Are we two really good players away from contending?

You just named 8 players drafted over a decade of drafts. That's 8 players out of how many hundreds of players drafted in that time span? Not to mention only one of the players you named actually brought his team a championship. Finding a player in the draft is not a strategy teams plan for because there are no such thing as a sure thing in the draft. Drafting a game-changing player is what you do when you can't get a player through a trade. The draft is like firing a bullet into a flock of doves. It may be exciting and In your mind it seems fool proof, but more often than not you come up empty. Any experienced hunter will tell you that you have to have a target before you can hit it, and an unproven player in the draft does not qualify as a target.

 

If you don't have a superstar, you are NOT contending in this league. End of story!

Miami has 3 superstars.
Lakers have 2.
Boston has 3-4.
San Antonio has 2-3.
Dallas has 2.

If you don't have a guy that will churn out points for you on any given night and demand double teams, you are not winning a championship. The Rockets are in that position right now and forever until they make a bold trade like the Magic did.

 

The thing with Granger amd Martin together is that both of them need the ball way too much to be effective, In this scenario i would rather have Iggy, Someone who doesnt need to take as many shots to be effective, that way Kevin can continue to keep his shots and Iggys explosiveness and great passing should make Martins game that much easier. But then again Twill could grow into an Iggy type of player with the right minuets and coaching

 

Come on man the Magic already had a big man down low to build around. They just reloaded better shooters around him. They didn't turn the team upside down. This team don't need a flashy swingman or another One-on-5 guy a la T-Mac. This team need height. PERIOD. They have no defensive presence down low which kills them on the boards and defending the paint. Going after a guy like Varejao or Marc Gasol seems to make more basketball sense to go with the offensive talent we already have. I am totally against trading for a small forward unless its Carmelo. Players like iguodala and granger are nice complimentary pieces, but you can't build around them (see Philly and Indy), so why trade for that? Morey should be shooting for height in any trade he attempts. Go Rockets

 

This is what i amsaying. Waiting on the draft to get you a superstar could take years to happen. It's to much of a gamble. We currently have a decent team with just a player or two away from being in the running again.
All this talk of needing a superstar is hogwash. For example, adding Nash or Granger and a defensive center now would put us in a good position to contend.

 

I've been pretty adamant about this for awhile. Getting two really good that are complete players that are at near All-Star level players will not make this team a title contender, not unless one of them suddenly turns into a superstar.

 

Dallas has 2? How many did Detroit have?

 

How did Camby come to be defined as a "really good player"? He's an over the hill roleplayer.

 

If are we getting CP3 we better change coach, because CP3 will have the ball on his hand 90% of the time. So you can forget about this motion offense with him playing as the main guy.

 

When Did Dallas get a second superstar ?
Kidd stop being one a few years ago, just look at them struggling since they lost Drik. If you think Rockets can't beat any good team look at Dallas minus Dirk.

And please take it easy with the Superstar term. Unless you count All star and good player as superstar.

 

Alright, I'll take back my assessment of Kidd. But I would say that he's still a game changer unlike Brooks or Lowry. The point I'm trying to make is that the Rockets don't have anybody that is a game changer. Luis Scola appears to give up as many points as he scores on a given night and Kevin Martin's PPG is earned from the free throw stripe and not the floor, disappears in the fourth quarter either on his own fault or coaching decisions, and doesn't truly demand that the other team's defense stick to him or double him.

The only time we've seen in recent history a team without that primetime superstar win a championship is the 04 Pistons and those guys had ridiculous defense. We are so far away from that.

 

Detroit only won one championship with that group of guys, so that argument doesn't seem to carry any weight.

 

My sources indicate that it might have something to do with his 11 RPG this year.

UPDATE 8:24:

I've received word that his ~2 blocks a game might also be contributing to this notion that 'he's a really good player.'

 

without yao that team was nothing.

 

pretty messed up that rick never played patpat until around trading time.

 

/thread.

 

Actually, the argument that championships define good teams doesn't carry any weight.