ESPN is scheduled to do a few pieces on the Rockets today. Schedule Someone post a link when it goes live. DaDakota
There's not much more they can say that hasn't already been said. Yao Ming is a project Taylor and Rice need to come back strong Francis and Cat are one of the best backcourts in the league Francis needs to cut down on the turnovers Rudy T is working in a new offensive scheme Griffin showed flashes of brilliance last year and needs more PT to develop Scoring needs to be more balanced backcourt depth might be a problem Cato sucks Our uniforms suck The Compaq Center nachos suck anything I missed?
Nachbar could be the surprise of the draft KT has emerged as a 3 There is a logjam at power forward The Westside facility is the best
Rudy might be coaching for his job this season Francis is nicknamed the Franchise... oh how clever Moochie Norris is injured THe Rockets had injury problems last year Steve Francis is over his migraines
Superfly Keith Jones actually runs the team Nobody listens to his stretching advice Injuries come in bunches Motion offense will be under-utilized Defense will be Key
Only people that want the Rockets to fail even remotely think this is possable I say no matter what happens Rudy is back next yr and the next and the next Only way Rudy T leaves this team is retirement or Les sells the team........
Crap, they listed the T wolves and not the Rockets. I don't care if the info is redundant, I've been looking at that stupid date all month. I love to see any info. about the Rockets. I wonder how long it will take them to get that story up today.
its the 23rd now... nice job espn. i love the truth in advertising. Kevin Garnett and his pain filled mug are still front page on the NBA section... no rockets...
Haha, maybe ESPN went to Westside, and all the Rockets were practicing at Compaq Center, since they had to do the Read to Achieve thing?
The date they show on the schedule has always been the day they were at camp, and the next day writeups for the team are posted on their page. It's been the same for every team prior so it's nothing to get worked up about.
Thanks Jaybird, but I think you are mistaken. They moved the Rockets to the 23rd late last night. I guess they got behind. DD
ESPN.com: Rockets Training Camp Report For the Rockets, the time is Yao http://espn.go.com/nba/camp2002/columns/stein_marc/1449785.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Marc Stein ESPN.com Rudy Tomjanovich went flipping through the mental snapshots but couldn't choose his favorite. The problem: Every time he mentioned a Yao Ming moment from their first Houston Rockets practice together as coach and player, Rudy T. remembered something else that topped it. The blocked shots were nice, the hook shots even nicer. The follow dunk on the offensive glass was strong, but the nifty crosscourt pass Yao flung was tougher and smoother. Tomjanovich particularly savored one turnaround jumper along the baseline, and liked it better when he heard that Steve Francis shoehorned Yao into his car to drive his new teammate to a post-practice sponsor function. Of course, probably none of the above compares to the sight of the tallest Rocket ever -- way taller than Hakeem Olajuwon, two inches of flat-top taller than Ralph Sampson, taller even than Chuck Nevitt -- flashing many of his gifts on a single drive. Pump fake to the middle ... quick reverse pivot the other direction ... two dribbles ... and a behemoth's reach to slam it from the far side of the rim. Yao-za. "Lots of things happened," said Rudy T., rediscovering how a smile feels. These were all good things for a team that has lost touch with that sensation in recent seasons, particularly last season. Having somehow missed the 2001 playoffs with 45 wins, to set a wholly unwanted record, the Rockets thought they could make a run at 50 wins if healthy in 2001-02. Instead they lost Mo Taylor and Glen Rice early, saw Francis plagued by a stubborn inner-ear disorder throughout and struggled to win 28 games, all while the Houston crowds dwindled to vapor. The last few months have been better. Winning the lottery in May, drafting Yao in June and actually landing him on NASA soil on Oct. 20, 2002, were all monumental victories. The early evidence to suggest that Yao is winning over his teammates quickly is another booster shot. Scenes such as Yao asking Francis if he can drive, and Francis jokingly telling the big fella to settle down until he gets his license. The reality, though, is this: Francis admits that the inner-ear thing still lurks in his thoughts and, worse, still causes intermittent discomfort. And Taylor will miss the first five games of the season on suspension before he can even start to try to prove that he will finally rebound with the other power forwards in the West. And no one knows if Cuttino Mobley can find other ways to hurt teams on fewer shots, or if Eddie Griffin can thrive with most of his minutes coming at the four or five, or if Rice has anything left to contribute. Of greater concern, the injuries have already started again. Moochie Norris has a dislocated finger, and Kenny Thomas celebrated Yao's arrival by breaking his thumb on a freak play in Sunday's exhibition victory over Orlando. Of greatest concern, surely, is how Yao hasn't had an extended break from basketball since the last millennium, and we're not kidding. Every day the Rockets are asked if they're worried that the 300-pounder will careen into the Great Rookie Wall before Christmas. "I've got a new team," Tomjanovich said. "Getting Mo and Glen back, and then adding probably three new guys, it's not going to be easy. We're still a work in progress. We've gotten younger and most teams have gotten older. But we're going to try to beat that deal and win when we're young." "Cuttino's our veteran," quipped Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson, who scored Mobley as a second-round nugget with the 41st pick in 1998. "If you look at the history of the NBA, young teams don't do very well. But I think we've got a chance." It'd be a better chance, certainly, if the Rockets were playing in the East, or if they simply abused the East like they did in 2000-01 when Houston was 25-5 out of its conference. It likewise remains to be seen if the Rockets will do significantly better at the gate in their final Compaq Center season, after averaging just 11,737 per game last season, although Yao should help there immediately. At least there's no denying Houston has resurrected the concepts of optimism and buzz, in a town where basketball hasn't generated any for ages, unless you're talking Comets. Texas hasn't sent all three of its NBA teams to the playoffs since 1990, but longtime Rocket-watchers liken the 2002 draft to 1983's. That's when Houston selected Sampson and a handy forward named Rodney McCray. With durability, Yao's career should top Ralph's. And though it's a tad early to suggest Bostjan Nachbar will be the Finals-worthy contributor McCray was, Dawson was thrilled to get the Slovenian at No. 15. The excitement has been noticeable from Francis, too, from the moment -- too perfect to be scripted, the Rockets insist -- that the respective cars transporting Francis and Mobley and Yao's entourage pulled into the Compaq loading dock Sunday night. Francis sounds eager to disprove the argument that he and Mobley can't (or won't want to) slow down and share the ball with a post presence. Yao would certainly never say it publicly, and you know he knows the words given his better-than-advertised English, but he must be grateful for the opportunity to finally play with some top-level talent, specifically top-level small talent. If you've ever seen China play, you know he has never played with a guard in the Francis/Mobley class. Not close. The opportunity is clearly there for these guys to help each other. The unknown is how they'll all cope in the quest for chemistry, which doesn't figure to come fast in the unforgiving West. Yao, remember, has already missed 25 practices. "It's not easy, but we're going to make ourselves fit," Francis said of the Rockets' place in the West pecking order. "(Losing) gets old quick. We want to be a team that's on TV in May and June. "I'm playing with more confidence. I worked on my shooting a lot this summer. But with all this power we've got now, I think passing is something that's going to be very important. I've got to be getting the guys involved." Opportunity No. 1 comes Wednesday night, when Yao debuts for the Rockets in an exhibition against Tim Duncan, David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs. It's a stretch to suggest Yao will look as Yao-za facing those guys as he did in Practice No. 1 against Kelvin Cato, but the Rockets aren't greedy. It's been a good week already, and they'll take it. "A lot of the guys came up to me and said, 'You showed me the film (in June) but he's gotten better since then,' " Dawson said. "He kind of showed he is a basketball player. He made himself fit out there when he didn't really know what was going on. "(Any initial skepticism) was because he was an unknown. It wasn't that they had anything against him. He won our team over so fast. He's an easy guy to pull for." ### Chris
Monday, October 21 Francis plays through pain of inner-ear disorder -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Marc Stein ESPN.com Here are five observations of the Houston Rockets: 1. Steve Francis' shoulder is surgically repaired, rehabilitated and cooperating. The pain that invades his head, though, hasn't been chased all the way off. "It's not migraines," Francis said, reminding that doctors have diagnosed him with Meniere's disease, an inner-ear disorder. "With any disease, it's hard to beat it. You've got to work with it and hopefully it'll go away. I've been able to play and practice every day. (The pain in training camp hasn't been) real, real bad." Francis said he presently isn't taking medication for the condition but continues to adhere to a low-salt diet. By all accounts, he was scoring at will all summer in spite of any discomfort anywhere. Clearly, though, this is still going to be a topic in Clutch City. 2. Coach Rudy Tomjanovich insists that he's "keeping an open mind" about starting Yao Ming as soon as opening night if Yao proves ready for it. The likelihood remains that Kelvin Cato starts the season as the starter, but it'd be good for Yao's development (and those around him) if he gets accustomed to starting games as soon as possible. As long as he's physically able, of course. The threat of burning Yao out, after at least three summers with no break, is all too real. As for trying to put numerical expectations on the guy, that's tougher. A modest double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) seems a reasonable target, but he's 7-foot-5. Whatever Yao winds up with as a rookie, he'll have plenty of people saying it wasn't enough. 3. Eddie Griffin made only 24 starts last season and wasn't originally lined up to start much this season, although he'll probably open the season in the first five with Maurice Taylor suspended and Kenny Thomas nursing a broken thumb. Griffin enters the season as a likely backup at the two forward spots, even though you could make the case that his development is almost as crucial as Yao's. The focus, of course, will be on the big fella and how he meshes with Francis and Cuttino Mobley. But it's easy to forget that Griffin turned 20 last May. There's plenty of time for the 6-10, 220-pounder to blossom into the fourth gem in Houston. That said, Griffin is high on a long list of Rockets who need to shoot the ball considerably better. He admits now he took way too many jumpers last season, settling for the J almost exclusively. 4. Perhaps you've heard about the Rockets' new five-man offense. Last season's rules changes have teams everywhere seeking more ball and player movement to combat zones and Tomjanovich has joined the trend. Except for one small snag. "We haven't had a chance to run a lot of it in camp, because we've had different guys in and out of the lineup," Rudy T. said. "We're doing some of the same (old) stuff. We still pick and roll. There's certain situations that I'll never change. When I see a good (one-on-one) matchup, I'm going to exploit it. I've always been a coach that coaches to the talent I have. We do have a new five-man set with a lot of options on it. But we have about 30 other players." The advice here: Whatever must be done to raise Houston's shooting percentage over the .430 mark and get the ball passed with greater frequency, do it. 5. The Rockets would love to tell you Taylor and Glen Rice have been among the camp standouts. Instead, that's a description for roster long shot Juaquin Hawkins, a swingman who has played professionally against Yao in China -- and who, more importantly, has guarded point guards, shooting guards and swingmen in the preseason. Terence Morris also had a strong camp, until he was slowed by an ankle sprain. Fang Feng Di, Yao's mother, was another surprise. She got to camp before her son and made plans to spend the season in Houston, with a house already picked out as well. Taylor? Rice? Both are breaking in gradually, with a real need for Taylor to contribute and just a faint hope that can throw in the occasional 3-pointer, if nothing else. Houston will get by at small forward (Griffin, Bostjan Nachbar, maybe even Hawkins) if Rose continues to fade. http://espn.go.com/nba/camp2002/columns/stein_marc/1449792.html
Taylor? Rice? Both are breaking in gradually, with a real need for Taylor to contribute and just a faint hope that can throw in the occasional 3-pointer, if nothing else. Houston will get by at small forward (Griffin, Bostjan Nachbar, maybe even Hawkins) if Rose continues to fade. Doesn't anyone proof read this stuff??
I may very well be but I had waited on 6 of the Camp Reports in the last month or so and they've all been posted the day after they were listed on the schedule. Either way it should be up today or tommorow so it's not that long of a wait. I can't wait to see how Yao does tonight though, I'd be interested to see if he matches up with Duncan at any point. I think that would be an interesting battle.
The Rockets training camp link is finally active... http://espn.go.com/nba/camp2002/columns/stein_marc/1449785.html
For the Rockets, the time is Yao -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Marc Stein ESPN.com Rudy Tomjanovich went flipping through the mental snapshots but couldn't choose his favorite. The problem: Every time he mentioned a Yao Ming moment from their first Houston Rockets practice together as coach and player, Rudy T. remembered something else that topped it. The blocked shots were nice, the hook shots even nicer. The follow dunk on the offensive glass was strong, but the nifty crosscourt pass Yao flung was tougher and smoother. Tomjanovich particularly savored one turnaround jumper along the baseline, and liked it better when he heard that Steve Francis shoehorned Yao into his car to drive his new teammate to a post-practice sponsor function. The landing of Yao Ming in Houston has created a buzz over the Rockets. Of course, probably none of the above compares to the sight of the tallest Rocket ever -- way taller than Hakeem Olajuwon, two inches of flat-top taller than Ralph Sampson, taller even than Chuck Nevitt -- flashing many of his gifts on a single drive. Pump fake to the middle ... quick reverse pivot the other direction ... two dribbles ... and a behemoth's reach to slam it from the far side of the rim. Yao-za. "Lots of things happened," said Rudy T., rediscovering how a smile feels. These were all good things for a team that has lost touch with that sensation in recent seasons, particularly last season. Having somehow missed the 2001 playoffs with 45 wins, to set a wholly unwanted record, the Rockets thought they could make a run at 50 wins if healthy in 2001-02. Instead they lost Mo Taylor and Glen Rice early, saw Francis plagued by a stubborn inner-ear disorder throughout and struggled to win 28 games, all while the Houston crowds dwindled to vapor. The last few months have been better. Winning the lottery in May, drafting Yao in June and actually landing him on NASA soil on Oct. 20, 2002, were all monumental victories. The early evidence to suggest that Yao is winning over his teammates quickly is another booster shot. Scenes such as Yao asking Francis if he can drive, and Francis jokingly telling the big fella to settle down until he gets his license. The reality, though, is this: Francis admits that the inner-ear thing still lurks in his thoughts and, worse, still causes intermittent discomfort. And Taylor will miss the first five games of the season on suspension before he can even start to try to prove that he will finally rebound with the other power forwards in the West. And no one knows if Cuttino Mobley can find other ways to hurt teams on fewer shots, or if Eddie Griffin can thrive with most of his minutes coming at the four or five, or if Rice has anything left to contribute. Of greater concern, the injuries have already started again. Moochie Norris has a dislocated finger, and Kenny Thomas celebrated Yao's arrival by breaking his thumb on a freak play in Sunday's exhibition victory over Orlando. Of greatest concern, surely, is how Yao hasn't had an extended break from basketball since the last millennium, and we're not kidding. Every day the Rockets are asked if they're worried that the 300-pounder will careen into the Great Rookie Wall before Christmas. "I've got a new team," Tomjanovich said. "Getting Mo and Glen back, and then adding probably three new guys, it's not going to be easy. We're still a work in progress. We've gotten younger and most teams have gotten older. But we're going to try to beat that deal and win when we're young." "Cuttino's our veteran," quipped Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson, who scored Mobley as a second-round nugget with the 41st pick in 1998. "If you look at the history of the NBA, young teams don't do very well. But I think we've got a chance." It'd be a better chance, certainly, if the Rockets were playing in the East, or if they simply abused the East like they did in 2000-01 when Houston was 25-5 out of its conference. It likewise remains to be seen if the Rockets will do significantly better at the gate in their final Compaq Center season, after averaging just 11,737 per game last season, although Yao should help there immediately. At least there's no denying Houston has resurrected the concepts of optimism and buzz, in a town where basketball hasn't generated any for ages, unless you're talking Comets. Texas hasn't sent all three of its NBA teams to the playoffs since 1990, but longtime Rocket-watchers liken the 2002 draft to 1983's. That's when Houston selected Sampson and a handy forward named Rodney McCray. With durability, Yao's career should top Ralph's. And though it's a tad early to suggest Bostjan Nachbar will be the Finals-worthy contributor McCray was, Dawson was thrilled to get the Slovenian at No. 15. The excitement has been noticeable from Francis, too, from the moment -- too perfect to be scripted, the Rockets insist -- that the respective cars transporting Francis and Mobley and Yao's entourage pulled into the Compaq loading dock Sunday night. (Yao) must be grateful for the opportunity to finally play with some top-level talent, specifically top-level small talent. If you've ever seen China play, you know he has never played with a guard in the Francis/Mobley class. Not close. The opportunity is clearly there for these guys to help each other. Francis sounds eager to disprove the argument that he and Mobley can't (or won't want to) slow down and share the ball with a post presence. Yao would certainly never say it publicly, and you know he knows the words given his better-than-advertised English, but he must be grateful for the opportunity to finally play with some top-level talent, specifically top-level small talent. If you've ever seen China play, you know he has never played with a guard in the Francis/Mobley class. Not close. The opportunity is clearly there for these guys to help each other. The unknown is how they'll all cope in the quest for chemistry, which doesn't figure to come fast in the unforgiving West. Yao, remember, has already missed 25 practices. "It's not easy, but we're going to make ourselves fit," Francis said of the Rockets' place in the West pecking order. "(Losing) gets old quick. We want to be a team that's on TV in May and June. "I'm playing with more confidence. I worked on my shooting a lot this summer. But with all this power we've got now, I think passing is something that's going to be very important. I've got to be getting the guys involved." Opportunity No. 1 comes Wednesday night, when Yao debuts for the Rockets in an exhibition against Tim Duncan, David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs. It's a stretch to suggest Yao will look as Yao-za facing those guys as he did in Practice No. 1 against Kelvin Cato, but the Rockets aren't greedy. It's been a good week already, and they'll take it. "A lot of the guys came up to me and said, 'You showed me the film (in June) but he's gotten better since then,' " Dawson said. "He kind of showed he is a basketball player. He made himself fit out there when he didn't really know what was going on. "(Any initial skepticism) was because he was an unknown. It wasn't that they had anything against him. He won our team over so fast. He's an easy guy to pull for." Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at marc.stein@espn3.com.
