Taking long way around learning curve

jxu777 · Feb 14, 2003

Didn't find it's been posted. A good one.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1778557

Taking long way around learning curve
By DALE ROBERTSON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
AFTER 50 games, here's what we know about the Rockets.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Peruse their statistics, examine their results and study their collective psyche all you want, but our analysis leads us to no substantive conclusions. Feed every available scrap of data into a computer, and after the whirring stops, we find ourselves staring at a screen as blank as the Rockets' slate for every tipoff -- and as their facial expressions can be come crunch time.

They are Team Teflon. Nothing sticks. Each night brings a new adventure and a different set of variables, both the wondrous and the atrocious. Call it the chaos theory of basketball. Presumably, the Rockets' many-faced personality is a function of their youth and the resulting natural propensity for moronic strategic indiscretions and incomprehensible decisions. We have to believe this, or we would turn our backs on them for the sake of our sanity. Their teasing, cloying ways make us crazy. They make some of us put all the talk show numbers on speed dial. It's sick, in the traditional sense of the word.

They can't hold an eight-point lead at home against the Jazz with a little over three minutes to go. Twenty-four hours later, they are winning by 30 points in Utah, where they hadn't won in roughly forever.

So what are we supposed to do, scorn them for the former or adore them for the latter? And as long as we seek answers to imponderable questions, which Rockets are the real Rockets? Both of them, unfortunately. Happy Valentine's Day.

They should, of course, beat the Heat by double digits tonight. But they could just as easily get toasted, too. The only pattern they've established is the utter lack of a discernible one, thereby explaining how a team with two All-Star Game starters can be 27-23 after loping through the easiest segment of its schedule.

Scan their scores, and you readily pick out a dozen games they should have won. For what it's worth, had they won them, they would be battling Dallas for top seeding in the West instead of glancing nervously over their shoulders at the terrifying visage of the thrice-defending champion Lakers. Never has a team clung more precariously to its slice of the playoff pie.

Viewing the Rockets' situation logically, we must conclude the worst is yet to come, that the road-heavy meat grinder awaiting them will inexorably chew up their playoff hopes as the weeks pass. They had the worst traveling record of any postseason contender until they destroyed the Jazz, which let them, for the moment, nose ahead of Phoenix by a fraction of a percentage point. But logic is wasted on these guys. Neither rhyme nor reason is applicable. It's a wonder Rudy Tomjanovich hasn't taken to wearing a natty straitjacket on the bench.

Speaking of whom, Rudy T remains a convenient target for our frustrations. The Rockets play so dumb sometimes it's impossible not to leap to the conclusion they are being poorly coached or, at the very least, insufficiently motivated.

Is the message wrong, or is something being lost in the translation? Are the Rockets hearing him but not listening? Regardless, at some point Tomjanovich must be held responsible for his words getting through.

Should the Rockets miss the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, there will be strong sentiment in the community for a coaching change to accompany the uniform and venue changes, although personally, short of a catastrophic Rockets rollover, which seems unlikely, I think Rudy stays untouchable until he has had a second season to nurture Yao Ming. Also, he's too much of a franchise institution not to be allowed to lead the team into its new arena. In this space, that subject is closed.

Probably the safest way to watch the Rockets the rest of the way is with a big-picture perspective. Dismiss their moments of madness as manifestations of their immaturity and focus on the tremendous upside potential of their core cast. The rites of passage are always going to be splattered with wrongs.

Although Steve Francis should be further along as an on-court stabilizing force, he is making gradual progress in that essential area. As for Yao, he is where we had no right to expect him to be until the end of next season. And once he becomes more comfortable with the English language and his role among his peers, he will reveal himself to be a leader in the locker room. He will not suffer fools, or foolishness, gladly.

It's a given Yao sees many things he doesn't like. With his obvious schooling in basketball's fundamentals, it's all he can do to keep from cringing when the nonsense breaks out around him, but he's not in a place where he can freely speak his mind.

Not so long ago, the Rockets were consistently awful. Now, as the growth process lurches onward, they're just awfully inconsistent. Grudgingly, we'll take it.

We must. They give us no other choice.
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jxu777 · Feb 14, 2003

Danm it! I found that Genesis 71 posted the link at 1:36am in another thread. I swear I'll never post another Chron article again. Appology the admin.

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