If you could pick a team to run with this season, which would you pick? 04-05 Bob Sura/Mike James/Moochie Norris David Wesley/Jon Barry Tracy McGrady/Ryan Bowen Juwan Howard/Clarence Weatherspoon/Scott Padgett Yao Ming/Dikembe Mutumbo 13-14 Jeremy Lin/Patrick Beverley/Isaiah Canaan James Harden/Reggie Williams Chandler Parsons/Francisco Garcia/Omri Casspi Terrance Jones/Greg Smith/Donatas Motiejunas Dwight Howard/Omer Asik/Marcus Camby To me it's pretty damn close, I would go with the current squad because of potential but I sure do miss that 05 team.
Folks might not want to admit it but the hype about the team was very high. Maybe even higher than now.
I loved that 04-05 squad. They were characterized by swagger, high energy play and 3pt bombs. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to carry us past the 1st rd. This yr's squad is better on paper for sure. Lets see how they gel
This isn't a fair poll because we look at the 04-05 team with a grain of salt due to it's failures (with respect to their expectations). And guys who were key contributors and quality players (by advanced metrics) like James and Barry are brushed off as scrubs, because the only guys we remember are Yao and T-Mac (and people romanticize Sura for some reason). Meanwhile, people have hope and see the 13-14 team for it's upside. The role players really aren't that much better, but they're relevant to us today, so we give them the benefit of the doubt.
At that time.. McGrady > Harden and Yao > Dwight But everything else is really close or points in favor of the current squad, except maybe Juwan Howard who's jumper was flat but pretty automatic. I did love the 04-05 squad though. They had that "swagger" about them, especially in Jon Barry, Mike James and Bob Sura. That team was basically washed up veterans who's games were elevated by the greatness of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. Shame with injuries to Bob Sura and Juwan during the playoffs. And Tim Donahy..
Yao was drafted in 2002. TMac had an incredible yr in 04-05 (13 in 33, impressive playoffs, etc.) Harden will undoubtedly get better next yr and likely put up better numbers than TMac.
What about the 07-08 roster? That one had a lot more potential than the 04-05 roster Alston/Brooks/Bobby/Francis/Mike James T-Mac/Head/Wells Battier/Novak Scola/Hayes/Landry Yao/Mutombo
If McGrady stayed with Orlando, he could have actually played alongside Dwight. Freakishly athletic duo.... that's Penny and young Shaq on drugs in terms of hops
Yeah, I was pretty stoked about that squad I remember we beat LAL opening night and then Tmac put up 47 in Utah next game Was thinking we had the potential to win it all that year only came up with a 22 game winning streak while losing Yao
who cares about numbers. Harden's numbers as with every Rocket player's numbers are clearly inflated because of the pace that they run. Put Harden in T-Mac's place in 2004 and he would probably average 20 PPG on 38% shooting in JVG's slow it down game.
