looks like to me that canoner just got punked by NIKE.... inferior....what is your definition of inferior teams? anyone not named Spurs/Kings/Heat?
By inferior, I meant Hornets, Sixers, Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Magic, Kobe-less Lakers, and deep-in-the-**** Twolves. Did I say we aren't playing well? I am very happy with their performance right now. But these are teams we are supposed to beat. It is a GREAT improvement now we win games that we are supposed to win. But I don't want to jump to the conclusion that we are a title contender already. We will get there eventually.
If the playoffs started today, yes We have chemistry, playing well, now we have to grind it out, keep it going and avoid injuries.
I think to be deined as a contender, you have to show that you can beat the best teams on a consistent basis. That means beating Miami, Seattle, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas and Sacramento more times than they beat us. So far this season..... SA W 81-80 W 73-67 SAC W 104-101 L 96-102 L 117-111 MIA L 95-104 PHO L 98-108 DAL L 106-113 L 78-102 W 124-114 We have shown that we can consistently compete with, but not beat the top teams. We are improving and have gotten a lot better since early this season when we looked awful at times. However we are not yet at a level where we can be considered contenders, we are the 6th best team in the West right now, a distance behind SAC and DAL in talent level and that isn't high enough for me to consider the Rockets as a contender.
its either this year or next if Rockets want to win it all.... our role players wun get any younger....
For us to be contenders I believe either Yao or Mcgrady needs to truly step up as THE LEADER. I believe our team is going to be one hell of a team to play against during the play offs but until our Team leader emerges, whether it be T-Mac or Yao, we're not going to reach that level.
I think we're one of those teams other people don't want to play in the playoffs. But I think that is different from being a team that can win four playoff series. We'll know more after they finish out the season with the toughest schedule in the NBA.
The Rockets aren't contenders yet. They've got too many holes to fill and their two superstars have never been past the first round. But my expectations coming into this season were that the Rockets could make it to the second round and there's no reason to think they couldn't pull that off at this point.
The team wants Yao to become a truly dominant force inside. The Rockets also want to get all role players involved and make them happy to improve team chemistry. Unfortunately, these two things sometimes conflict each other and I am not sure whether JVG or the team has a clue of whichever is more important. If Yao becomes more dominant is more important to the Rockets down the road, the team and the coach need to get it on the same page to get Yao more touches when he is unstoppable. He sure looks like that these days and I think if Yao drops 30 in a 4-5 game stretch, his newly gained confidence will push his game to the next level. It's not that giving him more touches will cause us to lose more games. On the contrary, he has been shooting a jaw dropping over 60% from the field for the last 12 or so games. And there have been plenty of opportunities that we could have easily "thrown the ball to the big guy" and let him dominate.
I'll let you know next month. The schedule is brutal, see below. We will see if this team is a paper tiger or the real deal. Scoring 100 points against a good defensive team like Chicago really was awesome and we finally played some D so I am optimistic that we can keep the MO going. San Antonio twice. Washington twice. Indiana. Seattle. Phoenix. Sacramento. Dallas.
