As long as they have Kevin Durant, they will always be better than us. Westbrook has improved his play significantly and has improved with his Team USA play. I think Westbrook is better than Brooks as well. He is what Lowry and Brooks combined w They are younger than us and also have 2 legit 2 guards who are better defenders than anyone of ours in Harden and Sefelosha. They got Ibaka who is a shotblocking machine who shut Odom down and also got a draft steal in Cole Aldrich and Jeff Green continues to add to his game. All in all, they have a better roster than us. They wouldn't even have had to face the Lakers in the 1st round if they weren't robbed of that game against the Jazz.
The Rockets are not "OLD". Not even close. We have exactly 2 players born before 1980 and that is Battier and Miller. I would classify Yao as old also because his body breaks down, but other than that, who are our old players? Brooks is young, Lee is young, Lowery is young; Patterson, Hill, Buddinger, young young young. Scola, Hayes and Martin are veterans, but hardly "old". On top of that we have a cache of draft picks that will make this team even younger in the next few years. But, until they can land a legitimate top dog, I don't think they are contenders. We aren't good enough defensively to be like the Pistons (the only team in recent history to win without a "super-star") and the Suns have shown that you can't just outscore opponents with a bunch of pretty good players in the playoffs.
It's not so much that you can't run a 10-man rotation, it's that you don't need to. Teams often play some of their lessor players during the regular season to help relieve the burden imposed on the regulars by the 82-game grind and all the back-to-backs in the schedule. They also may play the younger guys to give them experience and to evaluate what they can do. Many teams have 7 or 8 guys that the coach really feel comfortable playing but may play "fillers" some minutes either due to injury or for the reasons discussed above. In playoffs, there are no back-to-backs and no reason to "conserve the regulars for the playoffs" when you are already in the playoffs, so teams get to use a smaller rotation and discard some of the guys the coaches don't really want to play. There are no reasons why you can't play 9 or 10 guys if you actually have that many guys you have confidence in. Most teams just don't have that many such guys. There's no reason why you can't play if you have 9 or 10 good players
Yeah, you're right but the Suns had 3 all stars and 2 superstars on that squad, we have none. Nash and Amare were legit Superstars and at that time, Marion was an all-star and one of the best defenders at his position. If we go the route of the Suns and try to outscore the opponents every game, I will be dissappointed and excited at the same time, which is odd. We don't have anybody who can play the Marion role on our squad. Someone who can stop someone from scoring 20 points and also score 20 points at the same time.
Ah yes, please refer to this thread my good sir. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=5617164#post5617164
I should probably clarify, I'm not saying Rockets ARE contenders, but we pretty much have to be for this year or next, because after that Yao is going to have to be replaced and/or Heat and Thunder are going to be GOOD. That's really my opinion, we don't have time for YET.
The reason why I say we aren't contenders is because I assume Yao will break down some time during the season. I know that's cynical, but you almost have to expect the worst with an injury history like Yao's. If he comes back to the 20/10 monster from a couple seasons ago, we are a top 3 seed and a 2nd round team at worst and a WCF team at best. If we want to win a championship, we need to aquire a star, preferrably at the wing.
I was actually talking about just last season - the post-Marion era. IIRC, they kept talking about how Gentry wasn't only going 10 deep but he was often running 2 unique 5-man units out there, as opposed to mixing starters and the bench, because of their depth. They had that 2nd unit of Dragic, Dudley, Frye and whoever else (Lopez and another guy?). I may be wrong but that's what I recall. They were saying that it was very unusual but effective. And my point had nothing to do with style of play. I was just talking about the depth of the rotation. I still think that going a couple of players deeper than opponents may be a way that we can gain an advantage and counter teams with better top end talent.
Also about us being old, sure I agree we have mix of old and young, but really Yao being old and Scola is fairly old (30 is old in NBA IMO), and Yao is the ONLY reason we are contenders this year. Otherwise we are a good team, but we NEED Yao to contend, so Yao's time is really the determining factor for the age of our team.
Yeah, you are right. In the playoffs last year, they had to change up their squad at the last minute because Lopez was out for most of the 2nd half of the season, but returned just in time for the playoffs. They also benifited from the emergence of Dragic in his 17 point outburst against the Spurs. Gentry, as opposed to D'Antoni, instilled defense in their squad and had Richardson, Dudley and Hill that could handle the perimeter of Ginobli and Kobe later on. It also helped when they had Nash, one of the best leaders in the NBA, to hold together that squad like glue, making sure nothing falls apart. IMO, they were a Ron Artest GW away from reaching the Finals and probably a championship. We don't have that Nash type guy on our team but I hope someone like Brooks or Martin develops that leadership quality.
News flash. We don't HAVE to be anything. It's not like since the Heat and Thunder are going to get better in the future, the Rockets have to win this year. Other teams aren't rolling over and saying "Hey, the Rockets HAVE TO WIN this year." You have to earn it, and this team doesn't have the talent to win a championship this year. Face reality man.
im glad to see clutchfans have 100% faith in our houston rockets team!........ i think we have a very solid chance. and i bet these ppl talkin smack about the rockets not being contenders are goin to be the first to jump back in the bandwagon sayin "i knew all along we could in it"....
@ASidd... Again, I'm not really talking about the specifics of what the Suns have that we don't - or any other team for that matter. I'm just pointing out the fact that the Houston Rockets' best bet, absent of a significant trade, may be to go deeper than the opposition if and when we do make the playoffs, even if we don't have this or that caliber of player.
Can't we just play the games? We'll know soon enough. And if we know we're not...we have the trade deadline to change that.
But hey, you may be right in the end. Adelman may stick to a more traditional rotation size. I just find it hard to see - again, absent of a blockbuster trade - how that would be out best bet for the reasons stated earlier. Lowry, Budinger, Lee, Miller and Hayes at a minimum probably need to be on the court in the playoffs. That's not even considering Jeffries, Hill, etc... As of now, we don't have that clear-cut star but we have relatively superior depth.
