Good posts all. Wow, it was nice to finally watch a game again. I was annoyed with Najera's success, but absolutely would rather have Langhi on our team. MoTay had an off shooting night, but I liked his aggression on offense and on the boards. Too bad Cato got poked in the eye. It would have been nice to see him more. Collier is going to take some time. He looked very confident on his second attempt, which he made. He has a big body and I think can be adequate inside defensively and rebounding-wise. I doubt very seriously that Prysbilla will ever hit the outside shot. Shandon and Cat looked sharp. The best news from the game was Hakeem's comments afterwards. He felt good in the second half after using an enhaler of adjusted medication. He talked about improving his play and complementing his team-mates. Great cause for optimism. I did not like the 4 guard set in the last quarter. Moochie is okay, but it took the ball out of Stevie's hands. That is a bad thing. I hope we don't see that in the regular season. Hopefully, Rudy used it because a.) Cato was injured and Hakeem had played all he was intended to, AND b.) Dallas had gone to a small lineup, AND c.) it was the first pre-season game and what-the-hell, might as well see what this lineup looks like. Langhi looked fine the very abbreviated time he was in there. He did get burned once when he tried to double on the ball and then just barely missed getting back to defend the pass to his man. He was hustling, though. Also, did anyone else notice that Cat took a little jump shot for his free-throw right at the end of the game? Was I hallucinating? ------------------
I have really enjoyed reading everyone's take on the game last and I have to agree that everything said was dead on. However, here is my take on what I saw (not that my opinion carries any more validity than anyone's elses)last night. I was truly encouraged last night. I really thought that we would get the win, but after all, it is only pre-season. If I had to give a Rocket the game ball, it would go to.....Mo Taylor. Let me say that this is not from a statical standpoint, if it were, the ball would go to Shandon or Cat (both were superb). Taylor had a horrible shooting night, but he did everything else so well. This give me cause for great optimism this year. Did you see his first assist? He was drawing the defense to the basket, then he kicked out to the corner to Shandon (I think)for the three. Then within a few plays, he did the same thing but the player he kicked out to missed. All the while he was grabbing rebounds. I am not a Maurice Taylor fan, but he has given me cause to expect even better in the future. For all the basketball techno-lingo for the problems with the Rockets' defense, it comes down to this. In plain, simple folk talk (like me) .....we don't have a banger, period. Dream, well, he just can't bang like he used to......Cato got an eye lash in his eye and he's out for the rest of the pre-season (sarcasm).....KT was trying to bang, but baby fat and lack of height hurts, but I did like his effort....Mo Taylor just didn't bang, played position defense pretty well, but just was not physical....this is our Achilles heel. I thought I would never, ever, ever, ever say this, but the Rockets could use a player like Charles Oakley, Karl Malone and the like. If we had someone like that, Najera would never have gone off like he did. But I digress. Everything will fall into place barring injuries. The key is to jump out the gate as fast as we can. There are a lot of injuried star right now and the entire league have seem to change faces in some dramatic ways. This should be an advantage to the Rox. One more note. Did anyone see the other two games televised....Chicago vs NY and Cleveland vs Detroit? Both games were so boring, very little to no excitement. That why I love the Rockets so much. They're fun to watch and I get a kick out of Calvin Murphy and Bill Worrell. No other team have such a classy, fun and exciting organization as do Houston. Everyone out there, be patient....the best is yet to come. Well, I used my posting privileges for the rest of the week, so I better run. Again just my "simple" take on what I saw last night. ------------------ "...Do you hear 'em? They're everywhere!!! AAAHHH!!!" That's what the other teams will be saying after being shellshocked by Steve Francis and Co.
Pops -- thanks for thoughts on pregame one -- much appreciated not to bring up a sore subject about Cato -- but what happened to deals that would send him elsewhere? I seem to recall you saying he wouldn't be in a Rocket uni this season? Thanks...... ------------------
my takes .... 1) lost only because we didn't match najera's intensity 2) did not see any offensive improvement from last year 3) did not see any defensive improvement from last year ... shanndon has always been our best defender and he still is 4) lack of a real offensive system, look at any level of basketball and you will see the isolation play ... it is used at the end of quarters/ games to let a team use it's most athletic scorer get over on the weaker defender matchup ... and it usually produces good results ... but you never see it used as the primary offense ... it's just a play not a scheme or identity. well the rocks like it a little too much ... caused a slow down game and loses intensity in the other four players who don't get to touch the ball ... if we use this kiss any chance for improvement good-bye 4) our best player cannot take the shot within the flow ... he is a forcer ... and thats not a good thing in a point guard 5) walt needs to be used more 6) taylor looked lost on offense, not his fault though ... but not checking najera was his fault 7) rudy didn't give langhi enough pt 8) dream is rusty ... doesn't know what to do with the ball when he catches it ... needs to play more outside of game minutes to get a feel of some sort back 9) when we got down we looked to push the offense ... taking bad shots and missing ... we never tried stepping up the defense and getting on the defensive boards(block out and we win by 8-10 with a terrible offense)...coach fault/player fault ... rockets fault. 10) one down lets hope for some improvement ... it's going to have to start from the top down ... coaching, starters, and bench .... lets get this done. ------------------
bob finn ... you mention no one can stop him ... in regards to franchise, well look at scoreboard or stat sheets ... i think he was stopped by a little canadian ... steve nash finished with just as good or better numbers and the mav's won. don't get me wrong i'm a rocket fan and a francis fan but i'm tired of all the hype on him ... let him earn it ... he hasn't showed me anything more than pure athleticism and glimpses of good baketball. i'm not sure what numbers he finished with against dallas but i watched the game and felt he had a terrible game. he took poor shoots passed up good ones, forced the ball into a black hole and didn't get the team involved. not all his fault the way the offense is set up ... but he does have the bal in his hands when the game clock is running. i hope for something more than what i saw against dallas tonight against the hornets. once again i like francis but come on let him earn his props don't just hand them to him when they are not deserved. ------------------
Actually I was made aware of so many different trade combos (some legitimate, some fanciful rumors) that included Cato, that it made my head spin. (Personally Cato is still not my favorite second level center out there, if I were CD/RT I would have went after Jermaine O'Neal when he was available early.) But Cato is what we had and CD/RT stuck with him. CD spent the entire summer in trade conference. The first portion trying to move up in the draft. Next portion trying to move redundant roster players and resign the Cat. Then trying to parlay the trade exemption into a couple of deals. Then giving up on the exemption, and trying some bizarre combinations. Throughout all of this, Cato's name kept popping up. CD and Co., never felt they had too many good offers when it came to Cato I guess, so most of the offers went largely ignored. I kept hearing his name so much, and some of the other players involved, that I was sure (predicted) he would be gone come October. The most talent-laden was the Antwan J. trade talks. But they fizzled out before they even got serious it seems. It became a dead issue within four days. Anyway, Kelvin is still here, and he looked lackluster the first game. I expect he will be more inspired tonight. I hope we don't regret all those missed opportunities at unloading him this past summer. Then again, this is only one preseason game,so far, and he played only an abbreviated part of that.
props to pops -- I, for one, am taking a wait and see approach with respect to Cato. I didn't see many true young centers on the market that would have been an upgrade defensively during the off-season. I didn't see the first pregame, but according to reports, it could be more of the same with Cato. Ouch. Thanks for the inside dope. ------------------
I wasn't upset with the effort Cato gave he was agressive enough (4 fouls in 11 min. as evidence). His big problem is his timing, I've never seen a big man mis-time rebounds as bad as cato does. Why doesn't RT use Dream as a jump shooting center coming of picks? He would centainly be more effective offensively and probably be less physically drained ------------------ "Isn't the purpose of the game to put the ball in the basket?"
pretty...picky I agree with you that Hakeem should be used coming from the weakside around picks. You will happy to see that Rudy agrees, too.
Heres MY take. If Trent could ever stay healthy he would have a MONSTER year. Thats all I can think of, oh yeah and our defense looks much improved. Then again its only pre-season. ------------------ "We need to fockass".....Dream back in the day
You are dead on with that assesment pops. Dream is still learning to fit in with these greyhounds. He has to be having flashbacks of PhiSlammaJamma with all the new talent. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Frankly, RT has got to be happy with Dream's preseason efforts. He has done everything asked of him. That is, become involved, impact the other players games, picking, clearing-out, keep up with the transition and get down the floor quickly, blockout as aggressively as possible, and being opportunistic. I personally think he is using some restraint at times that may be misconstrued as uninvolved or not "in the game". But,again this is a personal observation, I think he is relearning to measure the game flow and trying to find a personal game "within the game" that does not interfere with rest of the guys. More important to his game this year, Dream must realize he does not have the respect inside as he once had, and he lacks the shooting ability, presently anyway, of threatening from an outside shooting position. If he regains the form. Becomes a dynamo again, even with a projected 28 minute game, he will become deadly. Especially with this team of young opportunists. The fact that we can score on any number of different ways will eventually open up the court for Hakeem.
