before the rats jump off the ship? Stromile had an improved game last night. It wasn't where I would expect him to be once things are rolling, but it was better than before. Yao wasn't hitting, but he is playing the kind of game we've all wanted to see from him. He is being aggressive, and even stayed out of foul trouble last night. Yet the board seems to be flooded by doomsayers. 'We lost two in a row, the season is gone, the team was built wrong, we never should have gotten Swift...' After starting 1-2 it isn't throw in the towel time yet. I pointed out two positives and would throw in that Luther Head made a couple of good defensive plays last night. Swifts troubles, Yao's execution, Wesley's and most of what I hear complaints about seem easily correctable. Wesley had knee surgery and needs to adjust. Yao's style has been more aggressive and as he gets more comfortable with that style I don't find it hard to believe his shooting % will go up. Swift is learning, and if can continue to improve then we will have what we wanted. Swift is instinctual in his playing style. Until he learns the Van Gundy style enough to let his instincts take over within that style he is going to fall short of what we hope. But once he becomes comfortable then he will be exactly what we need. Our problems don't seem insurmountable at all to me. I may be taking blowing the doomsayers comments out of proportion, but who knows. We shouldn't have lost the games we did, but by the same token, it isn't like our problems are so massive that we can't climb out from underneath them.
FranchiseBlade, you don't understand. Any loss means that the season is over and it's time to throw in the towel.
It's like that with every sport here. lol. The Astros forum was the same way all season long. Hell, they made it to the WORLD SERIES!
The goal is to win the championship, correct? Every loss hurts. You can't expect people not to be pissed about these losses. Almost every year, unless you have the best record, you can say, well what if we didn't lose to team x or y. Of course I'm not jumping off the ship. But the Rockets shooting concerns and inability to close out games, which resulted in losses to what you would expect to be 2 below average teams, are concerning, and will definitely impact seeding at the end of the day...so, I'm pissed.
I'm pissed too but there are a lot of threads/posts that seem to be advocating ripping the team apart and starting over because of the last 2 games we played without our best player. Let me just answer a few of them here: -Wesley does not "suck", he's in a slump because he's coming off knee surgery. -Yes, I still think CD is still a good GM, even in spite of the last 2 games... -The Swift signing was still a good move even though he hasn't averaged 20/10 in his first 3 games on a new team (coming off the bench). -I do think Sura had something to do with the fact that we were 44-14 with him in the lineup last year. I don't think it was because of the way Mike James played... -I don't think we should bring back Steve Francis... -I don't think Robert Horry is the missing link.
After all the hype, all the trades, supposedly the greatest offseason ever, CD for president, the polls, the sportcasters who predict a Western Final between the Spurs and the Rockets, a relatively impressive preseason, etc. etc, etc. AND YOU ARE SUPRISED WHEN PEOPLE ARE DISAPPOINTED!!!! Especially after HORRID performances and losses to NBA bottomdwellers, AT HOME! To start the season! Of course fans are freaked out. It is not just the losses it is the unbelievably bad play of core players. No TMac is big, but still no excuse for absolutely sucking ie can't shoot, can't pass, can't catch, can't defend, can't fastbreak...........beyond pathetic. I am extremely disappointed. I expected some growing pains, some adjustments, but not total incompentence from millionaire professional players with years of experience. No Excuses Accepted Here! You may now carry on with FantasyFest.
I agree, FB. To me the only record that matters is the playoff record. As long as we're 16-something at the end of the playoffs I could care less how many games we won during the regular season.
i agree. as long as we make (and are healthy) for the playoffs, anything is possible. however, i also see where the doomsday predictions are coming from. look at our next 11 games (the amount tmac is supposed to miss). the way we played in the last 2, we can lose all of them. starting 1-13 will make it very hard to make the playoffs. some where in the middle is the most likely. we won't start 1-13 and miss the playoffs, but we will have a very dissapointing season if this continues. eg. - the extra losses push us into a low seeding such as 6-8 which may mean another first round exit.
Once we get Sura & T-Mac back, we can get our rotation down. Then we will be the top 1 or 2 team in the West. I don't see us any lower than the 4th seed in the West, even if we do go 1-13 to start. I think we will become that good!
Simply put, we're just not very good without McGrady. A lot of teams are like that when they lose their best player. Look at Phoenix last year without Nash. A lot of our problems will correct themselves when we get a healthy T-Mac back. EDIT: One thing that is pissing me off though is that I think Yao's taking way too many rushed fadeaway jumpers towards the end of games.
The team is not clutch. They choked up the losses. Gaaahhh. That pis$es fans off. JVG didn't do a particularly good job down the stretch in either. He will adjust, and the team will right itself. Those losses just suck. It's perfectly right to think we can do more. You know JVG is kicking himself. Choking sucks, though. No way around that. There is a cure, but it won't be lollypops and sunshine.
