Are the Rockets insured against injuries next season?

I think we need 70-75 games out of each of them to be successful anything less than that and we are playing with fire.

DD

 

I think we need them both for 78-80 games to be a contender.

 

Sniff the playoffs? You think with a healthy duo they will just merely scrape by into the playoffs? 75 games of each Yao and Tmac will do more than sniff the playoffs. They very well might get us the 4th, or more realistically, the 5th seed. Whether or not they go deep in the playoffs is another story...

 

I don't think that is what he is saying...he's saying that Yao and T-Mac is all we have and that if either one misses significant time, it is going to be hard for us to make the playoffs.

 

But we didn't lose our top 2 players last year. We lost our top 3 players last year .. Yao, McGrady, and Sura.

David.

 

We still lack depth and star power.

As we are right now we can't afford to lose McGrady or Ming. We have added depth at PG, but assuming Sura's ineffective, losing Alston for any stretch of time will hurt. Lucas and V Span are very much untested.

Power Forward we don't even have worthy starter so forget that.

 

The Rockets getting younger and more speed helps.

But like everyone else said, the KEY here is needing a THIRD SCORER! That was the big problem when either Yao or Tmac were out. Too many teams would gang up on our star and all we had were spot up guys.

We need ATTACKERS! Guys that can "create their own shot." Guys that can cause havoc on a defense with penetration.

We MAY have gotten that in Vspan/Lucas but it's too early to tell. It's a gamble.

I think the Rockets really lost out not getting Mike James. He would be a quality 3rd scorer on this team. I am not a fan of the "3rd scorer by committee" method. I want a killer in there that knows he is the 3rd scorer and goes to work.

VanGundier's premise is a good one here. Good teams CAN get away with one of their stars out and still tread water, at least play .500 ball. This team was atrocious! Our offense totally goes stagnant when our stars are out. Blame VG, blame our personnel. That's why in a vaccuum it's all well and good to surround Yao/Tmac with shooters but they only work when BOTH of them are on the court, when they aren't the offense falls apart. That's why it is paramount we have ATTACKERS to make PLAYS for others. Again, Vspan and Lucas will be critical because those will be the guys that can use their aggressiveness and speed to cave in the defense and make plays when we aren't going to our bread and butter in Yao/Tmac.

 

we still got mutombo!!

 

This whole plan for injury thing is a waste of time.

When Wade went down in 2005 playoffs so did the Heats chances.... this last year he didn't go down and we all know what happened. And I might add it couldn't have happened against a nicer opponent then the Dallas Mavericks

You cannot go into the season thinking about injury, it just distracts you from the real issues of playing smart and hard. Do you think football teams go out each year and say to themselves...man we might win it all this year unles our quarterback goes out and crashes his motorcycle into a car....uhm NO

Depth is important but lets face it if your primary player(s) go down your team is not going very far regardless of the role players or depth. If you need proof just look at the Bulls in the two years the Rockets won, Pippen didn't exactly carry that team now did he? Do you think the Celtics or Lakers of the 1980's would have done as well with our Bird or Magic? I don't think so....

 

I think for the most part it is up to the coach to coach to his remaining players strengths.

Back in the 90-91 season there was one stretch when Hakeem got hurt for an extended period of time (about 30 games). His replacement was Larry Smith. Larry Smith was one of those players that was just almost 100% useless on offense for scoring. However he was an offensive rebounding deamon and the Rockets adapted.

Somehow the Rockets managed to not only survive but played some of the best basketball that played all year long.

Don Chaney did the best coaching job of his career that year playing everyone to there strengths while Dream was down. The team got very hot with out Hakeem and eventually won 52 games.

It seems to me that when the Rockets under JVG loose a key player or they are not at optimal strength they just lack the ability to adapt to the players they have available. Even in 04-05 they did not seem to perform very well when a key player was out...even if both Yao and TMac were healthy.

JVG just seems to be a very rigid coach that only knows one way to playe regardless of the players he has available to him.

 

I could answer that in several paragraphs, but it would get in the way of the bottomline: we want 55 wins at least this year. to get that, TMac and Yao need roughly 70 games each, and then be in peak form come playoff time.

of course, I don't want to underestimate Yao, even though I expect his continued explosion of dominance to occur again come November, I still tend to want to say he needs a 70+ game TMac, when that might not be entirely necessary....anymore than Shaq needed Kobe all the time in the regular season to win 55. Of course, Shaq did need Kobe to get the 3...but that's beyond the point.

oops...there goes 2 paragraphs. I think I'm drifting ... time to hit Submit before I get in trouble.

 

Let me rephrase since I didnt correctly read what you wrote. Would Miami make the playoffs if D Wade was out? PHX without Nash? Clippers without Brand? My point still works even if its one player. Other than maybe S A and possible Dallas without Dirk and thats a big IF, I dont really think theres a team that could still make the playoffs with out their top player. Regardless, your original point is still an obvious one.

 

the answer to the first question is Phil Jackson. the answer to the second question in a word is no. PJ is the rare coach whose offensive and defensive schemes are top notch. when his star players (who are also star defenders) are in, they win at a very high rate. when one is out, he can motivate his team to play hard on defense and also has a system that enables his players to still manufacture enough points to win more often than they lose. the triangle offense works best with superstars but he was still always able to get decent bench production somehow. if you honestly look at his benches throughout the years, they have been very medicore at best. none of these bench players except Horry and maybe Kerr have made any noise outside of his system.
the biggest difference seems to be the trust that he has for his players to do the right thing on offense and defense. he is notorious for not calling any plays for long stretches and even letting his teams work their own way out of a deficit. this is more enabling to a team than that gesticulating excuse of a coach that the Rockets have. in other words, he just lets them play a game that they have played their entire lives. how well they play (after preparation and practice of course) is up to them.

that being said, the Rockets are stuck with Gundy and Gundy ball (a basketball system that cannot adapt to the players but has to have a specific type of player) until he's fired or not rehired. to be fair, Phil Jackson rarely had both of his star players out at the same time. even last year, he had both Kobe and Odom (not really a star, but still very solid) for 80 games. but enough excuses already. with a healthy TMac and Yao, and equal or better offensive role players than Phil Jackson's teams, anything less than the WCF (the true final this year) is completely unacceptable.

 

While a bit harsh, I think it is basically accurate. Teams are too close now. Miami doesn't beat Dallas if they don't have everyone healthy. Dallas doesn't advance past SA if they are not healthy through their best 7 or so players.

The real question is if are the Rockets all healthy are they good enough to win the title? The only way this is "yes" is if at least two of Synder, Alston, Head, VSpan and JL3 prove to be playoff quality rotation players.

Thus I am more concerned with the quality of our best 2-3 guards and the best 5 man team we can put out there than depth per se.