I know most of us are down on being eliminated, and especially down on tonights loss, but come to think of it this season was a great success. We totally lost sight that all we wanted to do was to get to the Playoffs, and we succeeded. Kudos Rockets, JVG, Les, and CD... We played arguably the most talented team in the league in the first round and put up an excellent fight until the last day, where we fell apart, but thats another story. We smacked the Lakers around, and were toe to toe with them almost every minute of the series. We put Karl Malone in his place, and in front of such a huge audience embarrased him by getting thrown around by a bench warmer(still love ya BOKI). We didn't let the Shaq train attack us as badly as it does most others, we let the role players win the games, and that is the best way to go down. Ofcourse Kobe did his thing, but still, who cares about him. We made it this far with so many struggles, Eddie Griffin, our projected PF at the beginning of theyear. Dude was supposed to be the next Rasheed Wallace minus as bad a temper. He was on his way, not bad the previous year, but then he goes OJ on his girl, and has some other problems, and eventually is out of the league. This is a big blow to us. Imagine the Lakers losing Malone, the Twolves without Spreewell, the Pacers without Artest, the Mavs without Finley, the Kings without Christie... Our backup center (Cato)started at PF and also played backup C, and our backup PF played minutes worthy of a starter. We got over such a big deal that could have easily left us in the bottom of the standings and pushed ourselves to a nice not last seed in the playoffs. We had a new coach a new set of coaches, our dearest announcer accused of some stupid thing lef the team... many roadblocks but we did our thing. We had so many new players, and many of them didnt work out but still JJ, Spoon and MJ did quite a good job holding down spots. Imagine how good we will be when we get upgrades hopefully at those spots. We saw the best of Francis, Mobley in the Playoffs. We saw the best of Yao this whole season, give him another year and watch how he does in those playoffs with the new experiance . JJ showed that he can still be reliable. Cato is a defensive machine. Mo T could be Mr. instant offense. All in a nutshell, we had a pretty darn good season, just for comparisons, people wanted us to be like the suns, hey guess where they are now, and they still had all the starters from the previous year, we lost one of our main ones..... thats my rant.
I think the team underacheived for the talent level they have. They just don't mix well together, and I think a trade will help the chemistry immensly. The biggest issue is, whose team is it? Is it Steves? Is it Yaos? Right now neither of them, nor their teamates really know. I would build around Yao and let Steve dominate the dribble elsewhere. Yao needs to take on the burden of responsibility and play like a winner, and it is time to sink or swim. No more hiding behing Francis. DD
Cheering all out for a team in the playoffs. Haven't done that in a while. We made out pretty good or horribly depending on your perspective. Lucking out with a 2nd rounder. Getting 2 top picks. Signing Mo for scraps. JJ for scraps. Good coach who addressed our top priority. Then you got yer Pippen. Yer Collier. Yer Griffin. Yer Najera. Yer awesome coach who got cancer. Yer Larry Brown. And just about any role player we've tested in the last 4 years. HOW MANY PANNED OUT?? ZERO!
Appreciation for this team....umm.. 1) I'm glad they got into the playoffs. 2) I'm glad they tried to make something out of nothing against the Lakers. But in the end, the Rockets are going to be in a rebuilding process unless they get rid of Francis, bring in Barry (like Clutch is promoting), and get that FA PF that can help this team out.
Ya, but atleast we didnt look like turds through out the season...Losing every other game and having maybe one decent performer...
Anyway... I appreciate: JVG instilling defensive effort into the players of this team. Jim Jackson coming up with big minutes throughout the season. Nachbar getting meaningful playoff minutes. Winning a playoff game at Toyota Center. Tim and the marketing team doing a wonderful job of reaching out to the fans here at ClutchFans. Clutch and the Crew keeping this site up and providing a haven for all of us not in Houston. the Rockets becoming a nationally-televised team. Yao continuing his development. Colin's translating. Cuttino's tough D on Kobe during the playoff series. Steve's stat line in Game 3.
OK, We succeeded in making the playoffs (a pre-season goal) but the double edged sword here is that the playoff spotlight only served as a microscope to show us how far we still have to go. And a lot of us don't like what we see: Defensive improvement - good Yao's second year - good Turnovers and one-on-one playground - The bullet to the head
I can't believe so many people are disappointed by losing to the Lakers. They are the better team with 4 starting HOFers, LOADS of experience, and home court advantage. I thought the Rockets did well. Its been a great season and I hope we have a new look come next year. Thank you Rockets!!!
I'm proud of the Rockets for the most part this year. Yea, there were moments in the season where you would just want to turn off your TV, but you can't help but watch again. They hung in there with the Lakers better than most people would expect. Here's to another playoff season next year!
I'm glad the uniforms are red. Don't need the big silver swoosh, though. Although that does look good on the power dancers behinds. Ok, nevermind. What else...hmmm. I'm glad the season has exposed this walking abortion of a team as a horrible monster that must be destroyed. It's not going to grow out of it. It's not just a phase. It's a horrible evil freak that sucks the life out of everything unlucky enough to get close to it. There is no rehabiliation, only dismemberment. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Start cutting the heads off this thing, and cauterize the wounds with fire.
I keep hearing this on the board. Complete bs. If our goal is just to make the playoffs we should just change the team name to the Jazz. I want improvement, signs of the team living up to their potential and becoming a contender. This season wasn't it. Just more of the same, but this year that just so happened to be enough to make it to the playoffs. Things to be thankful for: JJ being signed. Small signs of life from Boki. Getting rid of Mooch. Yao's improvement up until the end of March. Cato playing strong. And last, but not least, SF having a good showing on the national stage. Up up up trade value.
Huh? I've seen things similar to this in other posts. I don't get why everyone is hyping up Griffin as some huge loss. The PF spot was IMPROVED as a result of his loss. He brought nothing last year. Cato at least brought defense this year. Griffin got manhandled defensively on a regular basis and couldn't even break 40 percent from the field. You're saying losing him is comparable to losing Malone, Sprewell, Finley, etc?
