Lets look at what really happened the last two years. The Rockets played well in the regular season, especially last year. Not a lot more could be expected of them. They won home coart advantage for the playoffs and drew a team they could beat. What happened? Both years, one with Yeo and one without, they came up short. Teams put it all out in the playoffs and our all was not as good why? First of all we are a one man offense. When yeo is playing he and tmac take turns being a one man offense. We depend on shooting to make the difference. One of the best games of the whole season was a win over LA where Auston blew the lights out with his shooting. Id have to check the statistics but i would think any time a non Tmac or Yeo scored 30 points we won against whoever. Rockets teams simply cannot shoot. Look at free throws alone. We would have beaten Utah this year if we had shot our free throws. Why did LA win? La has a winner on its team. Bryant simply would not go another year without a championship. He beat the other team. Tmac is not going to beat another team like that. yeo forget it. It kills me all these wild trade ideas. We have no one other teams want. We do not have that player other teams would kill for, the winner the person who cannot rest until he beats someone. Draft time is upon us. I would not oppose trading anyone for draft picks. Actually I would not oppose trading anyone for next year draft picks. The idea of trading for a borken down old superstar look at Dallas and Pheonix. they got what they payed for, early exit from playoffs. Personally I would trade Tmac. I think hes good trade bait and good for draft choices. Next time we to out there in the playioffs lets have a team that can win.
Kobe being a winner is bs. He won because his supporting cast was amped up significantly, and the Lakers had young players come through. He is a great player, but its not like he did all this alone. Plus at this point, Tracy is more valuable to keep. We wouldnt get value, and McGrady is still top notch at creating, and potent in every other facet of the game. We need to focus on adding a 3rd star type player, because it is clearly a 3 star league now. SA, LA, BOSTON, even DET. We need another perimeter option, a player that can create his own shot, hit the 3, defend small quick players and rotate the ball. We may end up finding this is 2 players and not one. However, trading Tracy, would put us out of the playoffs.
This is an incredible collection of absolutely incoherent (yet quite unoriginal thoughts)...I hate the offseason
Off-season threads are like American soap operas. You can leave the board for a while and when you come back it is real easy to catch up because the same bad material is recycled.
kobe is playing at a high level so please don't try to diss his play. but even if he had played like this and gasol never came to LA, they probably would have lost to the jazz (the nuggets just suck). kobe has AT LEAST 4-5 GREAT shooters around him, and 3 shooters on the floor at all times (dfish, vujacic, vlad, farmar) and 2 versatile big guys in odom and lamar (EXTREMELY versatile). the lakers are the most complete offensive team we have seen in a while. and their bench is the best bench this year. you can have great playeres, but you need great supporting cast if you want to win, esp. in this day and age. hopefully morey can get some pieces off the bench. our starting 5 is good enough to win their part.
We have the worst supporting cast of any team thats serious about winning. Its really ridiculous. I like Shane and Rafer but if we're going to have defensive guys like that we should have much better offensive players coming off the bench. Sure the spurs start Bowen but either Finley or Ginobli comes off the bench first. Its hard to tell how successful Yao/Tmac have been when they haven't had even a decent supporting cast. If, in the near future, they get role players that can get it done then i'll be all aboard the "trade away X star" train.
The Rox don't have "level jumpers". What I mean are talented guys that can go up a notch in the playoffs. The only guy that do is tracy and maybe yao. The other guys have to overachieve just to compete during the regular season. When the playoffs come, they don't have enough guys that can stay at the elevated level against really good teams. We've seen guys play at a higher level than normal during the streak, but trying to get it to happen in a 7 game series is another story.
We are in a win-now mode, or at least close to it since Tmac and Yao are in the prime of their careers. I believe that a healthy Yao and Tmac, an addition or two and perhaps an upgrade to one of our startes is all we need to get deep in the playoffs if not win the whole thing. Trading Tmac for draft picks will r****d this movement. The foundation is already set, we just need to commit to what we already have and continue to add pieces. Building a championship team takes time. Remember that it took Hakeem 10 years to get to the finals. Adelman's system is only in year one and according to players who've played for him that it takes 3 years to be comfortable it. We just need to have patience because it will come.
i'm fine with having "hustle/defensive-minded" players, but it's time for us to look for offensive minded guys: guys that want to go out there and put the ball in the bucket and not just sit back and get open shots from tmac and yao. nobody on our team does that outside of tmac and yao. even scola or landry would not look for their shots. vujacic comes in and jacks it up; same with farmar and fisher. we need guys like that. they're role players, but aggressive role players.
okay understand this, while jvg's tenure here he built this team into a hustling defensive monster of a team except he forgot one thing.. this team severely lacked any type of offensive coordination. now that we added some good power fowards we're lacking depth and consistency in the back court. i think that if we focus on getting tmac to accept the ball movement and trust his team mates more our offensive will flow more evenly. yes i know tmac's a better ball handler than rafer but the thing is, he's not mentally tough enough to score, distribute and rebound as well as he used to. i really hope we add someone to take the pressure off of tracy and yao because as it sits now i believe rafer/battier/(landry/scola) are all depended on to deliver that 3 offensive punch and as we all know rafer isn't the most consistent point guard in the league but give him credit he's getting there.. battier is a good piece for this team but it does bother me that he's our third best player BUT he's also the glue/intangibles guy. look at the jazz they have one his name is AK47 (yes he flops and he will learn to pay for it next season) but the difference is that kirelinko is able to score but is NOT needed to do so. it might be more appropriate to compare battier to harpring but that'd be pretty sad considering how he's basically a second string.. oh man as it has been mentioned countless times before, this current roster really lacks any sort of leadership and experience. sure you have tmac and yao but they don't have that necessary will to push others to be better. tmac can make you better by passing you the ball where you want it but if we don't have players who can hit those shots who ridicules them later? tmac? we all know he likes to say anything and everything.. ahh rant over
Rockets problem was and is healthy and bench. Yao had not fully recovered from injured in last year playoff and this year he didn't play. Last years L.Haed and J. Howard were the two bench who played. This year is part-time BJ , L.H. plus two rocky. Both S.B. and Rafer were hurt. If yao had not injured this year, they should be #1 seed in WC. They were only two games away from Lakers. Not starter but Health and Bench (third scorer) are the weakness of Rockets and poor health made bench even worse.
I haven't posted this on the GARM but seen as I have a few minutes to kill....nows a good a time as any. I'm over T-Mac. He is not the type of player I think can win a title. He is way too soft and there comes a point where you wish someone would tell him that great players play with the bumps and bruises. To shut up, man up and just get out there and play. I just think our team has too many excuses, to many players that are given too many chances and they have always failed. People here want guys that put up pretty numbers, thats fine. I'd rather winners that scrap there way to victories, players that no one wants to face. Guys who you know will turn up for every game and play their heart out and not just talk about it. When you look at the other teams in the League, the players that are just out and out winners.....we are not even close to them. We're kidding ourselves if we think things will magically fall into place. I feel better now.
