I have avoided a post like this for the entire season due to the anguish that Steve and his Lovechild Mobes have made me look like a complete idiot for 4 plus seasons......but I'm hopin the Franchise curse is gone...... Honestly and truely I'm starting to really be.............. I hate to say this but we are startin to............... I am so scared to say it for fear of being all ready for the prom and havin no date...but forget it...if these Rocks make me look stupid so be it....but we are startin to look like a real team people and its no accident either people.......Our team is startin to click.....all those years of lookin good against mediocre teams and losin to good ones is gone which is a big part of me sayin this... remember in years past we would completely get dimolished by the upper tier of the league....forget the league...we couldn't beat anybody in texas.......Maybe you all haven't noticed but we have beaten alot of goood teams this season on route to turnin this ship around.....we have had severall quality wins since we have ben winnin Seattle, memphis, San Antonio, Dallas, Sac would have been a L to had T mac fouled C webb on that last play and know a quality win against a team also on a roll the baby bulls........I smell a turnnaround........... Also with the deadline comin up and a glut of players almost guaranteed to be moved.......we might not get what we want but by process of elimination we will get something With Donyell, Rafer, Cliff, Karla(Even though I hate this), Chandler, Cassell, Kidd, Payton, And DA in portland......We will get someone who will be pumped to leave there situation and come here and bust there behind to be on this SPECIAL TEAM..... Anyway let me stop here before I write a whole article.....but in closin...just another tidbit for all my felloww bbs'ers.......Sportscenter is the worse when it comes to the Rockets..I thought Sir Charles and Kenny were bad but man sportscenter tears us a new one every single night win or lose...and I hate it....watch however how they come around during playoff time..... Anyway I'm sayin that to say if you want to see some national media who actuallly love us try NBA TV sometimes...Channell 101 on Time Warner.....They love us and are not 2 weeks behind on how dissapointing the Rocks and Yao are.....especially that Rich Kamla guy on the Fantasy show......He always gives us props and tells all the haters to get off yao.....its beautiful
nice post - but let me stop this before it spreads - that karla post was false and made by some idiot who can't read the article was about Clifford Robinson http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91141
The great thing about this team is that even when T-Mac is struggling FG% wise, other people are stepping up and actually making shots which NEVER happened last season. Also, everyone seems to know their roles, nobody tries to do too much and everyone seems to be pulling for each other.
YES! Definitely. We are finally becoming a team, and when you actually have a team, people flock to play with you. Orlando for example, a few years back had no talent, and led by, hmmm, (nobody remembers) hustled there way to a decent season,...and with a boatload of money and season full of teamwork, it got them two of the biggest three free agents on market (TMac and Hill,....Duncan stayed put). While we don't have the room or money for a pick up like that (clearly), by years end people will see us as a serious contender and talented free agents will think Houston first. Thank you Les, for accidently giving us a good team.
Also didn't happen at the beginning of THIS season. It's been fun watching the heart and chemistry of this team evolve, and I think that's why we feel more passionately about them at this point, more connected because of all the earlier struggles. The disenfranchisement of our teams previous core last year has had us all on edge...
Well, when TMac is getting colder and colder from the field, Yao is getting hotter and that negates the TMac cold shooting. Last season, the role players were also making shots (Cat, JJ, Mot). It was mainly the struggles of SF3 that led to us winning only 45 games. The main difference between now and then is that the team has solid veterans and they are playing a passing game. The offense is not stagnate as it was last year. When a passing team makes shots, it makes it dangerous every night.
I think this team will be better in the playoffs than the regular season power house like Seattle or Phoenix... Of course this team is not tested yet. But the personels and the build-up of the team seem to be exactly for the playoffs. Here is soem observations: (1) You got the mega superstar in TMac. Believe it or not, this time around, TMac is really a team player. He is trying hard to be one too. A lot of aspects of his game have been changed toward the better ... (2) JVG learnt the lesson on how to play Yao. This season he purposedly limit Yao's minutes at about 32 minutes even though Yao came to the campp in a much better physical condition. Yao will not repeat last season's "used-up" type player at the end of the season. (3) The time for Yao and TMac to developsome chemistry is not excessively long. They are getting better and ebtter playing together. (4) The role players are more suitable to support Yao and TMac. The team is a little weaker at the power forward position interms of defense, but the improvement Yao gets and the good job the super sub Mutomob has been doing covered that area. No team in the league that has the center position covered as well as the Rockets. (5) the scary part is that this team is still improving ...
As I have maintained since early this season, our team with chemistry will be very dangerous. The chemistry certainly seems to be developing, due in no small pat to the arrival of Sura (from injury), Wesley, and Barry (I had hoped for Brent, but Jon is doing quite well). The major problems I saw early in the year included poor ball movement, too many turnovers, confusion in the offense, poor spacing, and the inability of our role players to hit a jumper. The biggest positive I saw early in the year was defense. If you want to win close games, particularly in the playoffs, you must be able to play tough defense, especially at the end of the game. Our ball movement has improved dramatically, partially because our spacing has gotten much, much better. These improvements have led to much more decisiveness in the offense, though I still think that Yao gets open in the post without getting the ball a bit too much. Our turnovers have gone down (11 total last night), which bodes well for us both down the stretch and into the playoffs. Most importantly, we now have role players that have the ability to stretch the defense (having positive impact on our spacing and offensive decisiveness) by hitting the open jumpers created by the double teams on TMac and Yao. Honestly, we won't really know how "special" this team is until March, when we play Dallas, Seattle, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Miami as well as our last meeting with the Spers. April will also be a good gague as we will play Phoenix and Seattle twice each along with our last game against the Grizz. If we are able to stay hot against the better teams in the league and continue to improve as we have since December, I don't think that anyone is going to want to play us in the last week of April.
