So you agree with Cuban? The Rockets, #1 in the toughest division in history, #2 in the western conference and #3 in the entire league... aren't a good team?
I'm as big a Rockets fan as anybody, but it's all about the playoffs my friend. I do think he went a little far when he said we are not very good, but we haven't proven a damn thing yet. Only that we can have a good regular season record.
Carlisle was on 103.3 in Dallas today and had great things to say about JH and the Rockets. Said the Cuban comments were said 3 weeks ago and aren't relevant. Said Cuban doesn't talk in the playoffs but he seemed annoyed that he said it. I enjoy listening to Carlisle as he is very complimentary to other teams and players when they deserve it.
That's why coaching is more important in the playoffs than in the regular season, and that's why we're so screwed with McHale as our head coach.
David can beat Goliath especially if David has a Super Hardened Armor with Cannons (Dwight) and a couple of henchmen (the bench and role players)
I hope the Rockets say nothing or minimal to "trash talk" the Mavs until the press conference after winning the series. This team should adopt that mindset. Don't say anything now, let your game speak for itself then say all you want when you win/advanced.
I say you don't say anything now, and then when you advance, say nothing again. Compliment your opponent. "Tough series, they were a great team, etc." Have that same attitude.... to the press. Then, when they're in the locker room with no cameras around...
I'm sure 164 games prior to this season - which is how long we've been playing this brand of offense - is enough for all 29 opponent coaches to know exactly what we're going to do, how to counter it and how to stop it. That hasn't stopped us from getting better each year. It didn't stop us from taking the regular season series and you'd be a fool to think Cuban didn't stay up weeks in advance to know how to counter and take away predictable offensive options from the Rockets. What made us the 2nd seed is not our offense, it's our defensive plan, coaching and players. Cuban is flat out wrong. These comments are just a really primitive attempt at playing mind games. Luckily, this year we have a roster full of players with a strong mental make up and this kind of stuff won't have the same impact it's had in previous years. Cuban thinks we're going to celebrate our series win like it's a championship, and no doubt he would do that if they could beat us. This is the 7th seed Mavs. We just need to chuckle, take care of business and have Cuban's own fans tell him to shut the F up next time.
Cuban sees it wrong, though. He probably sees what his starting 5 averages and thinks they're way better than us. This is what people actually said about the Bulls in the early 1990s. "Oh, it's all Jordan, they have no one else." But they were superb defensively with pippen, grant and jordan, and even cartwright (though he was a clumsy ass, ask Hakeem). People often overlook that b/c, let's face it, very few defensive specialists make all-star teams. Parsons may score more points than Ariza, but if you were to average what he gives up vs. Ariza, I'd bet that Ariza comes out on top. Point is, you can't just look at it like, "we have more all-stars than them." I honestly think Cuban believes that will make the difference. We'll see.
technically, he's right. we have one of if not the worst coaches of any playoff team in the west. we have a bunch of talented guys, guys who carried us to 56 wins. our assistant coaches have been good this year, but our head coach is still clueless. if we don't go all the way this year i hope we meet the spurs in round 2, so Pop can expose our terrible coach and have Mchale go into an early retirement. Bring back JVG please.
Our players are doing a great job keeping their mouths shut about the Cuban comments. I know Josh was being bated by the reporter after practice to respond to it, but he just said he's not interested in what anyone has to say on the other side.
