1. What do you consider the best team Rick has coached? 2002 Kings comes to mind STARTERS: Chris Webber - Peja Stojakovic - Mike Bibby - Doug Christie - Vlade Divac Bobby Jackson Hedo Turkoglu Scot Pollard 2. Can the Rockets surpass that team? Rocket River
Meh, realization > potential. Gotta go with one of his Por or Sac teams. Hopefully, we'll look back in a few years and the answer will be the Rockets.
Currently, the Rockets cannot compare to his Kings nor his Blazers teams at their peak. At its best, the Kings teams ranked top 5 to top 10 in both offense AND defense. Same with his Portland teams. Both teams feature a clear superstar, Kings with Webber, and Portland with Drexler. The Rockets can reach that level IF, and these are huge IFs 1. Yao can truly dominate the way he used to for 30mpg(only necessary in the playoffs) 2. Kevin Martin and Aaron Brooks improve their defense, so the Rockets can at least achieve borderline top 10 defensive efficiency. If both of the above occurs, then the Rockets can rival the above teams. Both of which, IMO, would have beaten the Lakers last year, and good odds to beat Miami and LA this year.
RA's Kings unofficially defeated the LA Lakers in 6 games. That is, they unofficially dethroned the team with the prime Shaq.
More like lack-of-heart jinx. You are a T-Mac apologist if you believe "injuries" were the reason he sabotaged the prospects of that team. He simply saw the heightened expectations (clear Western Conference #2 in the pre-season, expected to contend with LA for the rights to play Boston in the championship) and folded like a house of cards, sat on his butt the whole offseason, shirked off his rehab, and collected his check. That man burned all his bridges in this city, and as far as I am concerned he can go to hell. What he did to us is worse than what Lebron did to Cleveland. Cleveland sucked before and after Lebron's tenure there; they should thank him for all the good years he gave them. T-Mac came in for Yao's prime and took a giant dump on it with consistent choke-jobs, lazy 23ft 2pt jumpshots at the end of the shot clock, and monthly trips up to Waco to get his back "massage". Whatever. I'm sorry for dwelling on this but all the Lebron anger I guess awoke in me my old frustration.
Porter > AB Clyde > Martin Kersey > Ariza B. Williams > Scola Duckworth < Yao Enough said... :grin: COULD BE the best Rocket team since 97 but we will see.
Will be a top 5 defense. Rockets had that in the 2 years before this last one without Yao...and replacing McGrady with Martin basically isn't going to significantly change things defensively.
This team should dominate NBA. Could win 70 games. But they largely underachieved. The lost about 15 games to the bottom teams. This is no excuse. Coach RA should be fired. He's keeping underachieved. Coach JVG is the best pre-prepared coach. He's the best for Rockets now. Winning is not only about talents, it is about habit. If you cann't consistently beat the bottom team, you are only the pretenders.
yip, despite the bad officiating in the Queens' favor, Adelman's Queenies choked, in the closing miutes of games, nobody wanted to shoot (not Peja, CWeb, Bibby nor Divac) resulting in the 5th option throwing up bricks. embarrassing
get out of the hatred and look at the facts: JVG did not win. JVG was fired. JVG is not coaching. Yao passed 2nd round with RA. Rockets won 22 games in a row with RA.