Now we all as Rocket fans are pissed that the Rockets will not make the playoffs. But should we be? Lets think about the teams ahead of us. 1. Spurs 2. Kings 3. Mavs 4. Wolves 5. Lakers 6. Blazers 7. Jazz 8. Suns Now with the exception of Utah, what team does the Rockets have more talent than? Our team is young right now, a lot of are talent is 'unrealized' Steve bashing is absurd. Hes our best player and hes been great all year long. Hes not shooting as much he gets bashed for it, scores too much means hes a ball hog, he is still better than 99% of PG's in the league. Save Kidd and Marbury who is better? and who would want for the future? Come on guys be realistic. The Suns have two "Real" stars. They have Amare who has been almost as effective as Yao, they have 'skilled and unselfish' players like Penny and Joe Johnson. GREAT team guys like Bo Outlaw. Now I think "Cuttino" is a ball hog and serverly over-rated, especially by himself. Marbury gets my vote for best PG in the league for this season. The Suns have all the tools for a playoff team. They are putting it together now and that is why they will make the playoffs and we wont. Folks Yao Ming is NOT a star right now, please look at his #'s and impact, not into the future crystal ball that seems to be fogging your vision. He is not great right now. Yes hes solid, but not a star. Yao will be great, but hes still soft and hes actually quite raw. He has a great basketball IQ but hes not near a 'realized' talent. The fact of the matter is we "Are not that good" Right now. We will be amazing once are players become well rounded and a new system is put into play at both ends of the floor. Our offense is comical, one on one with no movement and dumping into the post to blackhole's like Mo Taylor and Cuttino wont get it done. Our defense is porous and undisciplined....BUT we are YOUNG and IMMATURE. We will get better. We will learn how to play basketball the right way. I wish Hubie Brown was our coach though...:-(
Please...we kicked the crap out of the Spurs, Kings, Wolves, and Jazz all at least once. We beat the Blazers, we beat the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe, and we won 3 of 4 against the Suns. The only team we weren't competitive against was the Mavs. If the Rockets had taken care of business against all those scrubs that beat them, playoff tickets would be printed already. We have the talent, just not the discipline to execute. The "young and inexperienced" BS has been exposed for a LONG time now. Can you honestly tell us that expecting this team to make the playoffs was too much when we were 23-15? Biggest waste of talent in team history. Charlie and Rich said it perfectly yesterday on 610. The title team was dismantled with the Barkley deal only ONE YEAR after winning back to back titles. Upper management has been complacent with this team long enough. A roster overhaul should be expected and a coaching change isn't out of the question...
So are we more talented than the Lakers, Kings, Spurs, Wolves, and Blazers? You seem to be missing the point. I agree this team has underachieved. But the teams ahead of them are simply better. We definitely "Have Talent" But the talent isnt realized. Upper management does need to make some moves and a coaching change most likely is needed. This team needs a face lift in terms of style and attitude. I seriously want Hubie
The Rockets have better overall talent than the T-Wolves, Jazz, and Suns. Rudy and his staff have underachieved bigtime this season in failing to install any semblance of an offensive system and for allowing the team to slack off on D for the last 2/3 of the year. Even worse though is how Rudy hasn't done anything to develop the young, raw talent on this squad. Eddie Griffin's game and stats are identical to last season's. The only thing he's added is an arrest for mar1juana possession. Terrence Morris had maybe a 1-month span where he was a decent spot-up shooter for the team, but otherwise he's still stuck on the bench. Nachbar never even got off the bench in the first place. And let's not overlook guys like Steve and Cat who are still making the same boneheaded plays as the last three seasons. Even Yao hasn't developed. If you ignore his slow start over the first month of the season, his play has stayed at about the same level throughout most of the year(the rookie wall notwithstanding). The sad thing is that despite the Rockets' deficiencies in certain key areas(outside shooting, soft play at the 4), they still have a ton of young talent. They should've easily been a playoff team this year, and had things progressed instead of REGRESSED, possibly a contender as soon as the 2004-2005 season. But thanks to Rudy and his assistants, this year's been a complete waste with the lone exception of Yao's play. I still can't see how anyone who views this situation objectively and isn't clouded by the now distant memory of two championships can justify giving these guys another year to prove themselves. They failed. The coaches. The players. The organization as a whole. It's time for a change.
I wouldn't say we kicked the crap out of the Spurs, Wolves or Jazz. I went to the game vs. the Spurs back in Feb. We were NEVER in that game. Then, the next 2 times we played them, they looked like they were preparing for a serious run for the playoffs while we looked like we were struggling to try to compete with a superior team. We beat the Jazz once in Utah after a disappointing loss at home. Don't make me remind you of how bad we looked vs. them just a couple of days ago.
No, we may not be as talented as the Spurs, Kings, Mavs, Wolves, and Blazers, but the talent is comparable. Your point was that we are expecting too much from the Rockets...Getting in the playoffs is expecting too much? Being better than six teams in a 14 team conference is expecting too much from a team with two all stars? I'm not buying it....
Three things I agree with in the above posts: 1. The Rockets don't run a consistent offensive system. This probably explains why it takes our guards (no matter who's bring the ball up) so long to get the team into an offensive set. There's no standard philosophy, or at least not one that anyone can recognize right off. 2. The teams above the Rockets have better records, obviously, but that doesn't equate to having better talent. Those teams are better because they've *played* better as a team. NOTE: The Clippers have probably put together some of the league's best position 1-7 talent over the last couple of years but they've not even smelled the playoffs. Why? They've played like sh*t and they've not had the best coaching. 3. Some changes, maybe small ones, maybe larger ones, will need to take place. This is mostly the same team that finished 45-37. With the addition of Eddie G., James Posey and Yao Ming, I think it's fair to say that at the least we should be near the 45 win plateau again. And we would be if not for the following BAD, BAD losses: @ Cleveland, @ Chicago, @ Atlanta, Miami (Home), Clippers (Home) and @ Memphis. Win those very winnable (and requisite) games and the Rockets are sitting comfortably in the playoffs at 46-33, with a decent chance at the #6 spot. The fact that the Rockets have mostly been stagnant the last two non-injury plagued seasons (skip 2001-2002), suggests that somewhere a change or two needs to be made.
The Suns and Wolves have better talent the Rockets do. The Suns have Marbury, Marion, Amare, Penny, Joe Johnson. Now I may agree that the rockets have more 'potential talent' than the Suns but right now The suns have the 'realized talent' and are simply better than the Rockets are. As I said in my initial post Utah doesnt have as much talent as the Rockets. But they always make the playoffs because of their system and the fact coach Sloan consistently makes his team tough. Wolves have K.G. Kevin Garnett is the MVP, quite possibly. He simply makes the Wolves great. Wally is playing at a high level and Troy Hudson, Peeler, Nestarovic, and Smith are good players. They dont have the "Long Term" talent the rockets do but they have better players today. A lot of people are going off what the rockets players are capable of down the road, not of where they are at this point in their careers. Dont mistake "Potential talent" with "Realized Talent" if you do...You will greatly over value the Rockets personnel.
Because we dont have a great coach. As I have said before.... I would love to see Hubie Brown coach our team.
Well, we're definitely in agreement on that one. Hubie is exactly the type of coach these guys need. I mean, he made Jason Williams of all people buy into the team concept for God's sake!
Amen! If he was our coach. A lot of that "Potential Talent" will become "Realized" and we will actually be disciplined on both ends of the court. If I was the owner or GM of the Rockets I would throw a few million his way. Thanks for the props on the last two posts you guys. Much Love.
We were ahead of the Suns several games ago. We were a better or at leat equal team with the Suns in the course of the season, but the Suns get stronger along the way and the Rockets had a hell of roller coaster ride. The reason for this is, we don't lack overall talent compared to the Suns, but our approach to the game sucks big time. The Suns have no bench. The Rockets have so many good one on one players that can wreak havoc when they are on the same page. Francis, Mobley, Moochie, Yao, Taylor, Posey...we have overall better individual scorers and can play better team defense than the Suns. The reason we are on the brink of losing to the Suns is because of they play as a team - with many ramifications of the team concept, a system, an identity, a leader, maturity, discipline, team first attitude etc- and we don't, which is exactly what the Rockets should have improved in this season. The Rockets did a lousy job on that. It'S the beat the crap out of good teams then getting beat by crappy teams while our major players like Mobley talks trash instead of taking lessons that killed the season. INCONSISTENCY IS THE CAUSE. Not the lack of talent. If we won just half of the games that we lost to the bad teams. The Suns will never be in our rearview mirror along the way.
My thoughts exactly. The system vs the players don't match. Look at a team like the t-wolves or jazz and check and see where they get their shots from. When you watch those two teams, you don't see Joe Johnson,Calbert Cheney or some of the other players who really are not 3pt shooters straddling the 3pt line. This team and coaching staff ,doesn't make the neccessary adjustments in game. The offensive system is predicated on double teams which if it doesn't happen, then problems arise just like it did with Hakeem. Thats one of the main reasons Karls seattle team used to kick our ass until we traded for Barkley. If this team put Posey,Cat and Francis in motion opposite of the ball, then Ming would have options as well as the other offensive players. Personally, I think its just time for Rudy and the entire staff of yes men to go. 10 yrs is a long time in 1 place, not to mention the possibility of 4 straight lotto seasons. I mean, the Rockets hasn't had any significant injuries and yet their still headed to the lotto.I guess you could use 99 and last yr as a crutch, but whats the excuse this yr. Minny lost Wally for 30 games and Phoe has lost Penny for more than that. Utah lost their 2nd leading scorer to free agency yet they are ahead of us. All the excuse the rockets can use, are pretty much useless. Did I mention the team we play tommorrow night made a major mid season trade and yet are only a 1\2 game behind us?
i personally expected them to make the playoffs. that was my expectation and that was the rocket player's own expectations too. at the begining of the season all of the rockets were going on about "no more excuses" and "our goal this year is to make the playoffs" ect. ect. that was the players own expectations and they failed to meet them, so how, as fans are we expecting too much?
if we didn't expect the playoffs what was the goal then? playing .500 ball? even the players expected the Rockets to make the playoffs. getting the playoffs would be the goal for any team with the talent we had from last year in addition to the #1 pick.
Both sides are right here. The Rockets have a lot of "unrealized talent" as the original poster pointed out. A good deal of our high expectations come from having a franchise center and a franchise pg, but our franchise center still has a ways to go to improve. Right now, he's simply an above average center, but not anywhere near the level he should be at to propel this team to the next level. Francis still has a ways to go in terms of handling his pg and his scoring abilities as well. When your two stars, your two main cogs aren't performing at a high level, then there is only so much you can do. Contributing to this fact is that we don't have a good offensive system. Ming isn't a high level player yet, but we could still use his passing abilities much more than we have this year. The offense sucks plain and simple... we can fault Ming for not being as dominant, or Francis for not being able to balance his scoring and passing a la Marbury, but the coaches are also to blame. It's been many years that we've run the same crap offense... from iso-ing Olajuwon in the post (which only worked cause he was so damn great), we went to iso-ing our guards, and now we go to iso's for Ming and Mo Taylor. The only way our system will work is if we wait for Ming to become as dominant a scorer as Olajuwon was, but it will be at least a few years before that happens. Until then, we need to come up with some better offensive system somehow.
