a guy declining "FAST" does not put up 27, 8, 7 in the playoffs playing on 2 injuries. if you mean declining "fast" in terms of physical health, well, the 2 injuries are freak injuries. he came into last season in the best shape of his career. and if we can get some shooters, it may be harder to take yao out of a game. and even if they do, we've proven we can play without him so we can limit his minutes to 29-30 v. opponents that he struggles against.
you think KG, pierce, and ray allen have "it" in them? please. those 3 were considered losers and mentally weak before making it htis year. get better talent, esp. off the bench, and the answer is yes. (along with health)
i must admit that after seeing paul pierce's (esp him b/c he's stuck with that team for so long) and kg's reactions to reaching the finals, it really did make me think "man I really really just wanna see Tmac (esp) and Yao get to that point." Paul Pierce and KG were just like so full of joy, and I just want Tmac and Yao to experience what I saw on Paul Pierce and KG's faces after they beat detroit ... preferably both in Rockets uniforms . But to answer the question, if we improve our roster (it doesn't currently seem as deep as last year ...), and have those 2 guys 100% (yao wasn't in the 2007 playoffs), I think we have as good a shot as anyone to get there. More than anything, if Yao is 100% come playoff time (and hopefully assumes the dominance he showed during that stretch of averaging like 25 and 12 a lil more than a year ago), no one can really stop us. I'm just praying all those ifs come through for us.
Bulls, Pistons, Lakers, Celtics, Rockets, Spurs are multiple title winners. Then Heat and 76ers are one-time winners. 8.
i doubt it even they are both healthy. if tmac takes parts of kobe, yao takes part of duncan, they would.
yao's not on the level of kg and tmac's not on the level of kobe... so no they don't deserve it. until they raise their game to another level, i won't feel sorry for them...
so how do you feel about ray allen sucking for most of the playoffs? how about pp just getting started from game 7 of the 2nd round? they both got in. and please, kg has had quite a few bad games in this playoffs so please... some of you guys' reasoning are pathetic. our 2 stars always play their hearts out in the playoffs and it's a shame that the talent level around them is not up to par with the other teams, which is the main reason. you think kobe would be here if he didn't have gasol? or the big 3 if they weren't the big 3 TOGETHER?
Compare our small forward (Battier) against all the small forwards on all the playoff teams both East and West. Then do the same thing for the PG position and PF position. In the majority of cases, especially the top four teams in each division, no contest, not even close. Can't go to a gun fight with knife and expect to win. I have been telling Rockets fans for years that this team is short on talent. JVG said it publicly after the playoffs in 2005. Morey has admitted it. It is not a secret. This is what made the 22 game winning streak so phenomenal. We don't match up well against the elite teams, we just don't. With limited "wiggle" room financially, a relatively budget minded owner with a false theory that Yao and TMac are a dynamic duo on the verge of a breakthrough, and a marginally talented supporting cast and bench (replete with a 40 something year old center) this team is not on the verge of glory. My cynicism is well grounded in watching Les operate in the thirteen years since the Rockets experienced the promised land. Les didn't lead them there and he has been taking them further away from that destination since he took over. The "good ole" CD era was a disaster of bad drafts, bad trades, and bad contracts. We could do worse with a new owner, but we could do a whole lot better.
I am not sure whether Yao and TMac will get to NBA finals or even get over the first round. The reason is the refereeing and I found them to be unbelievably bad and it's against us. I really thought .. actually I was confident we'll move into the second round against Dallas a few years ago until the unbelievable series of horrible refereeing decisions. Until we get a reasonable impartial refereeing we have little chance because most the the playoffs are close games .. very close in fact. I don't like to blame the refereeing but what I saw against Dallas is unbelievable.
Weren't the Rockets like the most dominant team in the West post-February until Yao got his season ended early? Didn't these Rockets have close to the best record AFTER the All-Star break and just won and won, matching the Lakers, even taking the Laker's no. 1 spot for a brief while? The thing that really killed the whole deal...was Yao's season-ending stress fracture. A team doesn't win 22 games in a row because it sucks. They may not be quite as deep but I felt that Rockets have a core that is more or less just as good as what the Lakers have. I think if the Rockets have an NBA Finals caliber team...but adding another option somehow really, really makes the chances better. I remember the days when the doubters back in the early 90's said Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets would never get to the Finals. It's a blessing that they caught Yao's condition early. He will be a factor next year...plus the pit bulls like Scola and Landry...the good potential of Brooks...
