Yup, Thank you Martin for keeping 90% of the fans still exited about the possibility of going to the playoff, or getting a star, or even a superstar, I guess there is alot of people that would love to have the number 5 pick, and draft a 100% sure superstar... Just look at Evan turner and Derrick Favors. PeAcE
This. I've been saying it since the offseason -- this board has overrated our players so much it's ridiculous. Morey's put together a team full of average role players. Our best player (Martin) would be, at best, the #3 best player on any title contender. Anyone trying to convince themselves that this Rockets team is anywhere close to even being above average, let alone a contender, is fooling themselves. The sooner the fanbase puts pressure on the organization to make the changes needed, the sooner it'll happen. The longer fans keep accepting moral victories and mediocrity and praising a GM who has done absolutely nothing for the bottomline of winning, the longer the Rockets will stay mediocre.
In this league there is one winner for winning it all, one winner for winning the other conference, and a few winners for sucking the most. If you can't have the trophy you might as well try to find a player that can get you there.
Wrong about players and wrong about coach. So that inevitably makes assumption about good scoring system wrong too. A good system needs execution from coach down to players. Both parties have FAILED.
Considering their expectations, now without Yao. I'd say they are still overachieving. I was skeptical we would make the playoffs even with Yao. It's pretty sad to see that we're actually doing better without him.
Clutchfans have overrated the players as competitive for a ring. Lakers vs Rockets Bynum >>>>> Chuck Hayes Pau Gasol >>>>> Scola Artest >>> Battier Kobe >>>>>> Martin Fisher < Lowry Spurs vs Rockets Blair > Chuck Hayes Tim Duncan >>>>> Scola Jefferson >>> Battier Ginobili >> Martin Parker >>>> Lowry Heat vs Rockets Ilgauskas >> Hayes Bosh >> Scola LeBron >>>>>>>> Battier Wade >>>>>>>> Martin Arroyo <= Lowry
if we played with more heart and determination i think we'd be a good enough team for a 5th seed. yeah yeah, i know..it's never going to happen. blow up the team, get some lottery picks, etc.
This isn't HOOSIERS! This the NBA! Name me 1 team! 1 ****ing team that won anything in the NBA with less talented All hard working manta. Don't you dare say the pistons. They had 4 all-stars and 2 sure HOFers on those Pistons teams.
We are seriously bad. There is no all-star on the whole team. People keep bring up Kevin Martin and Scola as our best players and borderline all-star players. The other Western conference teams have actual all-star players like Gasol, Kobe, Artest, Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Durant, Dirk, Kidd, Marion, Chris Paul, David West, Kirilenko, Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony, and Chauncey Billups. Scola and Martin can't even be compared to the star power on other teams.
We had two super talents and a bunch of scrubs before and we failed. Then we traded one of our injured super talent and built a team full of average players. Again, we failed. So it seems like if Les doesn't spend the luxary money on the roster (I mean way much more money over the salary cap), we will never build a team that can contend. Eventually, money rules. It is nothing about tanking or trading to get talents. It is all about $$$.
You can't spend luxury money. If you are in the luxury tax area, you can only spend the MLE. The Heat dumped salary to free up massive amounts of cap space. Miami is below the luxury tax level. It is not just about the money anymore. It's about stars playing with other stars. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh took less than the max to play together. Bosh and LeBron would have made money staying on their old teams, because the bird rights allow an extra $12-13 mil on a max contract. Carmelo, CP3, and Amare want to band together in NY. CP3 and Carmelo would make $12-13 mil more by signing max contracts with the Nuggets and Hornets. There are no all-stars wanting to form a big 3 with Scola and Martin. It is a hallucination. The draft and trade is all they have. The trade only works if a team is trying to dump an all-star. There aren't too many teams like that, this year.
You think Scola and Martin can't compare to those guys? Seriously? Anyways, I don't think anyone thought we were winning a ring with Yao done, as you seem to claim. I thought we would perform somewhat better then we are now, but this doesn't surprise me. Where we go from here, I honestly don't know, but there's no way I'd condone tanking. Especially with this draft class, and the fact that well, we are going young for now.
If you believe in offense only, then Scola and Martin are comparable. If you look at offense and defense, Scola and Martin are duds. On defensive plays: Player Rank PPP(Points Per Possession) Scola 250th 0.92 West 51st 0.79 Martin 343rd 1.03 Artest 26th 0.75 While Martin is guarding the weakest perimeter player, Artest is usually guarding the best perimeter player. Battier has to take the best player. If Martin was placed on Kobe, Lebron, Durant, etc, he would look even more miserable. Scola is just as horrible when compared with West. Scola allows 1.14 PPP(242nd) in spot-up situations vs David West 0.81 PPP(36th). I won't even bother with the defensive capabilities of Kirilenko, Kidd, Marion and Billups over Scola and Martin.
I personally think we just don't have the talent.... I also blame Clutch the bear for taking his pants off too much because it's gay.
