While watching various teams on league pass, I've made some observations about the rox. 1. They are a small team. Its hard to argue when you have the yao, but they don't have length. I have been watching the lakers, and they have long players that can play. Rad-man,odom,walton,turiaf,gasol,and bynum are all 6'9 and taller.Sasha,kobe,and ariza are 6'6 and up. Not to mention, all these guys are atheletic for their position. The rox have yao,scola,deke 6'10 and taller. Tracy,shane,and landry 6'8 and taller, and after that a bunch of guys 6'5 and smaller. Including 5 palyers sub 6'3. The mle has been spent on 1 player 1 time since the inception. Swift has been the only player to get the full mle. The mle is a great tool to get a pretty good player. The suns got bell and hill. The spurs got finley and barry. The chance to get a quality player has been there,but for some reason it hasn't been used. 3. The upside is very linited. Scola,Landry,and Brooks can get better. The rest of the team has plataed. Tracy,yao,shane,rafer and the rest are as good as they're going to get. I don't think they will get worse, but they won't get better. The recent trades don't effect the rox in my opinion. Pau helps the lakers, but yao will have to guard bynum anyway. Shaq allow yao to stay in the game, but yao needs to do shaq like shaq did dream at the end of his career. Teams like gsw,port.and denver are really trick ponies.The rox just need to stay healthy and continue to play better.
I agree the teams playing well GS, Denver, Portland You can work them out in a 7 game series. GS live and die by the 3. We do need more length on our bench. Thats why i was a bit skeptical when we signed Francis and James, both guards that I thought made us worse not cause of their skills but they were just too small. Oh well
Teams often have more opportunity for improvement as a team than as individuals. Some teams have 'plateaued' as a team and must acquire new players to improve.. even though they're good, I would classify Detroit and SA as two. That the Rockets are competitive with the best teams in the league w/o consistently 'clicking' says a lot about our upside (but certainly does not guarantee it).
We didn't have a choice.Part of the MLE was used to get Scola. Getting James for Juwan Howard was the only deal out there. A better guard with height and length would have been extremely difficult. Francis for the rest of the MLE was the only choice for the team. We have huge problems with our short back court. Tracy and Bonzi are the only players who can defend against bigger guards to some extent but unfortunately they aren't doing a good job. I have mentioned this before as well that Snyder's failure has hurt us on the defensive end. He could have helped with his height and length.
I mean most good teams have a slew of players that has hit their peak. Its really about how long guys can stay at their peak. The smallness of the team kinda worries me more. The backcourt subs when luther comes in is worrisome. Brooks coming in for rafer is too. Scola landry combo is solid, but one guy comes in for yao and makes ur team small. A tim thomas type would be good for this team too. He can play the 3 or 4 and he's 6'10. He also brings a array of skills to the team. The rox still have too many 1 dimensional players in my eyes.
They had a choice when they signed stro instead of radman or thomas. A yr later he was gone. I see teams agressively signing players for the the mle and have gotten good players. Not all star type players, but good players. They split the mle with bonzi when there were a couple of guys that could help. I've never viewed les as cheap, but they have to get longer and don't get fooled by this sudden ok play. Daniels or Yaric would be big guards that will help. T. Thomas or maggette will also bring he rox some help.
The Rockets are not small. It doesn't matter how many tall guys you have on the team, the real question is whether the 5 guys on the floor at any given time are small or not. For example, what does it matter that Mike James and Steve Francis are 6'2'' or 6'3'' or that Deke is 7'2'' when they don't play anyway. The guys who actually play big chunks of minutes are big. When you have a 7'6'' guy playing 35+ mpg, and a couple of 6'8''-6'9'' starting wings who play heavy minutes, that's not a small team. Now that Scola and Landry are taking most of the 4-spot minutes, that's not small either. The PGs are a little small... but so are most teams. Kinda hope they had a bit of bulk to bang a Baron Davis, but again, most teams have the problem. Lakers are about the biggest team out there now, but how many minutes do you think they play with a lineup including more than 2 or at most 3 of Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Walton, and Turiaf and Radmanovich? The only size issue I see is when Luther plays the 2 or when they go with Rafer+Brooks at the same time. It would be best if they get a fullsized wing who can shoot and defend (unlike, say, Bonzi).
I was hoping we would pick up Matt Barnes or a Michael Pietrus type of player. Guys with size, speed, and length that's what you'll need to win in the playoffs in the west. These guys have reasonable salaries are were/are obtainable.
Yes, rox are composed of midgets and a giant. No small ball, no dominant force. So with current roster, I am sure all players are putting their 100% effort to maintain current ranking, but they are simply out-talent by others.
Our lack of length,height,speed and depth in the backcourt is a big problem. Right now it will be difficult to obtain a big guard or forward without weakening our front court.We can't afford that either.
our guards have been midgets since we got mobley and francis. they have only gotten shorter -> wesley -> head -> brooks
T.Thomas,daniels,jaric,maggette are all mle players. The salaries have to equal about 4.5m . Its not that hard.
Our other problem is obvious too,we have nobody who can slow down or challenge CP3,Harris/Terry, Felton,or Monta Ellis.Brooks has potential as a backup PG IMO but he needs experience and time.
Our other problem is obvious too,we have nobody who can slow down or challenge CP3,Harris/Terry,Parker, Felton,or Monta Ellis.Brooks has potential as a backup PG IMO but he needs experience and time. Sorry for the double post.
the point guard elite in the west are just KILLER. Deron Williams Chris Paul Tony Parker Steve Nash Allen Iverson Mike Bibby Our point guards make correct decisions, but sometimes they just are not capable. No knock on Rafer...he can get by...but imagine how GREAT this Rocket team would be if they had a REAL distributor and/or had a jumper...
Check out what Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, and Iverson did tonight. All four of them went bananas (b-a-n-a-n-a-s)
