oh oh, JoeBarelyCares delivering the quotes!!! Les said Cato could be a very good NBA center, and that was after one year of Cato. <i>"Cato, who got a lot of knocks in the press, has shown he can be a very good NBA center."</i> That allows us to discount everything he says.
damn i've seen some good posts on the bbs today. stroker's and yours were/are on the money. (except, stroker, griffin does not, has not, and will not play the 3)
Here's your chance to chat online with David Aldridge & ask him why he called the Rockets owner those names that he did. Chat starts in 5 minutes: http://dynamic.espn.go.com/espn/chat/chatESPN?event_id=2435 On Friday, September 27 at Noon Central Time, ESPN's NBA reporter, David Aldridge will make a special visit to chat to tackle user questions.
Let's just hope Cuttino is a "BRUT" when it comes to playing defense this year. Get it? Anyone? Bueller?
I would like to say this is one of the better formed teams in Rockets History. Maybe I'm just a homer, but this is somewhat comparable to the Champion ship years if Yao is able to be a Serviceable Center at least. The one thing lacking would be chemistry, but we'll see how that works out. This is how i look at it. Dream, Charles Jones - Yao Obviously Dream is way better in this dept. with prime vs primitive. Otis Thorpe, Pete Chilicut, Chucky Brown, Carl Herrera - MoT,Griffin,KT IMO, Otis Thorpe is just about as good as all three of the PF's we have now. Unless Griffin starts showing us some tenacity, and a post up game, this is a basically a tie Horry, Elie - Rice, Nachbar, Tmo I would give Horry the nod here. He's my favorite player and all, but he plays some decent defense and ALWAYS comes up with the big shot. Rice doesn't have d or a shot (hopefully he regained his touch) nachbar is inexperienced, and TMO is probably the best defender we have at the SF considering he hustles, is long, and lanky. I would give this a tie also. Elie, Maxwell, Cassell, Smith - Franchise, Cat, Mooch, Torres, Tito, Tierre I think this is a close call, but I would say that the present backcourt is better. Although Kenny was a decent pg Cassell was also pretty good. Mad Max could get it going when he was hot, but that wasn't all the time. Elie is just an intanglibe. We can be a good team and borderline great, but All Time great is too early to tell. Cut Les some slack, he's just excited. I'm pretty sure everyone else is also.
For the record... 1) Kelvin Cato will make less money this season than the following: Marcus Camby Zydrunas Ilgauskas Clifford Robinson Greg Ostertag Erik Dampier Shawn Kemp He would make half of Bryant Reeves' salary had Reeves not been forced into retirement. Cato is within a couple of thousand of Bo Outlaw and Tyrone Hill (and within $1.5m of just about any other center who isn''t worthy of an All Star berth). 2) The Rockets did not offer Jason Collier a long-term contract. He has the same length contract as every other first round pick. As is the case for all NBA 1st rounders, the Rockets will have a team option for Collier in year 4 (2003-2004). If exercised, Collier will be a restricted FA in year 5. (The same will be true for Yao). IMO, no Collier...no Griffin. 3) As for taking Langhi over Najera...who cares. Najera hustles but he's a very undersized WC PF with a career 20% 3ptFG average and he scores a whopping 6 ppg. I would hate to think the Rockets missed the WC Finals based upon this horrendous second round draft miscalculation. 4) Mirsad Turkcan did not seem like such a risk when he (reportedly) had one of the best Rockets workouts ever.
In all honesty, I can't remember, but I know Les has gone on these overexhuberant asides before. Maybe it's marketing, maybe it's him just getting excited about his toy - but I don't buy into anything he says...and that's what I'm trying to warn. I know we all hate the analysts who don't fawn over our team, but the fact is, they bring up a lot of good questions, and they are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed: Can Mobley become a more consistant defender and accept that he will become a role player and not a star? With Yao, Francis, and Griffin, it's going to be hard to just Mobley for anything more then a spot and shoot shooter. He doesn't seem to have much a play maker mentality, and hasn't adjusted to the change in the way the game is played with illegal defenses. I think this year is a critical year for Mobley. Houston still has issues at Small Forward. Glen RIce is old, Boki is just a rookie, and then who is there? KT may not be able to handle the spot. So this is still a weakness for Houston this year. Power F- will Mo Taylor return to form? Also, will he ever rebound? How will Griffin, KT, and Mo T mesh into one spot? C- No one will give Yao props until he shows consistancy. There is likely to be a lot of embarrasing moments for this kid. If he takes it in stride and doesn't lose his confidence...as well as not get injured, I think he'll be dine. Otherwise is back to Cato being the main man. PG - there is nothing to worry about here. Rudy - He hasn't shown a very good ability to balance egos on a team. Perhaps he just isn't intimidating enough. That's his once flaw. Pippen never meshed well. Barkley and Clyde didn't mesh well. Hakeem didn't mesh well the season before last when he lost being the #1 option. Cato hasn't played with motivation. I think this is an area that Riley or Jackson has an advantage over Rudy. I mean Jackson has successfully managed Kobe and Shaq, and those guys hated eachother before he came into the picture (they still do, but they are now professional about it).
The Rockets sell out when they win, period. Les can say whatever he wants and pump up the team to no end but until they start winning the fans aren't going to show up in big numbers though I'm sure the Yao curiosity alone will start bringing more people in.
I didn't see anyone talk about this, but when windandsea made his first post in the thread, quoting the Chronicle, he brought up that the Rockets signed 2 guys to non-guaranteed deals in Steve Goodrich and Pete Mickeal. I don't know anything about Goodrich, but I have followed Cincinnati Bearcat basketball to comment on Mickeal. He is a very athletic player who is a good defender. I'll say this...he is better than T-Mo, but isn't everybody?
From today's Chronicle (and the subject of another thread): "Alexander seemed surprised that his comments would draw as much as even a double take. He has made similar declarations before. He called Yao Ming, the first player taken in the draft, "The biggest story in the history of sports." Of Steve Francis, he said, "There is no better young point guard in the history of the NBA at this stage." When Francis signed this summer, Alexander announced, "This is the team that I think will bring us some championships in the years to come. We have incredible talent at every position." "I've been here 10 years ... ," he said Monday. "I've never said anything I don't believe in." "
Holy Crackhead, Batman! Sounds like Les has been hanging out with Marion Barry. The Rox certainly have much more "upside" today than at this point last season (trying to be consistent with draftspeak) I even think that they could turn into a championship team in a few years. But Jeez Les, lay off the crack pipe. At this point they aren't even one of the 5 best teams in the west no less one of the best teams ever assembled. I know he's just trying to get people to buy tickets, but. That said. Go buy some freaking tickets!!!
As a major rocket fanatic, I am anxiously awaiting the start of the season. We have accumulated a lot of young talent and I want to see our chemistry take off. We have a valid MVP candidate in Francis, where he goes so will go the rockets. Yao is just going to be a piece of the puzzle this year, Im not expecting that much from him except defense / rebounds, we have enough scorers on the team. If he can shut down the middle, block shots and rebound it will create much more fast break oppurtunities for our speedy backcourt. I think we will finish as a 5 or 6 seed this year and hopefully win a playoff round. I cant wait....... Clutch City Forever Lexled
