That is the plain truth of the matter. Van Gundy was trying to maximize Yao and Tracy with the surrounding cast and he needed a hard nose power forward and a PG and a third scorer. I (edit) heard from sources that he and Les had a falling out and his dismissal was more personal than basketball.
I am with you. This team still owns Yao and T-mac. New coach needs sometime. It is just wasting time talking about rebuilding now. We call our stars soft, how about our fans here calling on rebuilding now? Soft team makes soft fans, it is just pathetic.
I don't buy it, rhester. Put me in the "tweak" crowd. Now, it could mean a major tweak, but rebuild? No way.
It doesn't need to be blown up but the need for changes is obvious. Not having trade assets and lack of cap room is making things very hard. Tough decisions will need to be made if things don't get better soon.
Tweak - Major tweak...Keep RA. We'll be real good..almost assuredly this year or next.I'd bet we are peaking at the end of the year though.
When I watch this team, one phrase keeps coming to mind: out of sync. When the timing is off, when the parts don't work together, the engine sputters. Last night was the first encouraging evidence that the machine maybe can run, at least in spurts. I agree that this system and these players aren't a fit. I don't think the personality of this coach is a fit. I think surrounding Yao with players who shoot a low percentage is crazy. It appears that TMac has joined that group. I agree with Magic, TMac needs to go for several players to compliment Yao, especially some shooters and/or rebounders. I think this is possible and necessary. Call it a big tweek or a rebuild, this is high risk, but staying the course is futile. As uplifting as the team's effort was last night, they are unlikely to make the playoffs, and that is unacceptable. Roll em.
NO NEED TO REBUILD. You guys only think we're so bad because our expectations for the season were over the roof, and now the fall to mediocrity makes this team look worse than it is. Right now, this team supposedly has gone as low it can go, right? But we're still hanging around .500. There's no place to go now but up. Also, what is creating all this Tmac drama? From what I see, it's all fan generated. It's true that Tmac's body language and tone MAY suggest his attitude...but I'm gonna wait til he gets back into the game and see how he responds to make my judgement.
I was going right along with you then I read points 1 and 2 and now know that you have no idea about what you are talking about.
You know thare is a lot of truth in this!!!!!! Then Yao can stop pretending he is Vlade Ming and we can develop Brooks as the back up Point Guard.
I personally think we can go without rebuilding.. although you could be right about it being a necessity. The only problem I see with rebuilding is Les and Yao. Les needs to keep Yao happy to keep him in Houston.. at least give him the impression that he's trying. If we go on a rebuilding mode, Yao's hopes for a championship is as good as dead and he knows it. If we rebuild.. I'm afraid Yao might demand surround him with ready, veteran players or put him in a team that's ready for a championship run. Either way Les will lose money if they rebuild. Not gonna happen. I think the only way is to trade Tmac right now. We know our duo doesn't work and Tmac is the only superstar that's trade able to Les.
What's going to sting is the fact that Rudy Gay would be a great piece to start rebuilding with. I'm not quite ready to give up on T-Ming. I'd like to see how the team would look with a new (as in not currently on the roster) point guard. I'm not delusional about the Rocket's chances, though. The more I look at this team, the more I'm convinced that it's time to tear it all down and start over. I hope I'm wrong, though, and a new point guard might go a long way towards fixing what's wrong with the team. Still, if the Rockets are not showing progress at the trade deadline, they should make whatever trade is necessary to try and land a high draft pick. Why wait until Summer 09 to get your first lottery pick, when you can start with the Summer 08 lottery instead.
As the Playoffs progress, "the Game" tends to slow and a viable halfcourt game becomes very important. Even if a suitable trade is found for TMac that garners some respectable talent, the offense that Adelman favors does not suit Yao. If the other scenario is to trade Yao, then the team will likely become a doughnut that will struggle in the playoffs unless the talent on the wings is dominating like Jordan & Co were in the 90's. A younger TMac and another wing player of similar ability might have been able to pull it off, but TMac's window is starting to close and it is unlikely an ideal situation will present itself. Reviewing the botched trades & poor drafts of the past has already been done numerous times, so no need to continue doing that in this thread. It is hard to imagine the Rockets getting lucky in a medium - minor trade over the next 6 - 7 weeks, so the Tank might need to be brought out of storage in the near future.
rhester, very good post and you are absolutely correct. to think that this team can turn it around this year is silly. if you watch games and have watched the last few seasons, you'd know that the end is near, whether we want to admit it or not.
I stand by this one point- we worked very hard to develop Yao into a half court low post scorer, where the offense starts and goes through Yao. Remember how much we worked on him being able to get the entry pass? Yao has progressed to the point that he has become the best low post player in the entire NBA and he is suited to the half court game. Now for that type of center to be successful we need great defense (since possessions are limited) and very good shooters- since Yao can only be stopped with double and triple teams. Taking Yao out of the half court - low post offense and placing him in a motion - transition oriented offense that requires him to move out and pass- IS a remake of Yao Ming and it is not suited to his strengths. It also requires us to have a much better cast around him since he will not be as dominant. If we are going to give up some on the defensive end- in other words if we are not going to play defense like San Antonio then we better play offense like Phoenix- But of the two teams which one has the most rings? How many championships does Dallas have? I saw us building towards another title run- now I see us rebuilding the system. You all say we need to tweak- while we are actually already rebuilding the entire system of play. We are reworking the Van Gundy system to the Adelman system. This is a big change and the results are evident - just look at the play and the record of the team last season and this season. (basically same roster) Everyone harps about how it took us 2 seasons of tweaking for Van Gundy's system- well that is true and we never got all the pieces in place- we did not come up with a 3rd scoring option and a PF who could take the load off Yao. Not to mention an upgrade at PG. Well now it will take us another season or 2 to get the parts put together for the motion/transition offense that Adelman is comfortable with. We started the season reverting to our old habits on offense and defense and everyone was encouraged that we were 6-1 But the more the players tried to run the offense the defensive intensity suffered and the players (which is only normal) struggled on the offensive end. And now the players are still trying to adjust on the fly to a new coach and a new system and we are really playing mediocre ball. I don't blame Adelman, Van Gundy can't come back, the players can't be faulted for the shake up- I blame Les Alexander. How come we can't see that we are already going through a major transformation. We didn't bring in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the offseason. We brought in Rick Adelman and an entirely new system in. So for all you calling for a tweaking that went down the drain when we changed coaches and systems. We will have to rebuild this roster for Adelman to succeed. I am sorry but unless we get a superstar point guard or another great scorer I don't see much reason to hope that everyone can adjust to the new system in time to win a NBA championship in the forseeable future. How long will we have Yao and Tracy together? The future looks clouded.
Agree with you about Tracy embracing Adelmans system and trusting his teammates. When that happens I do see this team going on some big runs. They have the horses to beat anyone and you usually couldn't say that in the past. Adelman will have to find his 3rd scorer in either Wells, James or Scola which most coaches in the league would envy.
What are u watching!!! That was the most we've moved the ball.. We were not moving the ball when we were 6-1, we should have lost half of those games. Now we are being exposed over and over again. The world is wrong and rockets fans are right huh??? Please..... we suck and our role players suck!!! Anyone can see this! The stats don't lie! We have bit by bit mishandled this franchise! 1997-present, our rockets management has consistantly gave up good players through drafts and trades! We are still being affected by those bad decisions of our past. It's not like. It's not like NFL football where there are 13 rounds. A bad decision won't affect you, because there is always a diamond in the rough. But in the NBA, if you make a bad draft or trade it will have a affect on the team for 5-10 yrs......... That is what's happening to us. Now we are trying to put makeshift pieces together to overcome the hurt from our past. Richard Jefferson, Collins, Najera, Nachbar, Cassell,Horry, Gaye etc...... how many can you add to this list of bad decisions by our rockets management. When will the hurt from our past sins end????????????????????
