the SI NBA preview is out. here is all of the rocket info: Combustable ingredients: here is why pairings could strike magical sparks or send thier teams down in flames. JVG & rafer alston: SPARKS: reenergized by his escape from toronto, skip will happily dump the ball into yao ming when he's not dishing to new running mates tmac and swift in JVg's promised up-tempo offense. FLAMES: old dogs dont learn new tricks. JVG is sure to revert to his grind it out ways. steve francis bit his toungue for a season before being shipped to orlando; dont bet on alston keeping mum that long. A perfect team: Ian thomsen set out to make a team who will definitely beat the spurs. like the spurs he would place a premium on chemistry and teamwork. the rules were he cant use any of the spurs, and he had to stay under the luxury tax. here is the team: YAO - kristic sheed - d. howard - mcdyess LBJ - artest wade - pike nash - billups - ridnaur COACH: pat riley nice to see yao on the team. Thomsen said he wanted shaq but that pick would have eaten a third of his cap. amare was his second choice but he is injured. MVP WINGMEN: the last 7 mvp awards went to big men (kg, shaq, malone, and twice to tim) or little men a.i. and nash. one of these 5 will become the first MVP on the wing since MJ in 1998. -KOBE -TMAC: has the supporting cast to make this his finest all-around season, and he'll garner extra suport if houston becaomes the spurs top challenger in the west. -wade -LBJ -CARTER ALL DIRTY WORK TEAM: Jeff Foster - Joel Przybilla Kurt Thomas - P.J. Brown - Reggie Evans Cardinal - Ryan Bowen Shane Battier - Mickael pietrus Eric Snow - Earl Boykins - Erick Strickland 5 predictions: here is the only one about the rockets: -Thanks to being stronger, better conditioned and more mature - and to amare's injury - yao ming will be the second best center, behind shaq. And finally, the season preview. I have typed only the major points made: from a basketball standpoint Alston makes sense for the rockets. a pure PG, Alston should go back to being a complimentary player like in his breakout year in miami. "so far" JVG says, "I like what I see." in a nut shell, here is the scouting report on us: we needed a big strong compliment to yao to protect him inside and do a lot of the dirty work. instead we got stro who has allways been known as a nonchalant talent, but with him and yao in there it should be tough to get to the rim. signing swift and trading for rafer tells us that the rockets will be a more up-tempo team this year. don't by the criticism of yao. he doesnt back down from challenges. remember what people used to say about tim duncan...doesnt play with enough passion... we need more 3-point shooting. we'll see if DA is healthy long enough to supply it. overall they have us finishing in the 4th seed.
I think that this is the year that T-Mac makes that next step and wins the MVP...unless the Cavs do well. LeBron is the next coming of MJ, hype-wise, and you can't discount his wild popularity.
It's interesting what a short memory people seem to have. Prior to last year with Sam Mitchell in Toronto, Alston was a model player. Miami claimed he was one of the primary keys to their success. Everyone has raved about his professionalism. Funny how one bad year can erase all that.
You can't discount his talent either. You also can't discount the Rockets are a better team and that works in T-Mac's favor. May the best player win.
I don't recall anyone ever raving about his professionalism in Miami. Van Gundy had issues with him needing the ball too much, as Wade and Odom were the team's best open court players -- and Rafer wanted to walk it up court. There's a reason the Heat, sans point guard at the time, let Alston walk. He may not be as bad as the national media wants him to be, but I don't remember one printed word being devoted to his 'professionalism.'
FLAMES: old dogs dont learn new tricks. JVG is sure to revert to his grind it out ways. steve francis bit his toungue for a season before being shipped to orlando; dont bet on alston keeping mum that long. I'll admit I was a JVG hater in his first season here b/c of his grind it out style (most of YOU were as well), but last season, with the exception of the first 20 games or so, JVG really loosened up the offense and the rox scored points in bunches and the offense was very fluid. Don't these so called experts watch the games? DIdn't they see the playoffs? HOw can they continue to say JVG runs a grind it out offense?
Here's SI.com's AllPoison team, including Toronto's coach, Sam Mitchell, interestingly, but not Rafer: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mu.../2005/10/19/gallery.allpoison/content.13.html
JVG has not had the grind it out style since he came to Houston. The reason our offense was so pathetic was b/c we had too many guys that played the iso game. JVG was always telling the team to push the ball.
JVG had the Knicks grind it out because they couldn't run. I suspect that the fact that Fancy wouldn't push the ball is the main reason he's gone. I believe that JVG will run the system that plays to the strengths of his players, not their weaknesses. If you can't run the break and you won't push the ball, how are you going to run an up-tempo offense? This year I expect to see a lot more running.
