gotta have that one guy step up that teams fear down the stretch. ron and brooks did well in the last game. let's see if they keep it going.
An SG who is a good shooter and can create his own shot (eg. players like D. Wade or B. Roy) and an athletic backup center who's a good defensive player.
For those of you who said a healthy T-mac, I absolutely agree. But health is part of the problem. I am also questioned about his mentality, as Kenny Smith mentioned. He's not used to deferring players outside of himself. That's why we struggled a lot this season, because we had him jack up random jumpers. I would just love to have Joe Johnson on this team, I don't believe he's underrated, but I believe he is good enough to defer to Yao and score on his own. He's an underrated passer that's for sure though.
Look guys, seriously, watching some recent NBA games, I found out that it's all about 4th quarter. Good teams have a goto guy for the 4th - someone to break defenses for 3, 4 straight plays to mess with opponents psyche and make some disturbance - if not collapse. To get out of first round, we need; 1. more plays for Scola - maybe AB pick and rolls we've seen recently 2. play Dikembe right away 3. play Barry full throtle 4. for every flop of the opponent, every player of our team to mimic him on the next possesion - basicly everybody falling to the ground at once
Dudes name should be legally changed to "Iftmac Washealthy McGrady"...nice wholesome Scottish name if you ask me
agreed. this team, even w/o tmac (or maybe especially w/o tmac), can play with any team in the league.
We need to continue to jell as a unit especially on offense and to keep up our defensive intensity. This team could surprise.
The Rockets have serious gap to fill to be an elite team. #1 We need a point guard. #2 Someone to take mins from Yao early in the game so he isn't bent over and tired in the 4th. #3 One more quality role player. The good news is as soon as Tracy is gone we have 20 mil to spend.
The Rockets need Kobe to get hurt, secure home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and to play someone other than Utah and the Rockets will have it made!
Midway next season, convince Atlanta that they could sign a big free agent in the off-season and toss McGrady's expiring contract on them (which will free up money for Atlanta that off-season, allowing them to sign a huge free agent). In return, they give us Joe Johnson. There's our SG... and a championship. ... oh, and re-sign Ron Artest.
Consistency and a healthy team.... More than 5 Players that contribute in terms of shooting, assists, rebounding and etc.
I think with what we have, we could win a title, but even teams who win the championship can improve. There are a few things I think that are holding us back from being an elite team in the NBA. 1- Clutch scorer in the fourth. We need a guy with that "it". Celtics have ray allen and paul pierce. Lakers have Kobe. Cleveland has Lebron. I could continue with a lot of other teams... my point is we lose some close games because we don't have a guy who can take over down the stretch. Yao seems so winded that the last 3 minutes of the game he can produce, but not be solely relied on. Artest has knocked down the big shot before,but never seems to take over during the last 5 minutes of the game. (I do not want any tracy bashing from this, I am just talking about his playing, not his character) Tracy McGrady can do that, and if he comes back healthy next year he'd be great to have. (I would rather have Brooks, Tracy, Artest, Scola Yao as our starting 5 and have Battier/Wafer spell the 2, and Battier/Landry spell the 3). 2- Athletic Big man. Not necessarily a center, but a guy who is over 6'8 or 6'8 who is a solid defender, rebounder, and still is decent on offense. If Landry was taller and a better defender he could fill this void, but I think in the future we should push him more towards the small foward spot, and have him work on his range a bit. Scola can play the 5 while Yao is out, but having another athletic guy be down low with scola would really help us not have such a drop off from when Yao is out of the game (also makin yao more valuable when he is in because he won't have to play so many minutes). 3- Improved play with what we got. I don't think we need to make a move this offseason unless its unloading McGrady for something of value (which I think I would rather take the chance for one year for him being healthy then getting something mediocre in return). Our biggest move should be resigning artest. Have Brooks improve his defense a little bit (which will come, remember he is in year two) and having him and lowry be a great one two punch at the point guard position (which they are showing they can do already). More consistency from Wafer, and I believe having Landry slide down to playing more small foward if we can find that other athletic 4/5 guy (read #2). I think we are a good team with what we have without McGrady. We could be a great team with a healthy mcgrady, and I would like our chance to try this formula again next year. A full offseason and a season under our belts with these guys to work together could help us build something and have a steady system going into next season. I think this season, the media, and our success without mcgrady has humbled mcgrady a bit and he has a chance to come back and be a important part of this team, but not thinking he is the team. The month of march and playoffs will tell us a lot, and can't wait. Go Rockets!
Next year we have to make the right moves to compete for a title in 2-3 years. This is one scenario I can think of: - Deal Tracy for a back-up Center (Hawes for example) who fits RA's offense and a younger (proven) SG. We do not need anymore 'star' players so no Tracy for VC type deals - Get rid of Hayes for a draft pick and let Morey work his magic to get a nice future prospect - Move Wafer / the new SG into the starting lineup alongside Artest. I like Battier but his production on offense, few games hot - weeks not, is not going to cut it. He can come off the bench to guard the other team's 6th men like JR Smith, Ginobili and Kirileinko / Millsap etc. - Sign Barrera and maybe Leunen, depends on if we draft a PF / SF. I hope we draft a big SF who can block, in that case we can sign Leunen who's more than just a 3pt shooting PF. I'm not really impressed with Cook and he's old, we need youth. If we draft a big PF than maybe we can keep White and let him or Wafer back up Artest depending on matchups I think this would improve us significantly with our team looking like this: PG - Brooks, Lowry, Barrera SG - NEW / Wafer, Barry SF - Artest, Battier, draft pick PF - Scola, Landry, Leunen C - Yao, NEW Dorsey or PG - Brooks, Lowry, Barrera SG - NEW / Wafer, Barry SF - Artest, Battier, White PF - Scola, Landry, draft pick C - Yao, NEW Dorsey This is just one scenario but it would definetly help us since we get younger, get rid of Tracy and finally get a back-up C with size who can block and play within RA's offense. Deke is big but cannot play within the system and Dorsey is still far from an NBA player.
