[CHRON] Rockets set for 'special' season

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3432480

Hopes are high, but players are cautious -- and questions linger about whether enough was learned last spring
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle


The party was private. Tracy McGrady had his Rockets teammates and coaches and their families over to the house on Saturday. A comic entertained. A chef prepared delicacies.

The next party, the Rockets hope, will be considerably more public. Firefighters would blast sirens. Fans would cheer.

With the Rockets beginning the regular season tonight against the Sacramento Kings at Toyota Center, they approach their season with hopes of greatness that would have been unrealistic in recent years.

They just won't say it. Having been burned by hyperbole before, the talk around the team has become more restrained, predictions far more nebulous. Instead, the Rockets use the euphemism "special."

This, they keep saying, could be a "special" team, a prediction too vague to be boastful. This could be a "special" season, a hope too ambiguous to be dangerous.

McGrady said he expects the Rockets to do "something real special." Juwan Howard has spoken of the chance to be "something special." David Wesley said the Rockets could have a "very special season."

"Ultimately, we want to win the championship," McGrady said. "Hopefully, everybody's mindset is like that. But to be better than last year, get off to a better start. That's our key right now."

That is about as far as the Rockets will go, indicating they did learn something from the debacle in Dallas.

For all their obvious strengths and for offseason successes, how far they go this season might be determined by what else they learned when they lost four of five games, the last 116-76, to the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs' first round.

The strength, in McGrady and Yao Ming, may be stronger. The players added around them last season — Jon Barry and Wesley — and since last season — Rafer Alston, Stromile Swift and Derek Anderson — should offer much of what they lacked. But increasingly, the Rockets have come to believe that how "special" they truly can be
this season might be determined by how well they have solved the issues from their downfall last season.

"You wonder how much we've learned, you really do," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "You sit there and you just wonder, at least I do, because championship-caliber teams play well from behind because they play with poise.

"They play well with a lead because they know it's a 48-minute game. And they play well with a big lead because they fight the human nature of taking possessions off. Then in close games, do you stick with what you do and live with the results or do you go random and try to hit a home run."

Checklist for Van Gundy
Those were the problems that became their undoing last season and remained through this preseason. The Rockets know them well: Play with a lead, play consistently for 48 minutes, rebound, take care of the ball and defend off the dribble.

Van Gundy said each could be solved. They just have not been, yet.

"I only go by what I see," he said. "What I see is (that) you certainly wouldn't accuse us of being overly intelligent so far. I'm not asking us to join the Mensa group. What I see is a lot of turnovers, bad decisions, blown coverages and preventable mistakes. If we eliminate those, we'll be a smart team. If we don't, we'll be dumb.

"If we want to change it, we're going to have to do things differently. You can't expect different results doing the same thing. If you're a high-turnover team and you're lazy, and you're throwing the passes all over the place and you don't change, you'll still be a high-turnover team despite what people say you are. What we are right now is a high-turnover team — a fouling, high-turnover team that blows a lot of coverages and a lot of sets."

With that, he is resisting the urge to reserve his spot on the firetrucks.

But perhaps the preseason shortcomings will become regular-season strengths, because they have forced the Rockets to face them. Those problems snuck up on the 2004-05 Rockets.

"We realize ... we didn't play up to our potential," McGrady said. "We didn't look like the Houston Rockets that you'd see before we put the team on the basketball court, just looking from the outside and seeing how good this team can be and how successful we can be. I didn't see that in the preseason."

Much left to be done
But tonight, the preseason is over. Last season is behind them. The Rockets only hint at it, but they begin a new season seeking something "special," and leaving the details to the imagination.

"As a team, we need to stop talking about expectations and what everybody else thinks and worry about what we have to do to get better," Wesley said.

"There's still a lot of things we have to do. We can't just expect them because everybody else expects them. Obviously we're going to have to play to another level to be as good as everybody thinks we are. It has to come from Day 1. We have to start doing those things now."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com
ROCKETS SUMMARY
Wesley OK with change
David Wesley, the one returning Rockets starter now coming off the bench, said he has "no problem" with the change.

"He tried a lineup that didn't work," Wesley said. "This makes our team better, me coming off the bench. This is the way it is. No big deal. I've done it before. It's just been a long time."

Wesley became a starter with the Boston Celtics during the 1995-96 season, his third in the NBA.

"There's some subtle differences (between his responsibilities off the bench as opposed to as a starter)," Wesley said. "But the way I play is the way I play.

"For me, it's probably the biggest change out of the group. I have no problem with it. I just want to get some wins. There's going to be nights I'm going to be out there a lot, I'm sure. There's nights I'm not out there playing at all. Take every night for what it is. Hopefully, they turn out to be W's."

McGrady's knees improving
Tracy McGrady said his sore knees continued to improve.

"Today was a good day," McGrady said after Tuesday's practice. "I feel better than I did the past couple days. What we're doing as far as icing and treatment is really helping out. Hopefully, I won't have any more problems and won't have to deal with this problem anymore.

"It was pretty bad. It really was, to the point I was really concerned, and I didn't know how effective I would be. But practicing today and feeling pretty good, hopefully I don't have to deal with that."

Let me in
Former Hornets forward George Lynch, a free agent, has said he would like to play for the Rockets, but the Rockets don't seem likely to quickly move in that direction.

The Rockets have the maximum of 15 players on the roster, 14 with guaranteed contracts. The other player, Dion Glover, brings skills like Lynch's at the same small forward position.

"There's a lot of guys out there," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I'm more worried about the guys in here than out there. George Lynch had a wonderful career. A wonderful competitor. Tough. He's got a lot of great things. But right now, my concern is who is here and getting us to function better. Coaches don't spend a lot of time with who's out there and what-ifs."

Different strokes
Rockets guard Derek Anderson has started 347 NBA games and has played alongside offensive focal points Shawn Kemp, Tim Duncan and Rasheed Wallace. But he said there is an adjustment to be made playing with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, particularly now that he is starting and at least initially playing with two players through which the Rockets run the bulk of their offense.

Rather than have plays called for him, Anderson said he will have to work off the attention Yao and McGrady generate.

"I've got to get used to it," Anderson said. "But if you're a basketball player, you just play. Everybody has a role to play.

"It (starting) is a reward, but it's just the beginning of the season. It's a long season. I worked my way to where I want to be as far as being on this team. I now have to prove my worth and help my team win."

JONATHAN FEIGEN