A lot of guys keep saying that this current team has enough to win the championship. I would agree, we have the championship defense, championship hustle, and championship type of players. Scola, Battier, Yao, Landry, etc. are winners and all of them play the right way. HOWEVER, the Rockets have one fatal flaw, and that is a superstar ready to take over games in the 4th quarter. This same reason will be why the Rockets will always falter in the 4th quarter, and rarely come back from behind in the 4th. Yao can't do it because he is a center which makes it harder, and has unique deficiencies that prevent him from being a dependable 4th qtr option. The Rockets are missing a guy talented enough to will his team to victory. A guy able to make a contested jumper consistently, as well as strike fear in the hearts of the opponents defense. I'm talking about a Kobe Bryant, a Chris Paul, a Deron Williams, a Parker/Ginobili combo, a Brandon Roy, and to a lesser extent, a Dirk Nowitzki or a Billups/Carmelo. The players I mentioned, I fear them when they have the ball in crunch time, there is no one on this team that I would fear in the 4th qtr like those guys. Houston once had this man, his name was Tracy McGrady. Albeit he was not entirely dependable, no doubt he had the same ability to take over games. The Rockets probably have some of the best role players in the entire NBA, but role players can't be expected to take over games. Until we find a guy capable of imposing his will on the game, I don't see this current group winning a championship. We have a good shot at passing the 1st round, but not a championship.
Would be nice. At least then we'd have a threat in the 4th quarter. And Artest wouldn't be our leader. TMAC of this season....yuck.
the tmac of last year would elevate this team to another level. again, he's not gonna make 45-46% of his shots. but his playmaking would take us to another level. stretches tonight we couldn't get good shots off. tmac would have provided us with good shots for the role players and even yao. but he's done as a rocket. please move on. brooks and wafer are the guys now.
This discussion is debated in just about every thread. It's pointless because we don't have a healthy T-mac.
"Had". T-Mac is no longer like that, period. You might as well say that we had Hakeem to take over games in the 4th 10 years ago - it holds just as much relevance.
As of now,it's the hurting truth but you have to admit that,we can't advance farther without a HEALTHY T-Mac.
Well,sometimes when we're trailing within 2 with few seconds left on the clock,T-Mac tends to jack up 3s to roll the dice that it's gon' fall.
Reality check: You won't see a healthy T-mac until next season and that is a big question mark as well! So the team has to work on what they have now!
Yep,4th quarter collapse continues.How the hell could we manage to play a better 4th quarter?Is that hard to do?Last game at Pepsi Center,we almost blew the lead we built up the prev. 3 quarters.
