Any team with a healthy TMac and Yao will be considered as a "not bad" team. The current lineup is not deep enough for a serious contend to the finals. That is what pisses most fans. 4 years after drafting Yao and 2 years with TMac we still can not figure out a good puzzle around them. This is NOT good. By the way, anything could happen in NBA, you know. But if you have to rely on the super-growth of rookies like Novak and Hayes to support this team, that means the management's done some horrible work.
For Pete's sake.if Yao and TMac are healthy and surrounded by the right role players,we contend for the whole enchilada.I have to agree that this Chicken Little thing is WAY out of control.Micromanagement by the minute on this board breeds anxiety and panic.Chill out and let's see what CD puts together.
HEALTHY is our key word...health = playoff...first round by all means....but thats it...nothing more or less...good role player or atleast bench with good atlesicism means round 2
Hayes should what type of impact he makes when he gets mins and Novak has proven his outside shot is no fluke. Saying this both these guys bring something we lacked last season Shooting, Heart,Hussle, among other things. This is how young players become very good players you let them develop and play and in doing that they become impact role players.
Consider the current roster, that would need some miracle, such as Novak can step out immediately or in the mid of the season as a solid contributor, or Lucas plays like a mini-Nash. I mean, do you really think we can depend on Alston and Jh to make it to the final?
I don't want a 50win team. I want a 60win team. I don't want a good team. I want a championship contender.
http://basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/2001.html See, Shaq was the BEST PLAYER in the world at the time so that alone makes this comparison void because the combo of Tracy and Yao isn't nearly as good as 2001-2002 Shaq and Kobe. Also, Derek Fisher in the playoffs was their 3rd scorer. Nearly 14ppg and 51% from 3....that dude couldn't miss from outside during that run. And remember he only played 20 games that year in the regular season along with Kobe missing 14 games and they finished with a record of 56-26.
I don't think we are a championship team yet. I think we need more depth. However, we do have two studs on this team, and if they play like studs (and are healthy) then we should make the playoffs at least. Anything can happen in the playoffs. What kills me about all this negativity is that you guys (all the we are doomed posters) are acting like our roster is full of garbage outside of Yao and T-Mac. Howard, Alston, Battier and Head aren't garbage. They aren't super extrodinary but if Yao and T-Mac carry us like stars do then we should compete as long as everyone else can play solid D and hit open shots. Just because you have a bunch of talented players on your team doesn't mean you will win (look at the Knicks). It takes a team with chemistry to win, with everyone doing their part. Most importantly, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN A PLAYER WILL COME OUT OF NOWHERE AND STEP UP. Fisher eventually grew into that type of player in LA, but he didn't start out that way. Elie hadn't accomplished much until he got to Houston. Who expected Hayes to ball last year. Haslem came out of nowhere from Miami. Same with Bowen. Who says Head didn't improve this summer? I could go on and on. The best role-player on a team setting isn't always the "sexy" player. Hell, we won a title with Herrera, Chucky Brown, Maxwell (who thought he was a stud outside of Houston), etc getting heavy minutes. On our firct championship team Cassell was the only other player who could really get his own shot, but everyone fit into our system. It's not as bad as y'all make it seem......
We got to 50+ wins and were within a blown out-of-bounds call of the 2nd round 2 yrs ago. And this was also after starting that season with a ton more L's than W's With no power forward on that playoff roster and with a hobbled Bob Sura. As it stands now, this year's team is at least as good as that one.
That is true, assuming Alston, Battier and Howard can play solid D and knock down open shots. Not to mention we still have time to add to the roster.
No one is discouraged that we have Tracey Mcgrady and Yao Ming in our lineup. That fact alone will get us in the playoffs every year they are healthy. What upsets people is that outside of T-Mac forcing a trade to Houston and Yao Ming being the obvious number one a few years ago nothing else has been added to the formula that guarantees that our ceiling isn't a first round exit every year. The only other two guys you mentioned that at least could be solid contributors is Luther Head and Shane Battier. Hayes is what he is - an undersized backup four without a shot. Hell, without a lay-up. But if he's the asset we're supposed to be gaga over as far as the SHOOTING and the upcoming season goes then I think we're grasping at toothpicks at this point. He will most likely do what he did last year. At his best he actually saw a few minutes of garbage time and got a few boards with a complimentary defensive game that was mediocre at best. I'm not even going to say anything about him offensively. Even as mediocre as Hayes may be defensively that looks hungry compared to Juwan Howard's game. Defensively he might as well be a practice prop because he seems to be as convincing of a defender as a chair or barbeque pit might be. Although, I don't believe he ever had any natural ability in that area to begin with. Of course, JVG has claimed that he's the consummate veteran professional. And that's cool. I wouldn't disagree with that. But Jeff felt the same way about Jim Jackson, who was traded halfway into his first year with the team for David Wesley. Ironically here’s another veteran that Jeff loved though we'll never understand why since his shot was as flat as Gwen Steffani (Though I really do love her) and his defensive liabilities killed us when Jerry Stackhouse/Avery Johnson woke up from their post-season stupor and posted him up every opportunity we handed them. Though we were outmatched in everyway, Mac/Yao stepped up to the plate in a big way. We overreached in that series only because of our heart and Dallas' lack thereof. Something tells me if we could had traded Howard for some real value we wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger. Last year Howard proved to be feast or famine on the offensive end. I don't want to jump the gun this year but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's not going to be as productive an offensive player as he were two season's ago. For the sake of the team I do hope I'm wrong. It's interesting you're after people for going crazy over V-Span when you're just as prepared to hand Novak a vital role for this team next year. The sad thing is we're a T-Mac injury away from him starting and that’s when I really get depressed about where this franchise is headed. Novak seems to be a great player in the summer league. But that doesn't guarantee he'll see the floor for more than two minutes a game on a Jeff Van Gundy run team. Rafer Alston didn't have all the pieces around him last year to really be able to prove he's going to be the pure point guard this franchise has been searching for since Sura literally fell apart. Though teams in the past, including the Rockets have proven you don't have to have a pure point guard to win the title - though it helps. You included Alston in your list of promise for the great shooting next year. While I wish that were true Alston isn't going to bring to this team great shooting. I think that was obvious last year. Defensively he's not much better. However, he's the purest thing that we've come to a point guard in some time. Well unless you want to count the few times Sura saw the floor. He's Bob Sura without the physical toughness. I don't know how far that's going to get us in the playoffs but if he'd improve his outside shooting that wouldn't be all bad. He's not Lue and that at this point is all that we can be happy about. I'm not going to judge him based on a year where we had to throw away cause of all the injuries but I do expect much more from him in 06-07. I hate to say it like this when we're still months away from the beginning of the season but this team is fifty percent of the puzzle. You have Yao and T-Mac. We've got a few pieces though far from a great shooting team. Athletically, we're still handicap still. The odd thing is we subtracted two YOUNG athletic specimen's for a solid player. We failed at bargaining with a 20/5 guard because we wouldn't give him authority over him being moved. A guard who possessed shooting that this team desperately needed. Now James wasn't the cure all - he was very much part of the solution. And now we're still left with the same holes as before and got older after one deal. The good news is we know who our third best player is. The bad news is he's Shane Battier.
this is exactly how i feel! there seems to be no plan in place. no goal at all. just hope and pray something falls in your lap. would they have made the trade for battier if they really thought they wouldn't land mike james? i'm guessing, no, but maybe i'm wrong.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be disappointed about missing out on James, I was, but the sky is not falling. A healthy Yao and Tmac are still the key with 6 or 7 good role players. I would think we've got 6 already (Battier, Alston, Howard, Hayes, Head and maybe Novak). Those who want to write us off fail to recognize the uncertainty in sports. Hardly anyone gave Miami a chance in the playoffs (one notable exception was JVG who picked them to go all the way) - Shaq's too old, bad transition defense, bad chemistry, etc.). By contrast everyone thought SA and Detroit were a lock to play for the title. Everyone thought the Indy Colts would roll over everyone on the their way to the SuperBowl. Over and over, we see the favorites come up short. All I'm saying is that if we make it to the playoffs (and in all likelihood we will), we've got a solid chance with the Big Two to pull some upsets. In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and have some faith that the roster will be improved by the start of training camp. Who's with me?
A lot has changed since 2005. The league doesn't stop just cause the rockets missed the playoffs. You have to keep improving and tweaking your roster. People have to quit refering to that damn playoff series 2 seasons ago. The fact is Houston LOST that series and since Dallas made it to the finals while houston made it to the lottery. Outside Rocket homers no one views Houston as a threat to do anything other than bow out in the first round.
