Look at the comments on the webpage. He actually missed out on Scola while doing his review, LOL!!! I thought the whole thing part about mentioning Scola only at the end was a gimmick But looks like it was a bona fide mistake. Scola, in my humble opinion, will be the link that brings us to the second round.
Rubenstein has a preconceived opinion that won't be swayed by any facts. having read many fluff pieces on the upcoming Rockets season, i could appreciate a skeptical perspective. unfortunately between the obsession to be hip/kewl/funny, one dimensional cliches and ignorance, Sam missed the opportunity to deliver a balanced critique. too bad ...
better read than most... but... anyone else getting sick of reading season previews and just want to watch the rockets play some damn basketball???
this guy is going out of his way to tear down the ROX. this article could have been half the size that it is if he contiue to bash a plyer, jump to the next and then go back to the initial player and contiue bashing him. with how much tried to find criticism to loaded on every player, he can pretty much find something bad with every NBA player.
Poor, poor man's Bill Simmons who apparently does not follow NBA teams close enough to be writing about them.
LOL. what a load of dribble. adelman hater at it's finest. ...BTW, Yao being able to run or not is a non-issue. were nott gonna play like the suns. were still gonna be prodominantly a half court team. just more off the ball movement and more passing. I dont understand why people keep bringing this issue up?.yao will be Awesom. MVP candidate infact.
He says some true things and points out our possible weaknesses. Rick has n ever won it all and only took Portland to the finals once, never got Sacramento there. Our saving grace is that we have so much talent that when one is weak we have other players to pick it up. Man is it Thursday yet?
I just peg the failures of Adelman's former team on bad luck and circumstance. 1. The Portland teams were damn good. I remember their team being pretty big with the exception of Terry Porter. But going up a bruiser team like the Pistons was murder. Then going up a Jordan team that was hitting on all cylinders? Ridiculous. 2. The Sacramento teams...back luck. That Laker series that they lost (y'all know the one) put the nail into their premature coffin. And there wasn't a player on those teams (Artest came too late) that had the killer instinct within him. Webber? Vlade? Bibby? None of them knew how to go for the jugular. As for the Rockets? I believe, even though it's been 1st round exits, McGrady, if given the situation/opportunity, would have that killer instinct now that he has all the personnel he would ever need. As for matchups, if our team can put up 95 points a night, I have no doubt in my mind that our defense would hold the opposition off enough for a win every night. The defensive coach might be gone, but Yao/Chuck/Battier/Deke and to a certain extent Rafer, are all still here and can still play defense...with or without Van Gundy. Lets just say I think there will be a lot of monkeys coming off of a lot of people's backs in Houston come June 2008.
Yep, pretty simple. Got to get out of the first round. Close the deal and then ... let's see what happens next? Like the Rockets organization is saying "IT'S TIME!" How appropriate a title.
Wasn't that what the Rockets averaged last year? It sounds like you're talking about the Van Gundy Rockets. IMO, 95 PPG would be quite disappointing for this team, considering that they have so much firepower and a great offensive coach.
I agree ... based on "in my eyes [Gundy] can do no wrong" and the section around "don't do it Steve," guess who his favorite team is ... give up ... it's the Knicks. Also, he defends Starbury ... who I think is indefensible. The article is more of a "what I think about the teams this season" than a "here's what you can expect from teams this year" thing, and objectivity has never been high in Slam Magazine's list of attributes anyway. They are entertaining though. Look for the group of losers they put together in Houston to prove this guy wrong.
Man this article bounced around more than an odd shaped basketball. I didnt know where he was going with any of it. Anyway...this article was so pessimistic, I wouldn't be surprised it JVG actually wrote this article under someone else's name.
Whether his opinions are worth anything or not, this was a poorly written review. He skipped around from one point to another and never seemed to have a coherent stream of thought. Sounds like he dictated it to a tape recorder and never bothered to edit it.
