Look I'm not hating on the rockets just critiquing us a little bit and you overlook a lot. First and foremost Yao will only be able to average at max 30 MPG. Second Brooks, Martin, Scola are a huge liability defensively. While we have great defenders off the bench like Hayes and Lowry, they are just too inconsistent and for Hayes completely off when it comes to offense. I understand we can have a completely different lineup coming into next year but if we come our with the lineup of Brooks, Martin, Ariza, Scola, Yao we will not be a contender. BTW Baron, Gordon, Butler, Griffin, Kaman is a solid lineup.
Scola was good when Landry was here. He wasn't filling Landry's shoes. He was one of the most consistent players quarter-to-quarter for us in terms of shooting even while Landry was here. He just extended his consistency to cover for Landry's loss. There's a reason we could let Landry go - Scola is that good. Well ok, there's another reason : we could get Kevin Martin.
I agree with Utah, since Boozer will probably leave for a bigger salary. Phoenix could be another possibility, after the lose Amare. I am not convinced that Channing Frye and Robin Lopez can compete with other big guys in the West. Grant Hill looks worse every year.
I don't think anybody really knows for certain what guys like Brooks, Hill, and Budinger could turn into at this point. We have a very young team all around with a lot of upside left in it, and there are a number of guys I could see emerging as star "go-to guys" next season. I also don't think you need just one go-to guy to contend for a title, let alone getting into the playoffs. I recognize this is unconventional thinking when it comes to the NBA.
nah i think portland, and san antonia will be in playoffs next year, i cannot see golden state or clippers making the playoffs next year without seeing blake griffin play yet; rockets will definitely be in the postseason next year either a 4-7 seed, but not a top 3 seed, lakers, mavs, and nugget are still better
no you need at least two, look at lakers in 200s, they had shaq and kobe, spurs, they had duncun/robinson & then parker/duncun, look at 94-95 rox, they had hakeem/drexler heck even the bulls had pipen/jordan and 80s lakers had magic/kareem
Just like every year and every other week these "experts" (whether they be a writer, analyst, GM or team owner) give their predictions and are wrong more than 50% of the time. Just to prove my point, my wife (who NEVER watches college basketball and only sparingly watches football with me) predicted better brackets in both football and college basketball than those idiots (Reese Davis, Matt Mosely, Pat Yasniskas, etc. etc.) on tv and online. Those guys guess based on their "knowledge and are usually wrong. How many GM's get fired yearly in pro sports. How many draft picks and free-agent signings bust? I could be a better GM than guys like John Weisbrod or Isiah Thomas or a better columnist than Rick Bucher. Take it with a grain of salt guys. Lets just play the game. That's why I dont read mock drafts or watch selection specials or read ESPN or SI's pre-season predictions. It means nothing and is worth 2 cents, yet these guys get paid pretty good money to write what essentially amounts up to nothing....
Portland will be in the playoffs for a good decade, SA on the other hand I don't know. If they lose Manu and with Timmy coming to an end of his career, it could get difficult to get away with playing your stars less during the regular season. Of all the teams that could be out next season I think SA and Phx(Without STATS) are the ones going bye bye, and while Utah may slip without Boozer they should still be good with Williams and nice a lotto pick courtesy of the Knicks. Rockets and Griz with the right moves should both be in the playoffs next season.
Big Z played off the bench at 20 mins a game following the surgery on his arch. Also Morey did say we probably won't see the real Yao until the end of next season.
As it stands right now here is next years roster: Brooks/Lowry Martin/Taylor Ariza/Battier/Buddinger Scola/Hill/Jeffries Yao/Hayes/Andersen Aside from the speculation of how many minutes yao can play I feel this team will be solid. All our rookies have looked promising. I dont think that anyone on this forum can say that they will not be better next year with another year of learning defense and offense. Jordan hill will be a great back up for Scola. I think he will improve his jumpshot and defense through offseason training. Buddinger and Taylor both will improve with more exposure to this system and gained experience from this season. All this is just in house improvement that does not factor the Rockets first round pick which should be solid considering Morey's draft history. Another thing is the MLE, which is not too far fetched to think that a guy like camby would come to Houston. There is a definete opportunity for him to back up Yao and possibly play borderline starter minutes based on the likely scenario that Yao will play max 30 min/game and probably sit out of one game of back to backs. Described above are simply factors that can be accounted for on paper. The thing that make me most optomisitc about this team and organization is the level of professionalism, work ethic, and never say die mentally that they cultivate from top to bottom. That is something only rockets fans really have a pulse for and Beat writers/analysts really cant account for in their speculation. All this being said, next season cannot get here soon enough! Hoping for a injury free 2010-2011 campaign. If we have that everything else will take care of itself. Go Rockets!
The Suns probably win it all if Robert Horry doesn't hip check Nash into the boards and get Amare suspended in game 6. DD
Well I agree with RB on the fact that we don't have a crunch time playmaker even though we picked up KMart I still don't think he's in that category. Right now AB seems to be our crunch time player and honestly that is not great. I don't agree with him on the fact that although Landry was great in the 4th quarter for us we still needed a perimeter threat. Only if we could get a DWade or Joe Johnson....
great read, but i disagree with Bucher. we have a solid team now, and we're playing without our best player. martin hasn't played a season with us so my grade of his is incomplete. i don't believe he himself makes us a contender, but with a healthy Yao, Martin and the role players + lottery picks makes us a lot better. morey gets an A from me. we have a young team, young talent, and we have solid veterans.
