Well, I don't feel right supporting this team as much as I use to. I guess I just really miss Stevie, and the gang, thats all. That was our entire team.
Well that team was going nowhere, fast. So, the Rockets took a risk at getting better, will it work, early indications are, no, but it is too late to leave the ship. It is all on Yao and Tmac now, one needs to lead, and neither seem capable. DD
From the few games I saw, JVG had Yao parked downlow and try to Shaq people. Rarely do I see Yao step up to the midpost or highpost for a shot.
This is what believe also. but what I don't get about some Rockets fans here is that now they want Francis and Mobley back. I feel sorry for Orlando Magic fans more than I do Rockets fans. The Magic are about to become a modern day 1990's Atlanta Hawks (or a mid 90s to early 00s Hornets), meaning that they will likely field playoff teams, but lose in the 1st or 2nd round every year. That's why I am glad the Rockets made this trade. I am not content with my favorite team just being good all the time and not great ever. As for the Rockets this year, they are either going to be a bust, or will lose in the playoffs early this year, but we as Houston fans should be optimistic about the possiblity of the Rockets being great in the future, because our 24 year old 7'6' center isnt in his prime yet.
I disagreed with you, I think TMac and Yao are capable of leading. The reason we're not winning as much as we should is mostly because problem with JVG, and the fact we're not that good. (We're the oldest team in NBA). The trade will work out eventually.
this double team as him and Yao. They thought that they could be Kobe and Shaq but instead they are not. We just don't have the supporting cast as the Laker have. And they have Phil Jackson.
Do either Yao or tmac look like they are playing so well, that they are bursting at the seams to get out of JVG's system? They don't look like that to me. If they were leading within that sytsem but still looked capable of doing more, then I would agree. But both of those guys seem like their main concern is running the play the right way. That might be partially JVG's fault because he is too much of a disciplinarian, and they are afraid to make mistakes. Ideally one of them would have the leadership and initiative to see what neeeded to be done on the court and do it, and once they had success at it, they could force the issue with JVG about changing his system.
since you can't touch guards on the outside anymore and the development dwight howard and jameer nelson, and also having hedo comming of the bench I think I would rather be the magic. Howard is starting to get some plays run from him now and once he start domintating the post play, the magic will have a more complete and deeper team . the rockets are hoping a 24 and 25 year old player can adjust there game the magic are just waiting on the natural development of a 18 year old who is still growing.
How can you say this for sure, can you see into the future? Dwight Howard is 19 years old and already a beast on the glass. Once he gets his offensive game going, it can get scary. Plus the Magic have been playing extremely well without Cuttino Mobley. Now I'm not saying the Magic are championship-calibre right now, but to just automatically dismiss them as a doomed franchise is ridiculous. No one thought the Pistons would become a championship team 2-3 years ago. And don't automatically assume just because the Rockets have Tracy and Yao that they're in so much better position to make a run at a title. Nothing is given in this league, you have to earn it, and so far the Rockets have shown nothing that leads one to believe they're on this magical path to greatness.
Nobody is blaming JVG for Yao bringing the ball too low. I blame the ASSistant coach (Ewing) for that. We are blaming him for his inconsistancy to run an attacking, capable offense.
You know in general all that "never win a title with X as their point guard/PF/Center/Small Forward/SG/Coach" is a load of dogsh-t. You don't know the future; maybe they will, maybe they won't, but it's not as if certain players have cosmological hexes on them that prevent teams from winning championships (w/exception of the Jazz and Malone, hahahahaha!) ; it's not like anybody would say today "Hey, you know that Tyronn Lue, that guy is a championship point guard and has the tools to run a world championship team!" But it's true, he was and did; Likewise, nobody last season was saying "With Chauncey Billups at the point, and doing a lot of scoring, the Pistons are the odds on favorite for the 04 title!" In fact, I suspect the same factors that you use in your Kreskin like forecast would have applied to Billups last season - but I digress. You can't say "never win a championship" until it actually happens or doesn't happen. I could easily say - with far more certainty than the above quoted phrase "You know, no team built around Oscar Robertson will EVER win a title" becasue they didn't. (I think O picked up a ring as a supporting player on Lew Alcindor's Bucks late in his career) Does that mean that players like Oscar who average triple doubles will never win a title, or that he was an incomplete player? No, of course not. It just means that the Cincinnati Royals didn't catch enough breaks to win a title with Oscar around. You could, of course, say the same thing about Charles Barkley or John Stockton, etc. But there is one key difference between those guys and what you're saying: they actually played and didn't win them; you're just making random half-assed predictions that have about a 80 -90 % chance of being true (assuming Francis plays 10 more years, w/approximately 97% chance of not winning a title each year) and pronouncing overarching conclusions as to what kinds of players it takes to win championships. It's devoid of any real logic.
Let me state it more clearly for you: My point is that both Yao and JVG share blame. JVG because of his ineffective coaching and Yao because of his general inconsistency and poor rebounding. Yao shouldn't need an assistant/head coach to tell him to keep the ball high or to snatch the rebound with both hands. A little film review would make that painfully clear. This team will only go as far as Yao takes 'em, but they also need a coach who isn't just an albatross around the players' necks. Then again, if Yao could rebound, maybe JVG's system would work and it wouldn't matter too much how soft the PF is.
The greatest players ultimately overcome the "bad" breaks handed. You must like making excuses for players. Devoid of any logic, after saying that my prediction has a 80-90 chance of being true? Which is it then? If you had to put your money where your mouth is, you'd probably say 100% that a team with francis as it's point guard and best player will not ever win the championship. Stick to politics Sam, you're a lot better in that area.
OK, so Chauncey Billups gets a place amongst the greatest player since he was an NBA finals MVP point guard and Stockton, Robertson, Barkley, and Elgin Baylor are S.O.L. They might have been great, but no slack for them..... Obviously that makes no sense; anyway it diverts the issue - and vastly undercuts your theories that certain types of players "can't" win a championship - as do any number of about a zillion counterexamples. Uh no, something just flew way, way, way over your head. Let me break it down again: First, I said that 97% because there are 30 teams in the NBA. That means in a given year, any team (and any player on that team that stays on it for hte whole year) has about a 3.3% chance of winning a title - meaning that there is a 96.7% chance that he won't win the title. Accordingly, the chance that a player won't win a title in a two year period is .97 to whatever exponential power of the number of years he plays - which works out to around 80-90% for a player with a long career(I did't bother doing the calcs - it doesn't matter) Not only would I put my money on Francis, but I'd put the same amount of money on any player in a given year, especially if I could bet on a bunch of players at once. I'd gladly take 97% odds at Vegas, and so would you. But that's math and not basketball. I'll put it another way. There is a less than 1% chance that the Rockets Power Dancers are going to walk through my office door and engage in unlawful carnal knowledge with me at any point in the next 24 hours; There is a Moochie Norris celebriduck on my shelf as I type this; accordingly Moochie Norris celebriducks cause you to not get laid. Now, that prediction is devoid of any logic, yet has a nearly 100% chance of being true. It's quite easy to make a living predicting all the things that will not ever happen when the odds are tilted heavily in your favor. But all that takes is knowledge that 2 >1, and so forth.
But does something like this really apply to a player like Tim Duncan? A factor you don't take into consideration is the ability of the player and how the ability can change the percentage of a player's odds of winning it all. Dayum, I need to get rid of mine!
Doesn't matter -- I'll admit I was wrong, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. Talent-wise, Cato's played better than expected and Francis about as expected, but Hill is the glue holding everything together (along with Howard). I do think other deals offered more talent, but will be the first to admit that this one had all of the intangibles. So yeah, I see the signature every time I'm reading through the site. But I'll admit it -- I was wrong on that account.
The problem with that statement is that you have yet to quantify why you believe such a statement. What is it about the Magic that makes you believe that? Have you watched them play this season? My feeling is that you either believe that Steve Francis is a cancer to any team he is on, Dwight Howard has peaked and is unlikely to get much better, most players on the Magic have reached their peaks and/or are playing over their heads right now, that many other teams in the East will surpass the Magic, or that they'll screw up and make some bad moves. However, there has been no evidence to suggest that any of that is true, and there are few other possibilities within even the realm of reason out there. You keep making this statement and seem to believe it adamently, but why do you do so? I can see how having two superstars and a lot of roleplayers is one of the better ways to win a title, but what you aren't seeing is that the Magic have two of them and a third in the waiting -- plus a much deeper roster at the present. What is wrong with both teams competing for titles? This year, the Rockets have a shot at being average or pretty good. The Magic have the same shot. In the future, both teams have the same shot to be really good -- just at different positions, albeit with excellent swingmen and post players for both. The Hawks of yesteryear also bumped up against a much stronger conference than do the Magic, though the East is improving. For many of those years, the Hawks were a very guard-heavy team with aging or young postmen; the better comparison would be the Magic of a couple of seasons ago that made the playoffs but would be out just as quickly as they went in.
Steve Francis is not a superstar. He's in the 2nd tier of stars with players like Ray Allen, Shawn Marion, Peja Stojakovic, Baron Davis and Jason Richardson. and I still think the jury is out on Hill. He needs to prove he can play like this for a whole year, and it's not like he's a spring flower anymore. By the time Howard is developed, Hill will be done anyway. Superstars are players that alone make big differences in their teams success, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, T-Mac, Iverson. (and hopefully Yao will quit playing like a girl and end up on this list at some point) Last year's Pistons IMO are the exception rather than the rule. Malone was hurt in the Finals, and the Spurs would have beaten the Pistons IMO. If the Magic were to win a title soon, it would be similar to the Pistons run' but Francis will never have the court sense to lead them to a title. And his shot selection at the end of games was brutal as we Rockets fans saw on many occasions.
