While I agree with most of this, I just want to know when we can officially draw the line with these excuses. When is it ok to quit pawning off playing like garbage on "adjusting" and "taking time?" Twenty games in to the season is generally when you know what you have in your team. "Ho-hum, another loss to a team that shouldn't be within 15 points of us. Oh well we knew it was going to take time...it's ok." It's just beginning to seem like a weak mindset with built in excuses for losing, instead of what's actual reality. Don't get me wrong, we've had some really good wins...but we've been way too inconsistent.
Some time for what? This is NOT a championship-calibre team, I don't care how you cut it, even if they implemented the system perfectly they're still not good enough to beat the Mavs or the Suns in a 7-game series (we can take the Spurs, I firmly believe it, if we're at the top of our game; we match up too well). Give time for the system is perfectly fine by me, and a given. However, giving time to a roster that still (three years in) lacks a stable and reliable third scorer (a pre-requisite to winning it all in the West, IMO) won't cut it. If your goal is to make the playoffs and may be get to the second round, then the current situation is tolerable. However, if you want to "win it all," you're out of luck, amigo.
That's exactly what I am thinking. Some our players actually haven't shown that they really care this team.
Jeff, the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie "Rockets" fans here don't understand patience. They don't understand that the legendary Championships weren't built on in one day, one season, with one new coach. That's why us legendary posters don't panic like its a Y2K Excel spreadsheet. The Rockets are like Outkast, us loyal fans knew it didn't start at Hey Ya or Ms Jackson. We were there since the Playa's ball and Atliens. We've been on the bus since Rosa Parks, and we don't throw our hands in the air, and wave them like we don't care. We're patient cause to win, you have start low and move up like Elevators.
Gee, I guess we should have been 18-0 right now. The Rockets will come together. I think we'll be not much above .500 before the All-Star break, and then we'll break out in the 2nd half of the season. Obviously, I'd like the team to gel before that, but it's gonna take time. Of course, every loss is the end of the world around here anyway.
One Thing Do you remember how much b*tching and Moanind there was able JVG shoving Yao downlow? do you remember how many folx SCREAMED he should move Yao around and use his PHENOMINAL PASSING ability and his Sweet Jump shot Funny how times change . . .reverse itself etc Rocket River
Something that has been on my mind lately... You look at the top teams, the elite teams in the league and they all share one common ingredient: chemistry and consistency and experience. Ok maybe that's three ingredients. But the point is, the Suns and Mavericks and Spurs of the world have played together for YEARS...not days or weeks or months but years. They've had the same coaches, systems and largely the same player personnel for a good long time to where they have developed enough experience together. And year after year, they build on those relationships. That's why you can never let up on a team like the Suns or the Mavericks, because nothing really scares them. They've been there before, they know what it takes to win and they don't panic...because they've been through the fire time and time again as a team. And that's something the Rockets have sorely missed since the Rudy T days. Sure JVG was coach for what, 4 years...that's a solid stretch. But there was always high turnover among our players. It seems every year they gutted the supporting cast to try and fit another group of players around our core. And now, JVG is gone and the team has to get used to an entirely new system again. My point...part of me thinks it would have been interesting to see what would have happened under JVG had he stayed. Bonzi wouldn't be here obviously (but Bonzi's not doing much these days anyways). I see no reason why the team wouldn't have added Francis and James and Scola regardless. So you're looking at a team that is pissed off from losing to Utah, kept itself intact (coaches and players alike) while cutting some dead weight and adding some depth. I'm not an advocate for JVG by any means (I did like the change) but it still would have been interesting had the team built on itself rather than tear a few walls down and start over again...like they seem to do to a degree, every season. So in Adelman I trust, for the time being. I don't think we have any other choice. This team is in desperate need of some cohesion, and consistency and experience together as a group. And you're not gonna get that by continuing to make radical changes in your personnel (meaningful additions are one thing...as in moving a weaker player for a better one....but getting rid of James and Alston and Battier and Hayes and whoever the hell else will put this team at square one again), by firing a coach a month into the season or even at the all-star break. I'm starting to really believe that it's gonna take a full season at least for this team to come together under Adelman's system. Should we expect playoffs, yes. Should we get out of the first round, I hope so. But thoughts of a championship are probably premature at this point and you gotta be prepared for that. I'd be happy if this team can find it's identity under Adelman, get the hang of his offense and make a push into the playoffs and get into the second round....go deep in that series and lose but set itself up for a championship run the following year. I think that's a pretty realistic expectation considering Adelman is having to painstakingly de-construct a system that is been burnt into these players brains for the past four seasons.
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik from the album of the same name is one of the greatest songs of all time. Nice post and comparison, BTW.
I think there's an assumption that the Rockets are still going to make one more move. That we're not looking at the final version of the 2007/2008 roster. This might be part of what's causing the drama to boil over. It's also tough to see Rudy Gay have a good game on the same night the Rockets lose. Yes, that will be a thorn for years to come. Fans are like that. The good news is that expectations are low. A simple second round appearance would be considered a step forward (sigh). I'm not going to get too wound up in the fact we probably won't be a 60 win team or probably even a 55 win team. To me, it's all about the playoffs. I'll save most of my anger/frustration until then, because if the Rox fail to get out of the first round - again - I'll probably throw my support behind a complete rebuild. Especially, if the big two fail to rise to the occasion, which we all know is more about "the moment" than it is about numbers.
I know what you're saying P1S2 ... I also agree there are problems that will likely require change. However, there are some calling for Adelman's head already, and others who are way overboard in throwing this team under the bus, in my opinion. There are real negatives, but some positives too in that a handful of players have ridiculously underperformed ... I look at that as a positive because I think that means you can reasonably expect improvement in some of these guys. Also, I think saying "we've heard all of this before" is a tad dismissive of the reality that this is a new coach, new system and "some" new players. That's a bit like getting hired at a job and being told by your employer that they gave the guy before you time to get adjusted so you shouldn't get it. With each game there is more info to look at. I'm sure they'll adjust at some point in the near future.
I think Shane sucks. If he just played and contributed like he did last season, we would be 12-6. He sucked in 17 games, from game 2 to game 18. No big 3s, no defense.
This team has already performed quite well against the best in the league, yet does anyone believe that the new offense is even a third of the way to what it will be? If you envision all of our players performing well, both the starting squad and bench are good enough to match-up well with anyone. Notice how when things get going well, nearly everyone seems to be performing great? Other than all-stars, the opposite also holds for most players. As the system starts to work, it gets exponentially easier for all players to perform well. It's still a matter of opinion whether this team will 'gel' or whether they will work well within Adelman's system, but I believe it's much less debatable whether there's enough talent here.
I hear you, Clutch. But Miami and Detroit pulled rings out of their arses rather quickly after making a couple of additions. We have more of a core - Yao and T-Mac - than Detroit did before winning, and at least as much as Miami did when they got their rings. I just hope that Adelman isn't a staunchy "system" coach that can't pull on a pair of pants without putting his socks on first. We've got the pieces, and eventhough they don't fit together perfectly, I still have a right to expect a better idea of what the picture will look like at the end of the season than we've seen so far. Case in point: you plan for T-Mac not playing 82 games, and make sure that his sub is ready for action WHEN (not if) somebody farts on T-Mac and he misses a ton of games.
9-9 is pretty much what I also expected at this point. However, my question is the reason for the losses. Are the losses are coming from unsuccessful attempts at instilling Adelman's offense? Or are they more due to players going away from the offense, turning back to the "Yao and T-Mac show" in an attempt to get the win? I know it's a combination of both, but I would more like to see the former than latter. Because the former (working to instill the new offense and failing) is true growing pains that will help the team in the long run. The latter may get more wins now but will prove to be a crutch later on.
I actually didnt feel good about the Sac game, given the history that we didnt play them well under JVG either. If you want to find positives, which Adelman insisted upon the other day, the teams we lost to so far had given us troubles in the past under JVG too. I sure hope Adelman brings his magic to this team. We are looking exactly like JVG's rockets minus tough D and firey competitivness.
It doesn't make watching the team lose, to teams they would have beaten easily last year, any easier or less painful. We all know patience is a virtue, now let us see if we can practice it.
We´ve lost a lot, many close games, and we also won to phoenix, we are always complaining about if we are near to Dallas, PHX and SA. Well, with a new coach we have beaten one of those 3 and keep close on the other two. Having achived this i think is much of a safe start, of course there are things i don´t like as i said in many post like inconsistent rotations, because by this time the rotations must be at least set, minutes may change, but have to have a clearly 9-10 players rotation set and we dont, many players play around 30 mins a game and thenm they get a DNP after a win wich is somehow WTF! but i just try to understand this as the coach still "experimenting" once we see a regular rotation set, and a number of games using this rotation we would be able to try to guess the final record, but for now it seems to me as a safe bet that we will still win over 50 games.
Except under JVG we didn't have 'firey' competitiveness either, our defense was 2nd this year until the last game or two (and is now 6th, which should improve again since we've had the most difficult schedule in the league), and Adelman has had a couple of months instead of years.
