There is no doubt that this has been a disapointing season. There are many theorys, reasons and excuses. My question is, what needs to happen between now and the end of the season for you to say "well we hoped for more, but it wasn't a complete waste because..."
The Rockets will have to have at least one six game winning streak, beat the Jazz in the next two games, and defeat Seattle on the road.
....by the end of the season, Collier, Griffin, & T-Mo had established themselves as serious contenders to be in next years rotation & possibly starters. Collier showed that his offensive arsenal was everything that Rudy had envisioned & he even showed improvement in his defensive game as well. Griffin just became more dominant, offensively & defensively, as the season wore on. T-Mo, after struggling most of the year to find his offensive game, suddenly exploded in the last 20 games of the season with an offensive arsenal that was a sight for sore eyes. T-Mo's defensive game was never in question. The late season emergence of Collier & T-Mo, along with Griffin's performance turned two of Houston's weaknesses (SF/C) into strengths going into next season. Oh yeah, & doctors discovered the cause of Francis's migraine headaches & have since cured them. That would make this season a success.
There is nothing they can do to make this season a success; it is an abysmal failure in every respect. I don't even think that the principal players have made any progress. They make the same mistakes over and over and over. They do seem to have mastered the art of losing. They apply the same formula almost nightly. I do not believe that this is a "young" team on the verge of a break-out season; I think that this is a team going nowhere without major reallignment and I mean major.
Solid post....... Let's have another look when we have healthy players, and ALL out starting five intact.
HOOP-T, Surely you are not referring to Glen Rice!? Do you honestly think he will make a difference? Do you really think Cato is the center of the future? Does it matter who the starters are if Francis and Mobley continue to refine their individual games at the expense of the team? Granted they are very talented players, but will they bring a winning TEAM to Houston? M. Taylor has a sweet shot, but what about defense, rebounding, and passing? Two words; TRADE and DRAFT!
I think a healthy Glen Rice will DEFINITELY make a difference. I didn't say anything about Cato being a center of the future blah blah blah. I am not a big fan of Kelvin Cato. But he has shown he can bring in some double-doubles and block shots with some sort of frequency. We are spoiled in Houston with this Marquis Center of the Future Bull$hit. Hakeem is gone.....we are a guard-oriented offense, with some damn talented supporting players. If Rice, Taylor, and others can get healthy, then HELL YES, I think they make a huge difference. Rice is still one of the deadlier shooters in the league. How easy will it be for teams to double with him on the perimeter??? He's done it his whole career. As for your comment about "will they bring a winning team to Houston...." I'd refer you to our record last year of 45-37. Injuries are the sole reason for our losing record this year. It happens. Get off this "Trade and Draft" pedestal.
Get #5 and #14 in the draft. Pick Amare Stoudamire(#5) and a Center(#14). Package them and a second round pick with Moochie to the Clippers for Odom and a 2007 first rounder. There is not an even REMOTELY more available player that will improve this team as much as Odom would. We'd be contending by mid-season.
This saeason cannot be called a success by any means,no matter how many games we win from now onwards. However in order for us to get better,we have to play good defense consistently and make better decisions on the court to get the whole team involved on offense.
This season will be great if we get a very good lottery pick. Oh, and if Mo Tay comes back, I may get a bit happy.
I totally disagree with you. The injuries to Rice & Taylor could not have been anticipated. They were going to be starters & key components to the team. The injuries to Francis, Mobley, & subsequent migraines of Francis could not have been forseen either. Had Taylor & Rice not been injured, Griffin, KT, & T-Mo would've probably not gotten the minutes they did. We've seen KT & Griffin blossom into solid players. All three have gotten valuable game experience. You can't put a price on that. Cato (dare I say it) actually showed some sustained intensity & heart for the first time in his career with the Rockets, although I question him of late. Torres, in his limited playing time, has surprised everyone. How much PT would he have gotten, if not for the injuries? Also, I just started a thread in which Rudy indicates that Collier is going to get more minutes the rest of the year. He's shown flashes of getting his shot back in the last couple of games he's played in & will, hopefully, take advantage of the PT. We should get a high draft pick this year as well. If you measure success in wins & making the playoffs only, then you are correct, this season was a failure. However, I see lots of positive things to build on for next year, when all the injured players should be completely healed. Do they need to work on their defense & decision making? Yes, they do. But, you have to consider that the players we had available this year only have 3 years or less experience, with the exceptions of Cato(4), Moochie(4), Walt(9), & Willis(16). Four of them were rookies & Collier/Langhi for all practical purposes could still be considered rookies, based on the amount of NBA experience they have. That would mean that half of the active roster was rookies. As a result, you're going to have some bad decision making & poor defensive positioning. This team is young & full of promise, with just the right mix of veteran experience. I'm excited about next year & have enjoyed watching the team grow this year, but I haven't enjoyed the losses.
On the pregame show Rudy took a stab at my question "we need to learn humility and have a sense of how hard it is to win".
Hottoddie,I agree with you that we have had a tremendous amount of injuries and health problems and never had our full roster of players, there has been individual progress from not only Francis and Mobley but also from Thomas and to some extent Cato as well,our rookies have gotten a good chance to play major minutes which can be very useful for us in the future and it's very hard to win as a team when so many things have gone against us,but it's the mistakes in close game situations and overall team play that has been a big concern. Hopefully we will learn from our weaknesses and have a healthy team next year along with a good draft and make the playoffs.
