I agree rockets are right there, man they just need a tad bit of the fortune that other teams have regarding their health, and perhaps one good trade away, that winning streak tells me alot about our core group.....and now the bitter painful wait begins AGAIN ........
This finals told me that Kobe ain't all he is made out to be. 1 assist in the final game! 1!! If he couldn't win with the current Lakers cast, I don't think he deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Jordan. Only reason Kobe won any championship is because of Shaq plain and simple. At least TMac took a bunch of nobodies to 22 wins in a row (12 without Yao), not to mention 50+ winning season every year he has been healthy. Give TMac the Lakers team and imo they got a better shot at the Celtics.
Ive been saying it all along...all you saw was Kobe taking shot after shot, missing. I don't even want to look at this FG%, he shot like 10 technical fts rofl
We can take on the Celtics. They haven't played against a dominant big man in the playoffs. The game we played them with Yao and no Tmac, we almost took them out. The problem is our matchups with the rest of the Western Conference.
We match well against most of the Western teams, except the Jazz and the Warriors. The Warriors will have trouble making the PO. And we should've beaten the Jazz if Yao was healthy this year, even it is a tough matchup for Yao.
Which was why not having Bynum was something of a blow. Bynum puts Gasol at PF and Odom at his natural position of SF. Odom isn't an elite defender but he gives them way more on defense than Radman, Walton or whatever else they have there. Teams that beat the Rockets always seem to have a "3rd" guy. Can see how it'd make sense to get one. Really thats what the Finals have told us about the Rockets, that we were mostly correct on needing a legitimate 3rd option.
Sam is the only player who got rings in Celtics roster. He passed the champion spirit to the rest. If you ask me what Rockets need the most, I would say a heart of a champion. When you look at the current Rockets, you would like to have someone like Sam in the roster.
Looking at the finals, I have to say I'm glad we have McGrady and not Kobe. Cause the finals showed why teamball is important. And rockets do have team ball, but just don't have a good finishing touch. IMO, Kobe should've drove to the rim more and pass the ball out (which is what Mcgrady does a lot). Lakers have a good team that can spread the floor, but I don't know why the Lakers weren't taking advantage of it. They were taking contested jumpshots all the time against the best defensive team. If the Rockets are healthy, I think we have a very good chance at getting to at least the western conference finals. With pure team ball that is. But what the finals also told me was. We need a freethrow and 3 pointer coach (if there is such thing).
kobe had one of the most dominant years in recent years, esp. the western playoffs. but i saw the same kobe in game 7 i saw in the suns series game 7, where he quit on his teammates. dude didn't see a lot of double teams in this game and refused to shoot at times.
Odom is good but he's better at pf than sf. He's a post player, he can't spread the floor as sf and his perimeter defense is so-so. The more time passes, I feel like we should gamble on Artest. We only have 2 year window of opporutnity.
If the lakers can get gasol for kwame brown I am sure if we waited we could have traded swift's expiring contract for something. Its not like we have cap space anyway.
cmon yall, no way we would have beat boston even with a healthy yao. we are right on the cusp of becoming a great team, but i think we are still one player away..i still think we need a little more speed in our lineup.
We played Boston twice during the season and neither game we were healthy. Our defense is good and our offense is flowing. No telling what the Rockets would have done as a healthy team. Rockets are just not healthy sad to say that is really the ONLY thing holding them back. The way they played with Yao at the start or first 10-12 games of that 22 game winning streak... no team could mess with that... that was scary not even Boston. Another thing to consider is that the NBA is a business beating Boston or Lakers is extremely tough considering how the NBA babies both of those franchises.
