Rox need to act quickly

Maybe the Rox have a trade worked out that can't be consummated until July 16th anyway...?

No news isn't necessarily bad news.

 

i think the rockets are ahead of phoenix. phoenix signing both their first rounders, is kinda misleading. seeing as both are young foreign players. barbosa will probably go back to brazil for another year or 2. carbaka or whatever his name is, was a mistake of a pick. they coulda gotten any number of better players to come in for the 3 spot behind marion, including lampe. think of zarko as boki + 1 inch.

 

I agree with you. No where have I read the Rockets being mentioned as pursuing any FA's. With agents trying to get teams bidding against each other, we would've surely heard something by now. By the way, the Rockets have Posey's Bird rights. They won't have to use the MLE to resign him.

Maybe, JVG thinks he can do something with the current roster as is. I'm just not as confident that the players will suddenly get it.

 

B/w the Astros not making a move - as their hitting has gone to crap & the pitching has been shoddy at best (and as attendance dwindles), and the Rockets sitting on their asses, I'm beginning to pray for the start of football season.

Seriously, Juwan Howard is likely to sign for the $4.9 mil MLE w/ Minnesota... WTF?! We couldn't have done this? I'd dump both MoT & EG for Howard. Can anyone tell me they'd start MoT or E over Howard? Hell PJ Brown is better than our 2 PFs...

Also, why no talk of going after Kenny Anderson? Barry? Peeler? We obviously need a better backup PG & a backup SG if were onna stand pat w/ our current crap roster anyway.

I like JVG, but how can anyone think that he will maically get this team of knuckleheads & potheads to play smart?

C'mon now. Many will say we're bein impatient, but doesn't anyone find it wierd that all these other teams are already courting even the middle & lower tier free agents, while all we do is show interest in an overrrated James Posey?

 

Canoner you freak! I was thinking about this right now!!!!!! lol..I was gonna start a thread about this. I totally agree with you. We really need a big trade.

1. San Antonio. I don't think we can beat them.
Francis = Parker. Sorry...I won't believe Francis can change unless I actually see it happen. Who knows....maybe Jeff Van Gundy will change him. But Francis.....he can easily get past Tony Parker....but their defense is just too good. Francis is frozen...and Francis can't contain Parker.
Mobley < Jackson and Ginobili. Those 2 are too much for us. Too much energy. Hopefuly Van Gundy does something about this.
Posey = Bowen. They are both role players. One will step up.
Griffin and Taylor < Duncan and Rose. We are so screwed. Duncan owns G and T.
Yao vs.. WHO? Rose? O'Neal? Zo? Brad? Olowokandi? Nesterovic? So many possibilities.....Yao is our hope maybe.
Our bench has a possible chance against their bench....unless they stock it with good quality players.

2. Sacramento. We can beat them maybe twice.
In a few years....they won't be that good. But we can't beat them.
Bibby and Jackson < Francis and Moochie.
Mobley > Christie.
Stojakovic and Turkoglu and Jackson> Posey and Nachbar and Rice.
Webber > Griffin. Taylor could hold his position against CWebb though.
Yao > Divac. HAHAHAH.

3. Dallas. NO CHANCE. Point guard...better...they play smarter. Shooting guard...Mobley and Finley have good battles. Small forward.....we win. Power forward.....they screw us badly. We can't stop Nowitzki. I don't know why they don't give him the ball every single offensive possession. Yao is better than Bradley and Lafrentz.

4. Lakers. We could beat them...unless they get Gary Payton or Karl Malone. We just have to play hard against them.

5. Timberwolves. They got Sam Cassell and Nbudi Ebi along with Wally and KG now.............I don't think we can beat them more than 2 times.

6. Portland? Don't know what's gonna happen with them. I don't really care about them. We can beat them.

7. Utah? No more John Stockton! God Bless Him! But....Andre Miller?

8. Phoenix. Forget them!

Golden State is losing Gilbert. Memphis still needs some time. Denver...unknown.

We can make the playoffs. We can take the spot of Phoenix or Utah. But we won't get very far.

We have to be very very patient....maybe wait 3 years.

I don't know......but I still think we need to trade Mobley and some others for another star.



There is no way we can contend with the top 5 teams.

 

just cause l.a. might land the mailman and the glove doesnt mean that they will be automatic champs next year. rockets fans know well enough that the 3 or 4 superstar system doesnt mean superstar results (barkley, dream, clyde). dallas obviously hasnt figured this out yet.

payton and karl both have ego problems and agendas of their own. are they going to be willing to be the 3rd and 4th options on their team, even in deference to kobe and shaq?

and how are shaq and especially kobe going to like having to share the ball w/ those two? bringing in those two will only take shots away from the current two lakers.

as far as the rockets go, i dont see any major moves comming and im fine w/ that. no disrespect to rudy t, he is a great guy, beloved by the city, but these last few years he just did not "coach" this team. the talent is there, they just had no one guiding them. even posey said something to the effect of "even in denver we had plays, in houston we just kind of do whatever".

i would like to see what van gundy can do w/ what we already have. i think that it all starts w/ steve. hopefully under van gundy, steve will develop into a better PG and better defender. as quick and athletic as he is, there is no excuse for poor defense. he is the supposed leader and if van gundy can get francis to buy into his philosophy than the rest of the team will follow suit.

i also hope jeff plays more of the younger guys and uses rice less. i wish t-mo could have gotten a shot. he seemed to fill in alot of holes, doing a little bit of everything. nachbar definately needs to get out there to show what he can (or cant) do.

i also hope to see less of eddie at the 3. hopefully van gundy and ewing will light a fire under his a$$. they say that players usually come into their own by year 3, so its make or break time for eddie. i like the eddie/mo combo cause each guy plays a totally different game and has different strengths. though neither is truly dominant, i think that they provide some flexibility at the 4.

god bless him, but under rudy t the guys did not play consistently smart basketball. with the talent that was in place, there was no excuse for not making the playoffs last year. although it will be virtually the same linup, i think that under van gundy we will see a vastly different team this year.

 

JVG is probably telling les that this team wasn't motivated enough and that he can bring all this potential into one great chemisty. Thing is Rudy is probably a better coach then he is. So i don't see this happening so quickly as JVG says. Its sad that the team doesn't want to add, just because they won as many games they did because of Yao Ming. They can't win 50+ wins next season, and phonix will just beat out houston once again with a 48-34 record. Lets face it we needed a nice PF or small forward this season. Juan Howard will be great, and he plays both the sf and pf position. Maybe if James Posey can talk with Howard, maybe we have a good chance in landing him for the MLE.

I would just trade Eddie Griffin/Cato to
Newyork for Kurt Thomas - C/PF and Charlie Ward- PG.

Francis/Ward
Mobley/Rice
Posey/Nacbar
Howard/Taylor
Ming/Thomas

That team can win 50+ games.

 

I agree with the growing concern that the elite teams are getting better while the bottom feeders keep getting worse. It's like the US economy, the rich keep getting richer and the poor..well they keep getting poorer while the middle class is becoming non existent.

So Where do the Rockets fit in? Will they be elite? Will they be subpar? Well in my opinion, the Rockets will be able to answer a lot of those questions this season.

1) Having hired Jeff Van Gundy is a positive sign that the management felt that the team was underachieving and coaching was to blame. With Gundy, we will soon find out how good this team can be. Was it the fault of Rudy's system? Or are the players incapable of performing on the court. It will be interesting to see how Francis performs under the pressure. Certainly, the fans, management, and Gundy will expect the leader to lead the team deep into the playoffs. Will he step up his game and become the elite point guard that will be asked of him or will he crumble under the pressure? Is he a true super star of the NBA or is he just another baller who happens to have a lot of individual talent. Can he make his teammates better? Can he make smart decisions? Is he the right super star to complement Yao? This season will foreshadow Francis' future.

2) We also have a true corner stone to build from, that is Yao. There is only (SHAQ, DUNCAN) who can create the inside mismatch that Yao creates. That is why so many GM's and Coaches are so high on Yao. Yao will also be 1 year older and 1 year wiser. Most of all, with Yao you know he is going to work on his game, having to carry the honor and dignity of 1 billion Chinese's on his shoulders. So he is going to come into the season well prepared for the challenges that lay ahead. It will be interesting to see how much he has developed physically as well as mentally. There won't be as many excuses such as getting used the American Culture and the stresses of the NBA. I realize he will only be a sophomore and he will have room to mature and grow as a player but having gone through that his rookie season Yao should be well prepared. Yao’s ability to step it up another level will be evident this year.

3) Apparently, some people on this board believe that Mo Taylor is a stud and that injuries kept him from dominating this past season. So, it will be interesting to see how much Taylor improves over the summer. Will Taylor perform to his poor shooting efficiency of 1.02 Points per shots that he did last season or will he vastly improve and have a Points per shot output that a normal power forward should have? Will he rebound like a normal power forward should?

I am also looking forward to seeing the so called "BREAK OUT" season for EDDIE. Don't get me wrong but this kid just doesn't seem to have the fire to be the best. But who knows I could be wrong.

Finally what will happen to the likes of Mobley and Posey. What role will they play?

Conclusion: This season will begin with a lot of questions and conclude with many answers. That is why they brought in Jeff Van Gundy.

 

If there are a dozen teams with the same MLE, players choose where THEY want to play. I haven't heard anyone recently, including Robert Horry (most obvious out there) say they WANT to play in Houston.

It's a deep FA pool, but there are not a lot of FA's with Houston ties. Glove, Malone, they likely hate Houston as much as we hate(d) them.

One other thing...JVG may a change for the better from a discipline perspective, but Rudy would have likely been better at reeling in veteran talent. Heck, he coached several of these FA's in international competition.

 

I wouldn't say it will be automatic, but with two hungry veterans they will be very,very tough to beat by anyone. I think as big as their ego is, they really want to win a ring to complete their careers and will sacrifice evrything, including money to do it.

 

First of all, Juwan Howard does not make the timberpups any better than they are now, and he would be terrible in Houston. Sam Cassell is what makes them better, and his attitude could kill that team like he and big dog did in Karl's bucks.

The Jazz? Arenas and Brand? Let them sign them to max deals, then they can become the new memphis grizzlies with two second or third tier stars leading their team. We have two stars better than them right now: Francis and Yao.

Kidd and J'Oneal? One might land in Texas not both, and that's iffy. Kidd won't go to Dallas, that's just a bunch of smoke by the press, it's SA or NJ for Jason. O'neal either stays out east or goes to SA, but SA won't get both. They might get neither.

The Lakers? They the best 1-2 punch in the game and play in media heaven LA, did you expect them to not be a player for older stars looking for a ring? However, I still won't believe both of these guys goes there until I see it. Malone I can see, but not Payton, he has too big an ego to accept a 4th role.

As far as PJ Brown goes, maybe they have a visit set up already, or he told them he wants to go to a contender, or maybe he is afraid we still are developing Eddie and want him to get the bulk of the minutes and Taylor and Cato are still around. In orlando he would definitely get his minutes, good weather and be on a playoff team. In houston, he may think can I get my 30-35 minutes a night with all our big man depth.

It's still july 6th. FA doesn't start until july 16th, it's so early in the process you guys are crying over spilled milk if you asked me.

Plus, remember the nature of our team compared to the other big players in FA(even minnesota). Why would a veteran(esp a good one), sign in houston when he wants a ring and can go to LA, SA, Dallas, Sacramento, etc.

 

Rockets are fine. Malone and Payton would not do much to help LA except take the ball out of Kobe and Shaq's hands in the offense.

If Kidd comes to San Antonio he will not be that much more of an upgrade over Parker.

Dallas has the most talent of any team in the league already, more won't help them. They have our problem - no chemistry.

I think the Rocks have great talent, the best center and PG in the league, but they just to to gain experience and chemistry. I believe the best pickup for the Rocks was a coaching and philosophy change. Rudy was great with Hakeem but just didn't know how to utilize the current roster. JVG will do more good for us than shaking up the roster. And of course our real problem is our crappy contracts for Rice,Taylor,Cato,Norris and only time can heal that.

 

I would love to see PJ come over but I don't see it happening. He is the one type of player that could really help the Rocks right now - a thug. We need someone to be Yao's bodyguard. EG is going to be a great player, an eventual all star. I know this board loves to hate on him but he just turned 21 and is really starting to develop. He needed a different coach and system. He might get some time at the 3 with JVG at the helm and I would like to see him at that spot occasionally.

But one thing people should know about Eddie is that there is a lot of interest in him from other teams and that is because he is going to be a great player. Other teams know that and the Rocks know that. I think he did great for a 20 year old last year. He will be better this year and improve every year for the next five years at least.

 

I just think that if we don't lose either EG or Taylor then they won't want another PF who will need big minutes. Maybe EG or Taylor can shift to the 3 but I doubt it. Maybe Taylor can get traded for some other terrible contract but I doubt that too. Maybe JVG will be content letting Taylor ride the pine since he wasn't the one making the terrible decision to bring him here. But yes, PJ is the most attactive free agent to me.