It's 25 with Mo in there instead of Griffin. And they're on pace to win 45 games. In the West. They were not picked to make the playoffs by anyone. Even their hometown paper projected them as an 8-seed, just because they were the hometown paper. The average age of their frontline (w/Griffin) is 22 and a half. Just wondering if anyone knew this. Normally if someone showed you those numbers, you would immediately give Coach of the Year consideration to whomever was in charge.
you are being too level headed freak. what is wrong with you? we must have insane expectations for the rockets. 45 games isnt good enough. if we had a good coach like john lucas we might be on pace to win 60 as expected!
Sorry, we can't allow such blatant optimism to taint this fine message board. Francis - 26 (next month), 4th year Cuttino - 27, 5th year Taylor - - 26, 5th year (missed one year due to injury) Cato - 28 - 6th year Posey - 26 - 5th year Rice - Older than dirt The age excuse is BULLSH*T The experience excuse is BULLSH*T The chemistry excuse is BULLSH*T You know it, you're just afraid to admit it. We won 45 games two years ago, and look where it led us. This team should NOT be compared to last year's team, but to the 2000-2001 team, and they are clearly underachieving...
TheFreak, i agree with you completely regarding age and the frontcourt. and i have very, very few complaints about the 3,4 or 5 spots. i can completely understand if they are inconsistent (posey, griff, ming) or just not physically developed (griff). i cannot give the same mulligan to the backcourt. 4 years as a starting nba point guard. 5 years as a nba 2 guard. 4 years together. and still, very, very, very little noticeable improvement in their individual or team oriented games. that is frustrating. in fact, it could easily be argued that francis was a better player his rookie year than currently....
I believe this type of mentality is the reason why our guards are so undiciplined. Rudy is using this excuse as a crutch. 'I'm optimistic. They're young. They'll mature on their own. I don't have to punish them' I think it's reached the point where Rudy is going to have to stop pampering them like babies and show them who's boss.
A-freaking-men, TheFreak. Way to pimpsmack the resident homers and hopefully knock off those ugly pinstriped glasses that cloud their judgment. We're a young team. We're in the playoff hunt. We have a rookie center. We're currently in a slump, the kind every other team eventually goes through. It's still waaaaaaaay too early to break the glass and press the big, red PANIC button.
Not optimism, just facts. Absolutely nothing I said was opinion, except the Coach of the Year part. Excuses for what? I don't see why excuses are needed. You only need excuses when you're underachieving. This team is not underachieving. Seriously, what would we be making excuses for? Look at the record. Who picked this team to make the playoffs? Who? That team overachieved. That team was also 20-23 at one point. Even if they lose tonight, they're 23-20, 3 games ahead of that team. That team took teams by surprise. No one got up to play that team. That team had veteran leadership in the middle. Francis and Mobley were scared of Hakeem. That team went 16-0 against the Central Division, do you expect this team to do that too? Teams are marking the day they play this team on the calendar. Teams didn't even think twice about playing that team, they figured it as an automatic "W". verse, maybe teams are figuring them out. Zones weren't allowed Francis' first two years in the league. Maybe they're just not as good as people make them out to be. And Francis has improved, he's one of the leading 3-pt shooters in the league, while his scoring has increased every year. He may not be any smarter, but he has clearly improved in areas.
While you're checking ages of starting lineups, check Indy,NJ and phoenix and see what you come up with. NJ: Kidd -29 Kittles- 28 Martin- 25 Jefferson- 22 Collins- 24 Indy: O'Neal - 24 Miller- 37 Miller- 26 Tinsley- 25 Artest- 23 Phoe: Voskul-25 Amare-20 Marbury-26 Johnson-21 Marion-24 Please don't use age as a reason why your 4 yr starter pg is making more to's than during his rookie yr. Please don't use the age when you talk about a 2nd yr player who hasn't improved. Let the crutch hit the ground and call a duck a duck. This team isn't disciplined, don't play to its stregnths, don't share th ball and is overral boring. If the Rocket played energetic ,fun good basketball like the Kings,mavs, or a team like that, we wouldn't be at the bottom of the league in attendence.
TheFreak, I think you're basing too much on simply wins and losses. Record-wise, sure, the Rockets are not that bad, they're still on the playoff race. However, if you watch the team actually play on the court, they look like the same immature team they did 2 years ago, especially the guards. The only difference is, the talent is better now, you have a franchise center, and they're able to win a few more games based on talent alone. Reaching the playoffs is only one of many goals for the season. There are other goals. The guards are still piss poor decision makers. The chemistry is not developing much. The assist/turnover ratio is one of the worst in the league. Too many players are standing around with no idea what to do. And there is still a ton of one on one play. I mean, if you take a look at a team like the Grizzlies and look at their record, you would say they were underachieving big time. However, if you watch them play, as the season has progressed, there are definitely signs of improvement. They're playing more team basketball and chemistry is developing. JWill is finally playing like a true point guard. You can see the same type of progress with teams like Golden State and Phoenix. I just don't see that progress with the Rockets, despite their win-loss record.
Phoenix is 1.5 games ahead of us, and the Nets and Pacers play in the Leastern Conference. What you posted doesn't really prove a whole lot. I agree there is more to the problem than just the players being too young, but you'd be irrational to say it doesn't have any effect on how the team performs. Also, I remember a time when people said Marbury will never change, and that any team he plays on will never win. In fact, I think it was less than a year ago that people were saying that. What a difference a year makes, huh? And sure, I'd like for us to be good as the Mavs and Kings too, but that's unreasonable. You're acting like that happened over night, like it's something you can switch on. It took both of those teams over a decade of rebuilding to finally get the right combination.
It's not the actual age that matters, it's their mental age. One tells the Rockets' mental age on the court, not on the paper. Yao is a live example of this, he plays foul free and doesn't panic under clutch situations. Yao is overachieving at this age. So how can anyone with ANY objectivity tells others that one of the reason for the Rockets underachieving is because of Yao's age? The only one who suffers from youth and inexperience is Eddie Griffin in our regular rotation, but his role on the offensive end is very very limited. It's the guards who overdribble and lose the ball, not Eddie Griffin. It's the gaurds who can't hit a shot but keep jacking them up, not Eddie Griffin. The main problem of the Rockets offense, namely inconsistency and lack of team play, stems from our veteran backcourt, not Eddie Griffin. It's unfair to blame the Rockets problem on Eddie's youth. Stats can be misleading depending on one's perspective. I can increase the average age of the Rockets' frontcourt by at least 2 years easily, just wait until Rice comes back and Rudy stick him at starting 3 out of loyalty.
NOT EDDIE GRIFFIN! It's not his fault!!! I understand Panda... Anyways, we are very young and very good. I love it. Exciting basketball...but only entertaining when we win.
