The more I review last year's games the more I am convinced..

as much as i loved posey's hustle, d and semi-consistent play, i dont think he works out in terms of the rockets long term goals. The team has a great nucleus in francis and yao and they will get us there, just not in a few more years. The things holding this team down was the coach (cured we hope!) and a few bad contracts holding sub-par role players.
I like posey but in no way would i want to keep him that long, by the time we our nucleus is at its peak, im sure we could find someone better than him in the next three years, theres even hope for boki to be there sometime.

I think the priorities this year are to become a better team and focusing the the offense through steve and yao, as well get accustomed to JVGs coaching, somehting that may take a while in our players. Making the playoffs would be nice as it rebuilds a fanbase along with the new arena as well as contributing experience to the team, but if there are hurdles in the way, those should be taken care of first. In no way whatsoever at this point can we compete with SA, LA, MN and even dallas or sactown until we have matured fully as a team.

What would kill our team is a long contract from a player who will be weaker when we make our run, but we cant get rid of him because of the contract. freeing up space until 2006 to then make a dedicated, no holds barred run is probably our best bet to maximize winning potential with our core. Im not saying posey is a bad player, but in the long term there is little indication that he can be consistent and improve to be the solid roleplayer in 3-5 years. if he was aso good, why didnt we make the playoffs next year? is there any indication that we can get there with the same team we had last year, considering the improvement of so many other teams in the west? signing posey could put us in knicks land, where we have a good team but contracts and too many signings spar our ability to improve for the future.


right now i would rather have 1-2yr contracts from vets or potential future roleplayers than to sign anyone on board for long. save that money until we really need it and have our roster be flexible. We may not make the playoffs without posey but i doubt we will regret not signing him unless we fall into the 9th seed again, and for one or two seed spots in a playoffs that that is going to be ugly next year, thats okay for me. well, thats my two cents, cant wait to see those "final products" of the new jerseys, im saving up for a yao one.

 

But DearRock,
Some of the reasons we competed early was the sudden rise of Yao Ming caught those teams off guard. You are somewhat dismissing the idea that contenders will adjust, and they did.

Like I said once before, hitters in baseball often start their career off fast, then the pitchers adjust...and vice versa.

SF, Yao Ming and the whole team are in need to answer the plethora of defensive adjustments teams made, as the season progressed. imo, the league was one step ahead of what Francis and Yao Ming could run....which is pretty much the career story of Francis's ability as a PG.

 

DearRock, you're a dreamer!
But anyways....weren't we like Top 10 in rebounding last year? I didn't know that means you're a weak rebounding team. The Warriors were leading the league in rebounding at one point...and they don't have any bangers! They are all pretty soft to me...
I don't really like Shawn Marion. He is awesome and ugly...but he is consistent. He can either play very good or suck very badly as shown during last season in a long stretch of missing everything.
All I know is....I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SEASON TO START!

 

1. When you lose the all time assists leader, and 2nd all time leading scorer in league history you're gonna be starting over.

2. Cato would also be their best center, and Mobley their best SG. Their 2 best players right now both primarilyplay SF (Harpring, Kirilenko). Hell, Moochie is probably a better PG than anything they've got at this point. Just because Mo is better than what they have doesn't mean they'll just eat his salary for us. I like Mo, but they're not going to do us a favor and wipe him off our books just because they're nice guys.

Jerry West is overrated IMO. Just out of curiosity, did you like his draft day move (Banks and Perkins for Jones and Bell)? He has overloaded that team with perimeter players- Jones, Bell, Williams, Watson, Knight, Dickerson, Miller, Person, and Battier. If he wants to add Posey and make it 10 guys under 6-8, go ahead. You don't win in the West, or the league, without size. Jerry West sure shined on draft day last year with the Drew Gooden at SF experiment failing to the point of having to trade him. How much better would they have looked with Amare, or with Nene? West definitely gaffed there.

heypartner- I agree Posey's rebounding will not be a lost facet for us, but we were a poor overall rebounding team? I thought we were top 10?

I see Posey as more of an insurance option. Ideally, Nachbar becomes the 3 this team is looking for, and Posey is just insurance that that doesn't happen. Poseys aren't that rare, and can be grabbed in the mid-late first round. 4 years, 24 million is probably too much of a price to pay when there are pockets full of Poseys.

 

DearRock, once again, I'm inclined to agree with you. I truly feel that the guys will come out focused, prepared, and playing like they have something to prove collectively.

We have a team of guys, who want to be here, and just like us fans, for example, they've seen the schedule. So, they know that, especially after last year, we not only have more eyes across the nation on us, but the world is watching us.

I can surely agree with the point that teams made adjustments last year against us, yet the way I see it, we have to remember that the guys were still getting a feel for Yao's game. That truly hampered us a majority of last season. Basically, with all the guys hopefully coming in healthy from the top of the season, I'd have to agree that we're going to make many teams have to match-up with us frequently right away this year. So, the true test for us as a team will come immediately.

I'm really enjoying the civil discussion in this thread. Extremely good stuff!

 

pockets full of poseys?

ring around the rosies?

 

I was referring to our frontline rebounders. Only Cato is a good one, right now.

I wouldn't call rebounding a Top problem, rather I mean to say it is associated with one of our top problems in that we lack the proper support for Yao at PF, as a West team.

imo, the pure rebounding numbers are not the overall issue, because Francis has to artificially help out with that, which hurts our transition offense and defense. It is almost irresponsible for Francis to go for some of the offensive rebounds he gets, when the guards first responsibility is getting back on defense. Francis coming down the lane for an offensive rebound requires Mobley and Posey to back up, should Francis not get it. Guys like Nash, Bibby and Parker will just take off when they see Francis go in for a rebound.

And on the defensive side of rebounding, Francis rarely runs when he gets a rebound. He'll just stop and dribble down slowly. That hurts our transition game. But, he has to help out on rebounds, because he's good at it. But overall...how good is it for us that our PG has to help out with rebounds.

before you say it, Kidd's rebounds are not a problem, because Kidd runs a great transition game off the rebound. Francis doesn't.

I think if we ever make it to the playoffs, our lack of frontline rebounding (if we continue to see EG and Yao get shoved around) will get exposed, at least to the point of not being called Top 10.

 

I agree...but Yao getting 8 rebounds isn't enough? How many do you expect him to get? I would love to see him getting 16 too. Of course...Griffin and Taylor aren't helping much. Cato at the 4 would solve the problem....but our offense, defense, passing, and shooting would all get worse.

So what was this thread about again?

 

I think our team is pretty much set except plugging in a couple vets.

Our team is really good if you measure by potential, so lets hope JVG can convert that into winning. Ming and Francis and even Mobley are self motivated people. I'm hoping the improvement comes from Mo and EG. They need to match Steve and Yaos intensity.

As for Posey, everyone always complains about Moochie and Mo's contracts being too much for too long. And now over half of us are asking the Rockets to match.

I don't think Posey is worth the risk. He has a lot of fire, but it only really showed up (can anyone prove otherwise?) in his contract year. Call me a skeptic, but I don't think he was worth the gamble on a long contract.

I actually praise the Rockets willpower on this matter. Our roster is not a championship contender. We need more pieces, but you can't add without subtracting.

 

Thanks for the great writing. I agree with the guy who said he agrees with everybody. I like Posey for next year, not thrilled with the money going to him for five or six years.
I think nyquil82 has the best explanation for why the Rox don't match on Posey. The Rox will need the cap space in a couple of years when they are ready to contend for the title. This year will be a learning and growing year. This year will be like the first and second year when we got Ralph Sampson and Akeem. I had season tickets both years. The Rox had a few plays they worked on over and over. When they got those right Bill Fitch would add a new play and they would work on that, over and over. The Rox will need the cap space in a couple of years when they are ready to contend for the title. This year the need to install a system and see if Cuttino, Mo T, Eddie, and Nachar fit. They need to rewire Steve.

 

Although we really need someone like Posey, I agree...we don't want to overpay another role player. We also got Piatkowski...which helps a bit. Terence Morris can be replaced by Malick Badiane or some old veteran free agent. And Nachbar gets a chance to play.

But it would have been better to just keep Kenny Thomas.

 

heyp- Oh ok, then I can agree with that. I think (hope) that will fix itself as Yao and Eddie get stronger. Eddie has the quick hops and long arms to rebound in a crowd, and you don't average nearly 11 a game in college on accident. I hope with the addition of another sweet shooter, Ewing, and JVG's intensity, Eddie will start playing like a PF again, rather than a shooting guard, but that's another story. I have no doubts in Yao becoming a double digit rebounder within 3 years. Mo will never be a good rebounder, but I don't think he'll hold us back.

So what you're really saying, our rebounding is a problem because Francis doesn't know how to run a transition game like Kidd.

DearRock- Giving up on Nachbar a little early perhaps? I'm sure we would offer Mo to Utah, but they have no reason to take a deal averaging over 8 mill with more than 4 seasons for a guy who's probably a below average NBA starter. I like Mo, and he fits the team as a scoring punch up front off the bench, but he would not have a starting spot on most NBA teams- our own included.

 

DearRock, all your points are on the money. Finally, someone has got it right. Way to go!

 

aha,

No, I'm saying our rebounding is based on potential, like you did.

Potential that could use some veteran insurance right now....just like the potential of Eddie learning how to play real NBA PFdefense could use some veteran insurance right now.