointing games in LA and I think our guys will respond and get one or two of these Oklahoma City games. We do have a focus group of good players and a good coaching staff who is getting them prepared. Going straight to OKC? Yeah, we play them tomorrow and then we play them at home obviously. What do you think of this division? It's a wide open West in general. Even OKC is the class of the West, is more vulnerable than you might've seen the Lakers team of the recent past. If we can get our feet under us and get to a playing group that is playing consistently and playing well, we can definitely make a run in the West here this year. Are you doing more or less college scouting this year based on the schedule? How much do you feel you have to be physically present at all these Rockets games? How is your personal schedule going as you prepare for whatever moves you can make down the stretch here or in the offseason? Right. I like to be with the team but it's just not practical this year. The December re-start, got college games in early with the December re-start, kept us in Houston as we got things ready for the season. This is just critical time for the college season to be ready for the draft so I've been out on the college front. I follow the Rockets on Twitter and follow you as well. Social Media night Saturday at Toyota Center. You gotta get in on this. I've been pretty focused and I haven't been on that as much this year. When I can, I do like to interact with the fans that way. I do like your game recaps. In 140 characters, you break it down well. I'll probably have to get back to that. I have gotten away from that. Last night, I couldn't see the game live so I had to watch it on video when I got back to my hotel room after watching Illinois yesterday. Obviously it's an intense schedule and we'll see how our guys respond. I really think Patrick Patterson was someone we really needed to count on this year and that injury and him coming back from it has really impacted us early, unfortunately, that he hasn't been able to give us the same quality minutes as last year to this point. That's probably been one big area of frustration because I think if we had him going, he could've maybe shifted one of these games. We'll watch for him to get it going the next couple of games. ... Daryl, thanks for the time. Appreciate it. We know you're traveling. Be safe. We'll catch up soon. Thanks for having me on. We'll get this turned around. Thanks so much.
I'd rather tank with young guys getting them playing time vs tank with scola and martin. Thats called a bad team.
Agreed, which is why I want them flipped for picks.....maybe they are showcasing them to trade at the deadline. DD
That's kind of what I read into. I also think if you want to do this "right", you need to trade Scola and Martin. Then sit back and "enjoy" watching the youth play.
I'll probably have to get back to that. I have gotten away from that. Last night, I couldn't see the game live so I had to watch it on video when I got back to my hotel room after watching Illinois yesterday. Meyers Leonard?
Ironically we could lose out on all of our picks in the upcomming draft.....unless we...uhhhhh...don't make those playoffs they are always talking about. DD
However, we could trade Martin and Scola to teams in the East like Philly, Cleveland, and Toronto to help them get to the playoffs and keep the Knicks out while we go to the lottery ourselves.
