Games like this make me feel embarassed to be a Rockets fan.

Jeff:

"I think the biggest point you guys are missing is that the Rockets just aren't very good. We don't have the talent to compete on a night-in-night-out basis with the best teams in the leauge. All the talent we have is wrapped up in a few very young, very inexperienced players."

Do you think that the Rockets are a good team if our players play like they are capable of. More specifically

1.) Shandon becomes more consistent & learns his offensive niche better.
2.) Mo plays like he's capable of(at least on offense)
3.) Cato comes back and provides good rebounding and defense
4.) The entire team learns the offense thoroughly, and starts executing & finishing the plays better.

Personally, I thought the Rox are one of the most talented teams in the NBA if each of the players play like they are capable of, and also gains a lil bit of experience.

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da ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence - alaskanSnowman

[This message has been edited by alaskansnowman (edited December 09, 2000).]

 

Digiada,

Francis certainly does not shoot 15-20 times a game. That is not an accurate statement. He averages 13 shot atttempts a game. Last night he attempted 15(one was a full court bomb) in 47 minutes - 14 shots in 47 minutes is an extremley few amount of attempts for such hefty minutes played. For instance Moochie norris played 23 minutes and manged to jack up 11 shots with the same amount of turnovers.

Digiada, you are right in your satement that Francis will not be our Franchise player over night. As a matter of fact as long as Rudy and Francis allow Moochie Norris to run the show it'll be many of moons before Francis's howls and leads the wolfpack.

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[This message has been edited by ROCKETBOOSTER (edited December 09, 2000).]

 

I cant wait for Cato to get back because we have a very bad interior defense. Nobody fears us on the inside. We need that intimidating shotblocker, and Hakeem isnt scaring anybody now a days.I was embarassed when I saw Steve throw a nifty pass in the 1st quarter under the basket that hit Hakeem straight in the head.I think Moochie took what the defense gave him and put up quality shots but Mobley forces the issue too much. Late in the game, on one play in particular he just pissed me off. He took a bad shot from the corner but got his own rebound on the other side of the rim then proceeded to shoot a fadeaway over 2 players fading to his weak hand. He had 3 oppertunities at the end of the game to score and didnt come through. I think it's time to let steve take those shots. On steve, he didn't have the best shooting night, but I loved how hard he played, he was all over the place. You could see his hustle on D at the end, and this was the best I have ever seen the Rockets run the fast break. Steve was getting the ball up the court damn well. Nothin to be ashamed of to the lose to the Kings. I didn't expect to win this game anyways. I just hope we go 2-2 on this road trip

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www.truebballfansite.homestead.com

 

Sacramento is playing nice right now. Webber is on a serious roll and J-Will finally seems focused and in more control.

Our Rockets are young. We don't play much defense (outside of Anderson and Dream when he's on the floor). At some point we need to decide if we can survive with 4 all offense, no defense players (Francis, Mobley, Walt, Mo). KT I think at least ttries but he is too small to match up against a big PF. Yeah Francis &mobley are young and may learn but they haven's seemed to improve much in the last year and neither seems to expend enormous amounts of energy on the defensive end. I think we may consider trapping more on defense rather to let our poor defensive players get eatten totally alive one on one.
We need to learn to play D or make some moves if we want to make any noise this year.

 

Hehe ok first....Coach hmm who would you rather us take instead of Collier...look at this draft class and a healthy Collier is a steal...he atleast contributes contrary to many other rookies in this class...plus we hoard another pick next year...don't blame one draft...God forbid...yes Najera would be nice but whos to say he would get any playing time here...Langhi hasn't, he's still larning or getting coached or whatever and of course has potential..another main point, we have alot of PF's, Mo,KT,Collier,Los...where would Najera get any pt...Los hardly does...

ROCKETBOOSTER
11 of the 20 games Francis has shot 15 or more shots,last 4 games he has definitly looked for his shot more and has shot 15 or more shots. I know we all would love him to get up to the 20 fga pg range but Francis is not that kind of player...his attitude towards game, position, and whatever else he has in his mind will not allow him to jack it up. Debatable is a change from PG to SG...I doubt it changes much. Some players are shot and scoring hungry, Steve is constructive, order, design hungry...can he change, will he change, should he change is also debatable. With his attitude towards basketball(or the point gaurd position)15-20 shots is great...once again taking in consideration of his mindset, his psychy(SP?)

I am in full agreement that he needs to be taking more shots at end of game, crunch time, still that stands to him and the coach. I agree Mooch has taken alot of the crunch time shots, yet whos to say Mobley wouldn't be if Mooch didn't...it's Francis' mindset more than anyone(might I add Mooch did wonderful job getting us in the game...don't down play his game due to the fact Francis isn't taking shots).

Oh yeah, your right GATER...I'm pretty damn happy we are at .500 with the injuries, shandons play, and the fact we still have much experience to gain and much learning to do.

And I'm spent.....

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1. Did Los play?
2. I think this is a different game If
Collier and Cato Plays
3. I still wanna see what Langhi can do.
4. Kings are a *GOOD* team DO NOT think otherwise

5. WHO THE HELL IS TUGALOO? or what ever

Rocket River

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He's Jar Jar Bink's evil cousin from Star Wars fame....he joined Kings to continue the hatred and annoyances of the Gungan..

I pulled that straight from my @$$...not bad huh? Well seems Kings know their Europians and foreigners....they've created a rainbow of a team....nice talent....

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To answer first 4 questions

Los has injury, knee....did not play(I believe)...Yes Collier and Cato injuries are hurting(surprising huh, everyone had their own humiliating Collier joke). I treasure every minute and shot Langhi gets to have...I wait the games out if they are bad and enjoy watching him get some form of PT, if only Mobley didn't hoard the garbage time shots to pad his stats....grrrr

Hmm Kings are great team

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I don't think Rudy T. did a bad job of coaching at all last night. I thought the main diference in the game last night was CWebb. W/O him we win. We have no one that can stop him.

As far as KT on the floor instead of Mo...I think CWebbs fg% was 100% with Mo guarding him. Kenny did not fair much better but he was at least challanging his shots and even blocked a couple. Mo's defense is non existant. And in order to have any kind of chance at a win CWebb needed to at least be slowed down and Kenny did that although CWebb was not stopped all night.

Jason Williams is not a great 3 point shooter. He has hit more against the Rockets than all the rest of his games combined. So I had no problem with Rudy letting him jack up the 3's and fight for the rebound. Bad for us that he made them.

I will admit that I would like to see Dream in the game more, perticularly in the 4th.

Major problems last night:
1st no could stop CWebb
2nd Kings were nailing their 3's we weren't
3rd we missed too many free throws.

But I repeat with out Webber we win the game last night. Kind of shows you how bad we are in the front court.

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And kinda shows why Webber is an elite superstar...most covetted(SP?) free agents next year...personally I think if Kings get past 1st round it would be in Webber's best interest (as far as winning is concerned) to stay in Sacromento....personal feeling...that's the one thing i miss about the NBA, loyalty, so much now a days players leave almost always during free agency instead of continuing to build up their team(if managed well). I didnt just put that in the right phrases and words but you get my thought right? Get my vibe? ok.....

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"Well seems Kings know their Europians and foreigners..."

Serbs, too. We were bombing them a little over a year ago... Actually, we bombed them twice. And they send us NBA-calibre basketball players. Go figure.

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that guys got game but did you check out the nose he's hawlin around. Damn he's ugly.

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I wonder how Rudy plays the tables in Vegas?

Our 4th quarter squad ought to be the same as our 1st quarter squad (excepting foul- outs: Maurice out, Cuttino in). Steve, Cuttino, Shandon, Walt (or Kenny, depending), Olajuwan. Yes, Hakeem should play the 4th. Pretty small overall, but that's what seems to work.

What scares me is the 3rd. I find myself not even wanting to watch for the first 10 minutes after the half resumes... What the hell is it with this team and the third quarter? That's where we tend to lose games.

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It is Rudy T's fault why the Rockets are in this posistion they are in. Poor draft choices such as Bryce Drew, Turkan, Langam and Collier have weakened the Rockets depth. For some reason Rudy T actually thinks Matt Bullard is a good player the way he plays him so much.

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In Matt's defense, he IS usually a good shooter, and he takes orders well (the latter being more important).

But yeah, we've busted the last couple of drafts. Just keeping Najera would've made the last one worthwile... Hindsight is 20/20. (but isn't that CD's decision - not Rudy's?)

At any rate, we've collected enough picks to have another shot next year.

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(I can't believe you guys are up before noon on a Saturday)

You can't just equate better play with better leadership.

"I am talking about the kind of leadership where the team looks to that leader to carry the team, make the proper decisions, and LEAD them. Francis can be that guy, but right now, he is not..."

We just need a guy who can play well and carry the team at the end of the game. That's not necessarily the same thing as leadership. Is Kobe exhibiting great leadership shooting 4/4 on quick fallaway jumpers in the Warriors OT? Kobe was making proper decisions (all his fallways DID go in) and he carried the team through the OT.

A superstar taking over a game isn't the same thing as leadership, in my book.

We lost because the Kings are a better team. Because C-Webb just killed us. Because of JDub's two 3s in the 4th. Because we missed free throws trying to come back in the 4th. Because we didn't have a superstar we could count on to score.

Maybe its all just semantics. I wouldn't say we lost because of "lack of leadership". I don't think we would have won if some Rocket HAD exhibited more "leadership". I think a quicker, more effective Webber doubleteam is the only thing that might have given us a chance to win.

 

"Because C-Webb just killed us"

That's the game right there. Replace him with an "average" PF, and the Rox probably win. The rest of the Kings team is good, but not really exceptional. No better than the Rockets...

That's the value of a "superstar". It's the difference between a W and a L.

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coach sampson..... bryce drew wasnt that horrible of a choice at the time... turksan prolky was since we passed up rashard. no itz not Rudy T's fault so stop with ur absurb wild non relevant posts that have nothing to do w/ anything. ok coach how would we have stopped webber w/ those draft picks. enlighten me.

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--TEX