DOUG COLLINS "The key to their team is going to be health, first and foremost. If Tracy (McGrady) and Yao Ming stay healthy, they are two of the best players at their positions in the world. That's absolutely vital. Jeff is a terrific coach and I love the addition of Shane Battier. He is a winner and brings fire and passion to that team that by nature is a pretty quiet team. I think they need that." HUBIE BROWN "I like Shane Battier a lot. He's the type of player you love to have on your team. The guy shows up every day. He's just a terrific guy, and gives you something both ends of court every night. You need guys like that on the court, guys that rebound, are tough, are good defenders, knock down shots. That's what Shane Battier is. But the biggest question is how will the guards develop? Will they be the kind of guys they need to be? There will be a learning curve. There may be some tough times, but by the end of season, if they play them, they'll understand what it takes to play." RICK BARRY "First of all, off the top of my head going off last year, the guard play must improve with quality people. Your perimeter game must be at a top level. By that, we mean high percentage 3-point shooters as well as players who can create off the dribble on the kick out as the defense is running at them. That's saying a lot. What you're looking for is development. The people they have have potential. Now it comes down to developing shooting with high percentages on the 3, especially 3s with the shot clock going down. That is one key, the other key is quality front court people at the four and five positions, especially when Yao is out of the game." BILL FITCH "If you're looking at Houston, you're looking at McGrady's health, really those two guys there, McGrady and Yao Ming. Those are my main concerns right there. Everybody thought that giving away that draft choice was giving away a lot. I thought at the time, 'That is a great deal. They needed that.' " KENNY SMITH "The Rockets have talent. Do they know how to utilize it and do the players know how to utilize each other? The one thing you have to figure is, do they have the pieces to the pie and do the pieces fit? The NBA is about injuries and how you can sustain wins without injured players. The Miami Heat did not fall out when Shaq (O'Neal) was out last year. You can't fall out of the race when someone gets hurt. That's dictated by style of play and the cohesiveness of players. It's too simplistic to say it was only about injuries last year." Link= http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4208817.html
Doug Collins and Kenny Smith said some pretty interesting and knowledgeable things. Rick Barry is a moron. The other two just said the same old stuff. Thanks for the article, definitely.
i agree 100% adding a winner who brings fire and passion (as doug said about shane) was a great point about how badly we needed what we lost in sura. the same can be said about the addition of spanoulis. to a lesser extent, snyder brings a certain toughness aswell. we will see different body language from our team this year. kenny's point about how we can't go 0 for the season without tmac was excellent. too many of us were able to accept the fact that we can't win 1 game without him. although rick barry is a moron his point about better perimeter play fits here. tmac was our only productive perimeter player. without him yao saw tripple teams.
Give Kenny a break. Somed of us grew up poor and cannot afford puzzles. Had to spend money buying pies just so we do not starve.
What the hell? Rick barry knew more about this team than any one else. That was a big problem last year, gaurds creating out of the kickout. When the defense collapsed on Yao, how often did he pass it out only to see them clunk a 3 or pass the ball around the perimiter. We need someone to penetrate on those kickouts and create for others. Kenny Smith is a fool, hes comparing Miami without Shaq to Houston without Yao. Am I missing something, didnt Miami have some guy named Zo behind Shaq. And a buttload of extra offensive options behind them. Im startin to think you know nothing about the rockets
Rick Barry's comments boil down to: "They need to have better perimeter play, and oh yeah they need to have better inside play as well."
I love Kenny Smith and all from his playing days here. But he says some weird things. If the Rockets have the role players on Miami minus Shaq/Wade, this board would be thinking championship run right now. Hubie Brown puts it best. We need our young guards to develop. At least one person among V-Span/Head/Snyder needs to step up and become legitimate starters. We know we're getting quality production from Yao/Battier/T-Mac. We know we get mediocre production from Alston/Howard. Chuck Hayes is unlikely to be off the bench much. So the only unknowns are our young guards.
Kenny makes a valid point. You can't fall out of the race because one important player gets hurt. There is no way any team should go 0-16 just because they are missing their top scorer. You cannot compare the depth of those two teams, that is why the Heat won the championship and the Rockets went to the lottery. (As a side note: Shaq is overrated in his old age, His importance on that Heat team is dwarfed by Yao or Tmacs importance to the Rockets)
You underestimate the importance of Tmac and Yao. You would have a point if we had the depth of say San Antonio and we lose all those games, but fact is we have no one who can help compensate for the loss of 1 of our stars. Kenny is a dumbass, hes always hated Tmac.
"do they have the pieces to the pie and do the pieces fit?" That was half of his point. Nice job disagreeing with someone that you're agreeing with..
I really could care less what they say. We still are lacking athleticism + 3rd scoring, perimeter option. That's the bottom line
It depends on the make-up of your team. The heat had another center and another star when Shaq went out. The Rockets have no replacement for T-Mac. The Cavs have no replacement for LeBron. LA for Kobe, etc.
Rick Barry was right on the money. Our guards are a question mark, we have no proven shooting. and our PF/C rotation is an absolute wasteland outside of Yao. It doesn't take a genius to detect that, but it's still right.
Kenny is dumb if you wanna compare the 2 teams then tmac is to the rockets as dwade is to the heat so if dwade was out like tmac was does miami still win the championship? Of course not bc shaq can not carry a team by himself its a fact. Yao ming is better than shaq so if shaq was out to along with dwade theres no way they win
