With all these injuries, this season is quickly going down the tubes. I don't want to struggle to an 8th seed only to watch the team get hammered in the first round and get a low pick in the draft. We need to pull a Spurs and simply rest Yao and Tmac as long as necessary and let the chips fall where they may. If we continue at this pace it looks like we will have a top 5 pick, which would bring some needed youth and athleticism to this team. Let Luther, Stromile, Rafer, and John Lucas III get a lot of playing time, find out if any of them are really keepers or cannon fodder. Come back strong next year......this one is over. DD
Turn it in for the season I can accept. I mean they play if they are healthy, they compete if they can, playoffs or not. But TANK? Come on man!
There is a time for reason to prevail, even on this fan site. We are using up TMac at an alarming rate. He and Yao are this franchise and without them we do not have a product. DD is right, but I don't believe it is a tank job. It is just common sense. A number of the guys on this team will not be back next year and we do need to infuse this with some young blood soon. And IMO the job JVG is doing needs to be reviewed closely to determine if he is maximising the talent we still have. I don't think so and I am beginning to read more and more people who are doubters.
The point is, we have two max contracts. We need talent on the cheap to compete for a title. A Rudy Gay or a LaMarcus Aldridge would be very good additions to the team - adding a player with talent like that could make the difference, when we have to face a title team. Deke and Howard are old. Sura is done. JB is done. DA is cannon fodder. Wesley and Moochie are gone. Swift is dumb and clumsy. Alston isn't dependable, is a poor defender and can't shoot. Head is a lone bright spot, but probably best as a sixth scorer. We can't possibly plug all the team's holes with MLE and LLE pick-ups. We have to re-load.
Tanking to me is purposely losing games. This plan seems to be more along the lines of playing with what we have and not rushing T-mac and Yao back. Let the young new players play and see what we have. Do not make any moves that could help us right now but really hurt our future. It seems to be a stand pat approach. I think honestly we have the talent to compete where we all thought we would be. But there are times when life works againist that. The roster is in pretty good shape. We have Deke and DA still signed through next year. We have some wiggle room and if we got a high draft pick we might be able to parlay it into two mid range picks to get like a Rodney Carney and then a SG like a Rudy Fernadez. All and all I am fine with either way. We get into the playoff and face the Spurs and give that a game or we develope what we have and try to see if we made the right moves and try to at least get a SF backup for T-mac. I am not thrilled with the year but with the injuries it happens. We are not built like the spurs yet but we are moving in that direction. Fierguard
Its hard to say it, but honestly it probably would be best if we didnt make the playoffs and got a high draft pick. Starting next season if this team can add another young player via their Lottery Pick and combine that with Luther Head and perhaps bringing over V-Span, that would go A LONG way towards adding some YOUNG players to the core of this team. That way we dont have to rely so heavily on our aging veteran players that are being asked to do too much. Clearly this team is only going to go as far as Tmac+Yao takes them and if they are in and out of the lineup and our supporting cast is a bunch of old players we just arent going to get it done. It is going to be a HUGE hill to climb anyway just to get the 8th seed and what kind of juice would we have left at that point anyway? We would be on fumes. This team needs to add more young bodies to it. Getting a lottery pick would help a lot in that way.
mikey - "maybe chunk already got to the police" dadakota - "maybe chunk is dead" mikey - "DONT SAY THAT! NEVER SAY THAT! GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!" dadakota - "im not a goonie. i want to go home"
It's not like there's anyone in next year's draft to tank for. Let's get some more playoff experience.
I just can't comprehend the idea of losing games on purpose. Even when there was talk of the Texans doing that, I thought that is just the most horrible thing to do for a professional sports athelete/team/organization. I was proud of the Texans for going out and still try to win games. Maybe I'm naive, and they still threw them. I just don't want to see hints of just giving up on this Rockets team...ever.
Its too early to tank, but that'll never happen...We may lose legitimately though and end up in the lottery anyway...
Can't agree more. Exactly what I mean in the other thread. Let our young guys play more, give them opportunities and allow them to make errors.
The Rox might also want to limit their PT while they do return. Given YM and TM health issues, our role players need to carry more of the load.
Losing changes your mindset. I don't want Yao & McGrady to become "comfortable" with losing. Play hard, play to win every game, no matter what.
We would have to catch fire to make the 8th spot and if we are that hot going in, anything can happen. Right now it looks like we won't have to tank to make the lottery. But I think once everyone comes back, we'll be looking at a 10-12 pick.
No disrespect, but those two guys are fierce competitors, and they won't settle for losing. However, this season has been out of anyone's hands, it's been nothing less than watching a MemorialHermann clinic. It's not the guys' fault, it happens sometimes. I would love to get more of a chance to see the younger guys play and see what they're capable of, so that we can weed out the 'legit' ones from the rest. TM and YM should NOT be pushed hard to attempt and make something out of this season and save some jobs.
