Why is it that I have been reading in some of these previews that the Rockets are going to be worse this year than last because of the loss of Olajuwon?? For example, Mike Monroe of Foxsports (still can't believe that he wrote me back) feels that we are the 23rd best team in the league. His reasoning is that we lost Olajuwon and that Mo Taylor got hurt. I won't deny that losing Mo is a big blow, but what about getting Kevin Willis plus Glen Rice, Eddie Griffin, and Terrence Morris? That should account for something, shouldn't it?? Another example is from this John Doe fan. Here are his predictions that were posted on the Sporting News website: http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/fans_view/ He feels the same way about the Rockets like Monroe does. I know I am a homer, but come on, the Rockets are as good or better than the 45 win team of last season. Why is it that the non-homers can't see this?
Everybody in the media is an expert...... I have also heard they will be fighting for a low playoff seed too. It's all just opinions. Don't take it too seriously.
Anytime you lose 3 starters -- including your premier free agent signing from the offseason -- there are going to be doubters. The totality of what changed: Lost Olajuwon Lost Anderson Lost Taylor Added Willis Added Griffin Added Rice Morris is a 2nd rounder, so his value and playing time is still in question, so the above 3 are the "big changes" for the team. Most of the media has doubts about Rice -- he still isn't totally healthy -- so Rice/Anderson is probably a wash. But I'd say Olajuwon to Willis (our 3rd choice at Center behind Olajuwon and Jackson) is a loss and Taylor to Griffin is a loss until Griffin proves himself -- especially for a contending team. Will Griffin hit the "rookie wall"? Will he be someone we can count on late in the season? Will Rice be healthy all season? Will the rule changes hurt our offense? Who knows -- but question marks are going to lower our rating. Teams with questionmarks don't usually get preseason respect -- rightfully so. The Rockets will get the respect when they earn it by winning.
It’s funny but for the last several years Hakeem couldn’t buy a decent headline north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Now that he is teamed with the new Jordan wannabe in Toronto he has gained this “game breaking”, “steady-armed performer”, “the difference in the game” veteran status. Not that I begrudge him that exposure. But, my point is, most uninformed writers extrapolate that … if he is so good now, then the team he left must be devastated …. that type of superficial journalistic stance is rampant in this sport’s media. The truth be known … he was a great player for this team, but for the last couple of years he could NOT be counted on to make the difference in many games. He was injured more and more, his recovery was getting longer …. and frankly the team learned, especially over the last two years, to play well without him. Yes, he had flashes of absolute brilliance. Yes, he showed strong physical presence against some opponents. Yes, he could really pump himself up for some games. But indispensable? Sadly, he stopped being indispensable a while ago, IMHO. This present team does need a strong center. Oh yeah. No doubt there. But Hakeem is not the answer. Hakeem knows that. And he knew that this past summer. He saw the writing on the wall. Given the opportunity …. Hakeem would make some (a bit?) of difference to this team if he were still here, but let’s not fool ourselves ….. he wouldn’t be making as much of a difference as many would surmise. Funny thing is … if Hakeem were still here …. these very same media would be still calling us an “also-ran” in a short field …. they would be still calling us a #23 …. but the excuse then would be that we hung on to Hakeem too long … that we need to replace him. Uh,huh. Right. Expert and expert opinions are like asses. Everyone has one, but some just don't use there's very profeciently. And some, well-heralded and expensively paid experts can't even find theirs ... depsite it being built obviously close to their brains. Cheers.
It seems that a lot of the writers discount any effects of the preseason to guage the upcoming season. If you make a projection purely from the paper facts then you can't discount some of their projections. Fact: We lost three starters from the previous year. W/o taking anything else into account that will make most teams worse than the year before (on paper). Fact: you usually don't factor in a rookie's potential effect on the team because he is yet unproven in the pros. There are only a few that you could totally count on to have an instant impact on a team's record (ie, Tim Duncan) Fact: who can project what chemistry all the new starters will have together, so it is better to take the safe bet of being worse than better from the year before. We have the advantage of watching and critiquing the Rox exclusively, and I am with the majority that say that we will have a better team/record by the end of the year. This team looks very fast/offensive, and the defensive showing in the preseason is making me even more excited. I am very excited about this season. Major PROPS to Rudy & CD on the offseason moves.
I think Willis is aging slower than Olajuwon and so he is better than Olajuwon at this point. Hes grabbing double digit rebounds, even in the 18's and is scoring also. Olajuwon isn't doing much because he's never healthy. So my opinion is that Willis is a better fit than Olajuwon and he will really help us this season.
I want to add that Willis can hold his post position much better than Olajuwon, strong low post player were exposing Olajuwon weakness. Why is it that I have been reading in some of these previews that the Rockets are going to be worse this year than last because of the loss of Olajuwon?? We are not worse but we lost some FA battles in the media and even though I am glad we don't have Dream here anymore it still looks like we have a very weak front line. I think the key to the season will be the rotation Rudy T uses during the begining of the season. We all know that Griffin and Morris have skills but will Rudy trust them to give them big minutes. We have every kind of player needed to compete if you include the rookies. We have low post players, shot blockers, rebounders, scorers and quality defenders at every position but if Rudy T decides that he want to go to the Norris, Mobley, Francis, Williams, Thomas lineup in key situation like he did last year we are in big trouble.
Every time I pick up a newspaper or magazine that has a 2001-02 NBA Season Prewiew in it they always have the Rockets as 10th in the West. Usually the Clippers, Suns, and sometimes even Sonics are listed ahead of us. That's crazy. We are better than all 3 of them.
Great analysis, as always, pops. What I italicized of oeilpere's is a very important point. If we still had Olajuwon, the experts would still be dumping on us, using the excuse that Olajuwon is too old and injury-prone. We are in a no-win situation with the experts. I like being the underdog, but it pisses me off that so many so-called non-biased basketball people would think that we would be worse without Olajuwon when in actuality they would think the same thing if we still had him.
